dont you just love…..

…how wonderfully consistent I am with this blog! LOL….I’m not sure anyone is truly looking at it anyway at this point so I am really just putting this out here for me and any internet troll who happens across it! We are coming to an end of another year 2022 has been a decent year…not great…not bad….. but it was a year!….and now on to 2023….what will it hold? My goal for next year is to begin putting into play some habits regarding my art and this blog. I am going to commit time for both during the day at least 30 minutes to make a change…..to create……it comes from a video I watched on YouTube by a guy named Chris Beaven. I will link the video here for your viewing….. his thought process could work for any habit really and I think it may just work for me!…. :) until next June! ROFL…… @ Watch the video here.

back to journaling…

I am beginning my journaling class again this week… I am so excited to be back creating on a weekly basis. the show was a great distraction and I know there will be more to come….and I am excited about that prospect as well. this zoom art journaling class that I started all the way back in 2020, fed my soul more than I knew…and it pushed me out onto a limb that I didnt know I needed to be on. so this week it begins again….and I am ready!! @

the show is up!

as I sit here typing this blog post, I am still not sure how it all came together like it did. the show is officially up on the walls and ready for view! it seems like it has been forever since I began working on the project….and over the weekend, I stood back as the pieces were going up on the walls and the emotion of it all came over me…..from a roller coaster of happiness, melancholy and tears…..and then to relief….. all of the feels were all over me….. Seeing it up on the walls gave me such a sense of accomplishment and allowed me to realize that if I just put my mind to something I can achieve it. If you are in the Clifton Forge area drop by the Clifton Forge School of the Arts from now until the end of October! - @

right around the corner…

well my show is right around the corner and I am both excited and nervous. i’ve not shown back home since I left in the late 80’s ….so it is a little overdue! I am excited to show my friends, family and others my work and where it is going. I have fallen in love with collage as well as mixing media together…and this show projects that her direction…….well maybe I shouldn’t really call it a new direction as I was….almost more often than not…a mixed media artist. that part really isnt that new and neither is collage as some of my works from high school combined drawn elements and glued items from magazines, photos etc……so I have always been a collage boy but it seems I am coming back full circle in a few ways…… as I stopped doing collage back in the late 80’s…..before I went off to college……so here I am returning back to where it all started….and I am artistically revisiting a style from back then but updating it in a new and hopefully exciting and visually intriguing way! :) @

show’s all done!

well I was able to get all of the art completed for the show by the second week of July. all of the art is set to hang on the wall. I have a few things that I need to do for the show like cut the title cards and get a entry poster printed. I will be doing some lives on fb in the coming weeks which will be exciting to do to promote the show and my workshops as well. there will be one live done while I am at the gallery space…which is exciting too. this has been such a journey for me. I have had so many ups and downs while creating and finishing the works. some bumps were harder to get beyond than others, while some were much easier :). my hope is that the show truly shows my range and that people love it and I get to do more shows. @

the highlands show

I am busily working on the second phase of the show. The first phase is complete and ready for showing…….but you know me…I can rest on that….I have to do more!! LOL….so the first 20 pieces are complete and the second set of 20 are on their way. I have much work to do on the show pieces and also I have to begin planning out the workshops which I will lead on Saturday at the Clifton Forge School of the Arts. My morning workshop will be with children/teens and the evening one will be with young adults/adults. I am super excited to offer the workshops and am looking forward to also putting together a possible zoom curriculum of the school as well! I will keep everyone posted as to. the events to come!…..take care and see you all soon! @

the highlands show

the show now has an official title and dates…..the highlands show will take place beginning september 2 through october 28. there will be a meet the artist reception on september 2 from 6-8pm. this will be at the clifton forge school of the arts in clifton forge, va. then on saturday, i will be presenting two art workshops. right now the topic of the workshops are still up in the air but i am leaning toward collage/mixed media. one for kids and one for adults. so excited about this opportunity that has been presented to me…and finally getting to see the space and meet more of the team up there in virginia was great!!! so…I will do my best to keep you all updated on whats happening and more details about the show…etc etc…..

working on the show…

Sunday March 13 2022 at 1038 a…..so I’m working on my show pieces. I have been sketching for about two weeks. I have finally landed on the 12 landmarks* for the Highlands that I wanna use. It’s been quite a journey trying to figure out what will work working to approach the show over all. I am I have gone back-and-forth on the number of pieces I’ve gone back-and-forth on the style of the presentation it’s just been a lot. So now that I have everything in place in regards to the landmarks I’m going to use I’ll be quite happy to see where I go from here.

