david emrich blog

GABRIELLA

2010-03-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

This was a 20 minute sketch done yesterday morning at a figure drawing session I go to on Wednesdays at the Ashland Art Center. I bought a new kind of charcoal I'd never used before, vine charcoal, and it was really nice how it smeared using my finger. The girl's dress was a black negligé of sorts, and the see-through part was easily rendered by simply smearing the paper in the areas that were transparent. During one of the breaks I discovered the girl's name was Gabriella, and she just moved here to Ashland from Jersey last fall. She asked me to see my drawings of her, and this was the best one.

OREGON COAST

2010-03-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

The day before (see previous post) was a very wet and windy day at the Oregon Coast. This sketch was done the next day, which was a beautiful sunny day in the mid 60s with the air super fresh and clean from all the wind and rain. I did a series of watercolor sketches as well, but they're not complete enough to show here.

GREY DAY AT THE COAST

2010-02-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

Sitting here in a condo overlooking the ocean near Brookings, Oregon. Winds are gusting up to 40 mph, and there's a fire going in the fireplace. Just did this sketch through a window that was blurry with rain streaks. Cozy and warm inside, but about to go out for a walk down to the ocean.

CALDERA TAP HOUSE PAINTING

2009-07-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of me putting the finishing touches on the painting I've been posting about these past couple weeks. The new Caldera Tap House is set to open to the public on Monday, and there's an invite-only opening tomorrow night in Ashland, Oregon. This photo was taken last night, so glad I got this done in time.

ALMOST DONE

2009-07-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

Almost done with this painting for the new Caldera Tap House in Ashland, Oregon. As you can see in this photo, the wall is fairly rough, but I think overall the painting has come out well. All that's left now is to fill in the oval and then it's on to finishing work, including drawing the black outlines for the individual hop leaves, and also drawing black outlines around the edges of all green leaves and the barley at the bottom. A friend recommended using a paint pen, which is a great idea, as then the width of the line would be consistent.

CALDERA TAP HOUSE, PART 4

2009-07-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Almost done with this painting at the new Caldera Tap House in Ashland, Oregon. Getting the yellow to orange fade was not as hard as I'd thought; I just went for it and painted as fast as I could before the paint could dry. A friend suggested using matte medium or gesso to help with the blend, but I just used straight house paints and a fairly dry brush.

CALDERA TAP HOUSE, PART 3

2009-07-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Well, if you've been reading my blog recently you'll know I'm working on the painting of the Ashland Amber label for the inside of the new Caldera Tap House in Ashland, Oregon. It's amazing how long it takes to paint something like this. After finishing all the green leaves, I think I need to go back in and make the yellow veins a little narrower, which can be done by painting into them a little bit with the green paint. The tricky part will be the orange to red fade for the sunset sky above the mountain. Someone suggested I just paint a solid orange up to the banner (see original image below for reference), and then paint red above the banner, which is probably what I'll do. This housepaint stuff just doesn't blend well at all, and with the uneven surface of the wall it'd be very hard to pull off an even fade.

CALDERA TAP HOUSE

2009-07-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how long it takes to paint just a little bit. Yesterday I spent about five hours painting this image, and I still have a ways to go. The Caldera Tap House is supposed to open this Monday, so I have a lot of work to do between now and then, but at least the place is air conditioned with satellite radio.

CALDERA TAP HOUSE

2009-07-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be the official opening day of the new Caldera Tap House in Ashland, Oregon.

Of course, with only two weeks between the closing of the old Siskiyou Pub (which is the building Caldera is now using for their new tap house) and today, I knew it was optimistic to think they'd open today.

Actually, I'm glad, 'cause I would have really had to rush this painting I'm working on, and it's my first time using house paints of any kind, let alone using them for painting a large detailed image on a wall that's got a surface like the moon. I was stoked that Caldera decided to use the more expensive environmentally friendly paints, both for the greater good and for myself having to breathe the fumes while working indoors.

Below is the label I did for Caldera's Ashland Amber. There's a projector inside facing the stage, and the idea was to get the label on a CD and project it on the wall to trace. However, the DVD player the projector's hooked up to wouldn't read the CD, so I had to take this shot of the printed version with my cheap digital camera and use the DVD player's USB port to get the image to finally show up on the wall. This only took two days to figure out...

Here's a couple of shots of the paints used:

Drawing the outline on the rough wall using a slightly out-of-focus projector was a challenge, but it came out okay in the end.

I had to mix my own paints, and I screwed up the first mix of purple, which ended up being too dark for the section I used it on. I'll have to go back over it tomorrow with the right color. I added the yellow lines for the veins in the hop leaves and called it a day.

ROSEBURG REGGAE

2009-06-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

A friend from Eugene called me and reminded me about a free reggae show in Roseburg, Oregon. I'd just seen this band in Mendocino the other day, and they were really good. Also, there's an incredible disc golf course in Roseburg called Whistler's Bend, right on the Umpqua River, so I decided to head up in the afternoon and play some disc golf and then go see this band...something I hadn't done, since, well, Saturday (see previous post below). The show featured Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass, in addition to some heavy hitter session musicians famous in the Jamaican reggae scene. Sly and Robbie are responsible for the creation of the reggae sound as we know it today. They've played on over 200,000 tracks, and were around in the heyday of Jamaican reggae with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

The show was part of the weekly free concert in the park series in Roseburg, right on the Umpqua River, and the majority of the audience had no idea who they were seeing. Just a bunch of rednecks out for a good time, they sat on the grass most of the show until the musicians, and myself, shouted at them to get up and dance. The camera angle/focus I used was to capture Sly Dunbar on drums, as there was no other vantage point from the front of the stage where he was visible.

TRIFECTA

2009-06-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival yesterday. Most of my family was at a wedding in Wisconsin this past weekend, but I wasn't able to attend due to not knowing when my magazine deadline would be officially over. It was Friday afternoon and some friends said they were travelling down to Mendocino County in their '71 VW bus, and had room for one passenger. I packed all my stuff, and remembered their was supposed to be a disc golf course at a brewery near where the show was, so I grabbed my favorite discs just in case. When I got there I asked someone where the Anderson Valley Brewing Company was, and it was right across the street! So there I was, drinking organic microbrew, playing disc golf, and listening to Jamaicans play reggae music across the street. Truly a divine moment.

