Lost in Austin

Today, in our new home, I kept walking into a closet looking for a bathroom. I think I should paint arrows on the floor.

. . . looking @ the artwork.

We ate at one of our favorite lunch places in Austin. Linda noticed that there was a woman looking at the artwork on the wall.

Art Secret

So my daughter and my friend both liked the straight picture. I thought the idea of photographing a drawing askew (6/23/08) was such a good idea. Maybe I just need to do it better.

Afraid to Paint

I was afraid to paint in our motel room because I thought that I might get some paint on the carpet. Then I remembered that my paint was in one of many unlabeled boxes in our car three floors down, and I was too tired to try to find it anyway.

Luckily Linda had a pencil, and there was one scrap of paper that wasn't too slick to draw on. I tried to draw on the side with the type, but the pencil had thin leads and I couldn't compete with the dark type, so I drew on the other side.

Then I photographed the drawing...first straight on, and then at an angle. Yea, my figure seemed to come to life. Magic!

Joint Statement

A Recent Incarnation

Careful

Creme Savers

Brains 25 cents

Thanks to William Stage.

Winner! Tony Award

Two Into One

So here's the painting that had such a tortured creation.

The Pantheon

Worked more on the painting. It is still terrible.

Here's a quicky on the Pantheon.

Another "Work-in-Progress"

I've had a dozen blank canvasses for about a year, all 8" x 10"— the size of Edward Weston's negatives.

Today I made a genuine mess of one of them, so I did a quicky on a postcard in order to have something to post. I think it works pretty good.

Tomorrow I'll go make to the canvas and try to breathe a little life into it.

Kim

Apology for a Bad Painting

In 1964 I dropped out of college to read a stack of books. I started to paint and never read the books. A painter lived down the hall (another basement room in an old building) and taught me a few things, none of which I remember.

In 2007, 43 years later, I dropped out of college again (this time as a dean rather than a freshman) to read books and paint. I ended up writing poems, drawing, and learning a little about Buddhism. I stopped the writing when I discovered that I didn't know anything.

Now it is time to paint. Sometimes, like today, the paintings won't be very good. I beg your indulgence (is that the right expression?). I suspect that many good things come from failed attempts. I remember seeing a movie on the Wright brothers last week. They had some disasters until they improved their plane...and figured out how to fly it.

William Blake said that practice is art. My hope is that if I paint everyday I'll get better at it.

Big Man, Little Gremlin

Man Faces Death

Hudson River School Painting
Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900)
View of Quebec, 1846
Oil on canvas, 22 3/16" x 30 1/6"
Alteration on postcard

Einstein Visits 1927

Collaboration with Thomas Cole (American, 1801-1848)
View on Lake Winnipiseogee, 1827 (100 years before the Babe hit 60)
Original: oil on panel, 19 1/4" x 26 1/8"
Alteration: acrylic and ink on postcard, 4 3/4" x 6 1/2"
Made for the 82nd birthday of Lennie Kesl

I was lost . . .

Swollen or Shrunken?

A "Real" Disaster

I tied my tie too tight . . .

Different Truths

Sometimes our different views are not as different as they might seem.

All Alone

Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, which can be interpreted as the buddha in each of us. We may be alone until we see that goodness that is part of all of us.

In a Line

I wondered what it meant to wait in line as I went through security at the airport.

Dog Eat Man World

People are Different

Compassion Revisited

Driving Over Clouds

Eating Protein

Texas Smile and Talk

...only could think of changing it.

Hit the Road, Jack.

A long trip. Art done on Palm Pilot @75 miles per hour.

We Passed . . .

We did pass by one rest stop as we got close to Tulsa. Still, some of the cars that we passed had toll passes and we had to pass them again. It is hard to get ahead in this world!

He Chose Milk

Kids do the darnest things.

Teddy Bear

I forgot to mention that the teddy bear had clothes and Jasper took them all off.

She Cried Her Heart Out

A telling expression.

No Comment

Sometimes someone says, "no comment."

Dried Up

Couldn't figure out what to do today, so decided to attack an old theme for me of a man (me, in a previous life) and his dog, standing like a totem pole, as one.

Send Him Back?

Return policies abound in stores from L.L. Bean to Target. Individuality is not appreciated.

Selling Bridges

Moving involves buying and selling. Sometimes it is hard to give things away, even to thrift stores. I had to go to three thrift stores to give away one of my favorite chairs. I had found it in 1969 on a street corner. It was waiting for the garbage truck.

Waiting to Sit

It struck me funny all the things "sitting" enthusiasts do to sit...like rushing somewhere to sit (a contradiction?). Or better yet, to arrive early and then to wait to sit...where waiting is a skill that the Buddha acquired.

Me & My Palm Pilot

Worked on polishing the old rusted parts of the 1946 medicine chest (my age), and then went to get some expensive potting soil for my wife.
Off to an opening where I had some artwork. Afterward a party. Booze isn't a good thing when you don't drink...but it was fun to seen some people whom I hadn't see for awhile.

I Painted Today

What a day, touching up all the doors with paint. And various other home activites.

Then the dog chip company called and asked if we indeed had given out dog away. Yes I said.

They now have a good home.

Bad Yoga

Crawling and twisting around window wells to put some paint on the window trim is not my idea of fun. But they sure look better than they did with the peeling paint.

Sliver of Truth

I might think I don't have a sliver,
but then I touch my finger just so...and ouch.

I know that there is some biblical reference
to having a splinter in one's eye.

This is not a metaphor. It is merely
the event that occupied much of my day,
living from one ouch to the next.

In the Can

My job today was to cut and break up branches from the branch pile and put them in garbage cans for pickup. It took hours to fill 6 cans, two of which held 96 gallons. I wore gloves, but my forearms bled from scratches.

Happy Mother's Day

I asked my son this evening if something bad is ok if you make good art out of it. He said, what about Goya? I said I agreed. War is still bad even if Goya can make such good art out of it.

Happy Mother's Day.

Kim

An Accident?

He said his kid was an accident. I thought smuggly that I'm glad that I was planned (or so I was led to believe).

Then I started to imagine a continuum from deliberate to accidental.

Imagine someone getting off a train because it breaks down. Then a cyclone comes (an unpredicted cyclone, of course) and drives a tube through his private parts (ouch!) into the vicinity of her fertile egg. And one hefty little critter fertilizes the egg. Will, that kid was truly an accident.

On the other extreme, imagine a DNA expert sorting through a bunch of critters, picking a very special one to fertilize an egg. Well, that's the other end of the continuum.

A product of a hot roll in the hay is not an accident any more than is a gun going off in a bank robbery. It is called "conditioned causality." The condition made it possible for something to occur, though other outcomes are possible (unlike cause and effect scenarios).

Connected in Strange Ways

Knowing that we'd have a person look at our house (to buy), we worked all day to clean it up. Then we went to dinner and a bunch of errands while they were looking.

This evening we weighed 300 magazines that we are practically giving away. Someone is going to have to pay lots of shipping.

Our daughter called, and she and my wife talked for what seemed like hours.