Before I explain this important thing, I should milk you for sympathy. So first things first.

Costco is a warehouse store that buys well and sells good stuff at good prices. They don’t keep a completely consistent inventory though, so they can get you hooked on something then stop carrying it. To mix it up a little, they’ll sometimes quit carrying a popular item then offer it again later. They negotiate hard too. There was some sort of impasse with Coke a Cola a few years ago and they stopped carrying that product for months. When it came back, it no longer got the fountain business. Pepsi was happy to grab that.

One day I sampled their frozen breaded chicken patties with some sort of sauce on them and was instantly hooked. I bought the patties and two bottles of the sauce. There is no reason to eat the bland patties without that sauce. Costco then stopped selling the sauce. I devised substitutes but each had their deficiency. Then I found that the Johnny’s “Jamaican Me Crazy” worked well. It wasn’t sweet which is a nice change. So that combination was available for a few months and then they stopped selling the Johnnies sauce. It’s pretty good stuff so I figured I’d find it elsewhere. I was wrong.

So finally I tracked down the factory only a couple of hours drive from my house. I ordered on line.

This was exciting because not only was it unavailable in stores, it also wasn’t available via Amazon. Factory direct was less expensive than ordering via Walmart, which was the only other outlet I could locate on line.

They packed it up, took my money and shipped my order to someone in California. I complained so they sent more and threw in an extra bottle.

A few days later my neighbor rang my doorbell because she had the package. Instead of giving it to someone in another far away state like the last time, FedEx gave it to the woman across the street. Geeze. I thanked her and gave her the extra bottle.

So now is where you ache for me and feel the frustration that I felt that day.

They never did get it to me. If my neighbor wasn’t honest I’d still have nothing.

While I was waiting for you to be sympathetic, I headed for the kitchen.

So now that I’ve been fortified with a chicken patty smothered in the difficult to obtain sauce and am basking in your heartfelt sympathy, I can proceed with the blog.

Making art can be a pretty glorious to experience, but why is that so?

Maybe you have fallen in love before.

Think about the experience.

You meet someone and it clicks really well. They like it too. So the two or you want that joy for each other and together you feed and water and care for the rare thing you both are experiencing. You have joy.

It’s like that except it’s not a relationship. It just has a similar intensity and joy.  If you’ve ever been in love, then you know what it feels like to be an artist from my perspective.

I’ve just had that joy again and it renewed me like nothing else. Leah and I spent time together and we used it doing a photo shoot. I edited late into the night and throughout most of the next day.

The photo session studio.

The reason working with Leah is so productive is that she loves doing her part. The result is truly magic. She’s the model, I’m the artist. We collaborate. Why does she like it? Leah uses less words and analysis than I do. Her explanation is, “It’s fun!”