RED BUBBLE ONLINE STORE

2009-02-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a friend, who used to live here in Ashland but recently moved to the Bay Area, turned me onto a site called RedBubble. It's an online store where you can sell your art, and they do all the shipping, printing, billing, etc. A t-shirt that sells on their site gets me a twenty percent commission, which isn't much on a twenty-dollar item, but it's all about volume. I just created my storefront site this evening, and linked to it from my website, and I'm curious to see who, if anyone, wants to buy my art on a t-shirt. I made iron-on transfer t-shirts for Christmas presents this year, on organic cotton tees (something I wish RedBubble offered), and they came out great. I really like how my art looks on a t-shirt more than a print or a card. Plus, people advertise your work for you just by walking around.

ASHLAND ARTISAN GALLERY

2008-12-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to Robert Paulmenn's figure drawing session at his studio here in Ashland, Oregon. I haven't been in awhile (see some of my earlier posts for drawings done in these sessions), and I'd heard he was leaving town, but it seemed like business as usual once I sat down.

I'd run into Robert the other day at the sneak-preview opening of Ashland Artisan Gallery's newest project, a combination studio/gallery/workshop. The space is in the Provost Building located at 357 East Main Street, a three story, historic building. At the moment the building looks in need of some work, in terms of lighting and interior remodeling, but the sheer size of the space is inspiring. I would have liked to have taken video of the upstairs studio spaces, which are very nice and well lit, but my battery died taking this video in the basement.

I'm toying with the idea of renting space in the upstairs, but just this morning I was talking with Robert and learned that his studio space will soon be up for rent. It's about twice the price of the space in the Provost Building, but it's been the spot for a weekly figure drawing session for years. It seems that the regulars don't want to discontinue if and when Robert leaves town, and with the income they generate ($10 per person per session), it would almost pay for itself if it remained open for the Monday morning sessions.

Then there's the fact that the studio space in the Provost Building wouldn't be private, but would be in a cubicle-type environment in a big, open floorplan. Robert's studio is totally private, with its own locking door, which would mean more secure storage of artwork and supplies.

Neither space will be available until early next spring, and there's no guarantee I'd even get Robert's space before someone else, but it's good to be aware of the possibilites.

GO PHILLIES

2008-11-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

I watched the election results at my friend's house, who is black. There were about 30 or 40 people there, with only a handful of white people. It was very wild and exciting. We drank Dom Perignon and Moet Chandon, and I ate so much food I thought I would burst. I wish we could kick the incumbents out today, right now. This country's ready for change, but we still have to put up with two more months of the terrorists who are occupying our government, and I'm fearful of what they'll attempt to pass through legislation before Jan. 9.

But, their time is at an end.

For 20 of the past 28 years we've had Bush in power; as the VP with Reagan and then on his own, Bush was the controlling influence of the entire 1980s. Isn't it weird that the last time the Phillies won a World Series was in an election year (1980) that started a whole new precedent (of fear and hatred), and now they won in an election year that has started a whole new precedent of hope? Maybe we'll actually be able to walk through Independence Hall again someday....

QUINN DEVEAUX

2008-10-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Quinn is from the Bay Area and is currently on a West Coast tour. The last time I saw him, which was the first time I met him, was about a year and a half ago, and he was about to embark on an East Coast tour. I asked him how it went and he said it went very well, and that he went even further east, to London and Scotland.

Quinn says his influences include Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. He's got a great voice, and his hollow body guitar sound really picked up well with my cheap little point-and-shoot camera.

This video was taken during Quinn's last minute booking at Liquid Assets wine bar in Ashland, Oregon. It was a Monday night, and since there were no Shakespeare plays that night, it was a rather slow night for businesses in the area. There were about ten people there to see him play, mostly friends, although there were a couple of randoms who ended up buying his CD (which I did as well, it's called Lions on Lakes). I'm looking at the CD now, and there's no website listed on it, even though I heard him tell some people there was. I was going to link to it from this post. If I find out what it is, I'll come back and update this.

Last night Quinn was supposed to play another club in town, but when I got there to see him, it turned out the place had been triple-booked. So, Quinn and I and several friends sat and had drinks and watched the other bands play. I left early, right as Quinn was setting up on stage to play, and I felt bad for ditching him, but he had quite a crowd at that point. I'll have to ask him how it went when I play disc golf with him later this afternoon.

MOVING TYPE

2008-09-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Wandering around Manhattan last week I happened across the New York Times building. It was a huge building, with the NY Times masthead over the entrance in big, metal type. Curious to see if I could get to the top floor for a view, I walked inside (see below for the video of when I finally did get a good view of the city from a rooftop).

The lobby had this cool art exhibit of moving type, which is shown above. I have no idea what the significance, or insignificance, was of each bit of type on the screens. The only common thread is that each screen poses a question, with no answer. It was kind of like a reverse magic 8 ball (remember those things from the 70s, where you asked a question and then shook the 8 ball up and an answer appeared in the window?)

NINE ELEVEN OH EIGHT NYC

2008-09-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a whirlwind tour of Manhattan. I was there for almost exactly twenty-four hours, and spent the entire time trudging up and down the city streets in Keen sandals, which have no arch support at all. Highly recommended.

I found out that day that the place we were staying, which was supposedly five minutes from Rockefeller Center, was actually in Weehauken, New Jersey. Does anybody know where that is? 'Cause I sure didn't. Suffice it to say that you're missing absolutely nothing if you never, ever visit the place. It's a ten to fifteen minute cab ride via the Lincoln Tunnel, depending on your driver's familiarity with the area. If, say, your driver has to consult with his cab company on the radio several times while driving around post-industrial warehouse districts, your trip might even take as long as twenty minutes. And that's only if you're getting in the cab at the lower end of Central Park and it's two in the morning.

All in all it was an epic trip, with Weehauken the only asterisk. Unless you include having to run a gauntlet of canine-unit cops at the Philly train station, or having to subject to your bag being searched at the Conan O'Brien show. But I don't count those things as asterisks. Just Weehauken.

DR. SKETCHY'S ANTI-ART SCHOOL

2008-05-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

What a fun event this was. In a small town like Ashland, everyone knows everyone, and since there's a ton of super talented artists here, it was a very festive and creative evening.

