Deer Corpse - 1/20/15 - Image-a-day

This shot wasn't taken today, it was taken in Mississippi on my "Red Clay Walk". I was about a mile into my walk when I spotted something in the ditch. Upon closer inspection I found it was a corpse! My overactive imagination pulled me instantly into "Mississippi Chainsaw Massacre". The scene a lone, lost person on a desolate country road finds a body in a ditch then the sound of a revving chainsaw and strange laughter... Luckily, it was just a deer carcass, dumped by some thoughtless hunters. I always wonder why so many hunters and fishermen litter and despoil the countryside and shores, yet talk about "loving nature".

OK HW

Selfie with Dad- 1/19/15 - Image-a-day

I've missed a few days of posting images on here because I was in Mississippi visiting my Dad and Step Mom for the weekend. I took photos everyday, but had no internet access as my Dad doesn't have internet service and my cell phone had no coverage, so I was off-the-grid. It's always a bit strange for me to visit my Dad in Mississippi as it's not a homecoming for me as I never lived down there, but my Dad's side of the family has deep roots there, so I have a lot of connections there, just few memories. Culturally, I don't fit in, but I always enjoy how friendly most people can be there and the simple, country life. I love my Dad and Step Mom Betty and was grateful to spend some time with them. They start each day with prayers and gratitude for their lives and the people in it, and I think that's a beautiful way to start a day. I'm still learning from my Dad.

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Red Clay Walk - 1/18/15 - Image-a-day

I went for a walk while I was in Mississippi. My Dad lives out in the country, so it was easy to step down a side road and get a couple of miles. The ditch along the road exposed the red clay which my wife always loves to see, so I grabbed this self-portrait for her.

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Spring Water - 1/17/15 - Image-a-day

On Saturday I went with my Dad and his neighbor Frank to a natural spring well to gather water. My Dad swears by this water to keep him healthy. We brought a couple of dozen two liter jugs to fill. The water flows freely from a white PVC pipe coming from the ground. The water tastes sweet and pure.

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Dawn Flight - 1/16/15 - Image-a-day

I saw the sunrise from an airplane window this morning. Clear weather is a traveler's friend. Heading Mississippi-way to visit my Dad for the weekend. 

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Pineapple Jack - 1/15/15 - Image-a-day

Today's image is a blast from the past, "Pineapple Jack"! He's one of my old sculptures from the 1990s that was a direct build-up method using UltraCal-30 plaster with nails and a board and painted with acrylics. I'm glad he's still hanging on my wall.

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That's Ice for You - 1/14/15 - Image-a-day

Last night our area had a near miss with a wintery storm. Thirty-three degrees and raining was as close as it got in Tidewater, but northwest on the Peninsula the iceman cameth. All the trees twinkled with a thin coating of ice, just enough to be beautiful, but not so much that branches were coming down on the power lines. When I got to work, I grabbed a few photos before it all melted away...

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Rose Quartz Buddha - 1/13/15 - Image-a-day

Today's image is of a Rose Quartz Buddha, a recent gift from a good friend.

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A Foggy Journey Home - 1/12/15 - Image-a-day

It was a rainy and chilly Monday. The perfect kind of day to stay home in bed and read a good book, but alas, I had to go to work. By the end of the day, heavy fog rolled in making the drive home atmospheric, soft and mysterious.

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Downtown Sound - 1/11/15 - Image-a-day

Today's image is of a street band I happened across while in the Ghent area of Norfolk today called "The Downtown Sound", a three-piece group; tuba, sax and drum kit. I enjoyed their jazzy, funky cover of Cee Lo Green's "Crazy". It was so funky, for a few minutes I felt like I was on Frenchman's Street in New Orleans...

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Cosmic Shards - 1-10-15 - Image-a-day

We visited The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va today. It's been a long time since we walked the halls there. Spent some time checking out the contemporary glass and I was mesmerized by this piece by German artist, Josepha Gasch-Muche called 7.3.2011. Inspired by my friend Ralf's recently posted short videos, I shot this short bit of moving picture trying to capture the elusive abstract quality of this work.

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Pencil Cactus - 1/9/15 - Image-a-day

Is this five feet tall or one hundred?

