The Art of Ernest Untermann

Dinosaur Painting by Ernest Untermann, Sr.

Ernest Untermann, Sr. was born in Brandenburg, Germany in 1864. He studied geology and paleontology, and was a committed Socialist. As a young man, he spent 10 years as a sailor and traveled the South Seas. Eventually, he moved to America where he translated Karl Marx's writings into English. Untermann also wrote about both economics and natural history.

Ernest Untermann, 1950

Later in life, Untermann traveled to the Uinta Basin in Utah, and fell in love with the geology and early history of the place. He began to paint.

Ernest Untermann painting

On a recent trip to Vernal, Utah, I visited the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum (that name is a mouthful!).  Upstairs in a small area off the beaten path, is a wonderful exhibit of Untermann's paintings. The art on the walls is but a fraction of the paintings housed at the museum, but there are enough paintings on exhibit to give you a feel for Untermann's style.

Prehistoric plant life in the Uinta basin

Untermann's paintings have been called whimsical, primitive, or naive. I found them to be absolutely charming. I loved his use of color and the style of his paintings.

Scenery of the Uinta Basin

After driving to Vernal and around the local area, I could see why Untermann was so fascinated with the scenery. Vernal is home to dinosaur fossils and primitive rock art from early native residents. Untermann chose to depict not only the scenery, but early creatures and peoples that once inhabited this area.

Early mammals.

I wasn't expecting to find an art exhibit at the museum, so being able to walk through this series of Ernest Untermann's paintings was quite a treat.  Untermann died in Vernal in 1956, at the age of 91. He was known as the "Artist of the Uintas."

I think this one might be my favorite.

If you would like to see Untermann's paintings in person, the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum is located at 496  E. Main Street in Vernal, UT.  Hours are 9am - 5pm daily from April to September. From October through March, the museum is open Monday through Saturday, and closed on Sundays.  Admission is $6 for adults, and $3 for children over 5.

52 Weeks to a Clean House: Week 3 - The Art of Habits

This week's project is to clean and organize the pantry. I am planning to tackle it on Wednesday. So rather than boring you with making a shelf of crackers and cereal boxes look nice, I want to know what you think about habits.

Apparently, in order to have a clean house, you have to have cleaning HABITS. Hmmm. Many books and websites suggest a weekly routine. I used to be better about a weekly cleaning routine, but with 4 surgeries in the past 2 years, I confess my weekly routine has slipped. Last week I began implementing a new weekly schedule and am in the process of tweaking it to fit what I would like to accomplish in a week. Now to make it a habit.

I have heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit. I think this is NOT TRUE. In fact, for some bad habits, I think I can establish them in as little as one day. And I have done things consistently for 21 days and then discarded the habit without a backward glance. I find it takes a few days to develop a bad habit, and a much longer time to develop a good one. But the thing I will agree with is that the forming of a habit requires consistency. The goal is to make the behavior automatic. And for me, that number may vary from 21 days.

My organizing book suggests establishing a habit each month. In January, I am selecting habits related to the kitchen. The one I am working on right now is emptying the dishwasher when it is through running. Simple, right? Why this one? Because if the dishwasher is empty, it allows me to encourage everyone to put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher as they use them, and then voila! At the end of the day, there isn't a big mess to clean up, just a few dishes from dinner. And the counters stay neater, too.

I love this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:  "Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; show a character and you reap a destiny."

If you were to recommend a "clean kitchen" habit to me this month, what would it be? What are your automatic kitchen habits?  Do you have a weekly cleaning routine? What schedule do you follow? I appreciate you helping me on my journey to a clean and orderly home!

The Art of the Journey

Brighton Lakes Trail - Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

I just finished reading a couple of travel memoirs, and I have been trying to pinpoint why I enjoy reading these types of books so much. Several dot my shelves. They vary in subject matter from Robyn Davidson's camel journey across Australia in Tracks, to John Harrison's Amazonian basin river trip in Off the Map. One reason I like these books is that I can vicariously "experience" journeys I am never going to take. But I think I like them for deeper reasons as well.

In almost every case, these travelers meet kind people along the way who offer them a helping hand or encouragement or friendship in a moment of need. We don't fully appreciate the intricacies of the journeys our fellow travelers are on in this life. But we could all reach out in kindness to others to help them on their way. I know I have been blessed many times by a kind word, a smile, a note, a meal, or some other form of assistance in my journey through life.

In every journey, things don't go as planned. In Cheryl Strayed's Wild, her journey on the Pacific Crest Trail is derailed by unusually high snowfall. Several hikers abandon their trek and decide to come back in another year. Strayed continues on, but must adjust her plans. Instead of hiking a section of the snowed-in trail in California, she travels north and picks up the trail through Oregon. It requires acquiring new information for the sections of trail she hadn't planned to hike, and re-routing her supply boxes to mail drops in Oregon.  In John Harrison's Off the Map, he and his wife, Heather, become lost in the Amazon river basin. It takes some doing for them to find the correct pathway, and a journey that should have taken a few days, takes them several weeks and pushes them perilously close to their physical limits in a remote location.

