I’ve been in a slump, aggravated by a faint and neck injury. Okay now with a C collar. And here is my holiday wish. Stay safe.
Art
So here’s some progress
Scoliosis. When I was drawing this, there were no words. It was two days before I could see it as a sort of selfie.
It’s Sunday and this is my WIP. Peace. Watercolor on paper.
WIP
On my easel. Watercolor on Fabriano cold press. Thinking to do just one more color. About 14” by 20”

Yesterday and today


Yep
New stuff
On my board. Comments please. 15 by 22, watercolor on Fabriano cold press.

ICE’s arrest of landscaper on 1999 deportation order devastates family, employer
Please read these words.
Justino Vixtha’s May 22 detainment by ICE has been rough on his wife, Melissa Vixtha, and the couple’s three daughters. Melissa poses for a portrait with Rubi, 14, left, and Priscilla, 10. Korrina, 15, wasn’t available. “I just want him home,” Melissa said. “I want our family back, our life back. My kids were happy. We were happy. This has put us straight through hell.” Photo (c) Michelle Gabel.
It was bad enough, Carol Watson said, that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested the head of her landscaping crew in May, the busiest time of year at her greenhouse near Syracuse, New York.
But what two ICE officers said when they told her they had arrested Justino Vixtha made it worse.
“They told me they didn’t have to arrest him,” Watson said. “He has legitimate documentation. They said it was just ‘their call.’ ”
Vixtha, 44, has been in the
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So Fuddy Me No Duddies; I’m Going Back to Read My Book
Wordsmith

When people care enough to recommend a book, I find, it always pays to read that book. Then I get the benefit of the writing, the knowledge, and the imagination or the exploration, of the author. And I learn something about the recommender and what she cares about, or what he finds fascinating.
So just now, I am reading a wonderful book, A Gentleman in Moscow, at the suggestion of a wonderful friend.
Amor Towles wrote A Gentleman in Moscow; it follows his debut novel, Rules of Civility, which was a New York Times bestseller. That was a great read, too, but A Gentleman in Moscow is very different. It’s set, of course, in Moscow—in one hotel in Moscow,—and it spans the time from 1922 until 1964 or so. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I believe that, within its pages, our hero, Alexander Ilyich Rostov, former poet and…
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Birthdays