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Unfinished Business - 1/8/15 - Image-a-day

I have a few things laying on the work bench that need to be finished; a tiki head, a couple of angel wings and two new Lo-Fi-Ga miniatures. Time moves too quickly and there's always duties and distractions that keep me away from the studio, but last year I found more time for my creative life and this is a good thing. My essential nature is to make art and I am always better for the time spent in the studio, so this year I hope to spend even more time.

OK HW

Je Suis Charlie - 1/7/15 - Image-a-day

I was sadden and horrified by the terrible news from Paris today of the brutal attack on the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdon". A few years ago I had heard about some French newspaper that had published some cartoons depicting Mohammad in an unflattering way and there had been death threats, but forgot about it until today's terrible news. I never heard of nor knew the magazine or the names of the artist, but know them now. Four cartoonist were murdered today for making fun of a religion. They drew funny pictures and made rude comments and that was enough to drive a few broken, deranged idiots to destroy them. Those four brave cartoonist were:

Stéphane Charbonnier "Charb"

Cabu

Georges Wolinski

Tignous

There were others killed in the attack, eight other people and more injured, and they too risked and gave their lives fro free expression. Tonight there were protests all across Paris and Europe, silent vigils of thousands carrying signs of solidarity that read, "Je Suis Charlie". I've been to Paris a couple of times and love the people and culture there. It makes my heart sick to think of the hate and violence of todays' events, but seeing those Parisans from all walks of life standing together reassures me that they will not be oppressed. 

"Je Suis Charlie" indeed. I thought about throwing out some snarky Mohammad cartoon, but my beef isn't with Islam or Muslims, the vast majority of whom are just as outraged at this tragedy as anyone else, so why throw more fuel on the fire? So instead, I drew my old underground comix character, 3-D Speed Freak saying "Je Suis Charlie", solidarity in the comix world and the real world too. Now is the time to stand with the Parisians and the French and all other lovers of art and free expression. 

Je Suis Charlie...

OK HW

Farewell Xmas Tree - 1/6/15 - Image-a-day

This morning I took our Xmas tree down to the beach and found a good spot along the dune and laid that baby to rest. It's always a little sad to walk the tree out of the house, usually leaving a trail of pine needles, but good to move it on to the next phase of it's life, dune builder. We still get a little, live tree every year, gotta have that lovely pine smell in the house. My two favorite parts of Christmas are decorating the tree and Xmas eve. A few months from now, while walking on the beach, I'll pass that spot and see that sandy bump and think of Christmas...

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Sunrise - 1/5/15 - Image-a-day

This is the view out the living room window of this morning's sunrise. Not long ago, the sight of the Chesapeake Bay and the bridge of the same name would have been hidden behind a crumbling hulk of a house, but not anymore. The house has been torn down and construction will soon begin on it's replacement, so we'll enjoy the view while we have it.

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Mystery Photo - 1/4/15 - Image-a-day

 

So, can you guess who or what this is?

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Janet Drawing - 1/3/15 - Image-of-the-day

Today's image is a photo of my wife, Janet Shaughnessy drawing, which is another kind of image making. Janet is my favorite artist. She can make art just about anywhere, anytime, unlike me who needs a controlled environment, proper lighting, music and mood. Janet can whip-out her sketchbook while waiting at the doctor's office or in an airport or during a meeting and make mysterious and wonderful pieces of art. I feel grateful to be witness to her ever evolving creative journey.

On another note, I am glad to have successfully inspired two of my fellow artists (and friends) to take up the "image-a-day" challenge. Check-out the fine art photography of Casey Gwinn at COGfoto and the freaky, underground comix and paintings  from Ralf Schulze's Aardvark Farms.

See you tomorrow!

OK HW

Mr Hobbs by the heater - 1/2/15

On these cold, winter mornings, our cat Mr Hobbs loved to lie near the space heater.

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Happy Cthulhu Holidays! - 1/1/15 - Image-a-day-2015

Happy 2015! I am going to post an image everyday this year. I've done it once before and find it to be an effective way to keep the creative juices flowing. Knowing I need to find or create an image will sharpen my antenna and keep me alert to the wonders that always surround us. 

Today's image is of a Cthulhu Xmas ornament that my friend Dave me. 

