Black and White Still Life

Cross

My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell
I'm sorry for that evil wish
and now I wish her well.

My old man died in a fine big house
My ma died in a shack
I wonder where I'm gonna die,
Being neither white or black?

Langston Hughes(1902-1967)

The State of Childrens Education

Brilliant Speech by Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken is a cross between Micheal Cain, Robin Williams and your favorite school teacher or university professor. If you do not laugh while watching and listening to his speech, please check your pulse. It is very entertaining, enlightening, funny and will make you rethink children's education.

Downtown, Brunswick, Georgia, 8am Sunday, Aug 5th

Downtown area Brunswick, Georgia, 8am August 5th



Bridge over Brunswick River 8:30am Sunday Aug 5th

Ecology - Shark Attacks

Are you afraid of sharks? Whenever someone is attacked by a shark it makes the front page of the newspapers and TV news around the planet. In 2005 along the Gulf Coast a beautiful teenage girl was tragically attacked and killed, three days later a teenage boy was attacked but survived while in shallow water along the Gulf Coast. CNN recently did a one hour special on the attacks.
But, how dangerous is it? according to recent reports between ten and fifty people are killed by shark attacks worldwide every year! But, there are two side to every story, and the other side of the story is rarely told?
Facts: Humans attack and kill seventy million to one hundred million sharks every year(The United Nations Environmental Program estimates that we lose somewhere between 70 to 100 million sharks a year worldwide) Mainly just to cut off all their fins (while still alive) just to make FIN SOUP!!
If you visit or live in Asia where the demand for shark fins is the highest, refuse to buy or eat Fin Soup.
If we continue looking for shortterm profits by over fishing, and bulldozing the planet, especially the RAINFOREST'S (the lungs of the planet), what price will we ultimately pay?

Thought for the Week - Heavens Above

If you have ever tried to comprehend the size of the universe?
According to NASA, if you suspended a dime against the night sky at a distance of 75 feet (or 23 meters) from your viewing position, the dime will cover approximately 1500 Galaxies.

The Art of Dreaming and Synchronicity

The Art of Dreaming:Tools for Creative Dream Work
the above book, two reviewers talk about making a dream mandala and healing mandala? This also struck a cord, as the subject of mandalas keeps coming up? Do you ever feel that the universe is trying to give you directions to the answers you seek? Synchronicities are there if you just acknowledge them.

Sand Sculpture and the Passage of Time

Sand Sculpture Festival in Haifa

We all at some point return to dust! (hopefully many, many years from now) Sand sculpture tends to amplify that process, it can be like watching a life movie at very high speed.
If you have ever visited the beach as a child, you have probably tried with a small bucket, sculpting sand. Many adults around the planet still like to play with sand sculpture; like Michelangelo played with marble.
To see some great sand sculpture photos from the world's largest sand sculpture festival in Brighton, England. click here
For more information on the Brighton Festival Click Here
Or, if you would like to see some amazing sand sculpture in person this summer in Eindhoven, Holland. Click here

Living on One Dollar a Day

Thinking about the "Big Problems" that affect billions of people and our planet.`It makes more sense than wasting your time worrying about all the little widgets.
Tonight I have just finished reading Bill Gates recent speech at Harvard, where he champions, the poor, the homeless, the sick, those who do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation, the hundreds of millions of adults and children who try to survive on one dollar a day or less.He plans to retire from Microsoft in 2008 and devote the rest of his life trying to help such people!


For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

500 Years of Female Portraits

Slow down and take a deep breath! Then watch this incredibly creative and inspiring film. 500 Years of Female Portraits.




If you would like more details on each painting shown in the film click here

Thought for the Day

If you have ever washed your dog on a dry day? Upon drying your dog with a towel this can cause static electricity. If your dog starts waging his tail while electrically charged, this can create electromagnetic waves as the electrons tear free from the tails end! Depending on how vigorously he's waging his tail will determine the wave cycle length. This electromagnetic wave will reach the moon in a few seconds and exit the solar system in a few hours!!

The Painting

Here is another painting on the night shift, the flowers and green vase are a little washed out with the flash hitting that side of the painting.

A Puzzle for You to Solve?

Most people love to solve puzzles? Try this one.............. http://isaaccaret.fortunecity.com/

Are You Ready

There is the risk you cannot afford to take, (and) there is the risk you cannot afford not to take.............Peter Drucker

Door Mural 2006

Medium: Oil paint

Before the mural was painted this door located in a design center was a plain beat up black metal exit door.

Cerebration

Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art.........Martin Ritt

Found Three Illegal Campers!

I found these three guests yesterday on my front porch; taking residence inside a hanging fern basket!

Casting Your Line.....................

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish........Ovid

Close Up View Number Four

Here is the forth close up view of large still life painting.

Deepen the Mystery

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery..............Francis Bacon

Painting Close Up Detail # 3

Here is the third close up of the large painting. When viewing paintings in art galleries or museums most people like to eye ball the painting from twelve inches away observing the details, by presenting these close ups this way I am trying to create that same view point. The complete painting will be posted later in the week.

