Journal Entries by group; refer to date for updates
• Poland Trip - Summer 2006 last update September 3, 2006
  
• Oakland House - Summer 2005 (123456) last update October 1, 2005
  
• Oakland House - Summer 2006 (123) last update December 1, 2006

I'm not a master of anatomy or the study of fossils, but I used to collect fossils when I was a kid. I had a couple minutes to goof around before going to work so I checked ebay and did a search on fossils. Initially I saw the typical stuff and then started looking closer and it seems that most of the stuff is fake. I started looking closer and found some amber with scorpians inside. These clowns should be jailed for fraud and animal cruelty. I continued looking and found this gem . I had to laugh and its coming from China no less. This particular "fossil" reminds me of some work that a friend of mine did in Highschool during Biology 2 class. He was from Germany and wasn't quite up to par on english so the teacher gave him interesting side projects. One of his projects he had fun with was disecting owl scat for bones. He would reconstruct the animals the owl had been eating. After completing a couple mice and what not he decided to be creative and placed out the little animal bones into wierd 8 legged octo-rodent animals and other monsters for fun. Back to this auction. There are people actually bidding on this shit. At least they are getting a genuine piece of mud and some effort from China. The same seller is selling "authentic" japenese swords for $4. Check it out for a laugh.

Just for fun I went to www.ebay.com.cn which is ebay in china. I did a search for authentic. Its absolutely amazing how many fake items are for sale there. China would be broke if they could be sued for copywrite infringements. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the chinese, but I think gucci and tiffany does.

update (evening): I got home from work and found this fossil from the same seller; its listed as very rare, but for some reason they have 6 of them for sale and will have hundreds more as those sell.

Enough about those crazy auctions. Today was opening day (baseball) and the Reds lost to the Cubs. The Reds looked okay, but like last year they need some tougher pitchers.

I went to the grocery today (one of the last stores that has goods made in the USA) and bought fresh produce to paint. Its funny; I don't buy produce based on quality or taste, but based on aesthetic value, but I'm eating more fresh foods compared to if I wasnt a painter. I bought some very very nice tomatoes that were on sale too. I got more yeasts too. I carefully selected them as they tend to be finicky about who they'll rise for.

After watching Walk the Line I've been listening to Johnny Cash music quite a bit. I'm not sure why really as I;ve never really been attracted to his music in the past. His website has 15 songs or so that are free to listen to and they seem to me as his best hits.

I'm going to post some fun videos later this week of our (my brother and I) adventures with the Greenhills Police. Those that have known me for a long time know that I had a thing for special modified highly creative cars. Unfortunately all of the Police department has retired, quit, or fired (not suprising) since I lived there... well except for Officer Patton (aka mr penishead jr.). My record for being pulled over in a single day was 5 which consisted of 2 different cars and 3 different police officers. I don't recall the specifics on being pulled over, but it was probably for the Larosas cup used for a yellow filter on the turn signal or the back seat in the trunk of the converted car. More later.

Owned some bread this evening. I started it a little late and started getting tired while it was still rising, but my wait proved worth while. It rose a little too much it seems; the yeasts were liking me today. Here is my recipe. Its whole wheat/bread flower mix and I put sunflower seeds in it, but I'm thinking adding anything would be fine.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 package quick rise dry yeast
* 3/4 cup unpacked brown suger
* 1 3/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 egg
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, + maybe 1/2 cup more for kneading
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
* 1 egg beaten for topping
* cooking spray or vegie oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 15 minutes. Stir egg and oil into water/yeast just prior to next step. Mix 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, and seeds. Make a well in the center and pour in the water/yeast mixture and mix it gradually until its too tough for a spoon and then use your hands. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add up to 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough stickage during kneading.

2. Place dough in a large bowl coated with oil, turning to coat top. Cover with damp linen kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place (85degrees), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch dough down and roll it up with seam down and put in a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with oil. Brush the beaten egg on the top and sprinkle seeds or something that looks cool on it. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Uncover dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until loaf is browned on bottom and sounds hollow when tapped. Cover loaf with foil if it starts to get too brown on the top at about the 30-35 min mark.

