Thursday

There is something about a blank page that I can't resist. It simply screams,"Paint on me! Draw on me! Mutilate me!". Maybe not so much to mutilate. But then there is origami. This colective pape is the skwetchbook. Or as I refer to as a primarilay labor intensive data collection device. Predominently visual data, that is.

Whatever I do to it changes it. Is a dot creative? Perhaps, but not in the center. The greatness of the art is determined by the location and, of course, intensity. But, what of the philosophical implications? the vastness of space, the black versus white? (i. e. light versus darkness)

Actually it is just a page form my sketchbook depicting a recent trip to New York City. Times square was a cacophony of sound and color. Nothing static except maybe the buildings illuminated by flashes of neon and light illuminating diodes. The constant moving yellow of the taxis.

We enjoyed our first visit to Gotham though brief. Broadway is no doubt the tops in theatrical production. However, some of my epicurean delights left something to be desired. There was a shell in my lobster bisque. But the view form the 45Th floor rotating restaurant was fabulous. i know we will return in the future.

2day

The newest things I have been doing lately is using ToonDoo to make such things that you see above. Also, some other things and going on a vacation. it was the first time I'd been to New York City. I am not overly fond of big cities. I did like it and will be back. We went to the Guggenheim Museum and saw some old and new art. My mate wanted to see it since she is a Frank Lloyde Wright fan. I think it may have been the last major commission of his. I took a lot of pictures that will be part of an upcoming slideshow on YouTube. I experienced my first Broadway play also. And it was good. Spamalot
Now I'm busy getting some art work ready for the up coming Piccolo Speleto show. I hope to get juried in.
I've been finding interesting stuff on the web also such as Jott. it allows you to send a voice message which is converted to test to you e-mail address.

A. M.

I've finished my morning walk through the neighborhood. And it was good. I've got to decrease my weight in order to improve the probability of increasing my lifespan. Spring of the year seem to give a fresh breath of life to everything. The flowers, especially the azaleas are in full bloom with dogwoods and pear trees too. Even the less than appreciated dandelion adds a splash of color. Creatures are moving too. The ubiquitous anole is moving quickly now as he changes from tawdry brown to emerald green and "shows his money". Birds are extremely noisy. I watch the ducks feeding at the lake as a great blue heron stretches it's wings and glides effortlessly over the shallows alive with minnows. And somewhere, somewhere, in the darkest shadows the warming too life ...and he's hungry!

Today

Recently, I have been working on updating my website. After toying with many ideas i decided that i wanted and easy maintenance site without many bells and whistles. Working with Photoshop, I found that I could customise some of their gallery templates to work for me. Although they haven't been uploaded yet, it will happen in the near future. Yes, there are more gremlins.

I continue to work with ink jet mono prints but did take some time to watch a Scott Burdick video. He is one of my favorite painters and although his medium is different from mine there is still a lot to learn.

On the web, I have been a fan of David Byrne's journal. he offers and interesting view of the arts, visual as well as performing.

Photographs

I have been working with photographs lately. Mostly they are snapshots that I have sought to improve with image editing software. The picture at the lefts of an eighteenth church ruin I added the treeline and sunset. The foreground is tinted and certain parts of the building is highlighted to improve composition.

To me, photography is just as much art as painting or sculpture. All of the components of picture making are present: composition, texture, perspective, and color harmony. Unfortunately for the photographer the components are not as variable.