Resonant Enigma

Up From The Skies

2012-01-21T11:23:00.001-06:00

"I want to hear and see everything." ~ Jimi Hendrix

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This is what this post looked like after I submitted it to "Fight For The Future" for self-censorship in protest of SOPA/PIPA, back in December. I decided to go ahead and post the un-censored version because of what happened this week. It appears to be working, according to email I got yesterday:

"A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.

The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”

“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades," he added."

How 'bout that? We can have a sit-in and never even leave the farm. ;-)

WTF is the U.S. doing in Afghanistan?

2012-01-20T18:46:00.001-06:00

I wonder that every time I hear anything about it lately. Then today I saw THIS.

I can only reiterate, WTF!?

SOPA Opera continues

2012-01-15T19:45:00.000-06:00

Just read a new article HERE that makes the situation sound a little more hopeful (for those of us opposing SOPA/PIPA, that is), but there's actually some lurid entertainment value in the arguements following in the comments. ;-)

The Lost World

2012-01-15T12:50:00.000-06:00

"For a fairyland it was--the most wonderful that the imagination of man could conceive." -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Lost World.

SOPA Update

2011-12-18T12:26:00.000-06:00

Didn't pass yet. Story HERE.

Druid Wizard Priest . . . tree stump

2011-12-17T10:16:00.000-06:00

I'm posting this one everywhere, calling it different things, all of which it suggests. To the suggestible mind anyway...

I'm drawn to draw trees [;-p], whatever their condition. No.2 pencil in my little 6x4" sketchbook.

UpThe_

2011-12-14T12:24:00.000-06:00

I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/13340/uncensor

"I ████ to ████ and see ██████████." ~ ████ ███████

Perception. I love it.

2011-12-13T14:49:00.000-06:00

On the way in to Dallas Saturday, got some coffee and circled around and down a back street - Forest Hills, one of the more tree-lined - that I often find visually pleasant. Camera in hand, I's surprised to find this much color, so I parked and hopped out.

This golden back-lighting is what brought me to a halt...

The two above, pretty much the same composition, just with two different treees, one a house down from the other.

Left, I was going for the bare limbs in the back yard. Yes, I need a better camera.

Then I turned around and the sky was on fire! Well, it ain't that bright, I admit, but so much more than I've come to expect around here, I pushed the saturation to more closely approximate the effect...

Then I made the lake. I was in full sun when I got this one (below) and couldn't see the view screen worth a flip, and I'm not really sure what caught my eye here, but I think it had to do with the clumps of grass bottom right and the shine off the water beyond.

Speakin' of shiny, ooooo...!

New modern construction, fits in well enough I guess, but is a far cry from the character of the old rickety wooden arch type bridge they replaced.

Will this cheap-ass camera pick up the translucency of the water? Guess so.

Eye of the beholder, I reckon. Plus, nature is nature, all over everything...

NAF was here...

Above, little ducky heads for the party. Below, the party in full swing. Unfortunately I have no zoom capability so you can't tell it here, but the little black dot in the middle of the fowl activity out there on the water is actually a large, magestic pelikan.

Next is the shot I used for a sketch posted yesterday, HERE.

End of the lake shots, this one seems to kinda sum up the trip somehow.

However! There are a few also-rans here at the end. I actually like this first one below, the way it composes the space, I think, and the light. Most unfortunately, my little camera seems to be not exactly squared up, and if I'm not careful all the uprights will be leaning. I swear it's the camera, not my cock-eyed eyeballs. Anyway, these power poles do lean in reality, bu not that much.

Lastly, I considered scrapping these two, 'cause in terms of what I was trying for, they're pretty far off.

Heading back toward home, fully engaged in traffic flow, these colors reached out from roadside and I was compelled to reach back. Grabbed the camera and just pointed it in that direction

Well, they did capture some of the color, so...

Since the windshield damage features so prominently in these, I call them Crack-Ups1 and 2. ;-)

Best Chinese food in Garland TX!

2011-12-02T16:17:00.000-06:00

Blustery Skies: Let's tromp through the woods

2011-11-27T19:23:00.001-06:00

I went out to try and capture the beautiful banks of clouds sweeping the sky on Saturday. "Blustery" came to mind, as they were blowing by fast and spittin' bits of rain. The whole sky looked like sculpture at one point, on my run to the store. By the time I got home, grabbed my camera and got back out, most of the lovely cloud banks had pretty much dispersed to even gray. But not all, and I've been wanting to look up this park ever since I saw it online anyway, so I found it.
First is the Google Street view of the entrance to Spring Creek Forest Preserve, right here in Garland, out by the George Bush(turnpike, toll-road. I stay away from it), on a day obviously quite different from my visit.

From here down is what I shot...

Wind blowing not only the clouds, but bending the weeds in the foreground. See? Blustery!

Wheee! A jumping-off point!

Not secluded yet; there's the road, upper left.

Stonehenge for short people?

At first I thought it might be an art installation...
Probably a presentation area for nature talks. Whatever, weirdest canopy I've ever seen.

More blusteries...

And back to the woods...

Aaaahhh!...seclusion, at last.

I shot this 'cause it reminded me of a previous find.

A root?! To the left, just out of frame, it goes into the ground and from the same spot, emerges into the air like a tree! (?!?)

A thin thicket? I love it when I'm surrounded by brush but can see out to the light coming down.

By now my batteries were starting to crap out or something, 'cause the color went wonky on this one, so I converted it to greyscale.

Next time I'll go 'round that bend.
Today I turned back(low batteries, cold, rain...) and shot a couple sillhouettes...

'Til then, Hydra stands guard. ;-)

Movies!

2011-11-20T15:12:00.000-06:00

...OF THE APES. In case you wondered. First movie I've seen in a theater since Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson were making those Shanghai cowboy pictures. And this one is completely worthy of the trip(especially with that price! Yes, that's for real, after 6:00pm Fri. and Sat. I had no idea!).
It has the same SFX technology as Avatar, and it's brilliant. If the apes' facial expressions don't get you, you can't be got. I was rootin' for the downfall of humanity by the end. ;-)

Then last night I caught this On Demand freebie, Alien Raiders. I know, it sounds like a cheapo, and at first you may think it looks like it, too. But stay tuned past the opening shakey vid-cam stuff and the first regular camera shot belies that impression.
Low budget it is, cheapo it's not. Smart, independent film making that manages high quality story telling. It gradually, inexorably coaxed me out to the edge of my seat. There's real talent all the way through this flic; direction, camera, editing, and even though it has no big name Hollywood stars, they're all truly talented character actors, many of whom you've seen...somewhere.
Anyways, if you happen upon it On Demand or at the video store, especially if you're a fan of "off Hollywood" that really works, this one's worthy. Here's a taste:

They's AWL in them thar hills!

2011-11-06T17:08:00.002-06:00

Got this message in the email the other day:

(Opening comment from sender)

I searched this article on Truth or Fiction and it appears it is true. see below.

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From: ~
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2011 9:55 AM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Fw: Fw: Oil
----

As you may know, Cruz Construction started a division in North Dakota just 6 months ago.
They sent every Kenworth (9 trucks) we had here in Alaska to North Dakota and several drivers.
They just bought two new Kenworth's to add to that fleet; one being a Tri Drive tractor and a new 65 ton lowboy to go with it.
They also bought two new cranes (one crawler & one rubber tired) for that division.
Dave Cruz said they have moved more rigs in the last 6 months in ND than Cruz Construction moved in Alaska in the last 6 years.
Williston, ND is like a gold rush town; they moved one of our 40 man camps down there since there are no rooms available.
Unemployment in ND is the lowest in the nation at 3.4 percent last I checked.
See anything in the national news about how the oil industry is fueling North Dakota's economy?
Here's an astonishing read. Important and verifiable information:
About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. Was the guest.
The host said to Forbes, "I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer;
How much oil does the U.S. Have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "more than all the Middle East put together."
The U. S.. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big.
It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota,
Western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana.
Check THIS out:
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to
Eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates
It at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable( 5 billion barrels), at $107 a barrel,
We're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.
"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor.
They had no idea.." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.
"This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reportsThe Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
It's a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.'
It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada.
For years, U. S. Oil exploration has been considered a dead end.
Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago.
However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves,
And we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil,
Those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL !!!!!!
That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight.
And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from 2006 !!!!!!
U. S. Oil Discovery - Largest Reserve in the World
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world.
It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction.
In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted.
With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off- shore drilling?
They reported this stunning news:
We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.
Here are the official estimates:
8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
18 times as much oil as Iraq
21 times as much oil as Kuwait
22 times as much oil as Iran
500 times as much oil as Yemen
And it's all right here in the Western United States !!!!!!
HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy. WHY?
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East, more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.
Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, it has to.
Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?
Got your attention yet? Now, while you're thinking about it, do this:
Pass this along. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time
you complain about gas prices, by doing NOTHING, you forfeit your right to complain.
Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.

By the way, this can be verified. Check it out at the link below !!!!!!
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911>

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Now, I don't keep up with current events so I don't know; do the environmentalists have a good case? Is it good enough to justify further war in the Middle East? 'Cause I'm thinking that's what'll happen if they don't go ahead and tap this motherload. (Be another dictator or some such to jump on any minute...)
Of course, that route may be better for the military-industrial complex.

