I like to feel the warmth of the sun on my face.
I like to stand in the wind and feel the pull of the horizon.
I like to watch bumblebees gather pollen from wildflowers.
I like to feel sweat trickle down my temples as I push myself to run even faster.
I like to discover secrets that hide around the bends of mountain trails.
I like to make babies smile.
I like the smell of lilacs.
I like the sound of rain.

I like the color of the eastern sky at sunset.
I like Hershey’s chocolate.
I like the way it feels to walk barefoot in cool grass.
I like drums.
I like to wash my hair in ice cold river water.
I like to hold kittens.
I like to hear eagles scream.
I like to wear dresses on Sunday.
I like to sleep under the stars.
I like to rollerblade.
I like to laugh until tears come.
I like to sit around a campfire and watch for shooting stars.
What do you like?

I graduated from college with a degree in business. When I encounter a problem in life, I like to find a solution systematically. I enjoy mathematics. When I want to draw something, I pick up a ruler. Being a draftsman for a time was the closest I ever came to artistic expression. I was told in college that if I want to write, I had best stick to technical stuff. So, for me to offer opinions on creative endeavor is beyond my purview. However, I do have a couple of thoughts I’d like to talk about.

I am moved by good art and good music. I can’t help it, there is something about some forms of art and some forms of music that really have an effect on my soul. Let me give you a couple of examples.

A couple of weeks ago I was following the comments of my niece on Facebook. She was talking about how much she misses her husband who is a soldier and away from home for very long periods of time. At the time that I was reading about this, she was having troubles with managing her home and taking care of her young children and such. She was really missing him and so were his children.

Then earlier this week, I was in the process of working on this blog site for Maria. It is one of my duties to build the content for Maria’s galleries we are showing to the world. One of the paintings I was posting is the one entitled “The Soldiers Father”. This is an award winning painting that has given Maria quite a bit of notoriety. I personally have always enjoyed this work. From my left brained, layman point of view, I like how realistic it looks and I think the eyes are particularly well done. I can’t seem to find anything that isn’t technically correct. So, I can see why she always gets great reviews on this work.

However, when I was posting this painting to the blog, something new happened to me. I had stopped for a moment to check on the quality of the graphic and was looking into his eyes. Suddenly I was no longer thinking about the merits of the painting. I became transfixed on the feelings I could see in his eyes and also in his facial expression. I suddenly could feel the loneliness of my niece and her children. From there, I could feel the anxiety of a father who does not know if his son will survive while being in harms way. Then I looked deeper. Now, beyond the fear and concern, I could see patriotism and the love and caring of a proud father, mother, wife, husband, child or friend. The knowledge that those who remain behind are strong and concerned and fearful. I will never see “The Soldiers Eyes” with only my left brain again.

Interestingly, I had another incident yesterday that touched me deeper than my normal left brain approach to life. It was tax day. Since I don’t get a refund, I waited until yesterday afternoon to post my returns. For the benefit of U.S. history buffs, my own little Boston Tea party if you will. It was a dreary, snowy, wet and cold day. Totally appropriate for tax day. Anyway, as I was returning home, a particular song came up on my CD player. It is a tune written by Chas Hathaway, another member of our family and company. The name of the tune is “Rain”. My goodness, talk about an appropriate tune for a stormy day.

The phenomena that I experienced was startling. Rather than dragging me deeper into the doldrums, I found myself looking at the world with keener interest. Since this tune takes you through subtle nuances of emotion associated with a stormy day, suddenly, instead of seeing dull gray pastures and wet shiny roads, I was driving through a wonderland of nature being nourished by life giving moisture that gave me a feeling of exhilaration and excitement. I was happy to be alive and a part of the experience. It completely changed my outlook for the day. My good spirits lasted the rest of the day. Just like “The Soldiers Father” and my left brain eyes, I will never hear Chas’ tune “Rain” with the same left brain ears again.

I am still a left brained person, just not quite the same one that I was before.

