Friends!
I'm not sure anyone still reads this blog. That is a sad thought. Summer is a bad time for my commitment to internety things . . . minus gmail. Gmail is my lover. I am still waiting to get all the Europe pictures, so those may not be on the flickr until I get back to Provo and can just steal pictures from various computers.
Meanwhile, I am trapped in the red desert. St. George is usually just over 100 degrees every day, and all the painting here is outside. It's pretty ridiculous actually and I'm beginning to wish for 95 degree weather and consider it "cool".
Everyone at Tuacahn seems to think that I'm either an incompetent painter or that the project is too big for one person. I intend to prove them wrong on both assumptions. The painter they had here for the first two summer shows, Eric, was going to come back and help out with this one. Everyone kept asking if I was glad Eric was coming in. Yeah, I was looking forward to working with someone, but not depending on it. Then, the designer [cough] who shall remain nameless [cough] slammed me pretty hard when he made some comments that implied Eric would come in and fix anything I'd painted that wasn't good enough. Well, Eric cancelled and isn't coming. What's more, I can paint just as well as Eric. I've seen his stuff. So there. Now people are all nervously asking what I'm going to do since Eric isn't coming in. Well, I'm going to paint. And, I'm going to finish the stinking show all by myself. So there.
Also, people here are really remarkably great at making all the cheesy painter comments. I don't know why people feel obligated to say things to me when they walk by. Seriously. The three main ones are "You missed a spot", "That's the wrong color" and "You have some paint on your clothes". The fine folks of St. George have added, "Wow, looks like you're going to get that all painted" and "Hey, save some paint for the scenery" (in reference to the paint on my clothes). The more clever people say things like, "People would pay hundreds of dollars for pants like those!" but that's not exclusively St. George. Anyway, the "looks like you're going to get this painted" is a new favorite. Yes. I paint things. I get things painted. It's what I do.
One kind of funny thing about being here in St. George is that in the wall by where my bed is there are a bunch of pipes or something. So, whenever anyone in the apartment above uses water, I can hear water dripping and washing though the pipes. It reminds me of home and that is good.
So, I'm counting down the days until I leave here. I'm hoping to head on August 31st (18 days) even though my contract is technically through September 3rd. August 30th is opening night, so I hope they won't be wanting me to stick around after that.
I miss Oregon something terrible. That's not really new, it happens every time I leave, but it's wearing on me. I miss it more this time than before. I'm kinda done with Utah.