I'm reminded of a bit I saw recently by Dennis Miller(I don't care much for his smug, cocky style, but he does make some interesting observations now and then), where he says that we won't come up with real, viable energy alternatives 'til the oil is all used up, so it behooves us to drive gas-guzzling SUV's to get us to that point quicker.

I don't know anything. This is just the kind of shit that runs through my head when I see something like that email.

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!

;-)

We just THOUGHT we invented "Happy Hour"

2011-10-20T17:13:00.000-06:00

A slightly shorter, French language version of this came in my email today. If you haven't seen it, get ready for some belly laughs...

;-p

The state of the "stream-of-consciousness" blogosphere...?

2011-09-20T09:28:00.000-06:00

Here I was, thinking it was just me, what with my recently posted disclaimer of absence and all. I haven't, it's true, been around much lately in terms of my bloglist, or my own blogs either, ostensibly so I could paint more. Which I ain't doin' much either.

So I was signing in this morning - 'cause I have the picture below as my home page background and I'm kinda trying to flood myself with red(the version above is my desktop wallpaper) because I took a chakra test and my "root chakra" is closed and red is supposed to help - and I noticed in my reader Megan's (All I Need Is Everything Redux) latest post, "Is It Over?"

Like I said, I haven't been cruisin' the sphere much lately, but that title piqued me curious. Had to see, is what over? Well, she's posted a sort of 'disclaimer of absence' of her own, since a lot of people don't seem to be doing it - blogging the way we "stream-of-consciousness" (from an article I once read that tried to classify the types of blogs but couldn't come up with one for those of us who just blog whatever the hell we want to) people do, so Megan's a bit disheartened (today, at least ;-) and wanted to let us know that she may not be on her blog much for a while. Sorta like I did in my last post.

Then I opened the comments to see what folks had to say about that, felt like I had a comment to make there too, and while I was composing my thoughts on that...well, I got carried away and thought, "Shit! What I'm trying to condense down to a brief comment might be better as a post of its own." I couldn't seem to sum it up, and thought, why not go ahead let yourself elaborate a bit. And besides, our subject here is a dearth of posts, so...?
So. I should be a painter. In the world of work, that's all I should be doing. Thinking this, I wondered what was lacking, why I don't paint more - even when I "have the time" - and I came up with, discipline. You know, a fucking work ethic. But why don't I...blah blah, yadda yadda - it becomes introspection. Searching. Seeking. So instead of getting up from here, in front of the monitor, I look and look and look, for...clues or something. That's how I found out most of my chakras are closed("Even a rational person will cast about in times of stress." ~ Ulysses Everett McGill).
Other things have kept me here at the keyboard but not blogging as well. Like job applications, of which I have to do five a week to keep the unemployment money flowing in. I hate every minute of that. Applying for jobs is the second worse thing about not having one. This is probably due to the fact that I don't really want a j-o-b in the first place. I want to be a PAINTER! Which, in order to get your mind settled down enough to focus on, requires a certain amount of freedom from financial concerns, which makes me wonder what kinda job, which makes me wonder how can I fit in painting, which...which...which...
It seems to snowball and cover me up; I wind up staring out the window in a daze. Surfing the net to distract myself. Questioning my motives. Giving up and taking a nap.

Anyways, that's a bit about some of why I ain't blogging much these days. Enough, I sez. If I keep going I fear it'll start to sound whiny, and I hate whiny.
Megan, if you see this, I hope you'll agree, it's a bit much for the comments section. Eh?

Now, if y'all will excuse me, I feel a nap comin' on . . . ;-)

Procrastinate later...

2011-09-10T17:13:00.001-06:00

...more of this...

See y'all around. (?)[;-p] ;-)

Demotivational Giggles

2011-08-20T14:41:00.000-06:00

Lurid

2011-06-06T11:04:00.000-06:00

World English Dictionary

lurid (ˈlʊərɪd, ˈljʊərɪd)

— adj

1. vivid in shocking detail; sensational

2. horrible in savagery or violence

3. pallid in colour; wan

4. glowing with an unnatural glare

Carnivale!

2011-06-01T15:53:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I participated in Festival of the Trees. Even though I have a folder to save the latest calls for submission, I never seem to have time or a tree post. This time however, it's hosted by one of my blogger buddies, Brenda Clews of Rubies in Crystal, so that got my attention, and when I finally got around to checking on the details, turns out her theme is "Vision Trees,"--you know, arboreal 'entities' with whom you have an inspirational relationship--and that brought to mind one thing only for me: "The Old Climbin' Tree" from childhood, still standing in my Mom's front yard, fatter and more gnarly than it was back then(but who ain't? ;-), but still standing. And I just happen to have a sketch on hand, so it was easy. Here's a link to Festival of the Trees - 60 over at Brenda's place, and here's one to my entry at A. Decker Art.

A little confuzzed, but it's alright

2011-05-29T12:33:00.000-06:00

This "Extra-Large" version is what I should have put on A.Decker Art , my blog strictly for 'art,' and what I put over there shoulda been here, where I blab more 'stream-of-consciousness.' I guess. Maybe in future...

"Found" Art!

2011-05-21T12:49:00.000-06:00

Not in the art historical sense, obviously, but I have a folder where I collect impressive pieces of which I was previously unaware, called "Found Art." 'Cause I, y'know, found it. This morning I came upon the above unnamed painting, which impressed and did not seem to fit in with the mostly 19th century stuff on the same page. Luckily they gave the artist's name, so I searched, and found: Alexandra Nedzvetckaya. Her name links to a great online gallery with info.

Trial and error: Updated Editor

2011-05-15T17:02:00.000-06:00

An experiment in terror! ;-) I'm tryin' to learn the new editor. Look at all those thingies!

Ok, placing the text and drag-n-drop of images seems to be working a lot better than the first time I tried this. Also, thanks to J.B.Krost, I also have the re-sizing function at work.

Here's me workin' on this.

And here's the aftermath. No! Not really, but I can relate, and it's a good excuse to post some skin. ;-p

These are all just some more or less random images from one of the folders floatin' around my documents page, picked as I went along,to see what happened... As usual, I don't remember where some of them came from, but from the image title I know the above is Maria Montez, but I don't know who that is/was.

This is a doodle done by a buddy of mine at work one day. He shall be known as Mr. Gar.

And this, ladies and germs, happened just the other day on a farm about 100 miles west of here. See? Some things are bigger in Texas!

Name o' this one is "Last Vacation."

Kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it? ;-D

Medium sized, 437x600, 45.6kb

And here! Fudgebucket! I nearly forgot the money shot!

Got this off the lunch wagon at work the other day,

and I didn't know they still made 'em, but the date on this one is 2003.

By crackies...

...I think he's got it!

Well, a damn sight better than the first time, back when the "New Editor" first came out. Well enough to keep it for now at least. They musta revamped and streamlined a few things in the interim, 'cause I don't think I got that much smarter. But I'll take it, either way.

;-)

Benicio Del Chaney ;-)

2011-05-06T16:48:00.003-06:00

"Wolfman's Claw"
Pencil on 4x6" sketch pad

I got over it.

2011-04-18T15:42:00.003-06:00

HERE'S how.

Apologies, and a tip o' the hat, to Phil Hale

2011-04-13T16:43:00.004-06:00

First saw ol' Johnny back in the 80's somewhere, probably Heavy Metal magazine, and for some reason, whatever, this image came to mind recently as I contemplated my "feeling" about blogging. For the nonce, let's say. Seems I've hit a dry spell . . . And maybe just for funsies I should throw this one in, too . . .

;-)

It is a gift from doG.

2011-04-10T09:46:00.003-06:00

"When you step back to observe what you are doing, when you talk about what you are doing, when you think about what you are doing, then you are observing, talking, thinking--but not doing. What you are doing is no longer an integral part of what you are; it is only an idea. It is the dark glass through which you see yourself. If there is some activity for which you are particularly suited, do not gloat or plot or fantasize about it....Get down to it."

~ from Sam Reifler's interpretation of I Ching hexagram #15, Ch'ien / Modesty.

Raptors in the Backyard!!!

2011-03-07T18:04:00.005-06:00

Cheap photo essay and the full story HERE.

And now, for your dining and dancing pleasure...

2011-02-28T17:59:00.005-06:00

"I will always love The Gaga."

~Henrietta "Hetty" Lange

I can't say I've ever really ...ahem, appreciated Lady Gaga, and I still wouldn't go as far as Hetty, Linda Hunt's character on NCIS: Los Angeles, but I have to tell you, this recent mashup betwixt The Gaga and Behemoth(the Polish quartet who don't like labels such as black metal, death metal, blackened death metal...uuuuaahhh! Whatever metal!) has pretty well tickled my metal bone . . .

Dye-lema

2011-02-19T10:11:00.009-06:00

Two years ago I made the drawing on the right, used it in a post you can see by clicking the pic. Just the other day I opened a new blogspot for the sole purpose of having a place to access my Playlist.com playlists without logging in to the site, an idea inspired by a recent glitch in their system that prevented a lot of people, moi included, from being able to log in. We were cut off from our music! But, I found that playlists I had posted on a blog still played just fine. So I decided that when they got it cleared up--took about 3 or 4 days--it might be a good idea to dump my whole collection over onto a blog. So I did. Or, actually, am in the process and that brings us back to the drawing.
Wanted to use Jimi for the header pic, but I didn't like how I finished it, with all that blank area. Didn't look finished enough, too rough around the edges... So after some bad attempts with an editing program, the solution finally hit me and I got me pencils back out.
That brings us up to the current "Dye-lema."
First is how the drawing, as it is now, looks on the new blog--or would look, if that turns out to be the version I go with. I did some switching back and forth and exercised the terribly exciting and newly acquired "skill" of screen capture(you have to push one whole button; who knew?!) to study the differences side by side.

