Johnny be nimble, Johnny be quick!

Today it's raining... as it has rained for the last 7 days. This afternoon it's supposed to be blowing a gale. But yesterday morning, we had what's known as a 'sunbreak' here in the Pacific Northwest. Out of towners find the idea of 'sunbreaks' to be an amusing novelty. But that's how the weather is here.

Some Northwesterners even use online radar to plan their outings to coincide with periods of rain lightening up.

But yesterday is what I keep in mind. It was sunny most of the morning! I should have taken a picture... glorious sunshine and shadows! So now, when such things happen, the first thing I do is pack up my paper & pencils and hop on my bike. It's sort of like a prison break. I know this sunbreak is not going to last. It's essential to not waste a minute.

Johnny be nimble, Johnny be quick! Catch that sunshine lickety-split!

I was glad I did. Biking to the nearby cafeteria and writing in a sunny window table is a little bit of heaven. I always think it's funny when people say, 'It's a beautiful day!'... what they really mean is it's a sunny day.

All Spiffed Up...

I just PDF'd off a painting... or did I FTP it? In any event, I don't know why I get so nervous when I do that. I much prefer the old fashioned mailbox and stamps and waiting in line. I always see the most fascinating people standing in line at the post office... whereas with FTP you only get to snoop around at cyber stuff. Not nearly as interesting.

I had a fabulous time shopping at Value Village the other day. I love shopping in thrift stores exactly as much as I hate shopping in malls. Malls depress me. They drain the spirit out of my soul.

Why do I like thrift stores best? First of all the prices are impossible to beat. I also much prefer clothes that are already a bit worn out... they match the rest of my wardrobe. (unlike those idiotic clothes from the high-end fashion stores where they want you to pay $145 for jeans that come 'pre-ripped').

Also the selection of clothes from thrift stores is far and away more interesting, with more character. High end labels, styles no longer made, assortments unavailable anywhere else... and all for a song. I also like how everything is in one store... so you don't have to troop for miles through a maze of flashing lights and glass counters full of glitzy junk like at the mall.


So I got all decked out in all my new thrift store finds... trying to feel like somebody else. That's the real reason I like thrift stores. For the first day or so it's like I'm somebody else instead of me, especially while they still have that thrift store smell. Eventually it wears off... and I return to being just me.

But I've prattled on too long, as usual. Anyhow, 2 cotton shirts, 2 corduroy pants, 1 pair of lined flannel chinos, 2 polartec pullovers and a light lined jacket... all for the price of 1 shirt at the mall. lol!

I was just thrilled to get a blog comment from the great nephew of Cromwell Dixon! Gosh... I know nobody else on planet earth much cares... but I do. Usually I feel slightly guilty when someone says they're going to buy my book... but in this case I'm making an exception.

Got Fungi?

Check out this mushroom! One thing about all the rain around here is the profusion of sci-fi mushrooms that sprout up in the most unlikely places. This one took me by surprise! It looks like the poison candy-apple that the evil witch gave to Snow White.


Or these odd concoctions... that look like Granny's lace knickers (as a writer friend once so aptly remarked).

Most of the exotic fungi that appear around here are more amorphous, slimy, and less picturesque. They are very often green or orange and grow on in places under the porch.

Technology - mixed up for monkeys!

Here in Seattle the perennial GLOOM has set in. After all that Denver sunshine, I'm ready to move! I think non-stop gloom is like a meteorological form of depression. Honestly, I don't know how people stand it sometimes.

Meanwhile... I spent the entire day yesterday trying to fix the scroll wheel on my wacom mouse. And failed miserably.

p.s. If you ever want to take apart your wacom mouse, you have to peel back the fabric on the base on the back end, what you will find there is a tiny screw. Just unscrew that and the rest pops off.

Or... if you're like me, you'll spend half the day trying to pry the top off with 4 screwdrivers, thinking, erroneously that it's held together by clips... (which is isn't).

Of course now that they've invented those USB cordless mice, it's easy to just plug one of those in to take the place of the wacom mouse.
The pen still works... no problem there. I hate how they've made the new wacom tablets so complicated. The Intuos 4 looks like it's got way too many bells & whistles. Or maybe it's just me...

Technology! It's a good mix for a monkey!

The Land That Time Forgot

Flying over Wyoming always makes me think of 'The Land That Time Forgot'.

Wyoming makes me think of dinosaurs and how many millions of years must have passed to form the landscape. The vastness of the empty bare landscape seems to tell the story of the passing of eons.

The view from 33,000 ft. is always sublime. It makes me want to try to paint it on canvas. The subtle colors and amazing shapes of the arid lands are always so beautiful.

I'm always intrigued by the few signs of people in the Wyoming landscape... tiny roads and houses out in the middle of nowhere. I always wonder who lives there and what it might be like.

My Trip to Denver

Well for an old stick in the mud like me, any trip out is exciting. So my recent jetting to Denver was lots of fun. Denver is where I grew up, so it's very much like a salmon returning home.

I especially enjoy looking out any airplane window. I'm one of those flyers who spends the entire trip glued to the window, since I'm fascinated with every little detail.

My favorite views out the airplane window are the empty landscapes of the West, where I always imagine how wonderful it would be to be way out there, 100 miles from anything, without anything to get in the way of anything.

The Denver Art Museum is fabulous... (photos) I think it's lots more impressive than the Seattle Art Museum. Also the Denver Zoo and the Denver Science Museum are totally world class... head & shoulders above their Seattle counterparts.

Barns, pumpkins & gold

It's that time of year again down on pumpkin acres.

The same maple that has been here 100 years is turning gold.

Golden leaves - tinged with rust.

Some new friends in the neighborhood.