I originally was going to go by myself, but at the last minute a friend of mine, Julia, came by my house to play backgammon, and I told her about this. It was surprising she didn't already know, as she's an artist and way hooked into the art scene here. But it was more fun to show up with a date than to show up solo, even if she does have a boyfriend.

It was tricky drawing in bad light, with multiple shadows of my pencil all over my drawing pad. But being up front helped a lot; most people were much further away from the stage than I was (I was sitting on the models' couch).

I was really glad to get this one drawing out of the event, as the rest of the ones I did weren't that great. This is the girl you see in the end of the video, nearest the camera, who's talking. She was by far the hottest model there, and this portrait of her was done while she was posing with two other models, but I didn't have the time, or inclination, to draw them with her so near at hand. One thing that was difficult was drawing the makeup she had on, which was a big blob of red on her cheek and some heavy eyeliner.

PHILLY GRAFFITI

2008-04-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

My brother just sent me this link to a graffiti artist whose work we used to see back in the day in Philly.

http://215hiphop.com/interviews/first-element-interview-with-credit-xtc/

The writer's name was Credit, and I remember seeing his work all over Center City, where we lived. This was in the early 80s, and it was so cool to see graffiti evolving from bubble letters to wildstyle as it was happening. I remember I moved to Oregon in 1983 and was wearing an adidas running suit and suede Pumas with fat laces, and no one, and I mean no one, had ever seen anything like that before in Oregon. It was pure culture shock for the locals, and for me and my twin brother as well. Moving from inner city Philly to the homogenous, white state of Oregon was a trip. I remember being way into graffiti, even though I was only 13 and had never really done any major pieces anywhere. One time I worked up the courage to go out and do a full color piece, and I got caught by a cop walking the street. My brother was standing watch, but we weren't prepared for how much noise the can of paint was going to make. It made it hard to hear anyone approaching.

I think that's what I really miss about the early days of graffiti. It was still raw and unpopular among the masses, and it involved a great deal of risk, which made it a great adventure. It's one of those things you think only you and your friends are into, then all of a sudden it's mainstream.

(Kinda like 420. 21 years and counting, but now it's to the point where the Comedy Channel makes a nod to it on their programming—at least that's what I heard they did this last Sunday).

Anyway, reading this link above was like a missing piece of a puzzle that finally turned up after 25 years. I really wish I'd taken photos of some of Credit's killer shit, like the piece that was up on McCall school on 6th and Spruce, next to Jay Cee. Credit's piece was this killer wildstyle I'd never seen anywhere before, and Jay Cee's was the old school bubble letters next to it with the blue to white interior. I can't remember who went over it, but I do remember seeing Met and Espo up there after that.

I don't think this link mentions Bucks as part of the XTC crew, but I could swear I remember seeing XTC next to a couple of Bucks' tags near 10th and Spruce.

Taking the train to see our dad (whose birthday is today, happy birthday Dad!) in Germantown was always an occasion to look for new work by Credit and Jay Cee. We'd leave Market Street station on the Conrail, and there were a few years there where we kept seeing new pieces like every week. By this time graffiti had mostly moved to walls, though I do remember the days of riding the old Septa subway cars covered with bubble letter graffiti, with the insides completely covered with early writers' tags. People thought it was ugly back then, but I remember being a kid and being fascinated by the lettering, and trying to decipher what it said. I've loved typography ever since.

NUDES

2008-03-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

I was going through my sketchbook just now and I figured I might as well post more of these images from my Monday morning figure drawing sessions. I mean, what good are they doing anyone just sitting in an unopened sketchbook?

A LIKENESS

2008-03-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

After missing the past couple of weeks, I attended the Monday morning figure drawing session this morning. The model was a woman in her mid to late 60s, and she had a lot of detailed lines in her face that I wanted to capture, but the drawings we were doing were mostly gestural, with a couple of 25-minute sessions at the end. It's amazing how fast twenty five minutes goes by when you're super focused on something. This is all I was able to do in the last 25-minute session, but I really captured a likeness of the woman. It's the first likeness of someone I've managed to capture (their face, anyway) since I started doing these workshops.

HANDS AND FEET

2008-02-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

In yesterday morning's figure drawing session, I wanted to concentrate on the model's hands and feet. Most people don't spend enough time practicing drawing hands and feet, and I learned in art class a long time ago that it's easier to fake an area of the face than it is to fake accurate looking hands and feet.

In this particular pose I was most concerned with the model's left leg, in particular how it firmly weighted her to the ground. I wanted to convey how much of her weight she was putting on her left leg, and also how relaxed her hands were. She had very large, mannish hands, and I had to check several times to make sure I was seeing them correctly.

LEST WE FORGET

2008-02-07T09:43:00.001-08:00

The other night I got home from a day at the office (thankfully a rare occurence) and my friend called to tell me it was Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. I found some purple beads—couldn't find the green and gold ones to go with them—and headed downtown. No one was out celebrating, and I couldn't figure out what was up. Then I walked into a bar with a TV and realized that not only was it Fat Tuesday, it was also Super Tuesday.

The nerve of the networks to override a real and tangible holiday with coverage of an unreal and intangible non-holiday. As if the election process means anything anymore, if it ever did.

New Orleans deserves better.

WORTH THE WAIT

2008-01-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

Finally.

Today was the day I was finally able to ride the hill I live on. After four years of temptation. It's a very steep, very long hill, and it got 9 inches of snow dumped on it in just over four hours. And it's still snowing. It usually gets plowed before I think to snowboard on it, but today the snow was just too thick and too fast for the plows to catch up. I was racing the plow with each run, and I knew it, as I could see the plow on the streets below mine.

I got three runs in on the hill to my left, which is the steeper of the two (I basically live at the top of a convergence of two hills which are at a 90-degree angle), before the snow plow came along. Then I got two more runs in down the other hill before it got too dark to see.

It was epic.

I was actually able to carve and make powder turns, right from my front steps.

The power was out during the snowboard runs, and stayed out for a couple of hours afterwards. It's obviously back on now.

During that time I decided to read an art history book called David to Delacroix, by candlelight. There was a partially full box of beer outside my front door, covered in snow, left there by a friend on poker night last Thursday. I stepped out on the porch, barefoot, and grabbed a beer. It was a New Belgium Fat Tire, which I've avoided drinking for over 10 years. But it was sitting there in the snow, and the power was out, so I tried it for the first time in over a decade and discovered that it was delicious. I don't know if it was the circumstances surrounding the tasting of the beer, or if it actually had gotten better.

