Day: July 21, 2013

“If God invited you to a party, and said:

“Everyone on the dance floor tonight will be my favorite

and special guest, how would you treat

the others when they arrived?

Listen to me, dear loves,

Come to my party,

walk on clouds of morning light

hear the sweet music of my magical chorus,

angels and cherubims and fairies in black gowns,

wash your skin in a bed of Dahlias

that brush against your cheeks,

and tickle your arms and set you on fire,

and make you all steamy

and soft with their sexiness,

Who is there in all the world, who will not swirl

upon my jeweled dance floor,

and ride in a chariot trailing a million

sparking lights?”

Brenda and her friend Barbara drove up to Washington County from Atlanta Saturday to come to the Open House, they were among the first people here and the first thing they did was buy my photo of “Queen Flo” and her court, the hens. I appreciate her love of this photo. Barbara has a very early photo of Lulu, bought four or five years ago, and she had a private meeting with Lulu to catch up.

This photo stuff is a significant evolution for me, something is very different, I sold a $100 photo of Flo on Friday. I’ve decided to do something different with my photography. This one was larger, it sold for $150. I will continue to offer them for free for use in any way people wish, I don’t copyright or bookmark them. When I take one I love, I will have it printed on good archival paper and matted well and sell it unframed for what it cost me to do. I will do this occasionally, maybe five or six times a year (maybe the next one at the September 1 Open House). In September I will have some of the photos I entered in the Washington County Fair, so there might be a blue ribbon.

I thank Barbara and Brenda for coming up to the Open House, for loving my work and Maria’s, for buying my photo. I hope the trip was worth it for them, they sure helped make it worthwhile for us. It was quite wonderful to see how the photos play out when people come – dozens of people photographed Red, many photograph the back porch, which seems to have struck a chord. You never know.

I have to be honest, the real star of the Bedlam Farm Open House is Maria Wulf, it is more evident every time. She simply brightens up every space she is in, she has boundless energy, mushrooming creativity. People cleaned her out of potholders and pillows, I think she has a few vintage hanky scarves left, they will go on sale tomorrow on her website and I doubt they will be around either.

Maria’s generous, gentle and intensely creative spirit has suffused my life, our farm, the animals we live with and everything we do. There was a steady stream of people – hundreds into the Schoolhouse Studio which she magically transformed into an art gallery in a day or, I have never met anyone whose ideas and energy transform themselves into reality so quickly and beautifully. She sold out of her increasingly famous signed custom made potholders, transformed into functional art and now suffused with drawings, writing, philosophy and some animal themes (people keep telling her they are worth more than $15, she will not raise the price, they are her steady thing).

I was pleased she joined me in describing her sheep to the hundreds of people lined up to see Red. Someone wrote on Facebook that they could not imagine me at an Open House a year or so ago, and the truth is, I could not imagine being there today without this wonderful spirit, she must be an angel or a fairy sent her to lighten my life and the world around it. Tomorrow she will get to work making more great stuff for September 1 and it will be a joy to see it. If you want a hanky scarf, take a look.

Mary Kellogg is 83 now, she is beautiful and fit and strong, a powerful and creative woman who lives her life on her own terms on her own 30 acre farm every day. She is a great friend of Maria and I, she has read from her poetry at every public event we have held, she has published two successful volumes of poetry – Whistling Woman and My Place On Earth, she is a dear friend and remarkable human being. She read several of her older poems and several new ones, they were all beautiful and she added a touch of grace and dignity to the Open House. She will return in September for the second Open House on September 1.

Mary’s books have gone into several printings and have sold thousands of copies, not bad for a poet who first published her work at the age of 80.

I’ve been working with Frieda for nearly four years now and I decided this was a good day to come and have her own press conference. I trust Frieda, she is not an aggressive dog, she is a dog with a lot of prey drive and long history of work as a junkyard dog. She is excitable and protective. She was as calm as Lenore today, I brought her out and gave a talk about her life and my next book, “The Second Change Dog: A Love Story,” coming out in November. Frieda was curious, she scanned the crowd, lay down calmly with the leash dropped. I talked about her for 10 to 15 minutes, I’ll do it again in September l. Work with Frieda is good work, it is never done.