12/15/2021 How to Wash Clothes in Costa RicaHow to Wash Clothes in Costa Rica:
NOTE: Weather apps are very unreliable. It can be raining in the town that has the sensors, but sunny hot in your town.
NOTE: Clotheslines in full sunlight are the quickest way to dry clothing. The better clotheslines are just under roof overhangs. 22. Using clothespins, HANG clothing on clothesline. 23. MONITOR clothing until dry. CAUTION! Rain will wet clothing and delay drying. The delay can cause clothing to stay damp for days. 24. When clothing is dry to the touch, REMOVE and STORE clothing. 25. Repeat directions as often as necessary. 12/8/2021 Art Supplies Found in the WildOk, not completely in the wild, but at least in someone's garden driveway!
While visiting our neighbor Nacho, I found some rich, black, thick charcoal laying around some flower bushes. The type of charcoal that’s found in a 2x3x1 inch box in an art supply store and sells for a few dollars. The juicy charcoal that oozes blackness on paper…and smudges and brushes away easily to make grays. Nacho laughed at me for asking for his charcoal. Charcoal in Costa Rica is used as deodorant or for gardening fertilizer, not art supplies. He shrugged and offered me more charcoal. I took just what I needed. After all, I just found an almost endless supply, right across our road!!! I finally got to make the value chart I needed for class! If you happen to be in Uvita, Costa Rica, come out and see me and three more awesome artists at Dolce Uvita on Saturday, December 11th, 2021, from 10 am – 3 pm. For more info, https://dolceuvita.com 10/27/2021 Bat and Fall ThingsAs I was checking out our outside laundry system at our new home in Costa Rica, a bat landed on the wall above me. It was about six inches long. I was happy to see it, but sad as it was a late morning. It let me get a single photo and then took off. ©Angeline Marie MartinezIt’s very weird being in Costa Rica for October. There isn’t the whole Fall Thing here in Costa Rica.
The whole Fall Thing didn’t make sense to me in Florida, anyway, so it almost feels like a bit of relief, lol. It’s great not having to listen and watch a constant onslaught of marketing about Fall Things like harvesting, warm colors, sweaters, pumpkin spice, fire places, Holiday Shopping, etc. Everything is green here, so all this straw stuff makes even less sense in Costa Rica than in Florida. I hate the cold, not a pumpkin spice kind of girl, anyway! So far, Alexa provides tunes to a simple speaker we brought. The music is interrupted by US commercials about…you guessed it…Fall Things! I still don’t understand everyone’s excitement about all this, lol! I did see some Halloween decor in a store here. One store, on what amounts to two long shelves. No candy on display, just decor! There are two seasons here: winter and summer. Cooler or Hot Hot. Rainy or Dryer. There is truly no “sweater weather,” unless you count that Andy and I wish we had an extra bed sheet during cooler nights, lol. This little bat is one of many we enjoy watching fly about our new temporary home in Costa Rica. Happily, this is the only bat we’ve seen in the daylight. It’s a poor photo, but I was lucky to get it! Happy Halloween and Happy Fall Things! 10/6/2021 Here’s me with Tomasina, again...In case you hadn’t heard, Andy and I moved to Costa Rica.