Then my neighbor called (on my landline), and asked if I had enough candlelight to play backgammon by. I said I did and voila, we were playing backgammon.

It was all very romantic.

Until I thought I detected a slight humming sound.

I got up from the game to turn on a light switch, thinking for sure that it wasn't going to produce anything. But no, on came the light. It was so disappointing.

Hopefully the power goes out again soon.

SNOWED IN

2008-01-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to an email from my twin brother, saying they had about six inches of snow in Cottage Grove (Oregon), and that it was still snowing hard. I called him and asked him to turn on his video camera on his computer so I could see. He figured it was snowing where I am, since the elevation here is about 2200 feet and the elevation in Cottage Grove is about 1000 feet. But no, it was just slightly raining here at the time.

Well, that's changed, as you can see.

My cat decided to make a cameo in this short film; thank you Tabitha.

Just finished a glass of red wine that someone left here on poker night, which was accompanied with a bit of 12-month aged Spanish manchego cheese on a rice cracker. I don't normally drink in the afternoon, but it was so pretty with the snow falling and the quiet that snow brings that I just couldn't help myself.

Now it's back to working on production work for my most recent client, adidas. I've gotta cut out the background from thirty pairs of shoes, four shots for each shoe. It's a good thing my new Native sunglasses arrived the other day, as the act of staring at a screen all day is greatly improved with the addition of polarized lenses on one's eyes (no color correction at the moment, so I can get away with wearing them).

CONTEMPLATION

2008-01-21T18:41:00.001-08:00

Once again I attended the Monday morning figure drawing class. Today I wanted to focus mainly on hands and feet, but this drawing is probably my favorite of the day. The model had a very contemplative mood, which I think I kind of managed to capture.

CARROT CAKE KARMA

2008-01-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days where things just sort of worked out. I went to the local food co-op to grab some lunch and groceries, and when I was paying for my stuff at the checkout counter I was told that my co-op member number wasn't showing up in the system. This also happened to me yesterday, and the checker said her machine had done that to someone else, so I just figured it was a computer issue.

But today the girl who was my checker happens to be a friend of mine, and she told me the real issue, which was that my membership must have expired. She asked me if I was on the payment plan for my membership (it's $100 to be a member, and they let you make $20 installments every six months, interest free, so of course I did that rather than shell out the full hundred all at once). I told her that yes, I was on the payment plan, and she said to go the customer service desk and get it straightened out.

I went to the customer service desk and was told that I'd missed a payment, and as a result would have to pay a $10 reinstatement fee. I asked the girl at the desk what the policy was to notify members of when their next payment was due, and she said I should have received a bill. I told her I'd never received a bill, and then she looked up my information and said that I'd been sent a bill last December 1st. I told her I'd never received the bill, which I didn't (I'm thinking now it must have gotten delivered to one of the mailboxes next to mine, as I often receive mail that belongs to my neighbors), and she then got the manager to come deal with me.

The manager, who was surprisingly young, came along and told me that it was simply policy and there was nothing she could do about it. "But I didn't do anything wrong, and now you're charging me", I said. She then said she had a record of the fact that the bill had been sent to me, and I told her that was great, but I never received it.

By that time I'd migrated over to a demo table where another friend of mine was giving a demo on some raw, vegan food supplement, and there were several people standing around trying the samples. One of the people standing around was a woman in her early 60s who happened to mention to someone else that she was shopping for ingredients for a carrot cake, but that she didn't have a good recipe for a carrot cake. Overhearing this, I introduced myself and told her that I happened to know of the best carrot cake recipe in the world, and that it was my mother's and was published in a cookbook which I happened to have. The woman was just in the process of giving me her phone number so that I could call her with the recipe when the manager who'd been looking into my membership billing issue came over and kind of hovered there, waiting to talk to me.

She mentioned again that my account had been officially past due as of January 1st, and that I should have received a bill, and I remembered right then that I'd just received my monthly co-op member coupons for the month of January. I asked her how it was that I was still receiving coupons if my membership was expired, and she agreed that was odd. Then the woman wanting the carrot cake recipe, who was still standing right there, said to this manager girl that she was a member, and hadn't received her January coupons. It was perfect timing, as I was then able to say, "see, the postal system isn't foolproof".

The manager finally relented and told me she'd wave the reinstatement fee if I had the money—twenty dollars— for my overdue payment, which I promptly handed her.

I got home and called the woman to give her the carrot cake recipe, and then said she might as well stop by and borrow the cookbook from me, as it was rather lengthy to tell it to her all over the phone. So, she came by, and she just left. She was here for about half an hour, looking at my art and telling me stories about her life in San Francisco, and how she was an interior decorater and a color expert and lots of other things. She came into my kitchen and started looking at stuff, and I was glad I'd just done a thorough cleaning of my house last night. She was wearing some kind of perfume, which is still lingering in my living room.

MONDAY MORNINGS

2008-01-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today I attended my first figure drawing workshop in the studio of a local Ashland artist. I'd met him during this month's First Friday artwalk, and he encouraged me to come to his workshop. It's on Monday mornings for ten bucks, and there's no instruction, which is nice. Just a series of drawings done in consecutively longer increments. First it was two-minute drawings, then five-minute drawings, then 15-minute drawings, and finally 25-minute drawings.

There were about 15 people at the workshop, with myself and another guy being the only men there. Not sure if that means that most of the artists in this town are women, or if it means that it's mainly women who are interested in figure drawing.

This is the drawing I did that I like the best. I did a few face drawings, but the paper I chose to bring had way too much tooth (rough surface) for fine detail work.

COMANCHE MOON

2008-01-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

I was at my brother's house over Christmas and wanted a book to read, and my brother handed me a nice, thick, hardback book from his bookshelf, which is loaded with nice, thick, hardback books. It was a book I'd never heard of, Comanche Moon, which is the prequel to Lonesome Dove. I'd never heard of Lonesome Dove either before last fall, when my brother gave me that book to read the last time I was at his house wanting something to read.

