Howdy Folks!

When you have grandchildren, there is never a dull moment, nor is there a restful or peaceful one either.  They command all of a grandparent’s attention, all of the time.  The best part about being a grandparent is that after you have gotten them tired, dirty, cranky, sticky, and filled with sugar, you can just hand them back over to mamma and say, “bye!”.  I have a five year old grandson named Devin, and a nearly two year old granddaughter named Aurora.  It is truly amazing what can come out of a child’s mouth at any ill-chosen moment.  A five year old has never been embarrassed nor do they even know what the word means… but Grandpas’ sure do!  Kids are like muzzleloaders.  They tend to go off un-expectedly.  Like the time in church, (a very large church I might add!), when Devin leaned over to me during the prayer in what he considered his “indoor voice” and said, “GRANDPA!!! WHO FARTED????”  I immediately got that feeling in my belly like the time I was sixteen, practicing riding a bucking barrel and my cousin, “Dink” who dipped snuff and rode barebacks… at the same time….talked me into trying some.  Every time that barrel hit bottom, I swallowed.  This time though, I didn’t puke.  As I slowly unfurled from the fetal position, I realized all the people around us were aware that an innocent 4 year old had enlightened everyone about the obvious.  Confident that surely no one would ever consider entertaining the idea that I did it; (I narrowed it down to either the fat lady to the right front of me in the next pew, or the teenage boy with orange hair two seats to my left who obviously didn’t want to be there.) I just stared straight ahead like a brain-dead test monkey, unlike my wife and daughter to the right of me who were totally out of control with quiet laughter to the point of tears.  I haven’t a clue what the message was that day, as I allowed my right brain to take me to my “happy place”.  I lied to myself by telling me I had successfully made it through the service and out the door without anyone remembering the incident, but defeat was instantly snatched out of the jaws of victory when my wife and daughter informed me that what they heard was “GRANDPA, YOU FARTED!”  Oh…. The pain.

Kids are so innocent in what they say.  Emily and I spent Easter up in Albuquerque with the grand kids and got them and myself successfully wired up on Easter candy.  They have two dogs, Astro, a German Sheppard mix, and the other is a cross between a Chihuahua and something with a head too big to easily exit the birth canal.  Allow me to set the stage here for this next story.  Astro is the same height as Aurora Rose.  We are all sitting around the dining room table just letting the kids be kids when all of the sudden Devin yells out, “MOM, Aurora just stuck her finger in Astros’ butt!”  Well, a roar went up unmatched by anything since Christians were thrown to the lions and we hear mamma shout, “EEEEEWWWW! GET A WETWIPE!!”  Of course, Aurora wondered what all the fuss was about, didn’t care, and was perfectly content to leave it that way.

A bunch of new things took place this past winter here at the Notevena Ranch, starting with the absence of dogs.  We down-sized our canine ownership to one lap dog that we can just fold up and take with us wherever we go.  Because there’s no big dogs to chase them off, we now have an abundance of trophy size elk and muleys in our yard that would give Ted Nugent a full-body protein shiver.  Our neighbors, E.W. and Lynn Gunkel come up and feed the chickens and look after the place when we are gone.  They are of the cowboy persuasion and know what to do in case of an emergency…. Like when a horse gets colicky or takes out fifty feet of wire fence when a elk pops up from his bed and surprises her in the west pasture… which actually happened to us. (No more mares at the Notevena Ranch.  You horse people know what I’m talking about!)

We met a great couple this winter who are fast becoming our friends, Bruce and Lynn Morgan.  They own “Bonfire Hill Ranch” in Athens, Texas, and also have a place here in Ruidoso.  Lynn is quite the social butterfly and got me to doing demonstrations for some of her clients in town every once in awhile.  Also, she brings small groups here to my studio so they can witness first hand, art in progress, and then takes them around the corner to the county seat in Carrizozo for the best dern green chili cheeseburgers in these parts.  By the way, do you remember Buck Owens and the Buckaroos?  One of their many hits was a song called “Sally Was A Good Ole Girl” and was written by Buck about a girl that was good friends with his wife, Bonnie. Well it just so happens that Lynn knows her and introduced us to her!  She has a second home here in Ruidoso. (I told you Lynn was quite the socialite!)