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I'm going to let my granny try some of this and I'll report back with her findings later.

Not sure what was going on today with people driving. The biggest thing that gets me is how people infront of you turn their left turn signal on after everyone is stopped and the light turns green. If they had it on previously people would see this and use the other lane to go straight that has parked cars in it except fot around the intersections. Today 3 people in a row did this - 1 was a famine tolerant lady eating and the other 2 were on their damn phones which is my second driving irritant. I swear someone on their phone is going to croak me one day. I'm a very passive driver, but some people need to wake up and be considerate. Its partly the fault of the city planners too; this isnt a problem in many other places because the lanes are set up right and people taking a left have their own lane, but there is no specifics here in the Nati.

The post office is wacked out too. Since when did Canada anex Norway? I've been sending packages to Justyna in Norway weekly and for whatever reason one got sent to Canada first and was returned and sent back. Paintings to CA have still not arrived. Priority mail is a joke. I could have taped it to a turtle and it would have gotten there quicker.

enough ranting. I broke the back gate on my old belt sander that used to be my grandfathers. It still works perfectly fine and all. Of all the power tools I've used and have the only injuries have been from the damn sanders. I was trying to sand this real thin small piece of wenge and it snagged and the base of my palm got sucked into the back of the sander and broke the gate. Luckily painters/wood workers have thick palms and only the dry skin got sanded a bit. Its red, but no blood. I just watched Walk the Line movie about Johnny Cash and I've been super careful with the table saw although I always am anyways.

I bought a miter trimmer last week for making frames and its kick ass - quicker than boogering with the jig I made for the table saw and more exact too, although I was getting pretty good with the saw. The trimmer is nice though; i could cut my bike in perfect 45 angles if needed.

Today is my step mom's birthday; She is 24 now :)

We finished up some work at the Red's Stadium and opening day is monday. There were real secret service folks there because the president is going to throw a ball or something. They had their black suits and black vehicl;es and all that fun stuff. I tried to look suspicious, but wasn't able to get any additional attention.

I havent had much of a chance to make more bread, but I did turn out two nice loaves. First being Swedish Dill Bread and the second was a very handsome Italian Semolina/Rosemary Bread. Both were very good. One of my moms friends came over and enjoyed quite a bit of the italian bread and I was making jokes later that he cut off a sliver for me and was putting the rest in his jacket and pockets to eat later when I wasnt around.

I'm dreaming of times and days with my Polish Princess. She is the best and takes good care of me despite being 10k away.

I havent started shooting my 2nd advertisement yet, but I have the story board done and some technical issues hammered out. It'll be cute.

Bread. Finally owned this doofus Irish Soda Bread and have pictures as proof. Its a fairly heavy bread, but is moist, soft, perfect crust, and wonderful flavor. It cuts perfectly and would make my grandmother proud. Here are the images.

I've got some really fun ideas brewing for my next flash stop frame animation movie. I'm not giving any details though. Part of being creative is topping your last bit of creation and I'm trying for 10 fold with this one.

I failed twice now trying to make some Irish soda bread. The first loaf was okay, but it didn't rise correctly because I didnt cut a cross in the top deep enough. It tasted pretty good though and had good consistancy almost. It rose from the bottom and looked like a mushroom. The second time around I have no idea what happened.. Its basically the same recipe, but it came out dark and didn't rise at all. It tastes burnt but its not. For those 2 attempts I didnt have buttermilk and had to do with milk + vinegar which I'm guessing is the problem. Round 3 is coming up prolly saturday and I am armed with real buttermilk and carraway seeds. This bread challenge I am taking very seriously like a painting. Its fun. I'll report to my grandmother when I finally get it right. She would own martha stewart in a baking contest to the death.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I went to Rhode Island to celebrate Christmas at my Uncle Chap and Paula's house. My brother and I both drove up there on thursday and just got back this tuesday morning. I'll add some assorted pictures.