I've been reading the book on and off since Christmas, and I just finished it tonight, and there's some weird coincidences concerning it. First, I've noticed in the past week during football games on CBS that some kind of made-for-TV movie of Comanche Moon is supposed to air soon, maybe even tonight. How is it that a book written over 10 years ago, which I've just recently heard of and even more recently completed, happens to be broadcast as a TV movie right as I'm finishing the book? There were no ads for the movie when my brother gave me the book; it was only because he'd known I'd finished Lonesome Dove that he remembered to give me that particular book (as an identical twin, I feel qualified to sometimes speak as if I knew what my brother was thinking, even if he didn't actually tell me).

And the second weird coincidence is that, in the very last pages of the book, a character was mentioned who was just some background character that was never mentioned before or after. Just before I got to the page with that character, a friend from Eugene called and I got up to see who it was and didn't answer it 'cause I was so close to finishing the book. Well, the friend who called has a somewhat unusual name, Josh Korn, which just happened to be the name of the random background character in the book. Granted, the character in the book was spelled Josh Corn, but still, it was weird to see that name staring back at me right after I'd gotten the phone call.

Bizzare.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

2008-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

So tired. Was up 'til 4 a.m. Wednesday night, hanging out with a girl I met at open mic night at a local bar here in Ashland, then got up and went to Eugene for the Pac-10 opener of men's college basketball, where the Ducks played Cal. Right before I was to leave, a friend of mine who used to live in Eugene, but who now lives in D.C., called from the S.F. airport and said he'd be in Eugene that evening. Since I had no place to stay lined up, and his mom's house is super nice, I was glad he called.

After the game, which Oregon won 79-70 after blowing a 14 point lead in the second half, we went out to a club where there was a killer DJ and lots of slutty looking dancing girls. Then it was back to the nice house in Hendricks Park to sleep for a few hours before making the journey back to Ashland this morning.

And now I'm off to another group of girls' house for a birthday/sushi party, for which I'm late.

WINTER CONTEMPLATION

2008-01-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

While on an irregular visit to the local Ace hardware store (I'm not the handyman type, at all) to pick up an air filter, I happened down an aisle filled with art supplies. There were several varieties of paper to choose from, and brushes and paints and inks. Overall it was the best selection of art supplies anywhere near my house, and it took me over four years to discover.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to leave the art section without picking up something, and my eye landed on a sumi-e ink set. I've always loved Chinese brush painting, and even though I've spent many hours watercoloring, I've never managed to work with sumi ink. I went to some websites just now to get inspired, and the paintings I liked the most were ones that incorporated snow. I think what I like most about the idea of painting snow with black ink is that of course you can't paint white snow with black ink. You have to paint other things to make the snow stand out.

This is an entirely different process than what people say I'm good at, which is creating photorealistic drawings. While there's something satisfying about drawing in that manner, it lacks spontaneity and freshness. Yet I find myself drawn to both types of expression.

This just reminded me of something that happened on the First Friday artwalk last Friday. I was in a cluster of studios above one of the galleries, where the respective artists had work on display. I overheard a conversation about Philadelphia, which I still resonate with from my childhood there, and went over to see what was being said. I introduced myself to the artist, who was a woman from a suburb of Philadelphia. I then went to the adjacent studio and picked up an American Artist magazine from a stack near the door, and opened to a random page, which turned out to be the beginning of an article on Philadelphia artists.

I read the article for a bit, then went up and introduced myself to the artist, who had some very good portraits in his studio. After listening to him talk for a few seconds, I asked him if he was from Philly. He said that he wasn't, but he was from Jersey, which is basically the same as far as accents go. Then he said that I was the first person to call him on his accent, and that no one else ever picked up on it (or at least didn't comment on it if they did). I asked him how long he'd been here, and I forgot the exact number of years, but it was lengthy.

I realized, while talking to him (I can't remember his name), that he must be the artist that did the Monday figure drawing sessions. I asked him if that was the case, and he said it was. I promptly invited myself to the next session, which costs $10, and he said he'd see me on Monday, which was yesterday. However, after snowboarding in 10 degree weather, and drinking beer and sake with a friend who was visiting, I didn't feel like getting up Monday morning and walking through the snow with my art supplies. So, I want to do it next Monday for sure.

BACKGAMMON BLUES

2008-01-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

What to do when the local ski resort is closed due to too much snow? Play backgammon on a brand new table of course.

EXPAND MT. ASHLAND—OPEN ARIEL !

SPRING IN JANUARY?

2008-01-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

Just got in from sitting outside reading a book. It's 60 degrees here in Ashland, and even warmer in direct sun. At one point I had to wave off a bee that was trying to land on me. A bee, in early January! I'm taking advantage and have all my doors and windows open, and the fresh air is blowing out all the canned air that's been trapped in here for weeks.

Spent New Year's Eve here in Ashland, and at the midnight hour I was at the Inner Child Cafe, trying to land a kiss on one of the few remaining single women in the crowd. I managed to succeed, briefly, with one of the women I'd had dinner with earlier, but alas, she told me she'd promised to bed with another woman that night. I was mildly disappointed, but not nearly as much as my friend who'd driven an hour to spend the night with the other woman. Poor guy, he had to drive all the way back at 3 a.m. Or at least that's what we think he did; no one seemed to know when or where he'd wandered off to.

Yesterday was spent watching meaningless college football games, the highlight of which was videotaping my drunk friends standing in front of the big HD TV pointing at hideous Georgia cheerleaders, saying rude and crass things. Now I've got great blackmail material should I ever need it...

A TWIN THING

2007-12-30T10:14:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to a local brewery, The Standing Stone, with some friends after watching the over-hyped Pats vs. Giants game. There was a band playing, which was unusual at this particular venue, but ever since the Jefferson State Pub closed due to gross mismanagement the other bars in town have taken up the slack. Originally slated to wait around for a table in the back with the friends I came with, I decided to walk to the back area to see the band play. After standing around for a few minutes watching everyone else enjoying their beers, I went back to the bar to see if they had this year's Barley Wine available. They did, and I ordered one while sitting at the bar on the last remaining bar stool.

Next to me were two very pretty girls, and I asked them what types of beer they were drinking. We exchanged samples of each others' beers, and I then asked them if they'd been friends for a long time, even though I could tell they were twins. I just wanted to see what they'd say, since I'm a twin myself. It turns out one of them—Carrie—lives in West Virginia and had just flown out to surprise her sister. And her sister, Jackie, said she happened to look up in the sky the evening of Carrie's arrival and saw the plane she was on and said to herself, "I bet my sister's on that plane", even though she'd had no advance warning. I understood perfectly.