Speaking of art in progress, Emily has started a new venue on the website that is literally called “Art In Progress” on my notevena.com site.  She comes into the studio now and then and takes photos of the artwork as I am doing them, from start to finish.  We send out emails to let people know what is new and we change up the “Art In Progress” page about every couple weeks with new artwork.  The response has been overwhelming and more and more people are signing up to get progress reports.  If you are interested, feel free to email us at virgil@notevena.com which is a new email by the way.  For 11 years I have had the same email but the server in our little community went belly-up about 3 months ago so this new email will be forever…we hope!

As a result of what started taking place in our nation on January 20^th, I decided to do something I have never done before…. Make a political statement of the way I feel about the present situation in our country.  I remember from my Art Appreciation class (way, way back) in college, how a lot of artists back in their day put down their feelings on canvas about what was going on politically and religiously at the time.  Those paintings have remained as a documentation of history in art form.  So I decided I would chronicle my own account in the same way.  The piece is called, “Mr. President, We Need To Talk!”  I have a modern day cowboy packing pig iron, shaking hands with George Washington.  Behind the cowboy are farmers, city boys, just everyday people, and behind Pres. Washington is the Continental Army with its officers and regulars.  I will let you read into it what you will, but I’m confident many of my readers feel the same way.  One of our D.C. policies is for everything to go green and environmentally friendly regardless of the cost, so I guess they expect all Americans to fold to their wishes and special interests and that includes artists.  There is actually a trend out there called “Green Art”.  I don’t know what that is, (that’s like being “Spiritual”… what is that?) so I guess I will have to start creating “Inviro Art”  Lets see; it will be user friendly in that no animals were killed or injured in the process of creating my art; it is slow-roasted over “dead and down” hickory; slow-simmered hand battered; freshly baked; skinless; boneless; zero carbs; no trans fats; no MSG; sweetened with Splenda; ergonomically designed and taxed to the hilt. Sound about right?

We rarely do outdoor shows anymore as we are concentrating more and more on galleries, and museum invitational's such as the 26^th Annual “Round-Up” at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas.  A new gallery I picked up this winter is the Windrush Gallery in Sedona, AZ.  John McCullough is the owner and knows what he is doing.  He immediately started selling my work and it hasn’t stopped yet. Atta boy, John!

Also this winter, we garnered another set of new friends and fellow artisans, Dalton and Debbie Roberts of Circle D Metal Art.  They are originally from Mississippi and now live in Capitan, New Mexico.  The stories Dalton tells about his ex-in laws will make you split a gut.  He has accumulated quite a few ex-relatives as a result of having a few ex-wives.  For instance, he tells the story about his second ex-wifes mother, Wanda who chain smoked them long 140’s between two loose snaggle teeth and wore nothing but muu-muu’s.  (Sounds exactly like my grandma on my mammas side). Wanda had two other daughters, Diana and Paula Gayle.  At fourteen, Paula Gayle was 5’2” and weighed 240 pounds.  Dalton, being the bonafide Mississippi entrepreneur that he is, (this term may be lost on some folks in certain parts of the bayou) told his mother-in-law he wanted to manage Paula Gayle as a big time wrestler and call her “Squatting Heifer”.  Mamma flew into a rage and sister Diane saw her blow one of those two loose teeth out and swears it stuck into the unfinished drywall.  Debra Ann is the half-sister to Wanda and was just as big as Paula Gayle.  Dalton tells the story that her head was so big, there was a foot of space between her eyes.  She did make the effort, however, to get a hold on her size and had her guts tied so she could fit through the door of her first house.  Hey, I just report, fair and unbalanced…. You decide!