LATER THAT DAY

Today I was able to finish up out of the 11 sketches that need refined I now have four left I think …four or five left so I’m taking a break. It’s about 2:18 in the afternoon and I just felt like it was time to stop and take a step back and chill for a little bit and I will have dinner later and then I will hit the studio again and hopefully finish up refining those last few sketches so that that’s all done and I can actually start doing some gouache work and really get the ball rolling on the projects. I’m super excited about it I just need to get going so that’s it for now.

EVEN LATER THAT DAY

I was able to to refine even more of my sketches. I have three more to do work on and have been working on one other. I am making great progress and I am super happy.

@

that OTHER post..

…was from December! LOL…..I warned ya I wasnt the best blogger! LOL….. so I am following through on that I guess! I do have news…..now I will have TWO sketchbooks in the Sketchbook Project Archives at the Brooklyn Museum of Art! How freakin’ kewl is that! ALSO, I have booked a show back home for Sept/Oct!!!! I am super excited about it as it will give me such a creative outlet and goal to shoot for. I have grand visions…..very grand visions of what I want the show to be. I will be doing local visuals, three different ways,…… I dont want to go too in depth here to “give away” anything….. I cannot wait to share this with all of you. I will also post visuals from the show and what I will present……..and I will link the sketchbook here too once it has been scanned and ready for view in NYC…meanwhile you can go to the WORK section here on the site to the NYC Sketchbook visual……. until next time my friends!!!! @

how long has it been now?? LOL

You all know when I started this I told ya I was HORRIBLE at blogging. Heck, I have a YouTube channel that needs attention too! I think I am with the New Year going to make both of those a priority. Much like my art and side business, they too deserve my attention and will help feed my creative self! :) Did ya miss me? -@

lord I need to get better!

when I started this blog I was very up front in saying I sucked at this on multiple occasions and here we are over a year later and VOILA!!!! surprise!!! LOL….. work is keeping me busy but more importantly I am creating art on the regular…….and that to me is so much more important to me….I am really proud of my work that I have been creating esp this week…….which has really shocked me…..and then on top of that I am also working on art trading cards with a small group of artists from the journaling group…..its just been great!!! :)

week one down…well kind of

I spent this weekend busting out 4 pieces in my journal for class. The works are based on a concept about the current concept and curiosity of whether or not the photos that we have will be “available” digitally in the future…..will there be a photographic history as we have had with our past or will the endless 1’s and 0’s be a thing of the past? All of the pieces are Xerox and cut paper.

so excited!!!!

you all remember back when I shared how the art journaling class basically threw me into an artistic fit? well, guess who is starting a NEW art journaling class this week!! WHOOO HOOO!!! I am so excited about the class and meeting new people and also seeing old friends! also doing an artists trading card group with some of the journaling buddies which I think will be super fun and challenging……. the “prompts” are pieces of music which we already have chosen and will be put in a hat …and drawn randomly…and THEN there is a second hat…..also drawn randomly will be a visual artist…..which will will use to influence our work on said cards! :)…….fun and challenging!!! oh and let me ALSO add to the mix that in a couple of weekends I will be once again taking part in the mask and the mirror workshop which will be my second one…….I am pushing myself this year to be more artistic,…..and feed my creative soul…….I will be returning to savannah at the end of April which will feed me in many ways…..rené wont be coming along which I hate but school calls…… ms. Byrd will be my co-pilot this trip and we will be staying on Monterrey square just across from the mercer-williams house…..its just going to be a great trip and a recharging one as well on top of ALL of this, I am also working on a painting based on a photo that I have held onto for some time now….it is of a person I once knew named William Morva. Wiliam…or at least the William I knew, was a kind soul… he was a little different but I was never afraid of him or found him off etc. well, William had a mental illness and at some point, he and his brother decided to steal an atm and were caught. William was jailed and he ended trying to escape from a hospital after faking an injury…he escaped when he shot a cop and he died…...and was on the lamb for some time……eventually he was caught and this was the photo that was published online and in newspapers…… I have always found it reminiscent of a renaissance painting……and NOW…..I am FINALLY giving it yet another go….this will be try #3….next up will be my portrait of my dear friend Walteice @