We then proceeded back to the dance floor and these girls, who are 29, could really dance. I was overdressed in long underwear, and had to decide whether to really cut loose and get all super sweaty, or take it easy and not be a turnoff. I took the take it easy route, and we danced together for some time. During a set break, a guy I know from the first week I moved here (he hired me to do a freelance job on his poster) said hello, and I saw what clearly had to be his twin brother (which I didn't know he had) sitting next to him. I then introduced him to the twins I was already with, and we proceeded to bore everyone else with our twin stories for awhile.

So there we were, three sets of twins. It felt like we'd somehow landed in a twin convention or something. I would have liked to have made further plans with the twin girls, but I cheesed out and took off with the guys I came with when I saw they were leaving. Maybe I'll run into them again...

CHRISTMAS EVE 2007

2007-12-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

My mom and her husband Chris were visiting Oregon this Christmas, and I took them on a tour of the wine country between Eugene and Cottage Grove on Christmas Eve. The soundtrack is a local radio station that was playing in the car as we were driving.

GO READ MY BROTHER'S BLOG

2007-12-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

What are you doing reading this? You should be reading Matt's blog; he's in Mexico with his girlfriend Marla and he got a sunburn on Winter Solstice. Check him out here:

http://photomatte.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/tulum-mexico/

Merry Christmas

HOORAY FOR SENATOR DODD

2007-12-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

My decision to continue to avoid joining the cellphone generation was made easier by the fact that AT&T is one of the main criminal organizations within the telecom industry who are involved in illegal wiretapping. I was very close to purchasing an Apple iPhone until I learned of AT&T's willingness to break the law and join the fearmongering campaign of this current regime in Washington, DC.

So, thank you Senator Dodd for not being a S.C.U.M.B.A.G. (State Controlled Ultra Military Bogus American Government)!

HEY GOOGLE

2007-12-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

This entry is an addition to the entry I just made below. It might help if you read that one first....okay, are you done with that one now?

Well, I wasn't entirely forthcoming about the randomness of the blog I was accidentally logged into. The blog actually belongs to a friend of mine, and I just called him to see if he'd logged into his blog on my computer, and he said he didn't think so, and that he hadn't updated his blog for awhile.

I then went to the question mark next to the Remember Me text on the initial login screen, and clicked the question mark to see how Google handled the Remember Me option. Well, here's a screen shot of what it said. Notice that it says the cookie expires in two weeks for any automatic login. This means that even if my friend did happen to login to his blog on my computer, which he doesn't think he did, and if he did happen to click the Remember Me checkbox, which I can't imagine he would have, it STILL would have expired after two weeks. But the initial screen shot I took (see below), says his blog was last updated Nov. 20, 2006 which was well over A YEAR AGO!

I'd love to know Google's explanation for this huge hole in the security of this blog service.

THIS BLOG SITE IS UNSECURE

2007-12-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

Warning, anyone who has a blog on this site runs the risk of having their blog accessed by anyone. I was about to make a new post tonight, and when I arrived at the blogger.com homepage to login, my screen refreshed before I could even type in my info and suddenly I was in another person's blog, with the Sign In/Sign Out link set to Sign Out, which means I was signed in to another blog. Here's a screen shot of the blog I was signed into. Hey Google, fix this shit, now.

DOGGONE IT

2007-12-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

This morning my next-door-neighbor's dog started barking right outside my bedroom window at 7:34 a.m. Luckily I was already awake and dressed, which is normally not the case at that hour. Still, that didn't stop me from thinking about all the other times the dog has woken me up at that hour when I wasn't up and dressed.

Then this evening I thought it would be a good idea to take a little cat nap (with my cat, of course, who never wakes anybody up but me) before going out tonight, so I went in and laid down next to the cat. I was at that point where you don't really realize you've drifted off to sleep until something wakes you up, when sure enough, there went the neighbor's dog, right outside my window. And it's one of those small dogs with the yippy bark that everyone's really afraid of.

I immediately had this thought while laying there in bed: I should include in my blog how many times a day, if any, my neighbor's dog has woken me up. And then, as this thought was still in my head, my phone rang, which would have woken me anyway. And who was it? It was my neighbor, the one with the dog. I told him that it was ironic that if his dog hadn't just woken me up, he would have with his phone call. Then he said he wasn't at home, and didn't know his dog was barking. To which I said, "if a dog barks and you're not home to hear it, does it really bark? Why yes, yes it does."

So, today the dog tally is two and counting...

DAVE GETS A BIKE HELMET

2007-12-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went into the local bike store to see about getting a new back tire, as the one I have now is getting worn out. They didn't have the one I wanted, but I was also in the market for a new helmet (my first helmet purchase ever, actually). After looking at the most expensive ones, I saw one for $39.99 (no tax in this state!). The price wasn't what convinced me, however. It was the name of the helmet (a Trek helmet) that really made my decision for me. It was called the Vapor, which is the name everyone down here in Ashland has me as in their cellphones, and the name I'm pretty much called by most of my friends here.

Seriously, my friends down here will start a sentence with, "hey Vapor", or "hey Vape". I'd say I'm called Vapor a large majority of the time, and it's a name I can live with I guess. As to how I got the name, well, I can't really say here.

So, there you have it, Dave gets a new bike helmet, and he's even planning on wearing it. But if I get in a crash and hit my head, I'll still think that it wouldn't have happened if I'd left my house a few seconds earlier (the time I would have saved by not putting on my helmet).

to iPhone or not to iPhone

2007-12-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Within the past year, my laptop has had water spilled on it and died, my digital camera was in my front pocket as I tried to lift a pool table and the LCD screen is shot, and now my iPod—which is the earliest version ever made—has decided to freeze up when attempting to sync with my iTunes.

This could mean two things. It's either time to abandon modern technological devices altogether, or it's time to get an iPhone.

But there's another issue—I've never owned a cellphone. I find them to be highly annoying, 'til I need one, then they're great. I also don't like the EMF radiation they put off. But since there's so many out there, I just borrow one from a friend, or in some cases I've even borrowed them from random people (in Amsterdam last year I borrowed a woman's cellphone to get ahold of the person I was staying with, whom I'd connected with via craigslist, and the other week I borrowed one from the girl sitting next to me on the flight to Cleveland to tell my pickup person I was going to be early).

