Art
Music
I play numerous instruments. My primary instrument since age 12 has been the Trombone. I only have one personal horn – a small bore Olds that is quite old but trusty (a bit rusty too). I play Trombone in the HSU Marching Lumberjacks, the World Famous Crab Grass Band, and several once-a-year groups like the Humboldt Firkin Tappers which plays at the annual Boonville Beer Festival in Boonville, California, the Royal Kinetic Madness Band which plays for the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race from Arcata to Ferndale. I do not practice enough to play 1st Trombone although I can play it handily when I do practice regularly. I have good tone; my sight-reading could use a little brushing-up though.
I also play and own – three guitars, a djembe, a dumbek, a 5-hole flute in the key of F, harmonica, and two nice wood recorders (alto and soprano). I have taken basic lessons for belly-dance drumming on the dumbek (beladi, etc.) and not all in a row, but about the equivalent to a full year of african drumming on the djembe. I have good rhythmic integrity and when I practice and get my arm strength up, love accompanying dancers.
I took two years of piano lessons when I was young and have returned to take beginning piano a couple times. I have taken a few voice classes over the years as well and sing a decent baritone when I practice. My piano skills are pretty poor but I can read music and learn a song if I want to. Improvising however comes easily.
Origami
Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper. I was introduced to Origami in the 4th grade. Then a relative gave me an introductory Origami book and I was off. I later found an Origami book detailing pop-up cards and another was lent to me detailing unit Origami.
I enjoy all forms of origami but pop-up cards are my specialty. Check out some photos of a few of the more extravagant cards I have made on my Picasa Origami Page. A unique touch to my cards that the designs often lack is using creative covers for the strings which hold them together. The string passes through the card and must be covered in some fashion on the outside. Most designers call for just covering it with a full sheet of paper. I at first covered it with a small strip of paper. Later, I began to embellish the covers more and more; if you look at the picasa photo page, you’ll see the two that I consider the best I’ve done.
I rarely make these cards for fun. I like making them for special occasions. I use foil Origami paper and other iredescent papers to make the stylish backings. I also like using metallic gel-pens for the writing and very nice envelopes like vellum or home-made paper.
Gardening
Well perhaps gardening is not an art and perhaps it is. Either way, I love gardening and am good at it. I spent the first six years of my life on a ranch in the Okanogan River Valley in Northern Washington. My Dad worked irrigation for the rancher and in return we got one of the ranch houses. In addition to the irrigation work, my Dad ran a mail-order seed company out of the basement. We grew most of the seeds behind our house in a 2-acre garden. I had my own little plot as soon as I could dig in the dirt.
I have some photos of my most recent garden on my Picasa site — 1017A Coach Way Garden. This particular house did not have any gardening space so I filled an old bed frame with a mixture of top-soil, compost, bone meal, and blood meal and planted some of my favorite crops. The aphids got quite bad on the zucchini and I attempted combating them with lady bugs; it worked pretty well.