And here's the color balanced--or, 'dyed'-- version.

I can't seem to make up my mind which I like best, although I seem to be leaning towards the 'purple-ized' version, as that's the one I'm using for the time being.

I would welcome your opinion on the matter.

Oh yeah, here's the url if you wanna pop over and see it for real: http://playlist-dump.blogspot.com/

Got music over there. ;-)

Last light...

2011-02-05T14:19:00.001-06:00

This was yesterday. Forgot to post it then.

Snow Day! (for grownups! heh, heh...;-)

2011-02-04T14:03:00.010-06:00

Astonishingly unusual weather here in N. TX this week! Except for the opening shot these were all taken about noon today. (And I'm here to shoot it 'cause "work" was called off! Ha!Haaaaa--...ahem...)

Last week

This week

I really pushed the brightness and contrast on this one, 'cause that's the effect it has and it was really pretty dark at the time.

The rest I edited a little less, just to bring out some detail.
The ground is brighter than the sky today!

Look! A birthday cake with an umbrella on top.

Another attempt to compose with that great sprawling tree.

Chiminea got his wig-hat on!

And he's eyeballin' the birthday cake.

;-)

Turn here. No, there!...

2011-02-01T14:35:00.014-06:00

This is my entry for this week's Theme Thursday, so I'm not gonna apologize for saying "turn" so many times...

Left...right...which way...?
Left, you could climb back up here...

...turn right and head north, towards me ol' home town.

Or, you could back down the turn-off,

...turn right and get a glimpse of this old relic of the past.

Of course, that's what I did,

...and stood here fantasizing(fueled by memories) what it would have been like to step up on that ol' wooden porch, turn my face from the blazing sun and step into the cool Mom'n'Pop atmosphere for an ice cold sodi(we're in the South here, y'all;-). Alas, her time is o'er, her day is past. Cupp's was locked up and abandoned by now. These pics are 20+ yrs. old.

So I turned and went around back, came upon this dwelling, no doubt where the proprietors once lived, but probably not anymore. It was still occupied however, so I turned left and eased out along the fence-row...

...where I was graced with one of those unexpected discoveries...

...that make me feel like I've been blessed with the vision of another world.

A Sea of Green

OK, it's just new grass that grew in after they burnt the chaff off this field, but is was a visual delight that I was fortunate enough to catch at just the right time of day. I hope I've conveyed at least a smidgen of how glorious it looked. To me anyway.

Or...

...OR! We coulda took a whole different turn from the outset and wound up here, wondering where all those turns back and forth would lead.

But I knew. It lead to private property,

so I turned away...

;-)

My eyes...!

2011-01-29T14:29:00.007-06:00

Some time between Halloween and Thanksgiving I was here, perusing whatever on this here screen, and a blinding jolt of intense pain erupted at the top outside corner of my left eye. Strain, I thought. Surfing too long. Log off, go to bed. Next morning my left eye wouldn't look up. Anywhere above straight ahead and I lost binocular focus. Above that and I have to lean my head back to focus. Eye doctor visit: nothing wrong with the eyeball itself, vision being virtually unaltered from my last visit, 5 years ago. But, the muscle that raises the left eye seems to be not working. Eye Doctor doesn't know why, so he refers me to an eye muscle specialist. I got in a month later. Eye Muscle Doctor did his bevy of tests and agreed, it ain't working. He doesn't know why either so, I got another specialist to "see," this time a neuro-ophthalmologist. That's Feb.7. No advice on how to cope in the meantime. Just, "I don't know. See this guy." So I'm goin' around leaning my head back or shutting one eye just to navigate the world around me, and waiting. The more tired and sleepy I am the worse it gets, the farther I have to lean my head back, and the back of my neck is sore from it. Driving is a bitch. I'm thinking, if the authorities knew of my condition I'd be banned from the road. Not without good cause. I must admit. To wit: Last Monday driving home from work, tired and sleep deprived, I got a speeding ticket for going 34 mph in a work zone posted 2o. I did not see the sign because it was all I could do to navigate between the cones. The motorcycle cop had to hit the siren because I had my head so reared back I couldn't see his lights in the rear view. I can still draw and paint to a certain extent, as long as I'm above the work, looking down on it and my reference material is copy that can be down there beside it--or in my head. That works too.--but not out in the world, like normal sketching. If I drew what I actually see looking up from a sketchpad, there'd be two images overlapping each other. It's a tad disorienting, and monumentally aggravating, as you might imagine. At first I was a little bit surprised at how cool about it I was. Didn't seem bothered by it emotionally. I guess I was "resting assured" by my faith in the doctors, but the difficulty and consternation has accumulated to the point where I've gotten angry, felt sorry for myself, railed against the insensibility of it, got plumb mad at the universe for manifesting such a seemingly pointless situation with, of course, me in the middle as the sufferer. Then this showed up in my Inbox:

Youtube by Maverik987654321

Yeah, poor me.

;-)

Chill; the good kind.

2011-01-27T17:53:00.004-06:00

Turn on your speakers, go to Full Screen, click the pick and relax. Can you refrain from mouse and keyboard for two minutes...?

;-)

Ten Minutes Is Up!

2011-01-15T11:54:00.009-06:00

In the movie Dallas 362, there's a scene where Dallas(the character, not the town) and Rusty are gettin' drunk and falling off a low roof. They lie there talking and Dallas asks Rusty why he wants to go back to Dallas(the town, not the character) so bad. What's so great about Texas? To which Rusty replies(to paraphrase 'cause I couldn't find the quote), "Well, for one thing, it's summer all the time." Dallas says, "You mean they don't have winter?" Rusty: "Yeah, but it only lasts about ten minutes. Then it's summer again."

Evidence that Rusty wasn't far off:
This was taken out the studio window this morning.

I know, this cropping is painfully blurry. Think of it as impressionism, ok?
The point is, you can tell, the Robins are back!

;-)

Redneck Squirrel! ;-)

2011-01-09T17:50:00.005-06:00

Check out the story HERE.

Saturnalia!

2010-12-25T13:26:00.003-06:00

The insanity is about to subside . . . if I survive tonight. ;-)

'Twil be fun, no doubt, but my character's comment is the best part.

Party 'til the Sun comes back!!! Heh, heh!

Anyways, Good Holiday Wishes to all.

My current Virtual Paintout entry...

2010-12-13T19:32:00.002-06:00

Irish Country Rest Stop?

4x6" 6B pencil on sketch book paper

Not much time to blog; supper's a'waitin.' This is what I've come up with so far for the December Virtual Paintout, hosted by Bill Guffey.

And here's the Google Street view I used.

Sol Goes South

2010-12-05T13:41:00.006-06:00

...nothing of...

2010-12-04T13:30:00.007-06:00

I know nothing of happiness.

There is pleasure,
There is pain.
Levels of appreciation,
Levels of disdain.

Purpose? Point? Meaning?
Labels of no conseque--OH! Jumpin' Jack Jesus! There's a squirrel in the backyard!

New camera, new/old painting, ETC. . . .

2010-11-26T20:58:00.015-06:00

Got me a new digital camera - another cheap one - Vivitar ViviCam 5018, 5.1 megapixels. That's up from 1.3 on the other one, which cost $20. This one's $30 and requires an SD card.

OK. Now I gotta go back to the manual, figure out how to turn off the flash.

Voila! Seemple!

Color in low light, not so good. So I converted to greyscale.

This one's undoctored. Something catchy about those arm shadows.

A little blue edited in.

Afternoon sunlight through the window.

I don't know why, but obstructed window views fascinate me.

Then later . . . but hell it's a holiday!!! A time for spirits!

This one has it, too. The spirits I mean. The fact the batch label is out of focus, and the death-head stare is in focus, may be appropos . . .

Here's prooof of it's effectiveness.

And finally, the new/old painting:

"Machine Shop Blues Redux" Oil on masonite, 20"x23 7/8" 2010

Originally finished in 2000, after a brief stint in a machine shop, which ended with me being fired 'cause I couldn't find my way across downtown Dallas without being late, and they had the nerve to tell me it was because business was slow and management felt they could afford to be persnickety and they might call me back when business picked up. Hey, I didn't like it that much to begin with.

It had to be redone because, for some reason at the time, I seem to have temporarily forgotten why there's a rule about not using too much oil. This and a couple more turned really yellowish/brownish-yucky looking because I dumbly coated the finished painting with straight linseed oil! What was I thinking?! Donno, but it turned up on blue stuff like this so the re-do's were quite enjoyable.

Anybody got a left-over turkey leg?

Trippin': Three

2010-11-11T17:21:00.037-06:00

Nov.2, Galveston . . .

. . . that sketch I tried the day before got me into studying the wave structures . . .

The water was muddy, as always, but I saw nary a tarball.

The sun began to peep out more and we wound up down at the beach and headed for a jetty. . .

. . . where I witnessed a pelican, another 50 yards or so out, showing us how fishing is really done. That black dot to the right, below, is it flying off afterwards.

Out on the jetty I could get the side and rear view of the waves.

Tip of the jetty, showing how massive its granite blocks are.

Cheap camera color distortion, but still . . .

