Pretty Buttons All In A Row

The family that crafts together ... laughs together?

We got the magazine clippings out tonight for a crafting project. Sarah picked an antique frame from a trading post (we live in the antique capital of Oklahoma, after all) last month especially for this framed button art project.

I whipped up a batch of tea, and we put a few washes on some heavy paper for the background. We're going to fix the buttons to the "aged" paper and hang it on the wall. Sarah has really been wanting some non-painted art on the walls, and I think it will do her good to have some art of her own hanging up.

This is a pretty easy project if you can source an antique-ish frame easily. Well, and buttons, too.

Casualties Mount in this War on the Economy

Inspired by Banksy's murdered telephone booth, maybe I'll steal (repurpose) these discarded phones and make a statement about post-modern consumerism or the stranglehold that telecom has over Americans.

It would be a shame to send them directly to a landfill (Earth's open wound) without a useful pit stop along the way.

Then again, I'm lazy, it's hot and I don't have a gallery opening coming up.

In other news, I've developed a new hobby revolving around twitter (and, more recently, #humanburgers). I don't know why my posts won't show up when you search #humanburgers, or why anyone would search #humanburgers. I just know that the concept of human burgers is funny in the context of anger about Americans eating lion burgers.

So twitter gives us 140 characters per tweet. While I hate that the medium is so limiting, I'm trying to make the most of it. My newest hobby is posting tweets that use all of the 140 allotted characters. It's more difficult than it seems, considering I don't rely on any of the crutches of modern society (lol, lmfao, rotflmao, etc...).

The practice is known as efficiency in tweeting. In these tough economic times, we have to make the most of what we're given.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

We pretended to be Tulsa socialites last night and attended the independent cinema to view Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Sarah was part of the uninitiated crowd that had never seen any of Banksy's work. I thought it was pretty clever the way this documentary was filmed. It really focused on the rise in popularity of street art and the hypocrisy of many who jump in trying to make a quick buck.

Personally, I think Banksy and Shepard Fairey have tricked the masses with this documentary. Surely a frenchman can't simply come up with ideas and pay an army of real artists to produce his derivative ideas, then get rich selling them off. I don't want to live in that world.

Either way, the Circle Cinema had an art competition behind the theater. It was hot and humid, but the art prevailed. The winner in the youth competition featured the line "Art is not a competition." Fortunately for him, the lone judge was wearing a Sex Pistols t-shirt.

"The dump is like Earth's open wound"

The heat index was only 108 degrees on the day we had to go to the dump.

Luckily, this guy was willing to scrape out all of our junk for $10. After the hours spent loading up the trailer, it was money well spent to take him up on his offer.

Jose assured us that his man Felipe in the truck was a pro. I figured, anyone driving around a big piece of machinery at the dump with no A/C on a 95 degree day who is willing to scrape out your junk for $10 has to be good at what he does. Although, these guys at the dump don't have a clue about pricing. Once you're in the dump, you're committed. I would have paid $20 for him to get that trash out.

This is not a food blog!

Or is it?

The first time I had this salad, we were at the rehearsal dinner for a friend who was about to get married at a Brazilian steakhouse. The dinner was at the steakhouse, not the wedding.

The second time I had it, we'd gone to eat at an Irish pub/restaurant with my parents in Tulsa (McNellie's, for anyone in the Tulsa area).

The thought to pair fruit, spinach, feta and walnuts in a salad had never occurred to me. That's a shame, because it's about the best salad I've ever had. It's also easily the most colorful meal I've ever eaten.

Top it off with some low-fat Raspberry vinaigrette dressing, and you're bound to impress the most health-conscious people in your life.

While I'm at it, I'll put in a shameful plug for the Guiness cheese at McNellie's. Sounds awful, tastes great.

Pizza Zazz

In an effort to (a) lower our carbon footprint and (b) refrain from having a fridge full of brown clumps that used to be herbs, we decided to grow a pizza herb basket on our back patio.

Neither of us have ever been able to keep anything alive, except a hibiscus that could miraculously survive on intermittent watering. Naturally, I was skeptical.

Thanks to a rainy June, the basil, parsley and greek oregano have flourished. We even have very fragrant rosemary and lavender plants.

We made our very first dish containing ingredients that we grew on our property tonight. Technically, Sarah made it. We added some basil and oregano to our pepperoni pizza, and it was delicious. It's very satisfying to eat things that you cultivated yourself. I look forward to more of that next year when I have a proper garden in my back yard.

Said specimen is shown above. Proof of tastiness can be seen in the background. We polished one off before I could even get the camera out.

El Fin

One small tweak to the OSU logo and this journey is over.

This turned out to be a really solid painting that I'm proud of. I'm sure that the buyer will enjoy showing this purchase off on Saturdays in the Fall, too.

If you are interested in owning a painting from the Pistoleer series, contact me by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post.