OK HW

The Return of the Lo-Fi-Ga - Daav

It wasn't always like this. Long ago, the world was run by many gods, large and small; powerful and meek; arrogant and humble. Every god had their place and task and their community hummed with divine purpose. As humankind crawled out of the dark of superstition and stumbled into the light of civilization, those gods were forgotten one-by-one, until now. I have begun a series of carvings to try and resurrect those old gods, because face it, these days we need all the help we can get.

Here is the very first one, a lesser god, or "Lo-Fi-Ga" in the ancient tongue. His name is "Daav" and his domain was/is the eye rub. Whenever you get an itchy eye, old "Daav" is there to help you out.

This carving is tiny, less than an inch-and-a-half high, not including the base. It's carved from a dried Hickory tree nut husk fragment which I have been collecting from a nearby park when I'm out walking.

Until December 7, 2014, you can see this piece in the flesh at the "Small Works" Exhibition at the Charles H. Taylor Center in Hampton, Va. After that show, I don't know where you'll be able to see him as he has become part of somebody's collection.

OK HW

"ZANK" Rides Again!

"ZANK" is a short stop-motion animated Super 8 film I made in the early 21st century. It's been in a few film festivals here and there through the years (you can read a brief history in past posts here), but lately "ZANK" has been in semi-retirement on YouTube and Vimeo. Recently I was invited to participate in an art exhibition called "That's Funny! - Art with a Sense of Humor" at the Charles H. Taylor Center in Hampton, Virginia, September 13th - October 19th. Besides "ZANK", I'll also have two bas-relief sculptures and a black & white drawing done for an underground comic book back in the 1980s, which I'll be writing about on my companion blog "The Reluctant Sadist and Other Wanderings in the Comix Underground". 

I'm grateful for another opportunity to share "ZANK" with a new audience. One of my favorite things about the film is the great soundtrack by my friend Neil Spencer Bruce, a multi-talented musician and filmmaker. You can out more of his work on his web site.

Here's "ZANK" for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy,

OK HW

PS - This is my 400th blog post! Thanks' for reading! :)

"Maya Bird" Takes Flight

My latest woodcarving was inspired by a Mayan icon of a bird that I found in a book called, "Design Motifs of Ancient Mexico". The book features simple black and white drawings collected from rubbings of pottery and temple art across central America. The author, Jorge Enciso, has categorized the images by subject; geometric shapes, types of plants and animals, etc., and I never fail to find something to get my creative juices flowing again.

I am still working on a pile Cedar boards leftover from a fence project. The wood is not ideal for detailed work as the grain density isn't always consistent. Sometimes a good section will have a fibrous, coarser band running through it that makes it difficult to render finer bits.

The first photo shows my simple reference freehand drawing and the next photo was the outline cut done with a coping saw.

Sometimes, on larger pieces, I'll use a jigsaw to do the outline cut, but this wood is prone to split and this is a smaller piece, only five inches long, so better to take some extra time and care and do it the old-fashioned way.

The third photo is the completed carving before any finish has been applied.

I used artist's acrylic paints to finish this piece, experimenting with a resist method by covering some of the raw wood with a gloss medium to create naturally lighter areas; beak, body and tail feather tips. Then I washed in some brunt sienna and red in the lower areas and crevices. To further emphasize the deeper lines, I used a little bit of black, then coated the entire piece front and back, with more gloss medium.

OK HW

"Eyes of the Buddha"

"Eyes of the Buddha" is my latest woodcarving done as a gift for a friend. I did a variation on the classic image and added contour lines and left some texture from the chisels. All hand tools this time, no dremel or other power tools used. Sealed and painted it with acrylics.

The teardrop between the eyes traditionally represents "the third eye", but I also like to think of it as representing "a diamond in the mind", determination, clear sense of purpose. When my friend looks at it, I hope it helps him find peace and strength.

OK HW

How to leave the shell of the old life behind...