Sun hits those muddy waves, looks almost golden, eh?

Looka me! Touchin' the sea! Indirectly as it may be, I felt like I was standing in all the oceans.

Cancun 753 miles that-a-way.

Lunch time, earlier that day, we headed for the Port of Galveston.

If you're ever in Galveston and you want to experience real, fresh seafood, I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend Fisherman's Wharf. That's it on the left, in the blue building.

Below, I was trying to capture the anchor and its shadow on the hull of Elissa, Galveston's most popular "tallship." The reason it's not finished (and I misspelled the damn name) is that about that time the server came to the deck where we were seated, and which afforded this view, with a plate of the most beautiful, succulent, and delicious Red Snapper, calamari and shrimp - on a bed of white rice - that I have ever tasted. I'm jonesin' for it, even now.

In the shadows under and behind the prow is where we were sitting.

The best shot of her whole length I could get:

And yes, that is a human up on the beam - I forget the nautical term; the crossbar deal that the sail hangs from - on the first mast there. . .

A lady of retirement age that we spoke to as she disembarked told us she was there as part of a volunteer group that comes every Tuesday to help clean up and make repairs on Elissa, all seniors, so they call it "Geezer Tuesdays." Thus the title I've given the pic above: "Elissa-Geezer." ;-)

Above is a demo model of one of those off-shore oil rigs that you can pay to tour. I didn't. I call this one "Mock Devil."

The sea gulls on the edge there began to sidle away as I approached, and one just couldn't take the tension I guess, so I got a fly-off shot.

We wandered some more and I spotted pelicans perched on pilings.(I don't know if that's what those stumpy wooden poles they're sitting on are really called, but I couldn't resist...)

And this one tried a pirouette. ;-)

Then we drove around looking at the neighborhoods. This shot's from the parking lot as we were leaving. Never found out what that smokestack goes to, but it certainly stands out there, eh?

Fixer-upper anyone?

Why don't they make 'em like this anymore?

Our timing was off for taking the tour - they only do two a day - so I settled for a couple of pics of the Moody Mansion, the oldest extant structure on the island(if I have my facts straight), dating from 1895.

They damn sure don't build 'em like this anymore.

To wrap it up, here are a few more taken from the hotel window.

The pool, from our balcony, showing the underwater barstools, and below just a wider shot of the same showing the whole shape and the gulf beyond. In situations like this I always have the urge to dive, to wonder what it would be like to dive - or at least jump - from this height into that water. Double deterrent this time. The edge is at least 15 feet out from the wall - a bit beyond my broadjumping range - and the real clincher: the pool's only 4 feet deep.

Speakin' of broad jumpin' - heh! heh! Sorry. Couldn't resist again.

An example of the earlier arrivals for the convention the following weekend, the reason for the 500% increase in room rents.

Time for us to leave . . .

Trippin': Leg Two

2010-11-07T15:48:00.015-06:00

Well ok, that party was over so we considered hopping over to San Antonio to catch up with old friends but they were out of town. The wife had the whole week off and my temp crap was on hiatus so, where to go, what to do? Galveston! Hell, it's the off-season, we'll probably have the place to ourselves. Which we did, pretty much. Highly recommended, especially if you're on a budget. To wit: the check-in clerk told us - and this was later confirmed by the bar tender and another frequent staying guest - the room he gave us for $89 would bring nearly $500 the following weekend, due to a biker convention. 5th floor(top) with a balcony overlooking the beach! Right under the red arrow here on the © Google Street image.

It was raining when we got there but the view, from that high, was amazing anyway. I started sketching.

The visual drama was constant, so I rushed out and got a disposable camera.

These were all taken from the 5th floor balcony. Next time I'll show you what I got from ground level, with the second camera! ;-)

Trippin': Leg One

2010-11-06T10:59:00.019-06:00

Saturday, Oct. 30, we lit out for the Houston area to attend the wedding of one of my step-son's best friends since high school. Her parents reserved rooms for everyone at the La Torretta De Lago, something like that, a resort/spa hotel. But, we booked late and wound up in Homewood Suites by Hilton, some 20 miles or so away.

I was up for it, so the first thing I did when we arrived was whip out me ol' sketch pad, but since there was no view out the window - other than Spanish style roof tiles - I just drew my first view of the room: the kitchen island. Full kitchen to the right, living room to the left and the bedroom straight behind the chair back.

That night there was a pre-party in the bar at the resort, where the step-son and his wife stayed. Here are some shots they took from their window:

And here are the photogs themselves, shot by me maybe, I don't recall. The blurry is completely appropos of the evening, as this was taken in the bar that night.

The next day we headed for Plantersville and...

...the scene of the wedding. Halloween baby! Dress as anything!

Ushered in without a word:

Lavish ceremony in an awesome vine-festooned chapel. There are several. This happens a lot out there.

M'lady and me.

Who am I supposed to be? Zorro?

No! No! I'm Doktor Schnabel Von Romo, like in the picture to the left.

I was actually "recognized" by a street vendor proferring samples of "The King's Nuts." I accepted saying, "I'll test them for him," and he said, "After all, you're a doctor."

This is the groom at the reception. Just like a man, soon as he's in his cups a bit, out comes the sword! ;-)

The awesome chapel. I forget its name, although the sign says "Cathedral Wedding Chapel." Maybe that's it. Anyways, cool, huh?

Then there was an afterparty back at the resort. Fun was had by all - even though I was still too hung over from the pre-party to do much beyond sittin' on me ass and laughing - and then everyone retired for the evening(morning technically ;-) and the next day we all went our separate ways. More on that next time . . .

Anyvon call for a Doktor?!

I got Mouse Elbow

2010-10-23T13:54:00.003-06:00

Which I discovered after doing some searches on "internet addiction" since I find myself sitting here betimes staring at the screen trying to think up something to surf for. Turns out, according to THIS ARTICLE at least(which contains a link to a test), I'm not an addict, (I can stop anytime I want to. I just don't want to. ;-) but I do have a slight case of lateral epicondylitis(sp?), so I had to back off a bit anyhow.

I find the whole idea amusing and especially - as is often the case with controversial subjects online - the comments that follow. No. 13 from Jack Rabbit cracked me up:

"I just couldn’t stop reading this article over and over again. I went to my doctor and he gave me some Xanax. But I surfed for side-effects, and I didn’t take it, so I looked at porn for a few hours, and then I went to sleep."

LOL!

Nickle 'n' dime 'n' bastards!

2010-09-27T15:50:00.003-06:00

:-p

Somebody call the tabloids!

2010-09-22T11:20:00.004-06:00

Batman overlooking Gotham?

The Devil taking a nap?

Bread sack shadow.

;-)

Reason?!?

2010-09-09T17:09:00.003-06:00

Giggles . . . etc. After all, Bennett Cerf himself authored a book entitled, Laughter is the Best Medicine. That, etc., is the reason for this . . .

Oh yeah. This is my entry for Theme Thursday this week.

The next day, and the next...

2010-08-29T08:10:00.007-06:00

. . . or somethin' like that. Seven 10hr. days a week-at the job-it all starts to run together and there ain't much time for your personal life. Apparently we met a deadline so they let us off this weekend. So ketchup three-in-one.
The top sketch you may recognize as the same scene from the previous post. It is. The comments I got on that one made me take a second look. And more than five minutes. Several breaks for several days. Not sure what I was looking for, or if I found it...
Below, car(van)door shadow.

Cooler weather(94, not 104;-), parked in just the right place to view this little wall(curb actually I guess)casting its eye-catching shadows. Again.

Tomorrow back to the grind. If they work me to death, I swear I'll come back as a zombie and keep on sketchin.' ;-)

If you just look enough...

2010-08-10T16:18:00.002-06:00

...the nature of things occasionally gives you a compositional present.

Accepting it is a matter of timing. This is a five minute ballpoint pen sketch made at break today.

"...provided I don't give up,

I may yet overcome this horror,

may lose that meddlesome Me,

and something else may take over.

That which is in front of me has its chance

to make my hand move."

~ Frederick Franck

Δ

2010-07-28T17:23:00.002-06:00

I need to calm down and regroup a bit, so I won't be much in the blogosphere in the immediate future, 'cept maybe here a little bit, now and then . . .

Meanwhile, here's a couple of links worth checking out: Discharge 6, and Abstract Comics: The Blog: ABCOLAB #2.

Coupla Extras

2010-07-16T17:51:00.004-06:00

First off, the aforementioned Ringo Starr rendition of "I Can Help," since a coupla folks voiced a wish to hear same. See? I wasn't imagining things(well, not that anyway). Just a photo montage for the video, but still, this is Ringo . . .

Now for the real treat. I don't know about you, but when I watch a video on someone's blog I usually don't stick around to check out the "extras" that line up across the bottom of the vid screen afterward. Bankin' on that, I expect most of you did not discover this precious jewel, even though it was offered on the Tony Joe White video in the previous post. If you enjoyed that, you will LOVE this.
You young'ns won't remember, but Johnny Cash had a tv show for a while. I'm not sure of the years, but it was on around the time of "Polk Salad Annie," and Ol' John was real good about having the best pickers and grinners of the day on there for a little jammin.' A "duet" I believe it's properly called. I didn't see many of them, such as the forthcoming example, 'cause frankly, I was most likely out somewhere dryin' out some leftover polk salad(that'll make more sense in a minute ;-). Here's Johnny and Tony Joe jammin' on "Polk Salad Annie" . . . (this is great!!!)