So I'm in a quandry. The iPhone has the ability to replace my laptop, digital camera, and iPod, but it's still a cellphone. But the price it would cost to buy all of those items individually is way more than the $399 iPhone. But then there's the monthly charge, which is about the same as I'm paying for my old-school landline. If I got the iPhone, it would seem a waste of money to have both a landline and a cellphone, yet if I cancelled my landline, I'd be relying on the iPhone for all my phone calls, which would then cause me to be exposed to all the EMF radiation I don't like. But, the iPhone has the ability to listen and talk via the headphones, which theoretically would reduce the EMF radiation coming into my brain via my ear canal. Of course the radiation would still be there, it'd just be closer to whatever body part my iPhone was nearest to (chest pocket would by my heart, and pants pocket would be close to, well, damn).

I've always sworn I'd never own a cellphone, and I can rationalize to myself that the iPhone's not really a conventional cellphone, but yet it's still a cellphone.

If I get one, I'll have to listen to all my friends give me shit for talking trash about cellphones for so long and then becoming a sellout hypocrite. Then they'd want my cell number, and then they'd be texting me.

What to do...

WHAT'S UP WITH ASHLAND?

2007-12-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been hearing a lot of people complaining about the Ashland Food Co-op here in town. The co-op is the only game in town, and they know it, so they price accordingly. Since most of their clientele are retirees who move here with lots of money, they can get away with it. But it sure does squeeze out the working class (what, a working class in Ashland? No way!)

Recently I was back up in Eugene, and I stopped by my favorite store in the world, Sundance. I went to their salad bar, and knew I'd find a killer selection made with progressive ingredients. Like instead of any of their noodles being wheat, they're all rice or quinoa. And instead of any of their sweeteners being cane sugar, they're agave or honey or brown rice syrup.

Sure enough, there was a great selection, and I ate like a king. And the price was only $6.59/lb, as opposed to $7.50/lb at the Ashland co-op, which does use cane sugar and wheat noodles. Hmm, cheaper ingredients, higher price. Greed? Nah.

Why does this matter to me? Well, because this town likes to think of itself (if a town can be said to think of itself, which is another way of saying what the majority of locals think, whatever they are) as a progressive, healthy, spiritual town. There's a place here called the Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library, and there are more naturopaths and chiropractors and spiritual healing centers than anywhere I've ever been.

Yet they still smoke cigarettes in some of the bars here. How 20th century is that? And everyone drives, everywhere, even though it's a very small town.

All of this has led me to the idea of putting out a hoodie that says UC Ashland (University of California at Ashland). And it wouldn't even have to be on organic cotton.

CLEVELAND WEDDING VIDEO

2007-12-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, I tried using blogger's automated video sharing with YouTube, but it doesn't recognize my username, or maybe it's my password. I know I typed it correctly, so this is a bug that Google needs to address.

In any case, here is the official wedding video from Sidney and Heather's wedding in Cleveland.

CLEVELAND, OHIO, CONT.

2007-11-19T12:29:00.001-08:00

Okay, so we managed to get in the wedding after all. However, only a few of us, who happened to not be immediate family, managed to get in. We were told not to tell the other family members, who all showed up at the reception, that we in fact attended the wedding.

Currently sitting in the Cleveland airport, using my brother's laptop. They let me walk through security with a bag of groceries, which included a jar of very watery kim-chee (korean dish). Gotta love it.

Okay, my flight is boarding, on to Philly, then Vegas, then finally back to Oregon.

HERE IN CLEVELAND, OHIO

2007-11-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, just got back from a very interesting evening at a pre-wedding dinner here in Cleveland, Ohio.

After a meal in which my waiter brought me the wrong beer twice, brought my soup to the wrong person, and brought my vegetarian dinner complete with lots of chicken, the groom-to-be announced to our party of 17 that tomorrow's wedding would be 2 hours earlier than scheduled, and that only 12 people were invited. Which twelve was not stated, and we're now convening in our hotel room figuring out how best to crash the wedding.

I mean, when you fly from Oregon to Ohio after RSVPing a wedding you were invited to, you kinda expect to actually attend the wedding. I know, sounds presumptuous doesn't it? Silly us for being so selfish and needy.

At the moment, my twin brother and I are here in our hotel room with an old friend we haven't seen for 25 years, drinking Belgian lambics mixed with Bell's Brewing stout. It's basically dessert in a glass, complete with the warm fuzzy feeling associated with imbibing alcoholic beverage.

To be continued...

IN MEMORY OF JOEL RIBICH

2007-11-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Joel was one of the most giving people I've ever met. He lived a more full life in his 33 years than most people will in 80 years. He is, and will be, sorely missed.

APPLEGATE, OREGON

2007-10-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I think I really like this painting-from-video thing. This painting is not based on any one still frame in the video, but is rather a compilation of elements I thought were the most memorable. This painting's for sale if anyone wants to make an offer. It's 9 x 12 inches.

VIDEO PAINTING, CONT.

2007-10-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm tempted to scan my current painting right now to upload, because it's so close to being done and I want to post something visual. But of course I can't do that, I just have to wait for this latest glaze to dry and finish it off.

I really like the idea of painting from a small video thumbnail. Normally I make thumbnails on paper if working from a photograph, but with the small size of the videos taken on most digital cameras, the thumbnail is all you get to work with right from the beginning.

Now I want to go back and look over my other videos I've taken; I'm sure there's tons of material just waiting to be exploited.

VIDEO PAINTING

2007-10-16T20:12:00.001-07:00

While driving through the Applegate region of southern Oregon, I was inspired by the many possibilities for paintings. The lighting this time of year is always exceptional for painting, as the sun is never too high in the sky, which makes the shadows more pronounced.

At first I wanted to stop at every inspiring place I saw to take a photo, but by the time I saw anyplace good, I'd already passed it. So, I decided to try a new idea for paintings.

Video.

I like the fact that if you stop the video at a still frame, the image is not crisp and exact, but looks more like a painting. Shapes and colors become more obvious, while detail dissolves. When I paint, I try not to do what I do in drawing, which is photorealism. When working from a photo, this gets hard to do, as the camera makes such an exact image, and it's tempting to try and copy it. But I was more interested in the mood of the sky and the weather today, and now with just one video I've got numerous selections for paintings.

