Snow Blinded By Pluck and Post

This was the view from the front door yesterday. Well, at least we will be able to find the eggs better! Happy Easter!

In Anchorage we have a pretty good excuse for not having gardening, or even SPRING for that matter, on our minds. Yesterday, we set the record for the winter of 2011-12 as the snowiest on record. AND due to the house move, the first year Daddy-O and I were without a usable shop and garage in 20 years! “Snow fell across the city Saturday morning and into the afternoon, and at 4 p.m. the official tally was 133.6 inches, breaking a record set during the winter of 1954-55 by an even 1 inch. Another 0.9 inches fell by 7 p.m., putting the total at 134.5, where it would likely stand through the evening,” the Weather Service said.

This week I had received an email that said

“Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that we featured your work on Artful Garden Northwest today — http://artfulgardennw.com/

Please let me know if I got anything wrong. I love your work and have "bug envy" now. :-) If your work will be at any events this year, let me know. I'll make sure to list it in our calendar.

Have a great weekend.”

Hmmm. My first vain thought was, COOL, someone finally noticed me! I checked out the web site as I like all things garden and gardening and the Artful Garden Northwest sounded impressive, and I have made a lot of garden art… It is a lovely site with lot’s of interesting work and even better there is a lot of GREENERY, something Anchorage is in short supply of right now. But the more I thought about it, the more this e-mail started to bother me. I don’t remember giving PERMISSION for anyone connected to the email or the web site  to use images of my work. My web site, where the image was plucked from, specifically says “All original designs and images are © Cindy Shake. All rights and privileges are retained by the artist and images or designs may not be used for any purposes without permission from Cindy Shake. Thank you.”

While flattering, having someone I don’t know posting information about my work and my web site will also be problematic and a bit of a pain in the butt. I’ve already received emails asking about the “bug art” featured on their web site –which was a series of 3 one-of-a kind works that I created Raku fired heads and plasma cut and welded bodies for a show several years ago. All of the metal work on my web site is already sold. I don’t sell anything from my web site, nor do I wish to start. While complaining to Daddy-O about feeling that my privacy was intruded on and fussing about having my images poached and posted by strangers, he gave me a bit of an eye squint. As to say “say what?” so now you are worried about feeling invaded, taken advantage of or worse, people knowing your business?? He gently reminded me that it was ME who started a Blog, web site and even uses F@CEBOOK to squeal about my daily life… touché.

Artful Garden Northwest let me know they "featured" my garden art on their web site. Thank you -I think... 

http://artfulgardennw.com/metal-garden-sculptures-by-cindy-shake/

OK, Enough is Enough

Even for us hearty Alaskan souls, I think we've had about as much snow as we need for Spring Break! The Seward Highway into Anchorage is closed for a few hours due to an avalanche at Bird Point and DOT will be doing more avalanche mitigation. The Mountain has a delayed opening until 1:00 pm for snow load control and the Spring Break Silvertip School Groups Camp cancelled morning sessions. We can hear the safety crew with the avalanche guns blasting the mountain and can see where Max's Mountain actually had a slide all the way down to the upper parking lot -holy cow! The skies are clearing though and it seems the only one having more fun than first-tracks skiers is Tauzer's buddy, Isis!

Cross Country Snow

It seemed this week that white was the color seen across the country. With power outages, closures and freezing temps, some artists in the South were not pleased. Rather than post more beautiful Northern winter images, here is one reminding me that green will soon be seen here in Alaska. And as requested, this is the famous Tauzer Schnauzer last summer covered in grass seed after a romp along Glacier Creek.

Yesterday I delivered some donation pieces around town

for various fundraising auctions. It was a pleasure to get out and see where other people work and was a good reminder of how hard it is for non-profits to sustain their efforts. One of my favorite stops was at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center. I donated a Raven Wall Sculpture for their upcoming "For The Birds" event on March 21. I met the coolest Black Crow (not to be confused with a Raven) who is an education bird for the Center. He was so beautiful, all black and shiny, his intelligence and incredible beauty inspired me to create a future piece of art of him! 

This may be a secret surprise for the upcoming fundraiser, but a handler at Bird TLC was teaching the Crow to take dollars and drop them into a container!! The Crow was getting so good at it he didn't want to stop -who wouldn't, the reward was fresh meal worms. The folks at Bird TLC are calling him their "Cash Crow!"