I think I'm gonna submit this for a second, and rediculously late entry for Theme Thursday. After all, it's their fault. ;-)

This will help...

2010-07-15T10:37:00.005-06:00

Bear with me just a little. It'll be worth it.
If you weren't old enough to watch tv in 1969, you're in for a treat. If you were "old enough" in '69, here comes a totally-beyond-ultra-groovy bftp(blast from the past. I abbreviated so I wouldn't have to spell it all out).
What happened was, I dropped in on Theme Thursday, where the topic this week is "Help," some of which they could actually use over there, not because they're a helpless lot - far from it, thank you very much - but because there are denizens amongst the interwebs who/which are beyond help. I only know for sure of one(but they're probably like cockroaches; where you see one there's likely a hundred hidden) who did this dastardly deed: linked to their page and didn't even do a themed post! Let alone link to the post itself! Glommin' on! That's why they're a "who/which" instead of a "who."
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. So I'm over at TT, reading comments about help, thinkin' it's time for me to play again, and all the while I'm hearing in my head that song, "I Can Help." A voice that reminds me of Ringo and an organ playing two notes in the background. Well, I mentioned it in my comment over there, so I didn't really wanna just go and use it for my "Help" themed post, but CRS combined with curiosity and I had to go find out. Was it Ringo? (If you don't know which Ringo I'm referring to, you were too young in '69;-) Well, I did discover a YouTube of Ringo doing that song, but that was not the version stuck in my head. Turned out to be Billy Swan(who, ya gotta admit, does sound a bit like Ringo on that tune, which confounded my confusion...). So then I found a live recording of Billy Swan doing "Polk Salad Annie," and I thought, "Wow! If he wrote that, then I've got me a help themed post(however indirectly) that'll rock their socks off!"
OK. What I do have is the "however indirectly" part, 'cause I found out Billy Swan, who did write and record "I Can Help," did not write, even though he's performed it live, "Polk Salad Annie." That was none other than the fellow who's recording of it I remember so vividly and fondly from the airwaves back in the day, Tony Joe White.
Kids, wake the grandparents. Grandparents, corral the kids for 3 or 4 minutes. This will help you get through your day . . .

youtube by elvisking67

Over here, Chinese food is just called food.

2010-07-12T14:18:00.003-06:00

"Shek Mun Kap Road, Lantau Island, Hong Kong"

8"x10" oil on canvas panel

You can check out some background for this painting at A. Decker Art or see it in amongst its fellows over at The Virtual Paintout.

Parking Lot Foliage, Pigs, and Freedom...or somethin'...

2010-07-07T14:23:00.013-06:00

Cool story from back home, via Coffee News:

On the loose: Miss Wilburette is an 800-pound pig that was on the lam for seven days in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The sow made her escape after the truck she was in, headed for the slaughterhouse with 90 other hogs, crashed on the Interstate. Workers thought they'd caught all of the pigs, but Miss Wilburette disappeared. LeAnn Baldy found the pig a week later taking a dip in her backyard pool. Jim Stonehocker, executive vice-president of Odom's Tennessee Pride, said because they don't know what Miss Wilburette ate while on the loose, she won't become pork chops. A farmer is going to adopt the hog.

I've yet to fathom a world, a reality where, in order for life to exist, other life must be taken. Consumed. That part of my thinking rejoices at the story above. Then we turn the fully neurotic corner to a very sincere image from my screen saver slideshow, also ironic because - even though the logos have been edited out, and the main one replaced with "Mmm! Mmm!" - the package in this picture came from the same company that Miss Wilburette narrowly escaped.

Hawaiian Paintout ;-)

2010-06-30T17:02:00.002-06:00

Click pic for the story.

NotMe

2010-06-29T15:59:00.002-06:00

This is also my latest at Discharge 6.

I musta been...

2010-06-21T20:34:00.002-06:00

. . . a dog in a past life.

That, or I'm workin' on becoming one . . .

;-)

No story...

2010-06-11T14:53:00.008-06:00

. . . not now. I'm busy dissolving . . .

Lot Shade, 3.5x4.5" ballpoint on sketchpad

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

YouTube by TheDramaticSkeleton

Out the Peep Hole...and beyond...

2010-06-02T12:28:00.006-06:00

"There once was a boy who, when he awoke each day, went outside and the first thing he saw, he became." Or somethin' like that. I've tried without success to track down that quote before. Even went to the bookstore looking for a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land, thinking that's where I saw it, back in the mid 70's when I read that book. They didn't have it, and besides that, I read a boatload o'books in the 70's, so there's no tellin.' Anyway, the point of bringing it up again is, I was reminded of that quote - or paraphrase, really, probably - when I rose this morning, bright and early at the crack of 11:00, peeped out the peep hole in the front door - for the same reason, I guess, as the bear went over the mountain - and the sight above is what met my eye. Which is often the case, but this time, instead of talking myself out of it for whatever reason - the coffee was already done so I grabbed me a cuppa and a sketch pad and sat on the step outside the front door, a'sippin' and a'sketchin.' Well ok, that's done. For now.
On to . . . the beyond! OK, I got nothin' from really 'out there.' It's just fun to sound mysterious. Sometimes I can't resist.
Ahem! It's June 2nd, which means it's the second day of the "Summer 2010" Exhibition on Alex Perez's blog, PEREZ FINE ART GALLERIES. This is a really terrific service offered to the online art community, online seasonal exhibitions being part of it. Now, I'm not a member, since there's a small monthly fee and I'm sitting here blogging instead of out huntin' a j-o-b, but there's an accomodation for that in the exhibits, namely the "Guest Artist" category. Alex was kind enough to apprise me of this feature when I enquired about membership, and even perused A. Decker Art to find a suitable entry for me. All I had to do was email him the image with a little info and I'm in! Number 17 in the thumbnails below. I'm in really good company, folks. Possibly overmatched, in fact. But you can be the judge of that, in an official capacity. Yeah, the picture below appears full sized on his blog, and the little blanks at the bottom are the form where you can cast your votes for the paintings you like best. Each thumbnail on his page enlarges by click so you can get a good look. Really good stuff to be seen and enjoyed, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel. The show runs 'til June 21st, and on the 22nd, Alex tallies up the votes and announces awards, which include cash for members and a year's membership for the guest winner.
If you like painting, even if you don't wanna vote, give it a look-see, by clicking HERE. You'll be glad you did.

We Went; We Saw; We Perspired

2010-05-31T15:43:00.008-06:00

If it's hotter where these critters come from, it can't be by much. I held out for water fountains at first, but within an hour I was full willin' to hike a quarter mile back to the entrance to stuff $2.50 in a machine for a cold drink of water. Only thing keeping me from having a total hissy-fit over costs of this little venture is that blurb at the bottom of the parking stub.
Improvements continue to be made, such as the recent "Savannah of the Giants" addition; acres of open space for the big guys - elephants, gorillas, giraffes, etc. - to roam around, a little more like being in the wild than typical cages or paddocks afford.
In fact, in the Great Apes area they have an air conditioned "observation center" sorta sticking out into the gorilla enclosure, which is landscaped so they can disappear or come into view as they will, and you just take your chances on seeing them - kinda like you were really "out there." Grand-daughter and I were standing there at the glass, she says, "Ooo!! Gorilla! Gorilla!" and points and I look just in time to see one knuckle-trotting down the ditch and disappearing behind a hillock. Felt like I'd made a "sighting." ;-) Anyways, aside from one more big one in a corner with his back to a door, rubbin' his finger along his(or her; couldn't tell)jaw line, as if pondering - surrounded by people on this side of the glass, of course, so I couldn't get room to sketch - that was all the apes we saw.
Late in the day by the time we made it to the "Savannah," so I did not see one giraffe(sorry Megan!), but our plan is to go there first, next time.
I did manage a few quickie sketches, following the troupe around. They weren't generally that patient, so I just did the best I could before, "Papaw, are you comin'?"

Some kind of parrot; I's too busy observing to read the sign of which kind.

Again, too honed in to remember if it's Californian or Andean, but a BIG Condor, nonetheless.
Then I made a try at some Galapagos turtles, but not enough time, so I gave up 'til we got to the reptile house . . .

Some kind of Monitor. The one on the left was so handsome when he popped his head up there. This doesn't do justice to it, but his climbing up there disturbed my main subject, then he slid down as well.

Back outside, I'd already given up once on an Iguana, 'cause he kept moving on me, eating something here and there off the ground, Granddaughter says, "Papaw! He's asleep now, so you can draw him!" Best sketch of the day, imo.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

2010-05-28T16:59:00.005-06:00

(Oh my! I just had an inspiration!) Since it is Memorial Day weekend, probably nobody will be around much in the blogosphere, but I did want to leave a note here saying, "Have a good one!" Just in case. The sketch today is a view I noticed on my way in to the tax office to renew car tags, or registration, as they call it. End of month, long lines, I only had time for a "quickie." For a little more on that you can check out A. Decker Art.

Bearing in mind what I said over there, along with the weekend at hand and the fact that we're having the grandkids over - which includes our promise to them that, weather permitting, we're going to the zoo - the inspiration I just had was, take the sketchpad! Especially in the light of my observations on the art blog(even if it's just a quickie, sketch it! It's good for ya!), I believe I'll just do that.

So if all goes well, look for gorilla portraits, or somethin,' over here early next week.

