Making Progress

Things are slowly coming together for me in the studio.  The day after my last post, I went to a life drawing session at my friend Frank Lombardo's studio in Marshall.  The model was a lovely young lady with a very regal profile.  I did several charcoal studies of her, and here are two:

Bobbi 1

Charcoal on toned paper, 15"x11"

Bobbi 2

Charcoal on toned paper, 15"x11"

Both of these are pretty much up to spec with the figure drawings I've been making for the past 13 years in terms of quality, finish, approach, and composition.  I've got a bunch of these drawings tacked to my studio wall, and these two fit right in.  You can't really tell which ones were done in 2000, 2006, or now.  So I think my drawing skills are back up to snuff.

Last weekend, Janis and I headed up to Boone and Blowing Rock, NC.  It's not too far, about a 90 minute trip.  We do this occasionally and generally hit the outlet mall, our favorite British-pub restaurant, and Cheap Joe's Art Stuff.  I'm a kid in a candy store when I go into a good art supply place like Cheap Joe's.  Came out with several tubes of new paint, some new brushes, some Gamsol solvent (more on that in a minute), and the Big One: a new easel.

It's about time I got a new easel.  The one I've been using is the original Ugly Easel.  I built it out of scrap wood in 1984.  And some of the scrap wood came from (get this) a plant shelf that I built for our temporary home in 1980!  Quality wood and quality woodworking is NOT my specialty: all the holes were drilled with a handheld drill, and if you tighten down all the screws and bolts, it warps all out of shape.  But it's heavy and works and doesn't move around, and I'm a cheapskate, and so 29 years later I'm still using the Ugliest Easel in the World.  Until now.  Now I've got a really nice, well-made professional artist easel.

So here's my painting arrangement in the studio.  The new easel is in the center, my Sears rolling tool chest turned taboret on the right, and a catch-all table to the left.  In the background against the wall you can (sorta) see Ol' Ugly.

I mentioned Gamsol.  It's a special solvent for oil paints.  I've been using regular odorless mineral spirits (OMS) that you can get at any hardware store.  Very cheap and readily available.  In my old studio, which was about as air-tight as a sieve, it wasn't a problem.  My new studio, though, doesn't have good ventilation, and I quickly discovered that the OMS made me woozy.  Gamsol is advertised as a better and healthier alternative for artists, as it's based on the same petroleum distillates used in cosmetics.  So I got some, and the difference is huge.  I kept a clear head with no wooziness.  Okay, so I'm sorta woozy all the time, but this was no more than normal.

I was back in the studio today to try out Robert Liberace's approach to painting.  I pulled out one of my pastels from Afghanistan to work from, taped one of the gessoed and toned papers onto a board, and started painting.  First was a grisaille drawing in burnt umber.  I roughed it in quickly, then refined it about as far as it needed to go.  Then I started applying flesh tones in the lighter areas - again, roughly at first, then refined with color, value, and brushwork.  I brushed in a pale yellow over the background. Then I went around the whole thing for a while, gradually refining it until it was done.  At one point, I was about to wipe the whole thing out, but reconsidered it, made some changes, and it actually came alive after that.  Sometimes the best paintings are the ones that I want to destroy about halfway through.  This isn't one of the best, but it's certainly better than others I've done recently.  Of course, I didn't take a picture, so you can't see it.  So while my charcoal drawing skills seem to be about up to speed, my painting skills are still improving.

I started another painting after that.  It's an experiment with Odd Nerdrum's approach: a really dark grisaille underpainting in a cool dark blue (phthalo mixed with burnt umber to tone it down).  In a couple of weeks, once it's fully dry, I'll come back to it and build layers of lighter flesh tones over it.  It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

Working the Rust Out

I've been focused a lot on artwork ever since finishing the training session in Indiana last week.  I started by pulling the book "Portrait Painting Atelier" off my shelf and reviewing it.  The book has a lot of great technical information in it and, after my recent experience of trying to paint in the studio, I needed a refresher.  And that's where I found out about Robert Liberace, a young artist with a beautiful way of putting a painting together.  In my last post, I mentioned all that, along with links to some YouTube videos of his.  Right after that, I bought his "Alla Prima Portrait" DVD.  This is a 3-hour demo of an alla prima portrait, and he maintains a running commentary on what he's doing the whole time.  It's not cheap, but it's a seminar in which you can stop, replay, and take over and over again.  I've gone through maybe half of it and have taken a ton of notes.  Especially now that I've started pushing paint around again, I've got recent experience that relates to what he's talking about.

