Spooky!...........by Joyce Oroz

Thrill the World Dance

 

These days, when you tell someone they look like a zombie it is usually taken as a compliment—unless it’s Myrtle in the morning before she colors her cheeks.

Many of our youth want to look ragged, pale, sad and desperately tired—or even dead, while older folks strive to look perky, well-dressed and good for a few rounds of golf.

 

Did the zombie-look start because of Michael Jackson and his Thriller dance?

 

Our local children swarm into Santa Cruz each year around Halloween, dressed in rags and made up like hideous zombies. Cooper Street is closed to traffic, the music starts and all ages of youth dance to Jackson’s “Thriller” in the middle of the street. Obviously they have practiced the moves everyday for years—probably at Myrtle’s house. The event is over in six minutes—time to go to the Saturn Café and become a flash-mob doing another six minutes of dancing to “Thriller.”

Artist of the Month--November..........by Joyce Oroz

The Dragonfly Gallery in Aromas is proud to announce the “Artist of the Month” for November, Kay Walters, a distinguished fuser of glass and jewelry maker. As an exceptionally talented AHA member and very nice lady, Kay answered my questions with enthusiasm.

 

Joyce: “Kay, please tell us about yourself and your lovely work.”

I moved from Big Sur to North Monterey County 20 years ago. I live with my miniature horses, and rescued dogs and cats.

My interest in glass started when I was a glazier in San Diego. I replaced the glass in broken windows and doors on new housing projects. I cut many sheets of glass in those days.
Around 10 years ago, I started fusing glass. I purchased a small kiln and fused up a storm. Of course, that led to a larger kiln; for awhile. Now I have 4 kilns of various sizes and shapes.
I have played with pottery and sculpting, painted on silk, painted with encaustics (wax), among other arts, but am passionate about fusing glass.
The colors pull me in and I never know exactly how a glass project will turn out. That makes it fun. I start with sheets of fusing glass, frit (various sizes and small pieces, from powder to small chunks), stringer (strings of glass), and dichroic glass (the most expensive glass, derived from space technology and made in a vacuum).
I lay out the combinations of glass and heat it in a kiln up to 1700 degrees. (Usually 1500 degrees is plenty. Some pieces are heated more than once to created depth. Some pieces are heated again to slump them into molds for bowls, etc.
Nature gives me endless ideas for fusing glass: trees, oceans, creatures.
Yes! I am Mad For Glass!!!

Glass Madness!

What is this Glass Madness that has captured my soul?
It is the myriad of colors: reds, yellows, greens, cobalt blue, mauve, violet, that light up my spirit.

It is the joyous process of combining translucents, opaques, dichroics, iridescents, frits, and stringers for my inspirations.

It is the magic of the glowing, flowing, fusing process. The kiln melting the glass into a white-hot taffy-like material, the molecules connecting.

Then! After each individual artwork ever so slowly cools, it presents itself to me; inspiration for new visions that beg to be brought into the world.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Glass Madness guides my spirit and passion of creating!

Kay Walters has worked as a massage therapist for twenty-four years.

Right now she has a fine display of glass creations at the Dragonfly Gallery, 

380 Blohm Ave., Aromas, CA 95004

 Open10:00 to 4:00 Tues. thru Sat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Fall Story........by Myles Laurin

 

 

Intentional Friends

 

The leaves are starting to fall off the trees.

On this tree there is one leaf left.

All of the other trees are evergreen trees.

So they tease the balding trees.

This tree wants to keep it's last leaf.

Then the wind starts to blow!

So the leaf hangs on to the tree so it wont blow away.

The leaf and tree become good friends, they tell jokes all winter long

like;.... 'make like a tree and leaf!'

but the jokes could not be too funny or the leaf would fall off.

At the end of winter the leaf started to get old and crackly.

On the first day of spring the leaf fell, it started to twirl in the air.

The wind took the leaf and carried it all the way around the world and then the leaf came back to the tree.

The tree was overjoyed to see the leaf again!

When the leaf saw the tree again, it became green and then the leaf grabbed the tree and never let go.

The end.

 

By Myles Laurin.

A Community Celebrates..........by Joyce Oroz

 

Please join us in celebration
November 3^rd

A very special community has supported its library by coming together and producing an attractive mural on the outside walls of the historic building. Aromas is the community and the Aromas Hills Artisans are the painters who created the lovely country scene. Characters from five favorite children’s books float on imaginary clouds above golden hills, a meandering river, fields and trees and two children reading in the shade of an apricot tree. Leading up to the library entrance are colorful flowers painted by local children, patrons of the library.

The work is finally finished—all that is left is to celebrate the coming together of library patrons, painters, donors, Monterey Free Library officials, property owners and art-lovers.

The celebration will be on November 3^rd, first Saturday of the month, 1pm to 3pm and includes refreshments. We came together for the planning, supporting and painting—now let’s celebrate the completion of our successful library project.

Why do girls like horses?..........by Joyce Oroz

 

My question for today is: do all girls love horses? Dah! Even my own personal survey says, yes, but it might be slanted since I was once a girl who loved horses. When I try to sort this out, it seems like with our cowboy—cowgirl history, it’s an American tradition to love horses. We grew up watching westerns. We grew up watching Dale Evans, and we passed the horse-loving gene to our daughters and granddaughters.

 

Dale Evans, the singing cowgirl, is an American icon, a woman who rode horses, sang with horses and inspired little girls with her movies and TV show. She was an author, a movie star, a singer a song-writer and an advocate for children.

Dale was born on Halloween, 1912 and died February 7, 2001. She married Roy Rogers in 1947 after working with him in movies for three years.

 

Dale Evans was California Mother of the Year 1967

Texan of the Year 1970

Cowgirl Hall of Fame 1995

Cardinal Terrence Cook Humanities Award 1995

And has 3 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

16 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren

Solow wears doggles................by Joyce Oroz

Do Bassets daydream? Solow does. Even though he has a great sleuthing reputation in real life, he does daydream as he bench-presses a couple over-weight fluffy-cats. This is how he sees it:

Brazen basset bandit wearing doggles kidnaps a kid.

Being an only-pup, young Solow dreamed of having his own kid. Someone to romp over hill and dale with him, someone to play go-fetch and someone to roll in smelly rotting…..

One day he found the perfect kid, wagged his tail and followed her into a car. Solow put his head out the window to show off his doggles. The kid was not impressed and actually laughed at his doggles, so at the first stop sign he leaped out the window and trotted home. He decided that fluffy-cats were more fun than having a kid of his own.

Blame it on George.......by Joyce Oroz

 

Super woman has a chink in her mature personage. I’m here to tell you that my smooth sailing on the sea of life has been discontinued like last season’s hand bags at Nordstoms. Admitting ones vulnerabilities hurts—kinda like when a surgeon scrapes your old bones as if they had dried egg stuck in the crannies. Maybe I did, but that’s another story.

So, thanks to modern technology and the acceptance of Pepto pink for everything from athletic shoes to zippers, I have a spanking new pink cast on my arm. If I were designing a cast I wouldn’t worry about the color. Instead I would design a clever hook on the end of the cast that would help the free hand with a million simple chores. Chores like dressing, eating, bathing and typing. Ok, maybe not typing. As it turns out I have adopted George, the dragon speaking guy and he writes for me. I speak into a microphone and George writes down something similar to what I said—sometimes not even close. I’m telling you this so I won’t have to take responsibility for mistakes and misspeaks.

George did it.

Right now I am doing my part to hold down expenses. My car sits in the garage for four more weeks. Yikes! While I try to dress myself without a hook or a clue.