Pistoleer No. 1

I'm nearing completion of Pistoleer No. 1, the first in a series of Pistol Pete portraits that I'll complete this year. I know Sarah is thrilled by the prospect of having multiple Pistoleer paintings hanging in various rooms in our home throughout the summer.

Sadly, I won't have the opportunity for this one to hang in my home for even a day.

What Our Vacations Look Like

Sarah and I are cultivating what seems to be a fairly unhealthy obsession with rural signage in the Midwest. There's nothing wrong with admiring wall murals on brick facades. One could argue that this early form of advertising birthed the Graphic Design profession.

It's the less sophisticated signage that really attracts us, though. These gems are the real reason we pack the camera on our cross-country trips; the gas stations of America that claim to "Help the Ladies." What it is they claim to help the ladies with, we did not ask. In the time it took us to pull over and take the picture, we did not see any ladies being helped, and my pregnant wife wasn't up to the task of investigating.

Since she wasn't playing ball, we decided they probably help the ladies pump gas. The owner is clearly the advertising guru of Paul's Valley.

Impasto Pete

A housewarming party and family trip kept me busy not working this weekend. Since the home christening was for the buyer of the Pistol Pete painting that I'm supposed to be working on, I'm sure I'll get a pass for a day or two off.

Today turned out to be a breakthrough day, though. Sometimes a few days away from a canvas is the only way to make real progress. It's a real shame that all offices don't operate on that premise.

It appears that the fourth attempt was charmed, as far as backgrounds go. In fact, I stumbled onto a technique that produces results that I find so appealing that I might adopt it as "go to". The previous three tries produced a background that was either too dark or very boring. I think I've achieved a proper balance finally. My in-house art critic/director/studio-mom (Sarah) agrees.

I decided to pick up some more medium for my paint. I'd moved away from the high-gloss medium over the past year. However, parting with one of the first pieces where I'd used the medium reminded me how much detail and visual interest the medium can add with it's texture and contrast in sheen.

This painting is really coming together thanks to a few risks.

Edit: After posting these new pics, I came to the uncomfortable realization that they appear to be identical to the previous post. You'll have to trust that this is the result of my poor photographic skills and lighting laziness and not that I'm only pretending to paint.

Pistoleer Day At the House

It's been slow going for the man in orange so far. I'm at that familiar junction where I'm unsure and considering some serious over painting. It's times like these that I'm reminded why I paint in the acrylic medium.

I'm on my third variation of the background, but I think this one is going to stick.

Pistol Pete has been a constant companion for us in the kitchen for a week now. He watches us make dinner, eat and clean. He cheers for the Celtics, doesn't care about college softball and wishes he'd watched at least one of the Stanley Cup games.

Who knows what he does with my wife while I'm at work.

I had to bring Willie Nelson in from the other room for inspiration. He needs a frame in a bad way. I'm beginning to think all of my paintings need frames...

Symphony In Yellow: Sold

I'm happy to share that I've sold one of my paintings to a family in Tulsa. This painting, titled "Symphony In Yellow", is one of my favorites.

I painted this meadow as a companion piece to an earlier one with a similar subject and layout. "Yellow" symbolizes the Spring, while the other painting has a Fall color palette.

The painting is expansive, at 24"H x 60"W, so I only felt comfortable dealing locally. Luckily, I found a buyer who will display it in his home.

Sarah and I were able to share this painting with guests in our home for the past two years, and I only hope that the new owners have the same affection for this painting that I do.

Magnum, P.I.

I've been commissioned to do a painting, and it feels good to work in my new space. "Space" being the operative term, as I now have plenty of it.

This painting has been on the schedule for months now. I guess these things happen when you move into a new house.

This Oklahoma State University alumnus saw some of my previous portraits (Willie Nelson, Napoleon Dynamite) and settled in on the school's mascot as the subject matter for his painting.

I noticed during my sketches that OSU's Pistol Pete mascot bears a striking resemblance to Tom Selleck.

It's a fairly large canvas that measures 28"W x 28"H.

I think I'll do a series of portraits, exploring different croppings, styles and palettes. The first will be fairly straightforward.

This series has the working title "Pistoleer".

Guinea Pig

Sarah needed practice changing diapers. Spud volunteered, on the condition that no one ever sees this photo.

He'll do anything for a doggie treat.

The Cabinet Door Project

Someone really should do something about those shop class cabinet doors made out of slabs of whatever wood composite was available back in '68. Hinges painted over a half dozen times. Cabinet door handles missing (also painted).

I'm sure Sarah loves that one of the first projects I tackle is the laundry room.

I've made cabinet doors twice before. Actually, the first wood working project I did was to convert a chest of drawers into a buffet cabinet. If I can match my improvement from my first doors to my second, these might actually pass for professional.

As is soon to be the theme for my house, we're going with vertical beadboard panels for the inset of the cabinet door, with pine making up the bones of the doors. I can only hope that, in addition to being the cheapest solution, beadboard is as contemporary as I imagine it to be.