That’s right, I got sunburn today! Yay! I always love my first sunburn of the year. I’m a weirdo, I know but it works for me. I got sunburn because it was finally warm enough for me to draw outside. I had such a nice day because of it. I think it’s better for your eyes when you work outside anyway. Maybe I’ll do a landscape of the view from our front yard. I’ve been getting an urge to work with oil paints again. That would be a good painting to do in oils. Working outside will mean not to many stinky fumes. Yay to that!

I like this one a lot better than the last one. I agree with Shane’s comment in my last post when he talked about the forground plant having something to say. It looks to me like he’s reaching out to sort of get a feel for the world but he’s a quiet type so he doesn’t want to bother anyone. He’s not pretending to be anything he’s not but he’s still not sure where he’s going or what he has to say to the world. He’s just glad to be alive.

I just got back from running. I had a wonderful time. It was the best run I’ve had in quite awhile. I decided to not think about how fast I was going or how far I would get. I just let myself fall into a rythm that felt good. I let my muscles do what they wanted to do and I let my mind go where it wanted to go. I found myself gazing up at the beautiful mountains. I breathed in the cool air that wafted down over their slopes and felt it move through my hair. I watched the clouds move across the sky and it felt as though my legs were doing exactly what they were built to do. It was as though they had a mind of their own and they knew exactly what to do without any help from me. It was awesome.

Yesterday was annoying. I want to get my work into some more galleries so my Dad (who’s the marketing guy for willowrise) and I decided to drive into town to show my work to gallery owners and see if they’d take it. What we didn’t know is that all the galleries in the city are closed on Mondays. We couldn’t find a single one that was open. So annoying! We drove an hour and a half each way for nothing! So now we’re gonna have to go again tomorrow. This time however we’re going to do our homework and find out what galleries are open when so we don’t waste an entire day driving for no reason. Grrrr!

I didn’t want the whole day to be shot so when I got home I painted this. It only took maybe an hour as you can probably tell but I think it came out okay for what it is. I used turpenoid and prismacolor for the background and then just prismacolor for the forground. So the day wasn’t entirely wasted. I feel a little better.

Someone once told me that realism isn’t art. The artist is just copying what’s already there and  is therefore not expressing themselves. I’ve heard this a lot since then and I would just like to take a moment to tell you how I feel.

I express myself through realism. Many artists express themselves beautifully through abstract or impressionistic work but I don’t. I feel unfulfilled when I attempt these styles. I love realism. It’s hard to do. It’s labor intensive and takes hundreds of hours of my life. My back aches at the end of the day but when I see what I’ve accomplished I smile.

Realism allows me to share with the world my love for people, for nature, for animals, for life. It allows me to say what I don’t know how to say with words. If you want to know how I feel about mankind, look into the eyes of The Soldier’s Father. If you want to know why I can’t bring myself to harm even a fly look at the Little Red Squirrel and see the little paws and eyes and ears that took so many hours of my life. See what I see when I look at the almost magically beautiful world around me. This is who I am. This is how I experience life and realism allows me to share that with you. I am filled with gratitude and wonder that I have been given the opportunity to experience life and I hope my art speaks this to you.

Fingers of light spread over the eastern horizon and I am running. Air fills my lungs as I pull the earth beneath my pounding feet. The mountain before me gazes down through eyes that have witnessed the ages and I feel it’s earthy surface move with the rithm of my stride. I am home. I am running with my brother the wind. I breath his life into my own and I am made strong. The fingers of eastern light follow me. I glance back and know that they will win. They always do. The sparkling rays glide over the grassy slope warming the ground and drinking the morning dew. They pause for but a moment to caress my back then fly passed me with effortless speed. I smile and slow to a walk. I am no match for the sun. Anyway, winning was never the point.

Here are pictures of some of my nieces and one of my nephews. I didn’t take these photos. They were either taken by my sister in law Jenni or my brother Chas. Either way, I love these pictures and I love these kids. It’s fascinating to me how deeply I love my neices and nephews. I didn’t know it would be like that. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any children of my own yet. Whatever the reason I’m grateful that they are in my life and I enjoy every minute that I spend with them.