Tonight while taking out the garbage, I had a chance encounter with an alien being. Well, alien to my normal experience. I found a cicada emerging from the shell of the life it had out-grown. I've seen plenty of the the empty husks left behind by these noisy insects, but never witnessed the act of transformation. I dropped the garbage and grabbed my camera. As I maneuvered for a decent angle, I could see it slowly wriggling back-and-forth to free itself from it's bug-shaped suit. If only we humans could do that when we have outgrown our body or life. Sometimes you do see it happen with people, often after a major life event like a divorce or death of a loved one. The shock cracks the shell of the old life and they wake-up a new person. The old rituals and habits don't satisfy any longer. The path branches off in a new direction. The advantage the cicada has over us humans is, it has no choice but to grow and literally leave that husk behind; we humans have to work at it. I am working to change my life. I want to make more art. I want my creative energies to fill my days much more than it does now. Any time you see me post a photo of a new woodcarving or drawing or video clip, that's me trying to wriggle free of the old life. It can be done...

OK HW

The Angel has Landed

I finished "Bernie's Angel" in time for her birthday at the end of March. There were a couple of late nights and the paint was a tad tacky when it went into the gift box, but I got her done.

I learned a lot about woodcarving doing this piece and can see progress in my technique. I chose to paint this piece instead of a simple stain as it fit the subject matter better. I used acrylic washes and some iridescent gold for the halo and silver for the wings.

Here's a shot of Bernie "unboxing" the angel. It was very satisfying to see how happy it made her. It helped remind me how special and meaningful art can be when created with heartfelt intent. We live quite far apart, but this little angel adds another connection and brings some comfort to Bern.

Here is the angel's final home on Bernie's kitchen wall. She fills the empty space where the former terra cotta angel hung before she was knocked down. I always like to see where my art winds up "living". I like to think of the angel looking down on Bernie in the morning when she's fixing her breakfast. I want to make art that is a part of people's life.

OK HW

An Angel for Bernie

My mother-in-law, Bernie, had a terra cotta angel from Italy on her kitchen wall. Last year a workman accidentally knock it off and broke it beyond repair. I am going to replace it with a woodcarving designed by my wife (her daughter) and carved by me. A sweet opportunity to collaborate and make Bernie happy!

OK HW

The Sacred Heart Woodcarving is Done

I finished the Sacred Heart woodcarving recently and gave it to a friend as a house warming gift. I am pleased with the final result, but think I'll try doing another one sometime as I have ideas for different flourishes and I'd like to make a larger one.

My next project will be an angel for my Mother-in-law to replace a terra-cotte one that was broken last year. I am collaborating with my wife, she's providing the design and I will carve it. Our studio is in a three seasons room off the back of the house and lately it's been too cold to work out there, so I am hoping for a warm up soon.

After that, I am not sure what I will do. One piece at a time.

OK HW

Carving a Sacred Heart Icon

My latest wood carving is the classic "Sacred Heart" icon from the Catholic religion. This symbol has been co-opted into popular culture and has taken on other meanings besides the original as a symbol of Jesus Christ's divine love for humanity, it also represents passion and strong heart. I've always been fond of this image, so grabbed a piece of cedar and got to work. I'm about half way done with the carving part. This is going to be a gift for a friend...

OK HW

Dr. Madblood – Still Crazy After All These Years

Jerry Harrell as "Dr. Madblood"

I have always been a fan of monster movies. Having grown up in the olden times before the internet, even before VCRs, it was difficult to get my monster movie fix. There were three options,  number one was to wait for a movie to play on TV,  the second option was to see it first run in a theater and third was by attending a film festival or science fiction convention (these were the days before the horror-con). The television was always my first and best option because of cost (free to me, thanks' Mom) and accessibility. Each week I would pour over the new TV listings hoping to find a movie that I had been pining to see on that week's schedule. I had books and magazines, "Famous Monsters of Filmland" in particular,  about monster movies and the images and titles burned into my brain like myths and legends and I had to see every one of those flicks no matter how bad they were. When I was ten years old, I once stayed up until 1:30 am to watch the "The Giant Gila Monster", a film so bad and unintentionally campy that it might be worth watching the trailer on Youtube, but not the entire film (unless you've never seen it). So against this adverse backdrop, it was with much joy when I discovered the local NBC station had a regular Saturday late night horror film show called "Horror, Inc." that showed a steady stream of Universal monster movies. It was a simple show with a basic opening video of a side shot of a coffin slowly opening and a hand creeping out with the title supered over and then to the movie, but you never got to see who was getting out of that coffin. Fast forward a few years and my family had moved to Norfolk, Virginia where I quickly found a local TV horror film show called "Dr. Madblood's Movies" which featured a host of character's and involved skits that were intercut through out the entire main movie. I felt as if I had stumbled onto some secret club for nerds, back in the day when it wasn't cool to be a nerd. The show was irreverent and hip, but still paid respect to the movies and actors of the genre and I was hooked.

