Simple
“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” -Albert Camus
Somewhere in Colorado, 2009.
Puddles & Stars
“A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road.” -Alexander Smith
(3 photos of a puddle in my mom’s driveway, the sky during the 2009 Perseid meteor shower, and an autumn moon above Kansas meshed together in photoshop).
Neal Casal – Traveling Lighter
Love this lots.. Insider information: This song inspired this paper cutting that I made last summer. Happy Friday.
Kansas Summer Roadside Flower
“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” -Claude Monet
A summery flower photo seems appropriate since I’m taking a break from work-stuff and sitting outside in Kansas on Feb. 1 in a t-shirt in the sunshine.. It’s making me feel a little seasonly off-balance, but I’ll take it. I’ve been giving my printers a run for their money all morning trying to get prints and greeting cards ready.. first art fair of the year coming up in less than two weeks..
Dust on my boots & some rambling..
Two years ago at this time, I was shoveling 2-3 foot snow drifts out of my mom’s driveway. Today I woke up to sweatshirt weather and the smell of spring rain and it’s making me a little antsy to be outdoors and to hit the road for some travel.. I love being out there. I told a friend once that the reason I liked to go out for morning country drives is because no matter what I’ve got going on, at least I’m moving forward… I got laughed at.
In other news, I just found out that Beatrice Coron and Clay Rice, two amazing cut paper artists that I’ve admired since I began cutting paper are both in the exhibit I’m in this summer in Topeka. I saw a Beatrice Coron exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library when I lived in NY. It was mind blowing.. I’ll be giving some sort of presentation during the month of June for this exhibit – working out the details now.. more on that later.
The MacGuffin, a national & international literary magazine, is coming out in Feb. My work titled “Stacks” is the cover image and I’ll have a few works inside. I’ll post it when it’s out.
Also, look out for Lawrence Magazine, a local Lawrence, KS, magazine on city-goings-on, for an article about Lora Jost, Dave Lowenstein (two Lawrence-based artists) & myself. It went to press last week and should be hitting stands anytime.. and it’s free.
That’s all. Here’s a song. “Dust On My Boots” by Jerry Jeff Walker
Sunrise
“Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” -Tertullian
Sunrise over the Kansas Flint Hills, Summer 2011.
Nature
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” -Henry David Thoreau
Summer, 2011, Atchison County, KS.
Sherwood Anderson: Unlighted Lamps
Following up my recent fiction book post, this is a paper cutting I did in 2008 of my favorite author, Sherwood Anderson, posted originally in that same year (see all posts relating to Sherwood Anderson HERE). I added the color in photoshop with the thought that I could emulate the neon psychedelic style of Victor Moscoso, whose art I admire greatly and has inspired me in major ways and is now one of my facebook friends — that blows my mind a little bit. I posted about him back in 2008 HERE. I digress. My purpose for posting this is to pass on a link to one of Sherwood’s short stories, and maybe one of the most powerful short stories I’ve ever read: Unlighted Lamps. He has an amazing way of portraying the inner psyche of each of his characters, which I love.
By the way, he died from a stomach infection after accidently swallowing the tip of his toothpick that broke off in his martini. Drink carefully, friends.
Winter Flora
“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ….. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.” -Ruth Stout, Kansas born author
Two Trees Intertwined
“I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here. When I come back to it, I never have to remind it of anything; I begin just where I left off.” -Willa Cather, O Pioneers!
…On a different note, it’s a slow time of the year for me where I take advantage of lots of time at home and totally loaf around whilst trying to gather some new insight and come up with some new ideas. Doing lots of reading, thinking, being, writing, drawing, and planning. That said, new works coming soon..