Nathaniel and Mike

Down the street lives Mike Welch. I have talked about him before, as the artist responsible for the wood panels in our Rainbow yard. See the blog posts Summer Fun in August 2009, and more recently, Mother's Day and Surrounds, June 2010. He has done yet another project for us, this time for the Farm House Inn.


In case you haven't been following the progress on the Farm House, we have decided to do all the deck railings with tempered glass, but we were anxious to have some of Mike's art in the home, and using it as part of the deck railing seemed like a natural thing to do. The first panel as you enter the deck will be a full panel, but in the meantime, Mike has done a small panel to fill a space in the first part of the second bay.


This panel is a Red Tail Hawk. The interior side of the panel is the male, and the exterior side is the female. There is a very subtle difference. Look carefully at the light spot on the breast. In the first picture (male) there is a slight marking. Look at the next photo, (the female) and you won't see the mark on the breast.


Our friend and documentary film maker Nathaniel Hansen (www.nathanielhansen.com) has been travelling cross country filming in his latest project on Elderly Americans. He took the time to interview Mike, and it was very interesting.




I don't want to upstage Nathaniel's production, but it was amazing to hear of this Viet Nam vet, who had had a serious stroke just a few years ago, and who has reinvented himself as a story teller through his art. He said that the most important part of the stories is that it helps us all realize that we are essentially the same. Stories tell us all that our failures are just as important as our successes in learning the lessons we need to in this life.

Stay tuned. This ought to be a great documentary.

Here is the mystery critter. This post is the clue!