My autographed Madblood Mini-Con souvenir from 1978

In the summer of 1978 came a fateful Saturday in July when Madblood fans congregated for the first time at a "mini-con" (small convention) on the second floor of "The Magic Shop" (head shop in the front, real magician's props in the back) on Granby Street in downtown Norfolk. It was a fine event, with all the cast members there to sign autographs and they even showed a twenty minute Super8 reel from "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" in 3-D! The most important thing that happened that day was I found my tribe, a group of people that had the same passion for the weird stuff. I made friendships that day that have endured through the years, particularly my friend Colin. When we were teenagers, we'd take turns sleeping over on Saturday nights so we could stay up and watch Madblood and laugh together. These days we still get together for "Bad Movie Nights", and have a world of monster and sci-fi movies to pick from through Netflix and Amazon streaming, often hunting down movies we've been dreaming of seeing since the old days. We no longer have to stay up until midnight on a Saturday and Dr. Madblood only comes around once a year now, but the laughter and camaraderie are the same and it doesn't get better than that.

You can catch “Dr. Madblood’s Halloween House!” Saturday, October 26^th at 10:30 PM Eastern Time on local public television station WHRO-TV and streaming live on the internet at http://www.whro.org/home/html/drmadblood/.

Here's an article that I wrote for the October 2013 issue of VEER Magazine. This is the "Director's Cut" version of the article and runs a good three hundreds or more then the print edition. Enjoy.

Dr. Madblood – Still Crazy After All These Years

I saw my old Doctor

On the tube last night

He was so funny

I just had to smile

He had that same wacky crew

That has been making me laugh

For all these 38 years

Still crazy after 38 years…

(With respects to Paul Simon)

            My old doctor would be none other than Dr. Maximillian Madblood and he still does make house calls, though now it’s only once a year around Halloween. For thirty-eight years Jerry Harrell has been donning the good doctor’s lab coat and shaggy, gray wig to host a horror movie program called “Dr. Madblood’s Movies”.  Through the many years and television stations, the show has also been called “Dr. Madblood’s Night Visions” and this year’s special is “Dr. Madblood’s Halloween House Special” (airing Saturday, October 26, 2013 - 10:30 p.m. WHRO-TV). 

            But wait, I can see that some of you are confused.  In this high-speed, digital, streaming to my smartphone YouTube era, what is a “Horror Movie Host”? Why would a horror movie need a host? Is that like a commentary track or something? I am glad you asked. See, once upon a time, there was no Internet or smartphones or even VCRs (those videotape machines before DVDs. Ask your Dad about it.), so if you wanted to see a particular movie, then you caught it in the theater or at a film festival or you waited for it to play on TV and then you had to watch it when it came on because there was no way to record it. Shocking I know, but true, things were much harder back then, for example, most homes only had one telephone and you couldn’t play “Angry Birds” on it, though I knew a kid that could play the theme from M.A.S.H. on a push button phone, but that’s another story.  In an effort to boost ratings and give underworked weathermen something to do, television stations added hosts to their late night horror movie shows. The format was simple, the host often dressed as a vampire or ghoul would introduce the movie, maybe provide a few tidbits of background information and mix in a bad joke or two. The first hosted horror movie show, “The Vampira Show” appeared in the mid-1950s and featured a shapely vampire woman played by Maila Nurmi. Vampira became nationally known and even later had a role in the Ed Wood cult classic “Plan 9 from Outer Space” .  The format was a ratings winner and became something of a phenomenon through the 1960s and 1970s spawning such popular hosts as Zacherley and Elvira Mistress of the Dark.