Ooooo . . . komodo dragons . . . tigers, lions, bears, oh my!

;-)

International Monty Python Status Day, which I missed...

2010-05-26T12:15:00.006-06:00

...and apparently couldn't have participated in anyway, since I do not have a Facebook account. Nevertheless . . .

Thanks to SnoopyTheGoon, who in turn thanks Liza.

WC

2010-05-25T09:46:00.006-06:00

No, not the khazi; WaterColor! I picked up this handy, pocket sized Cotman watercolor kit made by Winsor & Newton a while back, along with a 4x6" block of Canson 140# paper, and finally got around to gettin' my fingers wet again. It's been a looong time since I did any watercolor, and this is just a little practice doodle, to break the wrapper and get my cakes wet. I recall some pretty decent paintings from the "distant past," but I pretty much forgot it all, so I expect to screw up a few more before I come up with anything worthy of the "showcase," but over here I give myself the freedom to blow it and still show it. Maybe get a little feedback or somethin.' I don't know, I just wanted to see it up here. My appraisal/critique is more intense once it's been published, so there should be some benefit from that. Anyways, watercolor's very versatile so their's vast room for improvement. Meanwhile . . .

. . . I think I'm gonna need a bigger brush.

;-)

A Rant; A Beef; A Bone to Pick!

2010-05-17T17:39:00.003-06:00

I've got one. I'm sure the techies over at Google have a lot of fun and get a lot of satisfaction flexing their tech-muscles, coming up with new . . . features to, ostensibly, increase our blogging pleasure. But jeez-louise guys, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! The "new editor" is my target here. It is not increasing my blogging pleasure, nor satisfaction, nor ease of accomplishment. Not by a long shot. Not yet anyways. That's one reason I'm using an old drawing today. I've been so entangled, trying to get satisfactory results out of that "new editor"- it's taken my whole day. I even resorted to Help Group, which in all fairness, I usually do get useful intel from, and on that note I must admit, I was able to run with what I got there today. It just wasn't what I wanted to hear. "Can I revert to "old editor" for the new Pages feature?" Answer, "Apparently not." (?!?! Apparently!? Who's in charge?!)

I was just trying to add a stand-alone page of sketches and drawings to the sidebar of my new art blog, which some of you have found, and for those who haven't, there's a link in the sidebar of this blog.

It - the "new editor"- uploads images just fine. The problem is, do you want to control the order in which they appear? Good fvckin luck! If there's a tutorial on how to do that, I want it! In my query to the Help Group I mentioned cut-and-paste in HTML, which works beautifully in "old editor." Even I can do it there. Not in the "new" one. There's so much extra code, I guess due to that little tool bar looking thingy that pops up when you click a pic in the editor - I don't know(the point, maybe?), but even when I "cut" an image, there was still code for it in the HTML. WTF. I didn't know where to put it. And Help Group said that was my best bet.

Sooo, I wound up just loadin' 'em in there, without any attempt to arrange anything, and hoped for the best. I guess it looks like a decent arrangement, but it ain't what I wanted; and I planned to caption each pic with a bit of pertinent info, but I's afraid to click anywhere near the pictures once I got 'em in there. Who knows what might happen if I tried to make a space between them for some text?! Which is easy and works perfectly - in the "old editor."

C'mon Google. Who you tryin' to "help?"

It reminds me of Technorati's recent clusterfu-- I mean changes. They're saying, "The blogosphere evolved. So did we!" What I say is, evolution is a mutation that proves to be serviceable to survival of the species, and therefore becomes widespread. If it doesn't promote survival, it's just a mutation, and it dies out.

OK. I'm done. I guess. Except to say, is there anybody out there who's liking this "new editor," and would not like to see it . . . um, follow the platypus?

El Fenix 2

2010-05-15T16:57:00.005-06:00

Another trip to our favorite Tex-Mex. Them quesadillas is goooo-ood!

So I's wondering, as I often do, about how well this post embodies what the name of the blog implies: a resonationality of enigmanessism. I mean, what about a sketch of the porch of a restaurant resonates enigma?

I'll tell you what. Spanish Colonial Revival architecture is creepy. Always feels like there must be vampires in there, or somethin.'

Or is it just me?

Or is it just this sketch?

You see what inexplicability is being evoked here?!

Or is it just me?

;-)

Frank & Ellie...

2010-05-12T14:32:00.023-06:00

I learned some bad news last night. One of the greatest talents ever in fantasy art, whom I consider one of my most important influences as a painter, Frank Frazetta died Monday May 10, 2010, aged 82. Two months short of a year after his wife Ellie, such a driving force in his career, herself passed on.
I never met either of them, but I saw a documentary, plus now I've read stuff about it, and it was obvious, Ellie's passion is what spurred Frank on. I wondered at the time of her death, just how Frank was gonna keep going. Now I know.

I was going to say stuff about each of these pictures, but when I realized that was making it all point back at me somewhat, I just don't want to. So, here. Enjoy some of the finest fantasy art your eyes will ever see...

Safe passage, Frank and Ellie Frazetta . . .

~

...in the Belfry?! ;-)

2010-05-12T09:29:00.003-06:00

Just to let you know I'm still here. This was actually done expressly for my other other, quasi-alter-ego "dark art and metal music" blog. (You can find a link to it on this one, if you know who Dwight Frye is. Hnnn, hnnn, hnnnnn...! ;-) The photo reference I used comes from an interesting(odd) article at New Scientist.

How's Your Tree?

2010-04-28T17:19:00.015-06:00

I don't have any current tree sketches, so here's an old one.

Below, some shots from a day or two ago of my Choctaw Pecan, planted for Arbor Day '08.

About 3 feet taller since then. :-)

And here's the reason for air traffic headaches the last couple of weeks.
Eija-... Elja-... that volcano in Iceland.
This is an Iceland Coast Guard photo, and there are many other such lovlies to be found
HERE.

I mention this because I was over at Zeit*Raum,
watching videos of the eruption, where Livia presents us
with a luscious tidbit from another of Iceland's gifts to the world:

Holl-ay-wood

2010-04-23T22:36:00.006-06:00

That's how we used to say it when we were making prank phone calls back home. Hey! Teenagers in a small town in Arkansas; whatta you expect? One little ol' lady took us up on it! She said, "Sure! I'd love to go to Holl-ay-wood!" Ripple got so tickled he came clean with her. Ripple was his real name. He's dead now. Another story.
What I'm on about tonight is the blight on cinematic art that is Hollywood. The "academy" in particular. I watch all movies these days on video, and just recently saw a couple of the big Oscar winners from this past "awards season," namely "Lovely Bones" and "Crazy Heart."

But first, let me go off on the subject of today's sketch. This one is actually from a poster for Rob Zombie's remake of "Halloween," but my subject is his "Halloween II", which I recently saw. I was never much of a fan of the slasher flics, so big in the 70's, but the imagery, I have to admit, is compelling. I, for the most part, despise the "back-story" obsession so rampant these days, but I find that I really like what RZ did with the character of Michael Myers in this second installment. One of the things I hate most about movie critics is they tell too much of the plot to make their point. So I ain't gonna do that. Suffice to say, in spite of everything("back-story" sucks; remakes suck), nevertheless Rob has made a quite interesting character out of ol' Michael. It's worth lookin' at. Interesting... is how I'll leave that one.
And I'll try to be brief about the other two aforementioned.
"Lovely Bones": too much fantasy bs that had nothing, that I could see, to do with the plot. I did not think it was great.
"Crazy Heart": I've always thought Jeff Bridges was a superb, always enjoyable actor, and he is again in this one. However, I think the high ratings and glory it got were largely due to the fact that rehab is so much the thing these days in Hwood. 'Nuff said.
If you want real, sophisticated cinematic art dealing with rehab, and a better movie(imo) altogether than anything mentioned so far, even though it's from '07, this is your best bet(it's free On Demand):

;-p

Monsters in the Interwebs!!!

2010-04-18T14:44:00.003-06:00

I tried abuse.net; they said contact the webmaster. I tried Google Help; they said the same. I tried WhoIs; they had relatively nothing. So I took a chance and looked at the home page; didn't get attacked(again! see below), but it didn't fit my browser or something, so I couldn't really navigate--I got nowhere there, either.
So I decided to just post what I found. Don't know what else to do with it, and y'all should know, just in case.

I was browsing for ping services, saw something interesting, but it had beside it a grey question mark instead of a green check mark. If you don't know Norton security, that means the site hasn't been checked, so they can't give it a green check mark(which would mean it's threat-free). I thought maybe the cached version would be safe, but evidently bugs can live in "snapshots."

I clicked on the cache of a page titled Auto Pinger with this address:

www dot coolinaria dot it/lukaluka/autolmapinger dot html

and Norton popped up, having just blocked an attack, which I really didn't expect, so I clicked for details, and here is the gist of what they had:

HTTP Fake Antivirus Install Request 4
Severity: HIGH
Attacker URL: 93.186.117.19/main.php?land=20&affid=31600

Successfully blocked so no action required.

What I did find out about Coolinaria is it's a novelty t-shirt site, and it's pretty wide-spread; I found 'em on Facebook, too. Again, the homepage gave me no trouble--malware wise--I just couldn't get around on it, so the bug may be just on that one page.
But it is there. Beware.