Finally
A new one on my board. I haven’t liked a thing I’ve done lately until yesterday.
Watercolor on Fabriano cold press, 14 x 20
It’s the bees’ knees
Hi there. The painting I’ve been struggling with is finished and signed. “It’s the bees’ knees,” watercolor on Fabriano coldpress paper. 14 x 20
On my board
Here are assorted swirls and splashes. I’d love some comment or suggestion. Thank you.
Half sheet watercolor on Fabriano cold press.
Lotsa
So, I had lotsa words all lined up in my head. Good words gone.
But, I am painting, if not writing much.
So here’s yesterday in Florida.
Watercolor on Bee paper. QoR, DS
Losing it over
It’s its its are officially sending me round the bend.
Apostrophes unite!
And here’s a new one. Snails’ race.
Many Latinx voices, one amazing bundle of stories
Woo
Award-winning author and editor Silvia Moreno-García has put together a remarkable StoryBundle full of speculative fiction by Latinx authors in the U.S.
You decide what price you want to pay — for $5 (or more), you receive four books in any ebook format:
- Virgins & Tricksters by Rosalie Morales Kearns (you can read what I wrote about this book in Putting the I in Speculative: Looking at U.S. Latino/a Writers and Stories)
- The Haunted Girl by Lisa Bradley (read Lisa talk about her writing at the Nuestras Voces/Our Voices series I published at my first blog )
- Lords of the Earth by David Bowles (read my Q & A with David here)
- The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santería by Carlos Hernandez (you can read more about it in my article Latino Lit is Alive and Well and Living in Queens and Nebraska)
If you pay at…
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WIP day three
Day 2
First schmear, DS iridescent ruby
Gray scale image.
WIP
First schmear with Daniel Smith iridescent ruby watercolor, 20 by 14. Fabriano artistico cold press block.
Just because.
Presently, cobalt teal, yellows
I think I’m channeling Pittsburgh
It’s Christmas Day
And here’s my Christmas offering. I started out to paint a colorful Christmas tree, but my brush got away from me and the tree turned into a gator. So, here is my third Florida Christmas Day painting. Watercolor and inktense pencils on Fabriano cold press.
Thanks given
And another
Matthew is here.
Tonight we wait for Matthew
The heat, the colors, oh boy
Happyhappy buzzbuzz coffeeeee
another older one
Oh, Well….
Read this guy–funny, profane, godly sometimes–always thinking while driving truck
My stats suck.
I guess I’m not doing it for the fame, though.
I started my blog as a therapy tool and it’s fun when people take the time to visit or comment.
But, it seems like here recently, most of my visitors are web-bots and scammers….
I know I’ve been writing about religion a lot lately but, I can’t help it. I’ll be 52 this year and I’m feeling my mortality and my morality.
I’m sure it’s a stage everyone goes thru; I’m just glad it doesn’t involve hot flashes.
I’m just glad I get visitors when I do and I appreciate y’all spending whatever time you can with my little blog.
Thx, Trey
p.s #ReblogsRock
Ten by ten
I just entered a 10 x 10 art sale at View Arts, Old Forge, NY. This is where part of my heart will always live. When I was a kid I helped Mirnie Kashiwa and friends hang the first of many annual art shows at what would become the Central Adirondack Art Gallery, hosting shows after shows until it gained national prestige.
This month, a fundraiser called 10 by 10 is being held there. We artists send paintings measuring ten by ten inches and View Arts (new name) sells them for a hundred smackers. We artists accept $50 and donate the other $50 to View Arts. I am delighted to have sent six little guys. Please make a trek to Old Forge in May and scoop up a few. Many thanks.
I sign Keim now, having almost divorced the St. Louis part. Look for me, please?
Work in progress… Or finished?
Joy of the figure
A week ago I had the immense pleasure of attending a weekly live model drawing session near me in Orlando. Above is the last of 15 drawings in two hours. Practice, practice practice. I was rusty but like this last one. Five-minute ink drawing.
This is the same pose but 20 minutes, next to last drawing before I wore out. I love the extreme foreshortening the pose required.
These next three were finding my way. Just below is just a quick gesture sketch. Below it are one with some color and one with the torso made too long, but I like the expression on the lively young model’s face.
It Goes Bump
Source: It Goes Bump
Heeeere I am
Sunday, the end of April almost
And I painted outside!
WIP
marthakeimstlouis.com Copyrighted
My valentine
9 feb 015 …. Could not resist
The weather is becoming an issue
Even in here in our snow globe in the woods.
The bad part
Yesterday, one of our cats horked all over all my pants.
The good part
But then I got to go paint with my Tuesday painters group AND (shameless plug here) submit two big watercolors for the Cazenovia, NY Winterfest.
Today
The bad part
I just strolled into my studio to find water coming through the ceiling onto a pile of watercolor paintings.
The good part.
It’s fixed and this one is there at the Cazenovia Public Library!
Reception Thursday 4-6
Trying out Stillman and Birn paper
Happy Groundhog Day
Blog of this sunny day
Today no fancy dancin’
We lost one of our fathers to Alzheimer’s last year
We lost our Aunt Ami last week to Alzheimer’s disease
I lost the woman who introduced me to newspapers and journalism today
We lost our Aunt Dot today to dementia yesterday.
No words left, but I painted awhile. It helped.
Work in progress on the floor in the sun.
The full-moon effect
Yesterday, sunrise pasted me into my chair with iPad in lap. Yippee!
#jesuischarlie
Ink splotches with coffee
Still here
Rough couple weeks here. Our 1992 Chevy blew its power steering pump, thankfully at a good time. We got home. A couple rides from our best friends and Dana (my personal hero and spouse) was able to fix it.
My hero spouse saved Christmas. We missed a Solstice party, but celebrated that day here with venison stew I had made for the party.
I kicked myself into the studio and painted. While wet below
I was working on Yupo, a plastic paper like surface. The color floats.
Second day photo when dry. It certainly followed its own paths