Welcome to DJ Geribo's Art Apart Newsletter!

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, Fall is a busy time when we get out and go apple-picking, exploring, and hiking. And that is what we've been doing. We also did our 7th year of moose-sighting, twice. The first time we spent the entire day searching for moose, the next time we went we spent just a few hours and stayed closer to home. And both times we saw moose and got great pictures. We also went to a fair and although I already have many pictures of farm animals, I just cannot resist taking pictures of goats, cows, and horses when I have the opportunity. The relationship they have with humans, a mutual needing and serving each other, always fascinates and amuses me. Everyday I'm amazed to watch our three small dogs and Goffins Cockatoo as they accept hugs, kisses, and pats from us, comfortable in our home living with us, where they all belong and I like to think that they wouldn't want to live anywhere else. As for painting, yes I am painting, but a mouse infestation directed my attention to cleaning out drawers where they had set up a nesting area complete with insulation in a desk in my studio. I also spent several days rearranging my studio and it feels so much more open and comfortable, a more creative space. I'm hoping Santa brings me a large easel to hold my 30x40 canvases so I can begin working on large scale paintings. I've also been searching through my digital pictures to find a worthy subject — the problem is, there are so many worthy subjects, almost every nature and animal picture I've taken is worthy. But, I'm narrowing it down. Life drawing now includes evening sessions and I can really see an improvement in my drawing skills. I'm even helping others to "see" like an artist by focusing on what they are seeing, not on what they think something is supposed to look like.

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I recently viewed a disturbing movie called "Flow" that featured water as the star. (see FlowtheFilm.org) My emotions were all over the place as I went from sadness and despair to anger and frustration. Sadness about how people around the world are forced to drink water from rivers that they also bathe in and many are dying from a lack of clean water. Part of the problem is the huge corporations that are privatizing water! Imagine that! Private industry controlling access to a natural resource that should be available to all, for free! Amazing as that sounds, now this is where the anger came in, Nestles just walked into townships in Michigan (also in Maine, Connecticut, and several other states), and started pumping the fresh mountain spring water into bottles (such as Poland Spring, Nestles, San Pelligrino) and selling it to us!!! They built these huge factories, the water cost them nothing, and they are leaving mud holes behind, while making multi-millions of dollars. Why aren't we doing anything about this?!? Well, I am. I will no longer buy any Nestles water products. We have power in numbers, we can change the world. It starts one person at a time. And that person is me.