Yes, we still have a stake in the USA. So if you have any of my contact info, much of it will still work. It might take a few days to get back to you. Anyway, Andy and I bought a slice of land here in Costa Rica in 2019. We are now renting a place while our new home is being constructed. We’ve officially been here two weeks, today, this posting. Four months ago (or maybe 5? Time is flying...so it was this 2021), I bought some acrylic gouache paint, some paper, etc. to work through Color: A Workshop for Artists and Designers. Andy and I had no idea where we would be living during construction...but I best prepare to have a very, very, very small space for an art studio. This color workshop takes up a small work space and requires a very small amount of supplies. I gift myself a creative break, finally get to learn from this book (had it 6 years!) and still get to PAINT! I filled the carry-on travel suitcase with our gym supplies and my art supplies, the book Color: A Workshop, and a few other things. Art things went back and forth from a storage unit box to the suitcase. I made a promise to myself: whatever is in the suitcase will have to work for me. The next time I’m allowed to open the suitcase is when we are in Costa Rica. The gym stuff was easy, lol! As we slowly move into our temporary home, the last setup is my studio space. My suitcase remains full of art supplies...but I get to rummage through them! I found Tomasina...and burst out joyfully with laughter. I’m so happy to have my old friend with me. Is there something that you packed for yourself and found later that it made you laugh with joy? What was it? 3/6/2019 cafe, chocolate, and birdsMy first pet loves were a toy white poodle named Champagne and a baby bird we named Twitty...which we believe grew up to be Pinta Roja. All of those are long stories. The most pertinent to this article I found about preserving endangered birds is Pinta Roja. When Twitty disappeared, Papa and I began to feed any birds that showed up in our yard. We felt it was a guarenteed food source for Twitty, if Twitty were to return to visit us. A beautiful red-winged blackbird, all alone, began appearing a few days after we began feeding all the birds in our yard. Pinta Roja would sing outside our kitchen window, asking to be fed. He would let us within a couple of feet of him, our arm outstretched in hopes of him hopping on to us. When we got too close, he'd hop down the power line. We spent many years feeding the birds in our yard...forever we remember Pinta Roja. 2018 marked the beginning of my consciously including birds into my artwork. I made a few silhouette stencils for our local restaurant Chefs on the Run for painting up their ladies' room back in 2014. I've making it a point to use my handmade stencils and stamps during 2019 in more paintings. Watch for more birds showing up.... In the meantime, I thought the article below was super cool about helping out our feathered friends. Smiles, with paint on my hands, Angeline http://artdaily.com/news/108864/Coffee-and-chocolate-could-help-preserve-endangered-birds-in-According to estimates, less than 3000 Red Siskins remain in the wild in Venezuela. Coffee and chocolate could help preserve endangered birds in Venezuela WASHINGTON, DC.- In Venezuela, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus), a vibrantly colored red-and-black finch, is inextricably linked with the country’s identity. It is present in poems, paintings, names of streets and sports teams and even graces the back of the 100,000 Bolivar bill, but it is rare in its natural habitat. To help reverse this, the Smithsonian and the Piedra de Cachimbo coffee farmers in northern Venezuela stepped in. With support from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, farmers are committing to the conservation of 400 hectares of forest for traditional shade-grown organic coffee, seeking Smithsonian Bird Friendly certification of their beans. This approach is part of the Red Siskin Initiative (RSI), an international consortium in which the Smithsonian collaborates closely with Provita, a local NGO focused on the preservation of biodiversity in Venezuela, and other partners. This will protect the siskin’s natural habitat and increase their profits. As part of the process, they have established relationships with roasters and retailers in Caracas. Their plan, which will also protect other native birds and migrants, is embedded in the Smithsonian Conservation Commons, an action network within the Smithsonian highlighting the relevance of science and innovative interdisciplinary approaches to on-the-ground conservation. “Farm workers can help us monitor the birds, which is a big advantage. Some of these farms also border protected areas like national parks, creating a wildlife corridor,” said Brian Coyle, Conservation Commons program manager at the Smithsonian and RSI project coordinator. In addition to coffee, the project aims to include another agroforestry crop: cacao. The Bird Friendly certification standards for cacao are currently being developed by the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center, which created the Bird Friendly program based on decades of scientific research. Currently, the RSI is producing a red siskin-branded chocolate bar made from organically sourced cacao. The profits go back to farmers, research and RSI conservation efforts. This initiative has also achieved a better understanding of illegal bird trafficking networks, which will allow for more focused preventive actions, based on research led by Ada Sanchez-Mercado at Provita and Kate Rodriguez-Clark at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park. One proposed solution is to supply enough captive-bred birds to fulfill the demand, an approach that proved effective with other bird species. For this, the RSI partners with private breeders in the United States and Australia who help figure out how to best breed the red siskin in captivity. “We could lose the red siskin in 10 years if we do nothing about it,” said Miguel Arvelo, RSI coordinator for Venezuela and conservationist at Provita. “If we lose this bird, we will have lost part of what it means to be Venezuelan.” Additional components of the RSI include genetics, animal husbandry, health and breeding research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, SCBI and the National Zoo. “In 20 or 30 years we envision a flock of dozens of beautiful red birds flying against the bright blue sky,” Coyle said. “It would be inspiring for the people in Venezuela and elsewhere, knowing that conservation does work and getting their support for more of it. Conservation can’t succeed if the community doesn’t get behind it.” |
CategoriesAll Art In The News Art Studio Cats Classes Costa Rica Painting Painting Studio Pets Sketching Drawing, painting both analog and digital, and other artsy things while living in Costa Rica.
You can follow my blog the easiest by adding your email to my list by going here. I keep that list secret because I don’t like spammers, too. You’ll even get things that I don’t share in my blogs! |