            Madblood began in 1974 when Jerry Harrell was working at WAVY-TV 10. He and his partner, Mark Young, began brainstorming an idea for a horror movie show to be hosted by a character called, “Dr. Madblood”. A curious name and interesting origin as Jerry tells it;

“I have since the age of about twelve, been a serious student of the magical arts. There was, a very long time ago, an item called the “Madblood Rose”. It was a magician’s prop that was an ‘appearing rose’ and Madblood Roses were very highly thought of among professionals. When I needed to come up with a name for the character, Madblood came into my head from having had some of those roses as a working magician.”

            Originally, Dr. Madblood was to be the Dr. Jekyll half of a character with the Mr. Hyde half to be played by Mark Young as a game show host! Although it was a funny idea, the pair understood the joke could not be sustained, so they kept the mad scientist, Dr. Maxmillian Madblood and Mark Young played his assistant “Volley”. The first show aired on November 4, 1975 on WAVY-TV 10 and featured the 1944 Universal classic, “House of Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. Viewers were encouraged to call in and answer a trivia question and the station receptionist was quickly overwhelmed. Come Monday morning, Jerry found out that the final caller count topped four hundred and Madblood was made a regular part of the weekly schedule following some new comedy show called “Saturday Night Live”.  Dr. Madblood took the basic horror host formula to a new level with full-blown storylines, often satirizing popular movies of the time like “Star Trek The Motion Picture” and “Star Wars”.  These tales played out against the backdrop of the dilapidated, old Madblood Manor on Idle Hour Road in Pungo, Virginia, in reality a Monty Pythonesque cardboard cutout against a painted background.

            Through the years, Madblood Manor has hosted a bizarre cast of characters played by friends and colleagues. I asked Jerry what has favorite thing about doing Madblood is and he said, “People ask me why we’re still doing it after all this time and it’s because it gives me a chance to get together with all these people.” 

Mike Arlo with Dr. Madblood

Mike Arlo, local celebrity DJ from FM 106.9 Classic Rock has been playing popular regular characters, “Count Lacurda”, “Kid Exorcist” and “Dusty the Cropduster” since 1976. In 1989,  “Nurse Patience Dream” played by the lovely Penny Marcialis joined the gang. Carter Perry started playing “Ernie” one of the monsters that live in the basement of Madblood Manor, in 1977. He also serves behind-the-scenes as sometimes producer, director and special effects artist. He shared this scary tale from the set:

“For a while at WTVZ we would try to rattle the lady who was handling the audio by saying weird things during mic checks. After a quick dinner of a new york hot with chili and onions, putting on the Ernie mask and waiting, I decided to belch my mic check. The mask filled up fast.”

Craig T. Adams plays the other basement monster, “Waldo” and characters “Dr. Roach” and “Uncle Felonious” and also is the voice of “Brain” (a sponge in a bowl).  Craig and his wife, Debra Burrell own “Fuzz and Stuffing Puppets” and it was their puppeteer skills that brought them into the Madblood fold:

“In 1979, a friend of ours introduced me to Jerry Harrell. I took a bunch of puppets to the meeting and a year later, we were asked to be on the show and bring our sci-fi themed puppets, for a spoof of "The Empire Strikes Back". I was also asked to do a space bounty hunter character, Bubba Fat, and something about the voice I used resulted in my being asked to join the company as the new voice of "Brain”.

Debra Burrell continues to serve behind-the-scenes as either (or both, depending on the situation) “Continuity Goddess” or “The Ninja Script Woman of Death.”  She got to get in front of the camera once:

“… I did get to play an evil nurse. Well, the evil incarnation of the nice nurse. Patience Dream accidentally ingested some “Pretty Mean Stuff” (PMS, get it?) and turned into the evil nurse Edie Hyde. That script was written by my darling husband, but I actually begged for that role. It was so much fun.”

There are many more crazy characters that have appeared through the years and a complete list can be found on Dr. Madblood’s web site (www.madblood.net). 

            Anyone familiar with Dr. Madblood will immediately think of the striking, psychedelic music from the show’s opening often referred to as “Dr. Madblood’s Theme”, but in reality the song is “Green-Eyed Lady” by the band Sugarloaf.  Harrell first heard the song one day while driving to work and decided to try it out and the music proved to be a perfect fit. About a year after using the theme, Harrell got a call from Jerry Carbetta himself, Sugarloaf band member and the song’s co-writer. “I assured him that we were paying the proper licensing fees,” Harrell told me Carbetta said, “…No, that’s fine, I just wanted to check and see if that was the case.”