Art by Jeff Easley

Ghosties & Clouds & Blue Skies

2010-04-18T11:03:00.007-06:00

Me digicam may be a cheapo, but it's good for catchin' ghosties, tryin' to seep in through the winder. ;-)

And some inspiration from a glimpse of the holy-beyond-in-my-heart(what it feels like, why I love the blue sky so much, I think)through a momentary break in the clouds...

...which are closed back up and raining on us again today. So here are a couple of dreamies from last month...

That time of year again...

2010-04-12T13:07:00.006-06:00

Yay!

Golden Morn

2010-04-08T07:24:00.009-06:00

At least an attempt with cheapo digicam. Had to push the color a bit but I think it comes close. I love the way the rising sun sets these big pecan trees on fire--just for mere moments, so you're glad you got the digi' to even try it with.

Speakin' of which--the "try it with" part I mean--I've been trying for months to get a decent photo or two of this painting(below) with my old obsolete half-way defunct film camera, so finally it dawned on me, I could try the digi,' check it, try it again... just see what, y'know... So maybe this is at least a fair approximation for your perusal.

This kind of painting, for me, involves reaching--or at least having the freedom to--extend the aesthetic sensibility into unknown 'areas.' I don't see how one can talk/write about that without concocting a whole batch o' b-s. Like critics do. It's beside the point.

Something about my intention/approach though, has become pretty clear to me: This is the latest culmination of an effort to develop my own visual language, spread out over years, involving much experimentation with "abstract" approaches; what makes sense to me finally began to bubble to the surface: I'm trying to utilize any, if not every, oil painting technique I can produce, but as free as possible from any traditional requirements--like representation or restating the flat surface. In other words, I paint slowly, carefully, over a long period of time, but each step is a spontaneous response to the last one. Splatter is valid, for example, but I let the painting tell me where to aim it. Sort of a "controlled accident." Where it all winds up, I discover that by looking at it.

A pretty good shot of my favorite corner.

A "good sized" piece, 24x36"

Maybe eventually I'll get a straight, squared-up shot...
And then, some details. I like detail shots.

Dribbles; I had to turn this one every which way, depending on compositional "instincts," even flat on the floor some times.
Below is a raking angular shot to show the texture of the circle.

See, this is why I'd like to be a vampire: Immortality! Then I'd have time to persue this type of painting as well as realism. Ahh... one life!

Cain't hep it...

2010-04-05T17:33:00.006-06:00

...I like a' lookin' out'ta winder.

It is essential...

2010-04-04T16:05:00.006-06:00

"It is essential to do the same subject over again, ten times, a hundred times. Nothing in art must be seen as chance, not even movement." Edgar Degas

Since I've been there before HERE and HERE.

Real/NotReal

2010-04-01T17:27:00.009-06:00

This last one came from HERE. The rest I shot this afternoon on the wall of the . . . well, you guessed it, Kelly-Moore paint store. I actually thought it was real graffiti when I first saw it. Is nothing sacred?!?

;-)

The t-shirt dunes of My Belly

2010-03-30T15:39:00.003-06:00

;-)

Test...

2010-03-29T16:31:00.004-06:00

... just to see. There seems to be some kind of pic posting problem, which I noticed when I went to the Blogger Help Group to ask why the pictures in just one of my older posts suddenly don't show. Don't know if the two are related, but thought I'd "run a check." ;-)

Terror, or somethin,' from the Skies, or somewhere...

2010-03-22T17:07:00.004-06:00

Dot-Com called me on it a few days ago when she suggested I "photoshop it back in," referring to whatever might be missing from the photo, since I was playing dumb about why I shot it, due to the fact that there's a lot of edge and no middle. She thought it must have been a bird flying by, to which I retorted that if I had Photoshop, it wouldn't be any little ol' bird I dropped in there. Heh, heh . . . well, I still ain't got photoshop, but what I do have is what the knuckleheads back home called, variously, an "overactive imagination," or more frequently, "a screw loose,". . . heh, heh . . . and the ability to illustrate therefrom. It's Dot-Com's fault. If she hadn't said that, I wouldn't have done this . . . ;-D

pterosaurs over tx

What's more, you wouldn't believe (I try not to, but look at the evidence!) how many people there are--right now, today, in the "New Millenium"--who claim to have witnessed such. There are so many raw hits on Google from "pterodactyls in tx", if this interests(amuses)you, it's worth a search. Here's links to a couple of my favorites, so far, as well as my favorite pic, from article no. 2.

"Living Pterodactyls Haunt Our Skies," by David Hatcher Childress, and

"Did Pterosaurs Survive Extinction?" at About.Com, the one with pictures. This one also has a poll, where you can tell the world all about the pterodactyl you saw! ;-)

Ten Minutes Later...

2010-03-21T10:34:00.003-06:00

Well, actually 3 days later, but still, March 21!?

Time to go out and play!

Or, stay in and play like we're going out. . .

. . . or . . . jeez, looks cold out there . . .

How 'bout a Bud!?

2010-03-18T15:36:00.003-06:00

Cheapo camera can't quite get the details(or the right color, for that matter. I had to edit to get a real southern looking sky color...) but still, you can see what's happening already. Yay!
Below, got 'snappy' on my way to the store. Not sure what I was goin' for here but, how 'bout "nice abstract design"? Izzat one used up yet? ;-)

A Nice "Abstract" Design . . .

2010-03-17T20:01:00.004-06:00

. . . don't you think? The kiltered equilibrium just expresses thenature of the subject, no?

AaaaAaAAActuallyyyyyyy.......I's tryin' to get the drip from the head runnin' over, but m'camera's too slow..... . . .

;-)

Armchair Adventure

2010-03-16T15:45:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Hans Gude.

Character study

2010-03-15T20:20:00.004-06:00

. . . actually, I was goin' for a "gesture drawing," but I was too caught up in the limbs before I realized it. Anyway, light was too low for a cheap camera, so . . .

Power . . . ?

2010-03-14T18:29:00.006-06:00

The above, taken in my backyard about an hour ago, thanks to this little jewel.

--------------------------
Meanwhile, if you've ever (like me) succumbed to the power fantasy of vampirism--well, it just hit me while I was watching this this afternoon, in terms of the power trip (I admit, that's part of the appeal, for me, of vampires ;-p) vamps got nothin' on this guy, Gerard Butler's character...

Leaner

2010-03-13T17:06:00.004-06:00

. . . about an hour in the park today. Ballpoint sketch in my little 3x5" pad, and a couple of shots with the Jazz JDK235, my new toy/tool--not sure which yet. I guess you can play with your tools, though . . . huh?

A day late and a dollar short...

2010-03-12T15:12:00.006-06:00

. . . which has never stopped me yet, so here's my entry for Theme Thursday, which is "Hats" this time.
The one I'm wearing, an old beat-up fedora, was once referred to by a friend as my "NOT Indiana Jones hat," so the picture on the TT site immediately brought that to mind. I went madly poring through archives and files looking for a picture I thought I had once posted of it, to repeat here, for this. Then it hit me: Here's the perfect chance to blog my hat and my new toy! Which is my own very first digital camera!! Did you know such a thing existed for 20 bucks?! Well, it's only 1.3 Mega-pixels, and you can see the quality it gives, but hey! I entered the digital age for a double-sawbuck. Took this pic about 20 minutes ago. OK, more on my new toy later. This is about hats, right?
The one I'm holding is what I used to wear out in the woods back home in Arkansas, hidin' out from the revenuers. ;-D Not really. It came from the Cracker Barrel.

Behind me you can see--it's been so long, no one probably remembers, but--a tiny bit of progress has been made on the painting I started--hell, I don't even remember how long ago. Anyhow, the new toy has given me some new shots--quality notwithstanding--of the progress on this thing, so more later on that, too.

Meanwhile, it's March, Tim Burton's Alice... just came out, and we're blogging about hats. Perhaps madness is upon us . . . ? ;-p

I want one...2

2010-03-09T06:30:00.003-06:00

That may have gotten you a bit wound up. I know it did me.

Don't worry, this'll fix that...

Sun King

2010-03-03T18:14:00.003-06:00

Shadows streak the dock-door-canyon; trailers warm in the sun; trees, bushes bask - everybody's catching rays.

"Here comes the sun king

Here comes the sun king

Everybody's laughing

Everybody's happy

Here comes the sun king

Quando paramucho mi amore de felice corazon

Mundo paparazzi mi amore chicka ferdi parasol

Questo abrigado tantamucho que canite carousel"

~Sun King, The Beatles

;-)

Smoke and mirrors...

2010-02-26T18:08:00.005-06:00

...OK, one mirror, and I was doin' the smokin,' at break today, in spite of the misty rain and high overcast -- something seemed to "lift" yesterday, and I inexplicably "just knew" that I could draw again, which for the past couple of weeks or so I "knew" that I couldn't. The brief sun-bath I took a couple days ago? The two irrepressibly mirthful knuckleheads I've been working with the last two days? Any number of other factors I can't even think of right now? Dunno. But if how this happens ever comes clear to me, I will surely expound upon it here.

The tide has turned? My body/mind can feel Spring comin'?

Whatever. I seem to be just about "ready for bear," so stay tuned...

...or not.
Definitely another option. ;-)

A Cappella Thunderstorm ;-)

2010-02-21T11:53:00.005-06:00

This is great. Amazing. Found it here.

It's rainin' again...

2010-02-04T15:57:00.006-06:00

. . . and another Arctic blast is predicted. Heh, heh . . .

. . . What may come of it . . . ?

