Lion Hunt

We had some excitement this evening; just as I walked in the door, the phone rang and it was Emily who's on staff at our church (and who lives next door).  She said her husband Sterling was looking off their deck and saw a fox meandering by.  Suddenly, the fox stopped dead in its tracks and stared down into the woods. Sterling followed its gaze, and about 50 yards away in a clearing he was shocked to see a large cougar.  It was walking slowly in the general direction of our house.  I jumped back in the truck with my girls, and we raced over to their house and picked up three more.  Just as we were pulling out of our driveway our Pastor's wife Amy pulled in to use our printer, and I asked her to let our beagle inside as she would make a tasty hors d'oeuvre for a hungry cougar!

We drove all over our neighbors property of 50 acres, but other than a couple of mule deer there was no sign of the mountain lion.  Still, it's exciting to know that they're in the area!  We're going to go back out after dark to see if we can spot it.  We're wondering if it was after the mule deer, but the deer obviously hadn't caught the cougar's scent because they were calmly nibbling on the trees and shrubs.  They would have been miles away if they had any idea who was lurking in the neighborhood!  Who knows - maybe we'll spot the lion after dark.

I submitted several of my paintings to a local gallery to be reviewed, as I'd heard they are looking for another artist to display.  I heard back from them a few days ago, and they decided that my work does not fit in with the gallery.  Of course, they have the right to accept or reject any artist based upon their own evaluation, and based upon the general theme of the gallery.  I would not have minded a simply "Not our style", or "We do not need an oil artist at this time."  Unfortunately, they added a final paragraph with some practical tips to improve my oil painting technique, and a final note "Good raw talent!".  The note bothered me, simply because I was not requesting an art lesson.  I've been painting for over 35 years and while another artist may not appreciate my particular style, I found the note to be inappropriate at best - and downright rude at worst.    I'm planning to write a letter back to the gallery to express my sentiments, and to encourage those on the jury to treat potential artists as professionals and not as middle school art students.

Nicole and I went back out after dark - we saw an enormous buck, but no lion.