I meant to visit the 50th annual Mandan Art Show, but by the time I got to the Mandan Community Center, the doors were locked! Argh. I was feeling pretty down about the nosedive my Saturday was taking, until I drove past Cycle Hutt.
I have four pieces in this show, all are for sale. I spent hours late at night in my garage doing the mounting, matting, and framing. Thankfully I have a very glorious and enormous heated garage, complete with satellite TV and a fridge full of Dew. It still made for some long nights. That reminds me…if you ever see a photo on this blog that you really like and want to order a print, just contact me. I can make big poster-sized prints for you. Pricing details available upon request.
I guess the Mandan News has printed a history of the art show, and one of the ladies they featured (first year’s winner, I think) was a lady named Betty. I met her several years ago, last century I suppose, when my parents used to give her a ride to church. She’s passed away now. When I spent time with her on those rides to church I had no idea she was an artist, and I certainly was no photographer.
I have been known to post a windmill photo or two. I’ve had plenty of “fallen farms” to boot. Things like this, however, are a more elusive part of that North Dakota prairie charm. They’re harder to spot, but they make very rewarding photos when they catch the eye.
This is also the photo featured on my April calendar, described in the post below. You can download it by a link from that post or in the pane to the right.
I was down at the rifle range at McLean Bottoms, trying out a new rifle. I’ve got several friends that have bought guns in the past week or so as well, it’s like we’re contagious or something! But this was just a solo trip down to the range after work to run two ceremonial rounds through it, one through each of the magazines issued with the rifle. The ammo was a gift from a friend, who turned our Sioux Hockey Night into an impromptu “gun-warming party” as he put it. I’m honored. Oh yeah, while I was in the area I stopped at the pistol range as well and heated up my Glock for good measure.
Back to the sundogs in the photo. The reason they’re somewhat “dirty” and that there’s a yellowish tinge to the horizon is that there was a pretty large grass fire underway north of Highway 1804. I saw it as I worked my way down to the river bottoms. It was throwing up a pretty good cloud of dirty looking smoke, which happened to drift right across the sky above and west of the pistol/rifle ranges. All in all, it was an eventful little after-work trip!
When asked if a resolution in the state legislature along the lines of the Mathern/Kretschmar Pacifism Resolution was being considered, Van Possum indicated, “…that’s certainly a possibility. What better way to demonstrate support for our citizens than to get them out of harm’s way? Staying in North Dakota will not work and is not worth the price.”
Van Possum continued: “The list of atrocities committed in North Dakota include: an asphyxiated newborn in December, the high profile killings of two college coeds in Minot and Valley City, the beating to death of a man in Grand Forks in October, and the April slaying of a Sykeston couple in which their home was burned to the ground in an effort to conceal the crime. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Even now, the local news is reporting a possible kidnapping in central North Dakota. In August, someone hit a young man in the head and tried to run him over with a pickup. Obviously North Dakota is not safe for North Dakotans. We need to keep our citizens safe. We support North Dakotans, just not their mission. It’s time to bring them home…er, well, somewhere safe, anyway.”
When not busy fighting to end all fighting, many of the ND Peace folks keep busy by forming an endless array of coalitions, councils, and other “dot orgs” to champion such causes such as deviant sexual practices and preferences, pseudo-peace through capitulation to all enemies of freedom, and the worship of the Earth rather than its creator. Populating these organizations, attending the occasional protest and/or drum circle, and standing in black in front of the capitol keep many of them too busy to find a productive place in society. “But we care,” stressed Van Possum, “and that’s the important part.”
While they concede that our presence in North Dakota is unlikely to diminish any time soon, the peaceniks vow to remain resolute. “There’s no giving up on giving up,” Van Possum said. “It takes courage to stand up for running away.”
(I didn’t have time for a new April Fool’s joke, so I decided to recycle a little satire from an earlier post. It doesn’t take an intellectual giant to make these people look silly. They do 99% of the work themselves.)
This is the first stone barn I can remember featuring. It caught my eye from the road and was not on posted land, so I was able to hike in. This is as close as I came to the buildings; I don’t actually try to enter any of the buildings I photograph. First is out of respect for the owners, second is a matter of safety. To capture their spot on the beautiful North Dakota prairie is fulfilling enough.