Sketchbook - shoes

Unnamed Landscape

I struggled a while before I was satisfied with the composition and color palette of this one . . . I suppose struggled is a bit much, it simply took longer than expected. The color combination is at best quirky . . . or it could be considered whimsical, I guess, which sounds much better than quirky to me.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Also, if you have the time, please help me think of a name. Preferably something . . . whimsical. Like say, "The Circus Moves On," or "Confetti Landscape" perhaps.

Oh yeah, and it is 30x40" and $800 [unless the new name adds value to it] . . .

School Yard

This Painting is called School Yard. It is 24x48" [that's two feet tall by four feet wide] and it's price is $600.

For some reason this makes me think of a time long ago [just a reoccuring dream of mine, now] when recess lasted for years and the girls made necklaces out of clover flowers while the boys were pulling the stingers out of honey bees . . . well, I was anyway.

Starvation

Dieting is not complicated: eat less calories than you can burn in a day and then repeat daily. Counting calories, though not very hard with all the prepackaged/properly labeled foods available, always seemed to me too much of a hassle to contemplate. I am now, however, counting calories with the best of them and loving every minute of it. It's the logical [aka nerdly] part of my brain that loves keeping track of numbers, and when I serindipitously stumbled upon "The Hacker's Diet" online book I was hooked. Here's the premise: eat less calories than you can burn in a day and then repeat daily . . . and keep track of it all . . . "Programmer, hack thyself."

Some people will not like this diet: there's no tricks or taboo foods or 8 step process. If you're the type of person who loves keeping track of things [as in experiment data], this diet will motivate you to keep going . . . because you're keeping track of yourself.

Side note: the salad pictured is what I had for lunch today - I was pretty proud of it because of the great food to calorie ratio and general enjoyment I had in eating it - here's how I made it:

• create tortilla bowl in microwave [two minutes or so]


• add lettuce


• sauerkraut, 4 Tbls


• a little salsa


• homus


• and top with yogurt

Yummy. And only 246 calories! [that's a pretty low calorie count]

Sketchbook - view from my house

The is a quick sketch of the view looking to my left, out the window, when I'm "working" at my computer. [I get my mail soon after the postman delivers it.]

Sketchbook - extra gum

Sketchbook - painting sketch

One of the few paintings I own not painted by myself is a watercolor streetscene by my mom. While relying on the original drawing, still visible in the finished painting, her version is of course much more colorful than my pencil sketch [shown above]. But this is the part I liked about the watercolor: the visible sketch.

Sketchbook - dogs

Our dogs, Blue and Molly. These were quick sketches of live subject matter [as opposed to using reference photos] so it was hard getting much detail. Trick is to do a quick gesture drawing which gets the basic layout down and then work on refining the sketch, adding darker lines along more important contours. I then added shadows by hatching.

Sketchbook - keys

My wife never puts the keys in the same place when she gets home. I'm not sure if this is a personality difference between us or just a male/female thing, but I tend to do the opposite - the keys go on the key hook near the door, the wallet goes on the same shelf when it's not in the same back pocket of my pants. If I don't know where my wallet is at any given time it grates on my nerves [although the only important thing in there is my license]. The wife on the other hand is never quite sure where she left her purse.

Molly and Blue - playing

30 Boxes

30boxes is a community-oriented online calendar. It's nice looking, easy to add events and apparently works well for groups to use [I haven't checked out this last feature yet]. Bottomline: it's slick, check it out!
link: 30 Boxes

Sketchbook - plastic army men

How great are those little plastic combatants, frozen in heroic moments of victory . . . or fallen in [familiar] rigid defeat. I didn't have tons of these growing up, I remember playing mostly with wooden blocks [they call that "old school"], before jumping directly to GI-Joes.

Between Inspiration

Inspiration - definition 1a: "Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity." *

This is the definition I normally use when making such statements as: I've got no inspiration, I lack any inspiration, or I ain't got no more inspiration. Today I'm doing a lot of busy work, avoiding the reality that I am uninspired, unmotivated to do anything painting related. That said, I've learned not to let this bother me too much; there are plenty of other things that need to be done around here, and a person can't be inspired all the time. This is the theory I'm going with anyway, and I have some thoughts to back this theory.

First, if a person is always inspired, is that person inspired or is that just the norm? Hmmm. Second, inspiration comes out of those times when we're uninspired; downtime is the ground crew that maintains the launchpad . . . and inspiration is the rocket preparing to launch, of course. ["cringe" what a horrible analogy] Finally, looking at definition 6:

Inspiration - definition 6. "The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs." *

Inspiration is dependant upon expiration, and vice versa. In and out. Going up and going down. Inspiration and . . . expiration [uninspiration?]. Linguistics aside, there is much to be said for balance. Balance is good. [too much of a good thing, and all that] We need to be inspired and motivated, yes, but we also need times of reflection, times for sharpening the saw, times for rest.

Ecclesiastes 3 TNIV

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

* The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved March 17 2006

Sketchbook

I've decided to sharpen my "skillz" a little with some daily work in my sketchbook. I don't expect to post online everyday, but I'll be sure to post the highlights once or twice a week at least. Enjoy! [or else post your complaints below]

Spring for Art: the results

Well, it's just one of those things. After borrowing a truck, hauling the paintings, hanging the artwork, fretting over what I should wear [I chose shorts and flip-flops, by the way], after all that, the night was a dud. I would guess around fifteen groups of people came through Coffee Rani last night and of those only five or six groups actually showed any interest in the artwork. Two people commented that this years Spring for Art was poorly advertised and that the side roads were not blocked off as in previous years. So that and the earlier rain and overall humidity of the evening all combined to form a big ball of blah.