learning to say no

One of the shortest words in the MANY languages however it is the hardest for many to say…including myself some days. Why? Why is it so difficult to just simply say no…and stop there…no additional explanation needed? I grew up and live in the south….and truthfully….growing up and many other times, we are made to feel guilty to say no. We are supposed to be there for everyone…..we are supposed to be “nice” and not “rock the boat”. Over the past year, I have learned to say “no”….and also not give an explanation. “No” is a complete sentence. Nothing else needed…..so go out there and rock the “no” @

one year ago…

one year ago today, I started working on my weight….it was out of control and I really needed to make some major adjustments. it was well past time for that to happen….so when I learned of this wonderful weight loss program called Optavia, I thought…what the hell…i’ve done everything else…..little did I know it was going to change my life as much as it has……and how it has affected my relationship with food and how much it has allowed me to step up and help others by loosing their weight…… I still have moments where I have to take a step back and say….what is going on? who are you? I am a certified health coach for gods sake!! LOL I am continuing on the path to staying healthy…..and want to lose more actually…. but for now I am hanging out at my healthy weight….. and soon I will celebrate my one year anny for making my goal which is in June……..I just cant believe it!

NYC Sketchbook Project

I have been working over the past few months on a sketchbook project for the NYC Sketchbook Project/Library which is based in Brooklyn. I am not 100% thrilled with the project but I also dont completely hate it….. I have to “let it go”….it was a learning process and I really wished I would have taken a different direction with what presented visually…..more along the lines of how I created not the theme if that makes sense :) anyway……there are pages here and once the sketchbook is officially scanned in and available online I will let ya know :) @

back back back again!!!

Hi friends or whomever us reading this…..which I bet is about NO ONE! LOL….anyway…..I am back at it again and I really want to get better at this……I was watching the Netflix doc about the Cecil Hotel in LA and how the young lady that went missing and was later found had left such a trace of her life in the digital world that people felt they knew her all too well……and she just presented her, her feelings and her life for all to see….and they were just short little blips on Tumblr…nothing major……… but it is out there…..it is out there until the end of days….and her friends and family…and complete strangers can go out there and see her words….and still have her close to their hearts…….and it made me realize and think about what I put out there…..and this blog…..it doesnt have to be this long grandiose post about something…..it can just be me…checking in…..putting something out there….so that one day when I am no longer walking this earth…..there will be something left behind…. @

well…I told you I wasn’t always good at this…..

so it should not come as any surprise that it has been a VERY long time since I actually posted anything of content here…… this year has been an up and down roller coaster of crazy!! I have just started ANOTHER art journaling class with Amie O as well as working on a second project for TAG (Theatre Art Galleries) here in High Point….busy busy….so HOPEFULLY I will be able to direct more time to this soon….or at least make it a habit so there will be more about me and whats happening in my world on here than every few months! LOL @

I need to get better with this shit…..

hey hey hey!!!!……here we are again with a massive gaping hole in the blog-verse! nothing has been going on….nothing hasn’t happened …etc etc…..other than life! LOL……. I did get a new car which was nice….a treat for myself…. it has elevated my feelings about myself and life…and yes Know it is a material thing and shouldn’t matter in atet way….but guess what……it has………and I am so glad I made the choice to get it! :) there holy days tree is up…..the house has been decorates as much as it will be this year……I had grander hopes in what it will look like….but I decided not to get too out of whack etc…. soooooo…guess what kids…..thats it for now….but I am not leaving you empty…….. here the vid of the tree!!!! :)

the end is near…

it is so hard to believe that another art journaling class is coming to an end…I am not thrilled about it honestly….I truly enjoy the “deadline” aspect of it….. it is something that has helped keep me working….this “spell” is the most creative I have been in many years….. I am sharing these with you now before these have been presented in class….enjoy @