The power of the Image

Art is a technique of communication. The image is the most complete technique of all communication............Claus Oldenburg

Detail #2 of Large Painting

Here is the 2nd picture detail of the large still life, can you visualize what the final painting looks like, given these clues?

Paul Cezanne, color

There is a logic of colors, and it is with this alone, and not with the logic of the brain, that the painter should conform....... Paul Cezanne

Listening to your Silence

Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb!.....Pythagoras 500 B.C.

Words of Wisdom for the Night

Lord, make me an instrument of your Peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness light; And where there is sadness, joy....St Frances of Assisi (1182 - 1226)

Detail #1 of Larger Oil Painting

Instead of posting a two inch picture of a larger painting; which fails to show the details. I decided instead to first post a few detail shots, this is the first. I will post one daily this week before showing the final painting.

Wise Words

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated don't give way to hating, and yet don't look to good, nor talk to wise, if you can dream and not make dreams your master......Rudyard Kipling 1895

Wisdom is always timeless.....

Relax and Move Away

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer; since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgement!....... Leonardo Da Vinci

Picasso's Latest Post

Where would Van Gogh and Rembrandt be if they were just starting out as artist's today? What if they had published their paintings on the web as they created them. How would the web have changed their careers? Many artists around the world would immediately have been copying their styles.
If Picasso had published his very first cubist painting on the web and was immediately copied within a few hours and then sold on eBay and in local galleries, would his originality and fame have been diluted? Many top flight artists seem to think so, as they closely guard how many of their paintings (if any) are published on the web.
The majority of the worlds museums publish very few of their holdings on the web, seeing it as a threat to their existence? By what percentage would their attendance and ticket sales figures drop if anyone could view all of their masterpiece paintings on the web?
Will elite artists around the world develop huge audiences without the help of the usual gatekeepers…. the news media, museums and galleries.
In 10 years will the museums and galleries still be the dominant players? Or with the aid of the web will the elite artists, musicians and writers become the dominant players cutting out the gatekeepers?
Will the creativity and ingenuity of top artists shine through as they adapt to the fast changing technologies and use them to their advantage. Only time will tell, but the next ten years looks very promising for creative souls.

Downtown on the Night Shift

An original oil painting showing a downtown street at dusk.

Painting Update

Here we go again; update on the unfinished oil painting I posted a few weeks ago..... It is now almost finished:)

Painting in Progress --- Budweiser

Here is another oil painting in progress inside my studio,showing a contemporary urban landscape . I still have to finish the billboards and maybe add more people? the one person you can see sitting down is an alcoholic drinking; showing the sadder side of the glitzy party lifestyle image of alcohol.

Original Painting Unfinished

Painting on the night shift, showing a painting in progress, I will post again when finished

We Are Not Alone

We live in a universe that at the last count contained over 120 billion galaxies. Some scientist even talk of there being an infinite number of parallel universes, or extra dimensional space. Within these facts contemplate the following links.

1. The Best Kept Secret Ever??

2. Former Canadian Defense Minister

3. Paul Hellyer - Minister of Defense Canada

4. Disclosure Project.

5. Need To Know.

Applause

Watching Tiger Woods at the Masters. I wondered about all the applause he and other top golfers receive almost every time they hit the ball. There is nothing wrong with that, but I wonder why we never applaud so many other dedicated people who do their job well. Most people go a lifetime without ever hearing applause, even though they are just as dedicated and hard-working, doing their job day in day out for 30 years or more… farmers,factory workers, fast food restaurants workers, nurses , carpenters, roofers, construction workers, the forty million single parents or fill in the people you think need a little applause________________? Isn’t that what we all really want in life, a little applause now and then. Some people are even said to seek professions where they know they will receive applause. How long would it take for it to become an annoyance. If every five minutes people applauded you doing your job? Depending on the personality type some people would bask in it like sun bathers on a sunny day:) While others would be embarrassed after just a few rounds. We all need a little applause….. even Tiger Woods.

The Key to Your Memory Banks

Why do certain images find the secret combination to our brains memory banks? Our brains view and process thousands of images every day, the majority are filtered out. But occasionally, one image, finds that secret combination. It runs through our filtering system to our memory banks like a laser guided image bomb. It announces: I am here to stay. It might be the picture of a young girl on the cover of National Geographic magazine, or Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, or Grant Woods American Gothic, or Edvard Munch The Scream, or Picasso’s Guernica. Or add that image, you cannot forget _______________?
Neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran in the famous Reith lectures postulates that it is as simple as a gosling following its mother. That we have imprinted on our brain cells from eons ago, a recognition system of flee or flight, friend or foe, possible mating partner or not? where your brain has to decide in a spilt second. And today that survival technique has been transferred to how we respond to all images. Is the answer to our response to imagery is as simple as that?? It does make you wonder, when millions of us respond in the same way to all those iconic images.

Flower Meditation - Original Oil Painting

Original Oil Painting 6"x6" - Still Life Study