Speaking of big time wrestling, has any of you heard the name, “Ultimate Warrior?”  I never watched them but apparently he was a world Champion, even beat the Hulk a few times.  He is now an artist and family man and lives up near Santa Fe. I met him at the Fountain Hills art show this spring and we talked a bit about kids and politics, (he is very conservative) and he sent me a signed 8x10 glossy of the “Ultimate Warrior”. ( He actually changed his name legally to “Warrior”.)  I wrote him back and said he will be hanging on my wall of fame, in my studio next to signed photos of Chris LeDoux, Buck Taylor, (Newley, on Gunsmoke), who is also an artist, and Casey Tibbs.  He kind of stands out from the bunch as you can imagine.

While I’m on the subject of famous people, (not that I am… Yet!)  I have been given the opportunity to read for a part in a western movie!  Now, I have never been an actor, (I did have a very important part in sixth grade, though), but I have been a cowboy and I just happen to have a good friend, who is the co-producer of the movie.  I may miss out on some of that good fishin’ we do every summer back at the lake house in Michigan as a result of being on location in OK, but  I can’t think of any other event that I would even consider taking me away from Bass Lake.  I will be telling you more about the movie as it happens. 

Also, some of you know that for the past four years I have taken part in a fund raiser art auction in Albuquerque, New Mexico every May as a way to create art scholarships for local high school kids.  Its called, “Legacy Art Auction” and it has grown leaps and bounds over the years and draws celebrities like Lou Diamond Phillips of “La Bamba” and “Young Guns” fame, and Robert David Hall of the television show “CSI Vegas”  This year they have added Hector Elizondo, currently starring in “Monk”; Cote de Pablo of “NCIS”; Ashley Jones of “The Bold And Beautiful” and HBO’s “True Blood”; Camryn Manheim of “Ghost Whisperer”; Mary McCormack of “In Plain Sight”; and Alfre Woodard of … a lot of movies!  Cheech Marin was scheduled to come this year but his schedule conflicted with that weekend. (Cheech and Chong are back out on the road touring again! Can you believe it?)  The sponsors put us “celebrities” up in the Nativo Lodge for the weekend. It is a beautiful southwestern designed hotel with a bar and plush leather couches and chairs in the lobby that are big enough to sleep in.  Some of us artists and celebs also play music, so in the evenings after all the auctions, soirees, and hullabaloos are over, we all meet back at the Lodge, pullout our “axes” and do an acoustic jam session right there in the lobby.  Well, that also has taken off and has become quite the place to be. So many people are attending our little concert now that it is so crowded some of them are practically sitting on my piano stool with me.  We are now officially called “The Legacy Allstars”.  We have a fiddle player, three guitar players, and me on the keyboards.  Robert David Hall is quite the guitar player and singer and even has his own band in Hollywood.  Lou Diamond Phillips sings the blues and occasionally Holly Dunn pops in to add a nice touch. (She had the famous hit “Daddy’s Hands” on the country charts back in the 80’s).  This year I created a large painting depicting all of us “Allstars” in character form jamming with our instruments.  (I have to give the little woman credit for coming up with the idea.)  The promoters liked it so much they made T-shirts with the image of the painting on them and are giving one to all the participants of the event.

Finally, a bit of web news.  Em has decided to use up all those domains we bought 11 years ago and create websites, as well as put up a site that is exclusively MUSIC.  She finished the music site about a month ago, and the new site location is www.musicalpainter.com  I hope you enjoy it, as it really needed to be on it's own. Eventually we will probably remove the music from our notevena site but not just yet because we are still getting sales of the music on our main site.  In the months to come we will be adding a pencil site that will be just my drawings.  Lately I have been doing a little bit of drawing so I will have a few new prints available just in the black and white for all of you hardcore pencil fans. 

Well, I’ve jawed enough for now. As you can see, I have a lot on my plate.  After a winter filled with runny hoses, record book sinus infections, and a difficult in grown hair, I’m ready for summer and some bass fishing.  Sounds pretty redneck, huh?  You know you are a redneck if you took your record book elk head to church Sunday in the back of your truck to show the congregation.  Don’t laugh… that actually happened at my church!  I'll keep you updated on the movie news in a couple weeks!      

Virgil J