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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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