On a positive note, all those who came to look at art were enthusiastic about my artwork and only had positive things to say [I immodestly admit]. And I was able to meet a couple of people who had previously seen and liked my work. I handed out a dozen or so business cards, and the owner of Coffee Rani is graciously allowing the artwork to hang for another couple of weeks and offering her wall space for the next Spring for Art in the Fall of the year.

So I'd say it was a solid moral victory . . . which is not quite as good as an actual victory. You take what you can get, right?

Highly recommended if you're in the area:

Coffee Rani
234 N Lee Lane
Covington, LA
(985)893-6158

Spring for Art: the day before

Nothing like an art show to make an artist second-guess his artwork. Now I've reached a certain point in my artistic ability where I am totally comfortable beginning a project with the knowledge that I will finish it and it will be good - I'm never sure how long it will take, but I know it will be good. That said, I have completed a set of twenty-two paintings for this show, and I still don't feel ready. I feel the need to go out and take another peek . . . one last critical eye, perhaps to spot the weakest link: the runt of the group, the straggler that doesn't make the grade. Suddenly nothing seems finished, but I find no logical reason to support the feeling. I have to rely on my earlier judgement, on what I was thinking when I stopped painting, signed it, and called it art.

Anyway, the big show is tomorrow night -- I'll let you know how it goes.

Creativity Week Deconstructed

Recap:

• started out unmotivated


• continued unmotivated


• water in gasline, had to excavate new gasline [$]


• have hot water again


• creativity week ended

As you can see, Creativity Week was mostly a dud for me. Now, I could blame life, or the gorgeous weather or DiGiorno pizza. But truth is, we are all to blame [that's right, I'm spreading the blame around].

Listen. Let us not bicker about who did what to whom; the point is, there are no winners or losers when it comes to Creativity Week: there are only winners. Here is the important point: Creativity Week is not dead, it lives within each of us. We have only to call upon Creativity Week and it will be there, hat in hand, apologetic and triumphant.

Anyway, it is now the week after Creativity Week, and I'm preparing for Spring for Art [this Saturday, March 11th]. I have been busy, as evident by the photo to the right. I should have over 24 paintings to adorn the walls of Coffee Rani in Covington [I hope to sell them all, but I'd settle for a couple]. More later.

Motivation Revisited

Creativity Week is almost here -- three days away, in fact. I'm excited. So excited I find myself thinking of creative things and having to reign in that creative spark, saving it for next week [can a person bottle-up creativity? is it safe to do so?]. But can I overcome my tendencies toward procrastination and pull off a full, action-packed week of creativity? Stay tuned . . .

Motivation is admittedly elusive in my day to day life. I tend to have many hobbies -- many, many things I love to do [and so little time]. More often than not, I end up getting nothing done. So, I am a little concerned about Creativity Week.

However. The show must go on. Creativity Week will be a success.

Motivation. One of my main goals for Creativity Week is to get an insight into the processes involved in motivation. That's really my main reason for establishing this whole creativity week thing: self analysis. If I were more motivated, I would be unstoppable in whatever I wanted to do with my life. That is a fact. [luckily, I would only use my powers for good]

There is a point, however, when motivation, creativity, and procrastination are just empty words -- what counts is action. Get up and do something.

“Do or do not . . . there is no try.� -Yoda

Creativity Week: Feb. 26th - Mar. 4th -- what are you planning to do?

Creativity Week

It's not a very . . . creative title, I'll give you that, and the only references I found with Google were elementary school projects [you know, paper-mache masks, sculptures, et cetera]. But this is what I had in mind: a week of creativity overload, multiple instances of creative projects throughout each day of one particular week, documented on this blog as the week progresses. Original? Maybe not [those elementary schools beat me to it, for one], but it sure sounded like a good idea.

Now, I know many when confronted with a creative task throw up their hands in defeat before giving it a try -- forgive the mockery, "...ooooh, I'm not a creative person..." -- I just thought I'd invite you to join me in giving this creativity-week-thing a try. What can you do, you ask? I'll tell you:

• post a comment below: I need ideas [you know, creative ideas -- lots!]


• prepare yourself for creativity week -- get any supplies you might need ahead of time


• have some way of documenting your creative projects during the week -- this can be a simple log of events on paper


• if you'd like to share, email me a brief run-through and any photos you took -- I'll post them here along with my own report

That's it. Oh, and I need to decide on a week . . . next week -- there! So, February 26th through March 4th [my birthday] will be my Creativity Week. Okay, I've got a week to prepare for this so I'll really need your help. Please post a comment below, giving me ideas on some creative things I could do and, of course, encouragement -- it's gonna be a long week.

Reward Awaiting Accomplishment

Several years ago I built this very computer on which I'm typing. Since then I built one for my mother and one for my brother and assisted my cousin in building his own. I've tinkered with three or four older models around the house, trading parts and trying different operating systems, never satisfied with leaving "well enough" alone in regards to computers. So all of this I've disclosed as background information to my present dilemma: I'm itching to upgrade once again.

I've thought it all out -- a four-phase roll out plan, each stage following the next in logical order, the first phase being the most expensive but offering the greatest increase in performance [a triple bypass operation concerning the motherboard, ram and cpu].

So here I am, the situation clear: I need a goal to reach, something just lofty enough to warrent a phase-one reward [that's all I ask]. For the reward is waiting; it cannot be ignored for long. The reward is waiting.