Photo taken at SFMOMA

Be Brave In The New Year

Notice how calm the water is.

Fun Family Facts

Hello Hello

Just a shot away, just a kiss away

Sweet Sixteen. Senior, American School of Paris, France. 1973.

Sweet Twelve. 1969. Eighth grade, Fauquier High School, Warrenton Virginia. Lot of good kids: Gary McClary, Tony Markley, Billy Miller, Brad Miller, Pam Miller. Notice how much Mike Miller looks like Paul McCartney. I was definitely the only kid in the yearbook wearing an orange Nehru jacket & a gold medallion. Kind of a cross between Ghandi & Flavor Flav.

SFMOMA Halloween 2008

Mia got us all to dress like Kent. Here's the crew without Kent, photo by someone not me. My camera was messed up, so second picture by me is fuzzy. It is of crew with Kent. Kind of like where's Waldo.

Got a T-shirt gift from Michelle Rollman

The death of the mama bear is from Michelle's "A Dozen Little Deaths" series, currently on exhibit online at Marjorie Wood Gallery.

DAILY GRIND

I wake up early:I try to do an hour or so of work in my office before breakfast:
Then I go wait at the bus stop, near what used to be the fabulous Jimmy's House of Sparkles car wash. You can see where the neon was removed a few months ago. If I was king, I would turn it into a beer garden. Maybe call it the White Horse Tavern:
Here my bus is approaching the Bay Bridge:
Here's the latest phot of progress on building the new bridge:
After working all day at SFMOMA, I go back home, eat dinner, & spend another few hours working in my office:

New-ish Artwork

I've been making a bunch of new paintings & sculptures & photographing them in preparation for adding them to my Etsy store, try to sell some so I have a nickel or two at holiday time, to pay the rent etc., maybe get a lump of coal for the stocking. Here are some of the new pieces.

St. John's School

I have recently been in contact with someone I went to school with in 5th-6th-7th grades. Here is a photo from probably 8th grade, say 1967 maybe. I'm on the right. I was appalled to see how short I was, but then I remembered that I was a year & a half younger than the rest of the kids in my class.

Wahoo Ranch 2008

There are nearly a dozen of us who went to school at U.C. Boulder and/or lived in Boulder CO in the 70's. We had some pretty adventurous times back then and formed pretty strong bonds that persist in spite of time, distance & diverse lifestyles. Every ten or so years we meet somewhere in Colorado where we haven't been before. The death last year of our good friend & group member John Roush spurred us to get together this year. We got two cabins near the Frying Pan River a few miles east of Basalt. Sort of halfway between Glenwood Springs & Aspen. That's me on the right, above, with Steve. I worked with Steve framing in Wyoming in 1975 & doing concrete work in Utah 1976. We both liked Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane, Kinks, John Mayall, Arlo Guthrie. He builds & remodels houses in the Denver area.

Here's Nancy & Pete on the left, Betsy & John on the right. That's one of our cabins behind them. John was my freshman roomate. If I was a superhero or a Mars explorer or a viking, I'd want John as my side-kick. (Actually, come to think of it, it would probably be best if I was the side-kick & John was the Masked Ranger. As a group, now that we are older, we have developed the good sense to let John make the decisions when they really count. It's a little bit like what my girlfriend Jen means when she says - while we are watching "Lost" - "Give Sayeed the car keys!")

Ron works for the feds in Idaho. Nancy's a teacher.

Had a nice hike one day. Kinda short but at least the thunderstorms missed us.

Lynn, Pete, Olga, Ron, me, Nancy, Betsy, John. We had a nice couple days. All their kids are grown now & off to college, so it was just us & the wild stories could get told again. Too short a time together. But isn't that always the case?

Swimming in Austin

I sure do like splashing around in the water. Jen's friend Lauren has a swell pool.

Homer's Window

This is maybe my favorite image from Franta Skala's marvelous book "Cecil's Quest." The evening before, somewhat desperate, Cecil stumbled upon Homer's home in the woods. Homer fed Cecil French cheese, fresh crowslip, seedcake, jelly and other woodland delicacies, talked out his problems with him and let him rest the night. In the morning when Homer woke up, Cecil was already gone. Here in the tableau above, Homer is sitting looking out his window, slowly deciding to leave his safe, warm home in order to catch up with Cecil and help him with his dangerous quest. For me this sequence captures much of the power of accidental friendship.

Here I am below, in Jakub Kalousek's studio in May, with bread, cheese, cherries & some of Franta's kelp heads.

SEPTEMBER FACES

There doesn't seem to be as much future as I used to think there was.

Back to wage-slavery

Boojum

Camper

Actually this is me but from February not September. I was drawing hooded figures at Southern Exposure's Monster Drawing Rally. I think I found this picture on Megan Wilson's blog so I guess she took it. Thanks Megan.