The blues and grays
of cold and wet
are grinding grist
in the abandoned mill
where my heart should be.

Well that's just hilarious
Is it not?
The fledgling poesy, I mean.
The inspiration for it is dreadful and exhilarating
i'm being spread across a chasm
both infernal and pure
will i find a way to fly above . . . ?
or sink and fall . . .
. . . forever!!!

Now imagine laughter overlapping itself in an echo chamber.
Heh, heh!!! . . . "*sigh!*"

;-)

PS: I kinda tear up at the "wall-comin'-down" scenes in this video. I ain't no political animal, by any stretch--in action, anyways--but I guess I'm just German enough (and the whole world knows how fun that can be!) that when my peeps do something cool, it gets to me. (i know! It was ronnie vs the-guy-with-the-purple-splotch-on-his-forehead that "got it done,"
but who the hell you think done the work!? And wanted it done as much as you did?!?)*

Ahhh!!! Jeezus H! If I don't shut up now, this could get bad and ugly and long, so I'll revert to Goethe's advice: "Draw more and talk less." (!!!)

I'll see y'all again when I've drawn somethin'.

:-0

*i realize there may be technical inaccuracies here and there, but it's emotional. So you 'understand', eh?

Fair Weather Sketcher

2010-02-02T17:13:00.004-06:00

I was noticing just yesterday that I couldn't remember the last glimpse I'd had of Ol' Sol and his clear light, crisp shadows, and the bracing beautiful blue sky he brings with him. Not really ironically, I haven't been doing much sketching, either. Seems I tend toward that SAD thingy the medicos came up with a couple-three decades ago. Seasonal Affective Disorder. Your brain is jonesing for sunlight.
I don't know the science but I can give you the layman's dope: When it's gray, dark and gloomy, so am I.
I'm not at all sure it's the "disorder" like the docs came up with, but I can only seem to handle two or three days of overcast without getting in scary states of mind. It gets hard to focus, so although I want to draw, I don't much stay with the urge. Drift too much. That is sad! (Don't you just love those medical acronyms?! ;-p S-A-D for wintertime depression. Too rich...) I have wickedly creative ideas when that's goin' on; just don't usually do anything with them.
Well, lately the gloom has been accompanied by cold. I don't do cold very well, either. The body suffers tense recoil from it, so I don't stay outside long enough to sketch, and that probably makes me gloomier! Yeah, it does.

Bla! Bla! Bla! The sun came out today . . .

;-)

Zen Alcohol (-ism??)

2010-02-01T18:19:00.008-06:00

Me new fav'rit' tune, plus an old fave...:

This guy makes a strange case. I don't believe a word of it, but sometimes I like to read stuff that challenges me that way.

The Thorny Devil Check it out; good stuff.
Much more "sane" than the previous...

"A Zen student must learn to waste time conscientiously." ~ Suzuki Roshi

Monsters...and rumors...

2010-01-20T13:40:00.005-06:00

Borrowed a copy of this movie and it had no case, no cover, so when I returned it I put it in a spare case I had, and included this drawing as a cover. Fun stuff.
In the process of poring over the numerous images out there in the internets, looking for similar to the above, I found myself embroiled in a controversy. (I wasn't really "embroiled." More like amused, but I like dat woid ;-) To wit:

This one is from destroy888

And here's a retort, from none other than Andy Serkis(King Kong!!! fer cryin' out loud!)

I believe I'm with Mr. Serkis on this one, although I don't really care how they 'splain it as long as J.J.Abrams keeps sounding positive about a sequel.

It's a baby, and here it is crying, "Yeeeeaaaaahhh!!!"

"Gimme another movie!"

;-)

Sans Arborea

2010-01-17T11:41:00.006-06:00

That may not be a technically accurate use of that word, but it sounds like it oughta be. I'm pretty sure, along with the sketches, it conveys my drift.

There used to be trees here. Several. 4 or 5. In exchange we got one extra lane in the street and a brick sidewalk. Ironically(since I wasn't planning it)the latest drawing seems like a more severe design than what we used to get here.

Close-Out :-o

2010-01-12T15:34:00.020-06:00

Heh, heh! Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. It's a clean-out actually. Goin' through old pics I've collected in folders for possible use in some kind of way. I do that constantly, collect images from...everywhere. That's one of the greatest boons to me about the www: gazillions of images I've never seen before, and many I have seen of course, but now I can gather 'em up, put them on a disc, show 'em to you, study from them, etc., etc., . . .
Well, sometimes my documents page gets a little crowded, a "clean-out" is called for. Some I decide to toss, but in that category some are just too good throw away without a trace. Brings us to this post. These are some I wanted to squeeze one last drop of use out of before hitting the delete button. In no particular order, this is just how they fell in the clean-out folder(ironic, I'm trying to reduce the number of folders so I make a folder for that;-D).
Anyhow, this collecting thing sometimes goes on for years. I don't remember where most of these came from, or who has the rights, but I will give as much credit as I can.
Which in the case of these first two, ain't much, I'm afraid. I tried, too, based on what little info got transcribed when I copied them. But I couldn't find anything by Googling AMMatte, which is sad, 'cause for digital--which is what I believe these are, which I usually don't like--these are exceptional. Plus I have a perhaps perverse affinity for post-apocalyptic scerarios, and the first one I also find kinda hilarious.

This I found on Google Images. It's a raven and it served as model for my crow-on-the-rearview-mirror sketch a while back.

Beautiful eerie. Belongs to, as you can see, Eric Nguyen.
Amazing shot.

This is the one that gave me the idea to post these pics before I toss 'em. I had no other plans for it, but it's just too great a shot to have it simply disappear. I found it in the Google Images, too, and don't recall what site it came from(as usual), but fortunately the photog appears to have signed it. Lee Zieger, it looks like to me. A Chihuahuan Raven, this is.

Margaret Hamlin. This pic makes me want to visit here...wherever that is. Some place in Europe, the little blue poles make me want to say.

I edited this shot onto the end of my post with the similar drawing(which I made, by the way, before I'd ever seen this image)because--well, how uncanny! Is this something crows often do? It was on a site about crows, no photog given.

Ah, poor ol' St. Anthony. Stayed out in the desert way too long. This one is by the living(if memory serves)Italian painter Domenico Morelli.

I gathered quite a few crow and raven images in the wake of my avian visitation. Here's another I don't know the source of, and the only info I have on it is the picture ID, which is mtoberon, so I guess it's either taken by M.T. Oberon, or it was taken on Mt. Oberon. Best I can do.

Everybody's probably seen this before, but I hadn't, and it cracks me up. The story of why I have it is too idiotic to tell, and I'll just leave that at that.

This one speaks for itself, no?

This was back before Pablo gave up drawing and started cubing everything to pieces, although you can see it starting to happen. And yes, the lady is kissing a crow.

Sorry sister, those items have been discontinued. (Heh,heh! Jest from a nasty sense of humor.Sorry) Deli, herself a nocturnal butterfly, among other things, has this in the sidebar of her winsome, beautifully thoughtful pic and poetry blog, Toss That Old Map Away...and start anew... Good words right there.

Something by Japanese architect Ando Tadao. Google his name to see a lot more.

Handsome fella . . .

Last is Pigma Micron-over-pencil drawing I did at the last minute, from a photo by J.F. Broekhuis, who has a Picassa album, by the way, in case you're interested. I really like how sinister this guy looks, just sittin' up there on his little tree limb in broad daylight. I think it's the turned down bill that does it, and I guess the time-honored reputation of his infernal crowness helps a bit. It's almost like he's posing 'cause he knows he's a crow.

Well ok, that's it for the "clean-out."

This time . . .

;-)

Dallas Weather

2010-01-08T22:26:00.005-06:00

Folks took these around here, the last two days.

Above is Hunters Point Apartments, by Amberbell. Today, I believe.

And this here is a Backyard Fountain by Gemax, . . . wherever.

This is in Addison yesterday, at Texas de Brazil, . . . whatever that is, by aprilb.

These were on the news tonight.

*OMAFG!!!

2010-01-08T11:27:00.010-06:00

You may have already seen this. It's been online since '07, but I just found it. I sometimes feel the need to traverse the darkest internet corridors I can find, and usually something surprises me in the process. Such is the case here.
A while back I made the observation, in a post here, that evolution must not be done with us yet, due to the existence of saintly types and child killers in the same generation. The whole race isn't "caught up." Ya know? Lately I've been thinking maybe that's not it; that maybe, instead, evolution is done with us, and the gene pool of the entire race is deteriorating. Would explain a lot, huh?

Such as this . . .

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Somebody tell me it's a hoax. Eh? Please?

*Oh My Aching F___ing God!!!

Free Sketchin' NOW

2010-01-02T13:36:00.005-06:00

Sometimes, no doubt because of posting stuff here, I tend these days to get a little carried away, trying to make a "presentable" drawing, and forgetting the greater range of "just sketching." Checking things out visually, exploring ideas, gathering information... I'll try more different whatever if I think no one's looking, and got to missing that kind of freedom.

It reasserts itself. So here I just wanted to connect these two carport shadows with lines, see if that would work. I guess I thought it was working may be why I threw that upright from this side of the street right in the middle. See? "Just Sketchin'!" If this found its way into a painting, I would now know to rethink that pole-in-the-middle thing . . . or would I? Hmmm . . . Ha!Ha!

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!

Heh, heh... yeah, me and

William Wallace

;-)