Every artist has his/her own quirks and I'm no exception.  I tend to make hands a bit too large, for one thing.  I also tend to start with the head and, as I work my way down the body, make the body bigger and bigger, so that when I stand back, I've got a small head on this oversize figure.  Been doing this forever, and since I know about it, I can watch for it and correct it as it happens.  Another quirk is when the model's head is tilted to one side.  I'll draw the head tilted, but then the eyes, nose, and mouth will all be level.  Very frustrating.  And while watching the Liberace video, I saw him doing the exact same thing!  It was quite amusing to see that I'm not the only one who falls into that trap.

Yesterday I went to the studio and banged around a bit.  I took a sketch from Afghanistan and did a portrait study in oil from it.  There were lots of issues, of course, but I played with it for a couple of hours and it actually started turning into something decent.  The moment that I started thinking about keeping it, though, I took a rag and wiped it out.  This is "spring training" for me, a time to get back into the rhythm, get the juices flowing, and nothing I do here is going to be a keeper.

Today, I was in the studio again, prepping some gessoed sheets of paper for use in studies and color swatches.  I also did a charcoal self-portrait.  Here's the way it looks on paper:

I'm a pretty good model for myself: I know the pose needed, and I can hold it as long as necessary, and getting back into just the right position is easy.  None of which would apply if I was modeling for somebody else.  This image looked about right to me, but then, it's a mirror image (what I see in a mirror) which is not what others see.  So here's a mirror image of the mirror image:

The wife thought it was "okay ...", which isn't exactly a rousing endorsement.  Not sure if the image missed the mark or if I made myself too stern or what.  No matter, I needed to make something today and this was it.

Tomorrow: back to the drawing board.  Literally.

"No Bad Wine" Day

May 25th is my own personal Memorial Day.  I wrote about why that is so in this blog post.  Terry and Maged, you are not forgotten.  So tonight, my wife and I are going out to dinner, and I will have a glass of fine wine and a glass of iced tap water in honor and memory of you two.

Cheers, my friends!

Looking at Artists: Robert Liberace

Since my last time in the studio, I've been re-reading my journals and painting books in order to get myself back up to speed on the painting process.  I brought along one of my prime reference books on this trip.  It's "Portrait Painting Atelier" by Suzanne Booker.  It is packed with a lot of technical information on painting in general and figures and portraits in particular, from preparing a canvas, to choosing brands and colors, to learning how colors work (hint: color charts are a good thing), to drawing and painting.  It includes portraits from a variety of artists and has several step-by-step examples at the end.  In all, a good reference book.

If you're familiar with me and my style of painting, you know that I like works that are loosely done, that clearly show the strokes and process, and that are done from direct observation rather than photographs.  Unfortunately for me, the examples in the book were all done from photographs, and were slowly built up through many layers.  Not exactly how I like to work.  One of the artists in the book, though, had a number of portraits that caught my eye.  He was Robert Liberace, and here's a sample from his website:

John

Oil on board, 12"x9"

© Robert Liberace

The image in the book more clearly showed the brushwork and beautiful color usage.  There were several more works of similar quality that really impressed me.  So I googled him and looked at loads of images, all of which were beautifully done.  And I found his website.  The more I looked, the more I was blown away.  This guy can paint a figure and a portrait.

Robert Liberace is a young guy who apparently lives in northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, and regularly teaches at the Art League in Alexandria.  He also does workshops around the country several times a year.  He's represented by several galleries, all of which you can find off his website.

What was really cool was finding videos of a figure painting demonstration on YouTube.  In a 3-part series recorded at the Art League, he painted a model in a Civil War outfit.  Robert started with a really loose application of paint, roughly blocked in the figure, and then gradually refined it.  Watching it develop from a mess of burnt umber to a strong image of a soldier was fascinating.  Here are the three parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Many years ago, when I was my late teens, I met an artist in Memphis, Tennessee.  He would set up on a sidewalk in a busy nightclub area on Friday and Saturday evenings and do portraits.  His style was visually somewhat similar to Robert's: he would put a bold slash of watercolor onto the paper, then work in pastels from the large shapes and gradually refine it into a really beautiful image.  When I say "really beautiful", I mean this guy was good.  Working the sidewalks was a way of having fun, meeting people, making a few bucks, and gathering clients.  Watching Robert's videos reminded me of those nights in Memphis, watching that guy work.  

