Image for 4-19-2011 - The Skull and the Brain

This is a quick camera-phone photo of the part of my desk of a skull candle, left-over from Halloween and a squeezy brain bit of swag from a trade show. I took this because I realized I spend a lot of my life here in this cube and see these things everyday and as a result no longer really see them anymore. Also needed to test my camera-phone. It's working again, but for how long, how long...

OK HW

Image for 4-18-11 - peep

I always liked this frame. It's from the fifth issue of my old underground comix, "Reluctant Sadist". I need to get back working on the book project I started that will collect all the issues together and also other work from that time. The "peep" is because I got no excuse. I must get ass in gear.

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Image for 4-17-11 - Red Helicopters

I was raking leaves this afternoon and looked up and saw this. Red helicopter seed pods against green leaves and a clear, blue sky. It was a fine peaceful moment.

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Image for 4-16-11 - Pollen Ring

I got a fast seven-mile hike in this morning. I saw lots of dried pockets of pollen along the edges of the sidewalks and in the gutters. This was the most interesting one, a pollen ring around a depression in the multi-use path that runs through the park. Found art is always around us.

OK HW

I'm a Mini Movie Mogul

Last night I threw twenty-five dollars in the indie film ring. There is a great web site called Kickstarter that helps artist, writers and filmmakers fund their projects. I've looked at it a couple of times before, but have never taken the plunge until last night. I found out through Twitter, about this making-of-a-horror-movie-doc called, "Hardcore Indie" that was getting down to the wire to meet their fundraising goal and decided to get off the bench and help them make it happen. I'm looking forward to seeing how their project develops! OK HW

Image for 4-13-11 - Tiki in Progress

Back on track.

This Tiki is in the front yard of a house I walk by on one of my regular hiking routes. It stands about four feet high and has been slowly evolving over the last couple of months. Once I ran across the artist at work. He had a variety of chisels and chainsaws and was sporting a finger splint earned from his efforts. I stopped and chatted with him a while about sculpting and tiki's. I haven't done any wood carving, but I have thought about it, even bought some tools. Sometimes I think that when I return to sculpting, that it will be wood. I love the smell wood, the texture, the grain. The connection with cultures through the whole of history. It's good to see the spark of creativity moving on to the next generation. Half drunk bohemians taking steel to wood to keep the old ones alive on a suburban street. My time is coming.

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Off track

I owe my regular viewers an apology for the lack of posts. I was out-of-town over the weekend for a wedding and was uploading photos and posts from my phone, or so I thought as there is no evidence of that here (thanks' Virgin Mobile). Yesterday I clean forgot to post anything. We'll see if we can get back on track today.

OK HW

Image for 4-9-11 - Mel and Billy

I am still back filling the days that were missed due to my stupid phone.

Here's a shot of Mel and Billy before the big hitch up. Billy was the best man and actually doesn't have a beard, that was a happy accident of the crappy tech. I enjoyed getting to know them better last weekend and look forward to hanging with them again sometime soon.

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Image for 4-8-11 - The Misty Mountaintop

I originally sent this from my camera phone to the blog, but it still hasn't shown up, so I'm playing catch up and reposting it directly. Friday we drove up to Wintergreen, VA to witness our good friends Casey and Laura be married. The ride up from the coast was uneventful until we got to the mountains. The cloud was down in the higher elevations and slowed us a bit. I am a big fan of fog, I love how it can take a normal environment and transform it into a mysterious adventure.

The truly dense stuff waited until later that evening when we had to make our way back from the Devil's Backbone down in the valley. The shroud dropped hard, reducing visibility to a few feet in front of the car and I had to creep along at five mph, clinging to the center line reflectors. It took awhile to get back to the chalet.

More catching up to do soon.

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Image for 4-7-2011 - Tangerine

I love tangerines. They unfold so easily and beautifully. Taste so sweet and are so good for you. I took a snack break at work today and found this cool shape after I cracked open this little fruit. It looked like an alien flower to me. Good thing I got a photo of it as it wasn't around very long.

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Image for 4-6-2011 - The Mistake

That's my keys, on the seat of my car, behind a locked door. Yeah. Bummer. Been a long time since I did that. Had to call AAA and wait over an hour for the guy to show up and pop the lock. I was hoping to get the groceries on the way home, then get a hike in. Instead spent that time pacing around my car in the Kroger parking lot as the sun went down. By the time I got home, I was too hungry and grouchy to hike. Bah. Some days are better then others.

OK HW

Image for 4-5-2011 - The Surrealist Sketches Return

Finally got off my lazy ass and did a little art. Continuing my series of little sketches of surrealist. I have a book on surrealism that has a lot of great old pictures of those wacky guys and have been filling up a little sketchbook with their portraits. I'm embarrassed to say how long it's been since I last added to the collection. I like some things about this drawing, but also have some problems with parts of it (hey, nothing's perfect). I mixed up the quality of line using fine, soft strokes for his face and heavy, looser lines for the jacket and background. Kinda like pulling focus. I know nothing about the artist, or in this case, filmmaker, Pierre Prévert, so I got some Googling to do.

OK HW

Image for 4-4-2011 - Alien Among Us

I've been looking at some of my old sculptures lately. I did a bunch of weird, tiny heads in sculpey many years ago, I've shown a few of them on this blog. Here's another one, a classic bug-eyed alien straight out of the Cantina scene from "Star Wars" (at least that's what I was hoping for at the time). I think he needs some new friends.

OK HW

Image for 4-3-2011 - In Full Training Mode

I got out today and hiked seven miles with the pack on in a great state park nearby called "First Landing State Park"; locals call it by it's old name, "Seashore State Park". I usually park behind a shopping center and take this multi-use trail into the park. The weather was perfect for hiking, sunny and not too warm. It felt good to walk among the trees. The paths through the park are all dirt trails, easy on the knees. Hiking with some weight on my back is working a lots of muscle groups that normally don't get hit. It's good. I can feel them getting stronger. I'll be ready for the big hike later this month in Scotland!

OK HW