To those of you who are wondering why I was driving a car at all, that's a good question. I really have no excuse.

SUNRISE

2007-10-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

As I was laying in bed this morning, I noticed that my living room was bathed in a surreal light of pinkish orange. Not knowing what time it was, only that it was before sunrise, I got up to be in this magical light, and was amazed at the sky outside. This is a photo I took at 7:05 this morning, with my little Olympus 7 megapixel camera. I really wished I had a nice medium format camera for this shot, it was (and still is outside right now) incredible.

VECTOR ART

2007-10-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite tools in Adobe Illustrator® is the gradient mesh tool. It allows one to create photorealistic images in a vector program (not pixel-based), which is kind of like a CAD program, but much cooler. Obviously this isn't photorealistic, but it's one of my first attempts at using the gradient mesh tool, and I thought it turned out okay. I can't claim to have created the original design, which was painted on silk by my super-talented aunt Laura in Hawaii. I simply used her artwork as a template to try out the gradient mesh tool.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

2007-09-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

After writing earlier about how an image needed to be made of dictators past and present, I just had to go and at least make something. I couldn't find any high res images online, but there was more than enough material to work with. Okay class, name the dictators from left to right.

SERENDIPITY

2007-09-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just know you're doing the right thing. As some of you may recall from an earlier post, I was working on a logo for a friend. I was initially hesitant to proceed with the work as my super-cautious nature warned me of possible complications down the road (it wasn't clear whether or not I was the only one working on the logo, nor whether or not I was going to get paid).

After consulting my friend, I was assured that I was the only one working on the logo. I decided to proceed with the second phase of the design, in which I was to implement changes based on input from my friend's friend (the actual client). One of the changes was to somehow insert computer logic board iconography into the existing logo design. This boiled down to one solution, which was to place the iconography in the background of the logo, at a light enough tint of the color so it wouldn't compete with the foreground.

The day I decided to begin working on the new design, I received a brochure in the mail from my alma mater, the University of Oregon. The subject of the brochure was a speech to be given by a professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The topic of the speech was named Cyberintimacies, and was about humankind's relationship with computers. The graphic used to illustrate this concept was that of two silhouettes of human heads, facing each other, with logic board iconography inside the heads of the silhouettes. It was exactly the kind of iconography I'd imagined for my logo project, and I placed the brochure on my desk and used it for reference while I hand-drew similar iconography in Adobe Illustrator.

The only drawback to creating this logo was that the client lives in Berkeley, and wanted the colors to match that of the Cal Bears, a team I dislike with a passion. But, since it was a paying gig, I even went the extra mile and researched online what the Pantone spot colors were for Cal, and gave the client two versions of the logo, one a four-color build, and one a two-color build using the Pantone colors.

RAMBLE ON

2007-09-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

This painting represents a memory I have of Holland, specifically of a little village across the river Ij (pronounced "eye") in Amsterdam. It was very refreshing to take the ferry across the river, which was a fairly wide river, and ride my rental bike off into unknown territory. After the density and dirtiness of Amsterdam, this town (whose name I never got) was what I initially imagined Holland to be like. I didn't stray very far from the main road, which was narrow and lined with the archetypal red-tiled roofs of Holland. I came to a sharp turn in the road and off in the distance was this super old church, towering over the village. I did a quick sketch of the scene, which was the impetus for this painting. I also did a more detailed and finished painting of the street, which I might add to my website at some point.

There's just something magical about taking one's painting supplies to a foreign country and coming back home with paintings done en plein air. The time it takes to make even a quick painting is much longer than the time it takes to snap a digital photo, and I felt like I bonded with each and every place I painted far more than anyplace I photographed.

LABOR DAY '07

2007-09-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

One of the things I wanted to do with this blog was to post a new drawing or painting on a daily basis. Having the pressure of a daily posting is good for me, as I want to get in the habit of creating a new drawing and/or painting every day. We'll see how it works out, but for now, here's a quick painting I did in the warehouse/industrial part of town yesterday evening.

My travel kit includes a Van Gogh Pocket Box watercolor set, a #8 Kolinsky sable-hair brush, a 9 x 12 inch Arches 140-lb. watercolor block, glass water containers, tissue paper, and a Staedtler 4B pencil.

The watercolor above, however, was done on cheap 72-lb. Fabriano paper, as both of my Arches blocks have unfinished paintings on them at the moment. To view more of my work, visit my website listed in my profile on the right.

JULIA'S BIRTHDAY

2007-09-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Above is a sketch I did of a friend sketching by a creek. The plan was to spend the day outdoors somewhere doing art, and it turned into a party. The occasion was yesterday, Julia's birthday, and about ten people ended up making the drive from Ashland through Jacksonville and on into the Applegate. Only four of us actually ended up doing any art, however, with the rest of the crowd being content to play in the water all day.

PHOTOSHOP FUN

2007-08-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

Playing with Photoshop is always fun, and I've been using it almost daily since version 2.5 (for those of you who know when that version was, you'll know how long I've been using it). This image worked particularly well due to the fact that both photos had the same light source. Can you guess the original locations of the source photos?

POWER OUTAGE

2007-08-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

This storm increased in intensity until the rain turned to marble-sized hail. Power was out for the entire city of Ashland for about an hour, then again for another half hour later in the evening. And we're supposed to play poker on this deck tonight...

EARTH, SUN, MOON

2007-08-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday there was a full lunar eclipse of the moon, visible out here on the West Coast in the wee hours of the morning. While enjoying the red glow that permeated the night sky outside my bedroom window, I began to have those thoughts you get when you're half awake, half asleep.

I started wondering why it was that although the sun is much larger in size than either the moon or the earth, and much farther away from the earth than the moon, it appears as the exact same size disc in the sky as the moon does.

Think about it. If you look at the moon (when it's full and you can see it in its entirety) you'll notice that it's the exact same size as the sun to the naked eye. What are the chances that we happen to be on a spinning orb in space that allows us to see two such disparate objects in space at the exact same size?

Indeed, if this were not the case, such things as eclipses would not be possible. Scientists would have you believe this is a random coincidence, and that the distance of our moon and of our sun from the earth is attributed to nothing more than random chance, all as a result of the Big Bang.

Am I missing something, or is there more to the picture than the modern, Western, scientific model wants us to believe?