My website which hosts most of my current works and a few from school days. Just click on this link and away you go.
New Art:
From my first life (live model) drawing in 40 years. it gave me a chance to revisit using pastel and conte' crayon for the 1 - 3 minute poses.
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| 2 - 25 minute pastel drawings on butcher paper |
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| larger, 20 x 16 acrylic on canvas board; KW street scene |
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| Acrylic 7 x 5 on canvas board, from Key West trip |
I entered the street scene above and, if you remember, the Amsterdam canal oil into the Bonita Springs Art Center Members Show. It is juried so I won't know if I make the cut until the evening of January 18. I have been accepted in the past so I am hopeful.
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| Bonita Art Center garden kinetic sculpture, it twirls in the breeze. |
Also, just mailed in my membership to The Estero Art League; I thought I would try a new group. And, it is closer than both Bonita to the south and Punta Gorda to the north.
Demo: Instead of spending hundreds of dollars for 3 - 5 day workshops, Bonita Art Center lets you attend the opening day Demo of 2 hours, which is a preview, for $20. I just attended my third of 11 I purchased: Lisa Daria Kennedy Daily Painting, embrace the practice. Every day for coming up on 10 years she has gotten up at 5 AM and painted for an hour or two, unless traveling, then she makes it up before she goes to sleep. This is in addition to her "normal" work, which is large canvas abstracts. You can see her work at lisa@thebigcvisualjournal.com and her blog at lisadaria.blogspot.com .
Visitors:
I was reviewing my blog and website analytics and found that:
77% of viewers came from the US - no surprise there
But then, 5% from France, a little less but still 5% from Ukraine and another 5% from RUSSIA. Interesting. Lately there has been an uptick from China, replacing France and Russia.
Listening To:
Peter Gabriel - Secret World live, when you see it on stage it seems bigger than just a recording. He's my age so I can relate to his early life experiences. I wish he and Genesis or, at least Phil would get together for one more work.
Firefall - I LOVE Mexico, listening to greatest hits; and The Fixx live album plus the single Beautiful Friction; Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music - he captured cool.
Billy Idol's White Wedding (Pt 1) is a superbly engineered recording.
Lots and lots of Christmas music.
Lots and lots of Christmas music.
Experiences: Dominic and Lisa visited, as did Gregory. Linda's gifts to the family were interactive. So, one afternoon we went fishing in the Florida backwater with Capt Billy Norris. Everyone caught at least one fish. Kept two Sheapshead which will end up being appetizers after he prepped for us.
The next night we went to an escape room, my first. We beat the clock by 8 minutes and did not use the three allowed clues. In addition to us five, there were two young woman who had experience and they were a big help.
Then, on Sunday after Mass we went to the Everglades and Captain Mitch's Airboat rides. It was interesting to see a part of the country no-one gets to see unless they go this route. We saw 'gators, all kinds of birds. Afterwards we drove to Isle of Capri and the Island Gypsy Cafe for drinks and dinner on the waterfront. It is located just before you cross on to Marco Island.
The "kids" spent Monday kayaking off Pine Island and Matlacha (pr the last a as long a)
Reading:
1. Blogging for Dummies.
2. Finished Secrets of the Savana...what a story about a couple Mark and Delia Owens, my age or a year older who moved to Zambia (aka Rhodesia) with a primary goal to save elephants from extinction. Poachers were had reduced them from tens of thousands to hundreds in this region. Along the way they learned about and catalogued many other species. The biggest benefit, however, was creating a stunning extension of organizations, capturing countries, political movements, and corporations to expand and make sure their efforts lived on. They were there 23 years from the early 70's until the early 1990's when corrupt officials told them to leave or they would die. The best way to make this work was by creating a team who would work with the locals, especially the poachers, to create other income sources so they did not need to feed their families by selling tusks and meat. They were able to help them realize that more elephants would lead to tourism, and controlled harvesting. Being part of the ban on tusk sales was what put them in their greatest danger. In the appendix where you will read the extensive world-wide effect - well, it is stunning what two people can accomplish. Just amazing. Then, on the last page (194), third last paragraph they said that it was also important to stem the world population growth...talk about shock and disappointment. How could they arrive at that non-sequitur (they never discussed it in the preceding chapters). I sent an email to the Owens Foundation to express my shock and paraphrasing reminded them that their philosophy would deprive the world of the next Mark and Delia. And of course, all of the friends and supporters they acknowledged in the epilogue, they would not be born either. And I mentioned that for all of the good things mammals such as elephants, lions, etc. bring to this world, they can not love. Only humans, with free-will can love, and make this world a better place. After 193 wonderful pages, it was quite a comedown.
3. Problogger.
Humor:
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| clever |
Not Humor:
I include the following article from the Wall Street Journal because I want to be clear to some of my readers that I am not a "climate denier" just because I question where we get our information and what does it really mean, or can we even make a determination. This sums it up as best as any...
And maybe where we are IS the norm, not where we were. Maybe we shouldn't build mansions on beaches, but set back a half mile, or not build in forests that can catch fire from lightening or human accidents. Just sayin'. You can click on photo to enlarge.
Finally, pulled out 8 Harley models I had in my closet, here is a photo of two. Kind of fun.
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