            The story for this year’s show is pulled straight from the headlines and tells the tale of “P. Bradley Botts”, a billionaire, tech guru, played by local actor Terry Jernigan, who wants to move his data storage from the cloud into the swamp and needs to buy Madblood Manor to accomplish the task. The good Doctor has no interest in selling and the drama begins.

            This year’s movie is “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” (1973) the last Hammer Production to feature Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in a story set in 1970s swinging London that features a devil-worshipping ceremony and motorcycle chases mixed in with the usual vampire antics. There is one scene with some nudity that Jerry assures me has been creatively dealt with by inserting Waldo and Ernie at key moments.

            In all the thirty-eight years that Madblood has been with us, I asked Jerry if he had a favorite memory from doing the show:

“A story that I’ve never told anybody before, is when I was doing the show on WAVY, Frank Gorshin was appearing at a nightclub in Virginia Beach and I went out to see him. I was sitting in the audience and Frank Gorshin says, ‘I was watching TV last night and there was this guy on there who was really funny and he was going Li-Dee-Di-Dee-Di!’ and I thought ‘I’m sitting in the audience and Frank Gorshin is doing me!’”

You can catch “Dr. Madblood’s Halloween House!” Saturday, October 26^th at 10:30 PM Eastern Time on local public television station WHRO-TV and streaming live on the internet at http://www.whro.org/home/html/drmadblood/.

Dr. Madblood on the web:

http://www.madblood.net/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Doctor-Madblood/76895115752

https://twitter.com/madblood

http://www.youtube.com/doctormadblood

Me, my wife and Dr. Madblood from the 2012 Halloween show

Can Refrigerator Magnets Defeat Domestic Violence?

I am running in a 5k race this Sunday that is a fundraiser for Samaritan House, which is a worthy charity that helps victims of domestic violence and families at risk of becoming homeless. Full disclosure, my wife works part-time at Sam House, so we often participate in their fundraising events. In recent years, government funding has been becoming less available, so charities like Samaritan House are struggling to find money to help their clients.

Last year was the first time I ran a 5k of any kind and I enjoyed the atmosphere and sense of purpose. It felt good to give back to the community. This year I decided to try and raise extra funds on top of what I have contributed. I've built a pretty decent social network and want to see if I can use it to educate and amplify for this cause. My goal is $500. I am suggesting a donation of $10, with the hopes that I could get fifty people to come through. So far, I am 60% of the way there. I hit on the idea to provide an additional incentive and offer up these two groovy, vintage Kan-Kan Studio (my old studio name from the 1990s) fridge magnets that I recently dug up. Here's the deal; who ever makes the largest contribution, will get their pick between the two. I'll do a drawing among the $10 or more donors for the other one. A mere ten bucks will get you a chance to own one of these beauties. It also feels damn good .

>>> Click right here to go to my Crowd Rise fundraiser page <<<<

Thank you!

OK HW

Exhibition bound - "Big Chief Bad Noodle"

I finished "Big Chief Bad Noodle" with a lick of acrylic paint and a touch of gold leaf; rubbing and distressing the surface to make it look like an artifact.

As a newbie woodcarver, I'm pleased with the results I got from using hand tools and the dremel.  I have a whole stack of cedar to play with and will get rolling on the next piece soon.

This piece was taken from a tiny sketch that I did a long time ago.

 I decided to not try and copy the original design exactly, leaving some room open for randomness. As you see, he was wider through the middle in the sketch and where the "brain" is was just a pattern that doesn't quite work. I also changed to the brain matter when I thought of the name.

"Big Chief Bad Noodle" will be hanging in the "Small Works - Miniatures by Tidewater Artists" at the Charles H, Taylor Center in Hampton, Va. from October 12th until December 1st. Last year I had a drawing in that show, "Edgar Allen Poe VS. The Brain Eating Microbe". I need to get started now on some work for next year's show as I am always procrastinating until the last minute.

OK HW