Call it as ya see it.

Wandering online tonight I found a great charcoal portrait artist from Jacksonville. Haven't seen his work before.

Why?

There's a lot of great art out there. A LOT. But sometimes the who-ya-know-not-what-ya-know plays dominance. The public sees sub-par art in the downtown venues, and everyone pays.

Take a minute to look for the good, not necessarily the connected. Here's who I found tonight. an outstanding command of charcoal portraiture with unbelievable emotion.

and the other day. This girl's all over the place with creativity and drive. Always a great read, and on my check-back list.

Who have you seen that needs a shout out?

Don't think. Just do. (re-learning how to run)

when stuff slows down, the thoughts start tugging my time. I can loose an hour deciding what to do next.

Like this morning.

Could cut canvas, could stretch some abstracts. Could work on the online listings. <-- see that? That's another chunk of my life I'll never get back. One of my favorite second-hand scenarios was relayed by one of my college professors-- who's also a runner. A student asked him to train him to run. The professor told him to run every morning for a month, then come back and talk about it.

This photo was actually taken by that professor-- my drawing teacher at UCF. --I'm guessing '94ish?

I need to go paint. Somehow I have confidence the rest will fall into place.

Obsess Much?

"Just who or what is this Elbow you have been going on about"?, you may be asking.
I'm glad you asked. I first heard their music on Pandora, an internet music site that allows you to program to your musical tastes. It's pretty cool and they have exposed me to some great new music. Anyway, I had one Elbow song in rotation on my Rhapsody playlist and then Tracy & I started delving into their whole catalog of music. We became fans, especially Tracy who would play them non-stop all day and paint. The live show recently in Atlanta was the icing on the cake. It was absolutely perfect. A great venue, the last show on their American tour and a very appreciative crowd. Our one sample clip from the show taken with our digital point and shoot didn't quite do them justice so here's a sample of them live at Abbey Road studio. Grounds For Divorce

New stuff.. here's what's up

I just received word 3 of my portraits will be on display for the next 1st Thursdays event at Orlando Museum of Art. Come on by. I'll be there... Kayfe! 'll be there too. Thurs. September 3rd..if'n yer in the area.

Also, I'll be live demo'ing a painting for an art benefit Ralph and I are doing at Back Booth in Orlando September 10th - doors open at 10pm. I'll post more info when I get it..

Back to painting

Vacation's over so it's back to work. Just finished this painting called "The Odd Get Even".

And more

A few more images of old ruins from our Georgia trip.

More Images of Georgia

It's probably too hard to read but there is a handwritten
note on one of the windows that says,
"notice after dark trespassers subject to be shot!!"
Oh, and No Smoking

Elbow Room

A shot from the show at Center Stage in Atlanta with Elbow.
They were absolutely amazing.
It was an inspiring event that I'm so glad we were able to see.
The music was fantastic and the band put on an incredible show.
The rest of our trip we spent meandering the back roads in search of abandoned places .
We found a bunch. Here are some images and more to come.

Elbow's perfect show, and Georgia's beautiful mess of decay

Elbow! What a show! They played in Atlanta, and we took off to see them (an early b-day present from Ralph). It was more amazing than I had built up in my head all these months! A couple clips from the show here:

opening one day like this


And Georgia's never a dull moment for road trips. We spent the next few days wandering the backroads and photo'ing forgotten places and heaps of shambles.

Inside the box

Decided to make some use of those cigar boxes I've been collecting to make guitars.
A little 3 dimensional piece. Haven't thought of a name for it yet.

Complicated Game

Painting/Collage/Digital Print.
All-a-dat.

Merger

We've been talking about doing some collaborative

stuff for awhile, so we finally took the plunge and

started a few pieces.

This is our first outing. Probably not quite finished

yet but well enough along to show the dimented direction

we're taking.

New Offering

The latest in the "Offering " series.
This guy has gone through quite a transformation.
I didn't realize it until I looked back at the first ones
in this series.

So what's up?

I kinda got lost in my world this week. Feeling a bit under the weather, so I'll make this update short. Gallery show this weekend-- Saturday night's the reception if'n yer in the Orlando area. Come see me, intro yerself, and bring me a glass o' vino (it just helps me log the name with the face--no, really.)

Playlist this week's been kinda slower-- some old Talk Talk, Elbow, Sia, Keane, Nouvelle Vague, Yann Tiersen..

oh yah-- and paintings!

Gimme some new blood. Who's on your playlist? New read? Who's this week's hero in your world?

Bruce Springsteen - in - progress(... or writer's block ain't so bad.)

Writer's block used to scare me. Not necessarily at face value, but the fact that it could turn bad if not managed--not unlike if you can't sleep, trying to force yourself to sleep only making it worse.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book "The Outliers" refers to the 10,000 hour rule-- paraphrasing, it's the magic number of hours someone needs to practice in order to attain a basic level of achievement in their field. Twyla Tharp in her book "The Creative Habit" tells of a painter friend who's productivity would depend on identifying whether it was going to be a 'painting day' or not early, thus planning his time to work with that-not fight it.

Today I painted this Bruce Springsteen. I've painted him before, but haven't been completely happy with the results. I like the way this one turned out. --and clicked off a couple more hours toward that 10,000 hour mark.

Day trip to Savannah

Needed to get away for a bit so we headed up to Savannah
for a few days.

One of the old buildings on River St.

Downtown Savannah... checking out some of the art galleries.

One of the many statues adorning a grave at Bonaventure cemetery.

The road leading to the remains of the Wormsloe estate.

Stopped here for breakfast on the way home. Some of the locals were giving the cook a hard time about being on drugs. All in fun (I think).

Window of an old building on the waterfront in Darien.

An old abandoned church.

Bowie

for zenfrog..

a request..
Thanks for the suggestion, zenfrog!

Our New Space

Gallery On First

Tracy working on Robert Deniro the
Saturday before we moved in.


Sunday, hanging our stuff.

Pretty much filled the space but we still have more to add.

Ybor Highlights

Here's a few images of our trip to the west coast.

They gots devil crab as big as a man's head over there!

This 3 piece band was kickin it at the Blue Shark.

Step 1 in making the perfect sandwich.
A good piece of bread is essential.

I heart Shawn Barber's art

Not to rip off Sinatra, but I don't get around much anymore. But I had to take a break from the ironing & housework (man, I crack myself up so much) to go see Shawn Barber's show in Ybor (Tampa) last weekend.

And if that ain't the sweetest uh... whatever, the next day he gave a demo. The guy's truly amazing. Go to his website, go see his shows if you can. Then thank me with a box of dark chocolate for helping you make one of the best decisions of your LIFE. Yah, that's right.

New Diggs!

As of April, you'll be able to see us in person at Gallery On First in Sanford, FL. We're excited to be able to have a physical presence, to be able to meet and talk with collectors, and possibly get a square foot or two of living space back. (sweet!)

The Gallery is located at 211 E. First Street, and is right in the center of the downtown historic district.

(pic coming soon...)

New Joe Strummer

Painful Eggsalad

3 eggs, 1 T horseradish, 1 T mustard, 1 T mayo, 1/2 t oil, pinch o' salt, a bit of shredded cabbage, some dill, 1 T onion, and some pickled jalapenos-- not sure how much, but a crapload. I mean, otherwise, what's the point, right?

It's way too cold. I'm just trying to creatively clear my sinuses. When it comes to whippin' up some creative cooking, I'm there.


I didn't say I was good at it, I just said I was there. --Yes, I really did ignite this cookbook. (email me for the recipe.)