Artist Blog by Sheep Incognito Artist Conni Togel

Category Archives: Roadside Adventures

Dare to be Different Today!

Today is the day to change the world!

Sitting on the Metro in D.C. yesterday, I noticed that nobody on the train made eye-contact with anybody else. Nobody paid attention to the others. Nobody struck up a conversation. Nobody smiled.

And yet, there we were, only inches from each other, in a drab, cold, dirty environment – sharing the same breathing space, passing through each other’s lives for those few moments shared in time.

Of course, the argument could be made, that people are obnoxious, rude, cold, unfriendly, etc.
To me though, it seems that people are afraid – afraid of each other, afraid to smile, afraid to connect, afraid to step out of the comfort zone, afraid that maybe the other person might not smile back, might scowl at being engaged in a conversation, or and interaction of any kind.

Each in their own world. Each world lived in that same cold, dirty, bouncy tube running through tunnels of concrete.

A very sad, and very lonely world.

The whole ride, I was imagining the interior of the train transformed by happy colors – a beautiful sky painted on the ceiling. The handrails decorated with polka-dots and happy colors. The carpets replaced by something resembling a field of flowers. Happy music playing. The gaudy neon lights replaced with warm daylight bulbs. The cars clean, and fresh smelling. And the people, happy to ride home to their loved ones, carrying on conversations about their days at the jobs they love, or with people they enjoy being around.
Smiling at each other. Caring about the one girl that sits there all alone with a sad look on her face. Caring about the two girls from “The Hood”, whose parents obviously don’t care to know where they are or what they are doing. Caring about the young yuppie professional, with the new wedding band on his finger, and his new laptop case on his shoulder, with a nervous look on his face.

We have become so accustomed to being afraid of each other, that we have forgotten very much how much alike we are with all our fears, our concerns, and our lives in general.

It’s time to make a difference – act different – Dare to be Different!

Smile at someone.
Talk with someone.
Care about someone.

The world is never changed for the better when we don’t make the effort to make it better, each individual in their own living space.

So – put on your superhero cape, don the mask, and go fly!
You might be the only person that has smiled at that other person for the past few weeks. You might be surprised at what this does for them – and you!

Dare To Be Different Sheep Art Print
5230_Dare_To_Be_Different_Wide-412x570_0_437

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What We Do When We Aren’t Doing Things

Inspiration for the day

What We Do When We Aren’t Doing Things

As an artist, downtime rarely happens at all – whether we are driving on days between shows, or printing between shows at home, or getting set up for the next show, we hardly ever just sit and contemplate what we might want to be doing with our time.
So what DO we do when we aren’t working?
Working.
But, because work is fun, it has become not only work, but a hobby, a life-style, and the things we love to do most. We usually will walk along the beach looking for findings for jewelry creations. Or look around the desert for some cool rocks to wire-wrap or include in a new mixed-media piece of art. Or we will be looking at other artists’ websites to see how other artists create. Or, we are watching inspiring movies that usually spark new ideas.

It has become a lifestyle to see the little unseen things in the world. A little girl pitching a fit outside our booth becomes a little grumpy flowerfairy from the woodlands. The sunset becomes the color palette for a new landscape painting. The store we are visiting to purchase a clothing item becomes the inspiration for a new texture we want to add to some paintings…so while yes, we will occasionally sit on our behinds, we draw inspiration from everything life surrounds us with.
Happy things that make us smile. Stupid people that make us cringe. Stories that make us laugh. Clothing that transforms the wearing one. All are now part of what makes our downtime into worktime – we never clock out.
Which is why we love being artists.

Inspiration for the day

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

MDSW 2014 – Are We There Yet?

Maaahem hits the Sheep Incognito Flock again – OyVey.

Why is it, that despite our best efforts, the Sheep Incognito flock seems to have a knack for making sure life stays exciting around here?

This time, we actually got everything loaded into the trailer on time — we just had the rv repaired, and managed to have it two days ahead of time, rather than last minute — the weather was just right for working outside to load — we had everything ready to go — and, we even managed to pull out of the driveway on time. We made it through Atlanta rush-hour without too much trouble, and got quite a ways up the road.

Until there was a pop, and a loud roaring from the engine – which sounded very much like the exhaust leak we had just gotten repaired.

We pulled into a truck stop, and discovered that in fact the repaired part had completely disconnected from the engine – something about an EGR line…so we spent the remainder of the evening looking for someone to come fix this for us. Friday night. Everybody is closed. And we are supposed to be in Franklin, Tennessee about two hours away about an hour ago. Not good.

After finally giving up on getting things done for the night, we discovered the wheel on the Trailer had miraculously decided NOT to fall off while we were driving – definitely a silver lining to the situation, as we apparently are not good learners, and did not grease the bearings on time to prevent the damage.

So we missed our show in Franklin – that is a financial problem, along with a status problem for next year’s show. No-shows are not looked kindly upon, not matter what the circumstances are, I believe.

So we’ve been sitting here at the truck stop since Friday evening – we cannot stomach any more food at Denny’s. And we are still waiting for parts to get the car fixed – downside of older car: no parts available.

We are supposed to be in Maryland for the MD Sheep & Woool Festival on Friday. All fingers crossed for that.

In the meantime, we have sat under a huge oak tree playing cards, watching the birds, meeting other rv’ers, eating apple crumble with coffee, and watching Netflix – such a hard life.
So today we work a bit – get things ready for Maryland, and wait to see if the guy that is supposedly picking up the part at 2:30 this afternoon actually shows up to get us rolling again.

The Sheep Incognito flock of paintings in the trailer are just patiently waiting to meet new friends – we will be doing our best to get there one way or another – we might need to wind up renting a van or somesuch…

Off to have breakfast – dry cereal, no Denny’s.

 

Tags: , , , , ,