Something beautiful from something dismal and depressing that is one impressive creation Mark really cool my friend You too have a wonderful holiday take care!!!

Marmots do truly exceptional creative work , in my experience. Indeed this is splendid example. I just spent a mere two hours filling in a rehoming application for a local dog rescue charity, and got a reference from my vet, only to be phoned today to be told that the two elderly dachshunds I was prepared to give a home hate other dogs, and prefer to live in a cage as they are retired show dogs! There was no mention of that in the advert: I felt a marmot moment imminent, but thankfully it passed. I don't need 5 dogs anyhow.

I got my documents together, scanned them, emailed them to Mira (my lovely and totally fussy tax friend), put everything away, and waited. She sent me an email the other day telling me how much the IRS would be depositing to my bank account. It's bliss, baby, BLISS!! After all those years of doing bookkeeping, which I loved, and doing my own taxes, which became more and more complicated as time went on, I happily turned it all over to The Goddess Mira. (Not only does she do taxes, but she's planning my brother's upcoming wedding, and she makes the best guacamole on the planet. The best. I'll have her send you some.) I know you have good reasons, but I still think you're crazy for doing your own taxes. Yikes!! Still, if it causes you to make art like this, it's worth the effort and the marmot thing. (That light looks suspiciously like a train to me, though. I'd double check those numbers if I were you!) LOL! This is a great idea, well executed, and fun as all getout. Love it!!

Wow - you really made a very creative and quite beautiful artwork out of something so icky. It kind of looks like a journey, filled with many high mountains and hazardous places. Watch out for those jagged red and black things. A good outlet for your tax madness. I can relate when my father passed - a tax nightmare for me and my brother - a tax dream for the very expensive accountants. I do mine every year and put it off as long as possible as I always have to pay, pay, pay.

My take on your latest art project: spectacular, splendid, superb, wonderful, grand, impressive, awe-inspiring, awesome, amazing, stunning, breathtaking, incredible; sensational, fabulous, fantastic, resplendent, magnificent, sumptuous, luxurious, elegant, opulent; dazzling, brilliant. Now, I am not kidding. We have been stewing over how to redecorate a big blank wall in our Texas bathroom. I am going to suggest to Tara that we shelve the thoughts of pasting National Geographic maps from floor to ceiling or hanging bamboo mats and instead cover the wall with Mark designed tax forms! Love 'em sir:-) I do.

For those not in the know, marmots are large squirrels in the genus Marmota, of which there are 15 species. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe and northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, Cascades, Pacific Ranges, and Sierra Nevada in North America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India. The groundhog, however, is also sometimes called a marmot, while the similarly sized, but more social, prairie dog is not classified in the genus Marmota but in the related genus Cynomys. Marmots typically live in burrows (often within rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed. Source: Wikipedia free encyclopedia. Okay, it took a ZOOM and a lot of scrolling, but I was able to delineate between the bizarre secret coded text and the multicolored mountain ranges, in this week-long labor of love, Mark. The project you undertook could/would drive one absolutely sane(sic) with its complexity and hidden meaning. You have achieved the height of drollness in this outstanding image, my friend. Come to think of it, I had similar visions, as shown above, while working on my taxes.

Well, after years of increasingly horrific tax issues, once my parents moved in with me mine became a non-issue, since I can claim head-of-household, which means I actually have gotten money back the last few years; how strange is that? I let the professionals do the calculations, because they guarantee that if they goof they'll cover it, and if I get pulled into court they'll go with me. Can't beat that! While I can sympathize with your madness, and feel really, REALLY sorry for you, I don't share it. Yet. I'm sure I will. And you've made something really nasty into a thing of beauty (sort of like a dung beetle, how's that for an analogy? LOL!) I like it. Better not let the government see it, though, or they'll tax it....

Mark, first of all allow me to say how delighted I was to see you had an upload tonight. In all honesty this was very trying day and a visit to you're gallery was just what the doctor ordered. Having finished taxes for myself as well as our small business I can totally relate to how your mind felt earlier, and can't blame it for walking out. Your not going to get me started on the tax setup we have here in the states as my rant would literally last for hours. The one thing I do know is the politicians enjoy the tax code we have as it gives them a chance to wield power over us and cut breaks for their donor friends. (Did you ever stop to consider how many of them have been caught avoiding paying their taxes over the years, and then how many of those crooks actually were punished as you and I would be).

Tara has her tax queen and I have Patrick.....took the stuff in, walked out and 2 weeks and a few dollars later I got just enough back to pay Patrick. Works for me and I still have my mind left...or pieces thereof. Nice it's done for you...now you can go find your mind......Lol

Mark, you've managed to transform a bureaucratic maze of words & numbers into a colorful & somewhat psychedelic piece of art - I think that qualifies as alchemy of a sort. Maybe you can turn this into a conceptual series. Some subjects I can recommend are the encyclopedic software licensing agreements that no one reads (but everyone checks off as having read), the credit card privacy statements that grant them full access to the most intimate details of your personal life in exchange for the privilege of carrying around their little plastic cards, & the voluminous (& mostly incomprehensible) instruction manuals for "some assembly required" furniture written in what passes for English by Asian technical writers...

What a colourful and creative description and image. I have to get mine done too.. been ignoring them thus far. Fortunately, not as mind boggling as yours.

outstanding