Some trails are rocky - Bristlecone Pine Trail, Great Basin National Park

Every journey I read about has unexpected adventures come up. And I think that is what I like about them. Reading how other people cope when they get completely lost, or when plans change, or when journeys get interrupted has a direct application to life. In my life, at least, things rarely go as planned. On hikes, some trails are steep, some are rocky, some are beautiful. It is easy to twist an ankle, rub a blister, pull a muscle, take a fall. Likewise in life, we walk through pathways of grief, disappointment, stress and pain. But we also walk pathways of joy, love, connection and laughter. We have to make constant adjustments along the way. Sometimes we change trails, sometimes we change destinations. Sometimes it take some time and effort to figure out where we are, and where we want to go. I am finding that the real key is not the end result, but finding ways to enjoy the journey I am on, no matter how challenging it is.

"Life is like an old railway journey...." --Jenkin Lloyd Jones

My children are entering adulthood and discovering that their own journeys don't often go as planned. I would like to share with them this advice found in a quote from Jenkins Lloyd Jones, a Unitarian preacher who lived from 1843-1918. (Jones was quoted by Gordon B. Hinckley, president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and this quote has gained a lot of popularity among Mormons because of its basic truth.)

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just ordinary people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey...delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."  --Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Just for today, enjoy your journey, and thank the Lord for letting you have the ride!

52 Weeks to a Clean House: Week 2 - Kitchen Trouble Spot

Popular place in my kitchen for piles.

I have a great book called "One Year To An Organized Life" by Regina Leeds. Her January project is the kitchen. My kitchen has a few trouble spots, but this area by the phone is the big one, and the area I dreaded tackling the most. So, I decided to do it early in the month, in hopes that cleaning and organizing my kitchen will get easier as the month goes on.

Trouble spot and cabinet above.

The cabinets above and below my hidden counter space needed some TLC, too. I thought this project might take about three hours, but it took longer than that. Thankfully, my daughter was helping me today, and we went through folders and binders and got rid of two garbage bags full of papers I no longer wanted or needed. We also had a pile for the shredder, and re-arranged things to work better.

Then there was the junk drawer...

My junk drawer doesn't really contain junk, but is a repository for pens, pencils, tape, scissors, calculators, and other office supplies. In going through this drawer, I decided to relocate batteries and the address book, because they don't really fit in the drawer.  I also learned I don't need to buy tape for awhile!

"Junk" drawer after cleaning.

While going through papers I found this article I had apparently saved out of good intentions.

Article I had clipped from a magazine years ago.

I threw the article away. Keeping clutter about getting rid of clutter seems counter-productive.  

Lower cabinet with jumble of books.

I love cookbooks. I don't really know why. I don't particularly love cooking. But I seem to have amassed a collection of cookbooks over the years. I use them regularly, because although I don't love cooking, I do cook dinner most nights in our home. I found several cookbooks to discard, and then re-organized my remaining books. I moved half of them to the upper cabinet where they are easy to reach, and kept the ones I don't use as much in the lower cabinet. I also threw out old phone directories from church and school... there were several years worth of those hiding in my lower cabinet.

Upper Cabinet "after"

Lower Cabinet "after"

I am calling Week 2 of my "52 Weeks to a Clean House" a success. We are all relishing the new orderliness of this space. Hopefully, I have set things up so that it will be easy for our family to maintain. Maintenance is a skill I will definitely be working on this year! And a special thanks to my daughter whose positive attitude and assistance throughout the day helped make this project a success!

Yes, that is my kitchen "trouble spot!"  Looks better, right?

Good luck, everyone, as you tackle your goals this year! You can do it.

52 Weeks to a Clean House: Week 1 - Putting Christmas Away

Packing Up Christmas Decorations

A fellow blogger recently suggested that I could blog about "52 Weeks to a Clean House," and do a post each week. She even had some great ideas for humorous posts. The more I thought about her suggestion, the more I liked it. After all, having some accountability (this blog) along the way might give me the motivation I need to actually achieve order in my home this calendar year.  I started an organizing project a couple of years ago, but was de-railed by medical challenges (cancer and a broken ankle). But I am healthy and the house is still a mess, so it seems like  a great time try again. Of course, you know from my profile that I am always looking for other things to do BESIDES clean the house, so never fear--I am certain this will not become a how-to for housework.

This first week of January is a short week (only 3 days). I spent part of New Year's day planning my goals for the upcoming year. Yesterday, I hauled boxes in from the garage and started taking down Christmas decorations.  My project for this first week of January is to finish putting Christmas away, and make a plan for what I will accomplish next week. Guess I had better get started...those boxes are not going to find their way out to the garage by themselves!

Ornaments and Storage Boxes

Happy 2015!