Pumpkins, chair and hay.

The clouds cling to the mountainsides all day long.

And Old MacDonald is still on his tractor.

The Original 'Balloon Boy' - Cromwell Dixon

Of course Cromwell Dixon was the world's first 'Balloon Boy'. I find the sensationalism of today's modern story about the phantom Balloon Boy very interesting.

Having written the true story about a boy of 13 who built and flew his own balloon powered airship, I imagine the real life events of 1907 had some of the same aire of sensationalism.

There are some interesting opinions online:

Mleswan tweeted, "Oh sweet irony. The kid's name is FALCON?!?! Oh that's classic."

Neoncow said: "I don't care what they say. A father who builds a flying saucer hot air balloon with his son is a good father."

Mossyskeleton: "I wonder if his dad is going to ground him when he gets back."


I imagine that there was much stern criticism of Mrs. Dixon for allowing her son to go flying off into the clouds. But how could she stop him when he had spent years working day and night to achieve such a thing? In fact Cromwell Dixon safely made hundreds of balloon ascensions over the years without ever getting hurt.

It was only those new fangled machine aeroplanes that eventually got him into trouble. I wonder if the mother of the Wright Brothers had similar reservations about her foolhardy boys out playing with crazy kites.

In any event, my book, titled Cromwell Dixon’s Sky-Cycle is the amazing true story of America’s forgotten ‘Boy Aeronaut’, who actually built and flew his own flying bicycle over the skyscrapers of Columbus, Ohio in 1907.

It’s a true story of adventure, determination, courage and perseverance. 1907 was an amazing age of new invention in America. For the first time in history people were flying and even building flying machines in their own backyards.

This book is a real ‘boy’s book’, filled with illustrations of amazing home-made inventions built in Cromwell Dixon’s workshop that capture the inventive spirit of the times.

The reviews have been very uplifting... it's a shame that it's not being carried by the major chain bookstores.

From Kirkus Review: A fine tribute to teenage inventors everywhere “Dare to dream” is the clear message here.

From School Library Journal: This lively account is filled with informative and fascinating images. Young inventors as well as aviation aficionados will be intrigued. This fictionalized account is also a great example of the importance of determination, derring-do, and imagination.–Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA

Photoshop Personals

You: You were born with an intimate knowledge of the Curves tool and you know how to push them in all the right places.

You're sensible about color choices, yet daring enough to know when to toss in the odd high-key contrast. You know how to pull a Fill gradient to perfection... but you also know when to stop. Textures are your specialty. Tweaked to perfection... you know you've always been digital at heart, even though you'll always adore your natural media and real brushes.

Me: I'm really a natural media kind of guy at heart, a bit of a Lone Wolf. But now, like the rest of the planet I'm into Digital. I guess I like running with the pack. I'm usually slow about working in Channels... and always keep my Paths discreetly ordered. But I mean well and usually Merge my Comps just right when it matters. New Cloned textures are what I live for... and the ease of ordering Layers floats my boat.

Together we'll take long walks on the cyber-beach, glowing in the warm illumination of our flat-screens. We'll load our Palettes to a whole new screen. Sunset toned washes will roll over us in waves of reckless abandon as we indulge in new creative freedoms. We'll fine tune our Quick-Masks to perfection, undoing any misunderstandings instantly.

And if we do make a mistake, we both know the History tool and Undo will always be there for us... so we'll never have to say we're sorry. Together our Wacom and Bamboo pens might drift into the twilight... cords and nibs intertwined.

Together we'll click our Magic Wand tools to achieve the ideal selection.

A new book...

I thought I'd blog a bit about a new book that's just come out with Kane Press... 'Daisy Diaz Shakes Up Camp', by Lisa Harrader... with pictures by moi. It's a summery summer camp book... painted with watercolors, the old fashioned way.


This was a challenging project... and I was trying for a new style of painting. Given that premise, I guess the artist is probably the last person to ask about the verdict of such an attempt. I thought it was interesting... and I had tried to break up the painterly spaces with blank areas... interspersed with areas of color.


It's always a challenge to figure out a way to emphasize aspects of a group scene... without over-painting everything. But such is art... not an easy thing and always a work in progress.

The whole trick is to avoid 'clothespin nose'

I feel the same way about my Powermac and Epson 2200. Some things are just supposed to work magic, that's all there is to it.


The whole trick is to avoid 'clothespin nose'. That's the tricky part.

A place stranger than fiction...

There have been some very odd goings-on lately in Seattle's Discovery Park. And it's especially unusual to have two perplexing headlines occur within weeks in this same park. Maybe odd things are just falling out of the blue there. I went by just to be sure... hoping for something amazing.

Discovery park is known for it's breathtaking views of Puget Sound... and the large expanse of woods and meadows.

The first amazing headline was the appearance of 'John Doe'... an amnesia victim who was found wandering in Discovery Park. He appeared to have totally lost all memory of the key events of his life. He's been characterized in the press as a 'distinguished gentleman' well acquainted with european and oriental art... also a 'high caliber' chef. All very mysterious. The doctors remain baffled.

The poor fellow claims in an interview that if he spends much more time alone he'll go out of his mind. (I can totally relate to this myself, as a freelancer.

Anyhow, shortly on the heels of that story, we have D.B. Cougar appearing in Discovery Park! No one knows how, but a wild cougar found his way through 30 miles of urban sprawl to prowl through the wilds of Discovery Park. Past all the freeways, shopping malls, subdivisions and traffic. Miraculous! There's nothing like having a hungry cougar prowling the park to make things interesting. Life is better with a little bit of the 'wild' still left in it I think.

I wonder if there's some sort of time-space portal thing going on in Discovery Park?