Here is a thought prefaced by a rant: Check out the IBND website. I love being an independent artist for so many reasons and this covers several reasons why. Here is an ELITE group of painters that have obviously had problems with people copying their work. They decided to step above the rest of mankind and become elite and promote their work as being some mastery. Just typing this is aiding the eliteness of the group, but its too comical to me to leave it alone.

Anyways... my thought. I'm not going to compare my own work to others or talk about any individuals members of IBND since some are nice folks. Art is whatever you want or can think of and can be expressed in many different ways. Copying someone elses work perfectly can be considered art, but I agree with the disfavor the group shows towards people duplicating their work and selling in the same market they do. Its the same as selling a drug another company spent years to develope and all you did is copy the procedure to make it, but its art and its an idea being duplicated. I've not payed particularly close attention to the dupe artists, but most is from China and I think some also from Easterm Europe. Art like music and software is getting pirated and reproduced without correct attention given to its original author.

The most important thing to any artist is their name. Ideas and expression are important and give ones character. How would I feel if someone copied my work? If I was cleaning oriental rugs and someone copied my technique and solutions used I wouldn't feel anything at all. If someone copied my coding practices in C++ I would think it wonderful as it would be easier for me to debug, etc. If someone dupes my art on their printers and sells it as their own (cutting signature, etc)... I'd be turned wrong, but it still won't have my name on it and history will value it as insignificant. If someone copied my art to the best of their ability using similar or same methods I wouldn't care at all. Not a single person can share the experiences I have or energy that goes into my work and I'm just not concerned about people repainting my shit. If some line shop in China wants to pump out 3000 "Dory Next to Monhegan Light" and sign them with some odd name I really dont care. They didn't feel the cool breeze or sunlight from Monhegan and will never be able to express my experiences. They won't get the letters and comments from others that shared this same experience.

I'm just about the art and my ability to help promote a feeling or closeness to what I am trying to tell.

Copy my art if you want. I dont care.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I'm trying to flatter myself thinking that someone would want to copy my art. Bah :) If you know me you would know that I don't care about this.

I've got lots to do and some fresh ideas from Rhode Island still in my head I want to work on. Have fun

Pictures in no order are, my mom, brother, uncle/aunt, rhode island light, coastal water area, rock with heart

Everyone is having babies. John and Cara are having their baby tonight. I just saw Bryce and Iza's ultrasound of their child who is I think 4-5 months along. Lots of great stuff in and soon to be out of the oven. Currently I rubbed a hot pepper in my eye somehow and I'm typing this one handed so it'll be short.

I got an email from a wonderful lady who had bought one of my paintings. She was very very happy with it and I feel so warm to be able to make someone else so excited with a blurb of creativity on canvas.

I'll be at my Uncle's house for Christmas this year, but don't know details yet. My trip to Poland this winter I had to cancel, but I'll be there July 1.

Ebay ebay ebay... its an interesting market. Without a name its hard to sell a large painting. I didnt expect The Veil to sell to be honest, but I wanted to test the market to make sure. Its expensive to just list stuff on ebay, but its also cheap advertisement. When I'm old or dead people will remember seeing my work on ebay... or not :) I was doing some research on the others selling on ebay in the self representing artist categorie. There is some really shitty art there and there is also some good stuff. I think most of it tends to lean to the rushed and not thought out side. Slapping together the same "popular" scene kinda goes beyong art and into couch decoration categorie. I strongly feel that challenge and a goal is very necessary to making good art. No one can be a master while they are alive and the road never ends. Stopping mid way is shorting yourself. Name recognition is important and I'm working on it, but its hard when I really can't pump out 20 paintings a week. I will NEVER sacrifice quality with the goal of massive sales. Its not my thing. Art is greater than me and I try hard to do it well.

I'm working on some still lifes in my studio. Basically I have 3 pieces of glassware, apples, a banana, some pototoes, a pepper, seashells, and some other odds and ends. We'll see what I come up with once the sun comes up and shines on the subject. I moved my painting table around a bit and its set up nice.

Nothing really fun to report today. Its cold and my heat is still off. I'm waiting as long as possible to turn it on to save gas and because I hate paying CG&E anything knowing that we are paying for them to advertise.

End