I like finding artists who know how to paint.  Robert Liberace is my newest find.

A Drive to Indiana

I'm in Indiana again to train another batch of people heading to Afghanistan.  Our presence there is shrinking fast and I don't know how many more of these training sessions we'll do.  Pretty soon, there will be no US government civilians outside the Embassy and a few of the main bases.  All we know right now is that things are changing fast.

As with last time, I chose to drive up here rather than fly.  The total time in transit is about the same, but driving is, for me, so much more enjoyable.  Passengers on airlines these days are just cattle in a cattle car.  Airlines don't give a hoot about you, your bags, or anything else besides how many bodies they can shoe-horn into a Boeing.  Since the company I'm with was happy for me to rent a car (it's cheaper than a plane ticket), I made a reservation with Avis.

And I hit the jackpot.  This time, through the luck of the draw, I wound up with a Volvo S60 T5.  This is a small sedan with outstanding handling, lots of power thanks to a turbocharged engine, a 6-speed automatic transmission, great handling, leather seats, taut but smooth ride, bluetooth, great handling, sun/moonroof, and lots of other features.  And it had great handling.  We have a Volvo and so we like the brand already, but this S60 is a sweet bit of machinery.  You should never buy a used car from a rental agency, but I'd buy this particular Volvo in a heartbeat.

I put it to good use during my drive north.  Rather than hop on the interstate and do a roundabout loop to the south, west, and then north, I headed straight northwest on 2-lane roads through the Appalachian mountains.  The Volvo was the perfect car for the trip.  We romped up and down the valleys, along rivers lined with fisherman and parked pickups, snaked through mountain passes, and generally had a great time.  We went through Cumberland Gap, which a spectacular area.  The mountains there are like a vertical wall between Tennessee and Virginia to the south and Kentucky to the north.  Then the Gap is a narrow slice through the wall.  Easy to see why it was such a strategically important spot during the Civil War and why it changed hands several times.  I finally hit I75 in Corbin and headed north.

In Lexington, I ran right into a nasty rainstorm.  Great place to do it, huh?  Heavy traffic and heavy rain, which forced everybody to slow way down because we just couldn't see anything.  The heavy rain lasted for about an hour while I headed west to Louisville.  Definitely not fun.  But it finally cleared when I got north of Louisville - still gray and occasionally drizzly, but not the dangerous drenching from earlier.

So now I'm at Camp Atterbury, which is a pretty large training base a bit south of Indianapolis.  We've done our preparations and are now just waiting for our new crop of students to be finished with their check-in.  Then we'll have at it for the rest of this week.  It's going to be fun!

Making Artworks Again

When you haven't done much artwork in two years, you really get rusty, y'know?  That concept was pounded home to me this week.  I went to a life-drawing group early in the week and made some charcoal drawings.  Yesterday, I had a model come to my studio so I could work with oil paint.  Results both times were less than spectacular, which is about what I figured would happen.

Our model in the life drawing session was a lovely young woman.  This pose had a good bit of drama to it, with strong lights and darks, the V formed by her arms (V's are unstable visual elements, so they bring a dynamic quality), and the serious pensive look on her face.  My drawing is a bit off, and now I see a number of things that I would do differently, but I think the drama came through.  Maybe I'll go back into it and correct a few things ... famous last words, as any artist will tell you!

A later pose was much quieter.  We still have the strong V shape, formed by her arm, but this time it's in a horizontal format, and part of a longer zig-zag formed by her hip, back, arm, and blanket.  Altogether, not too bad ... the drawing doesn't jump out at me, but it's not so bad it goes into the trash right away, either.  It'll wind up in my every-growing collection of figure drawings that sit in a box for years.

Then on Thursday, I had one of my favorite models come to my studio.  I wanted to play with oil paint again.  We started with a bunch of short 30-second poses to loosen us both up, and I drew quick gestures with the paint.  You can't see any of those gesture drawings because I wiped them out as fast as they were done. Later, we did a few longer poses.  This one was nice because of the flowing lines from her dress, the tightly-contained yet relaxed pose, and the light/dark contrasts between her skin, the dress, the chair, and the wall.  Painting this was an exercise in remembering my painting instincts.  It wasn't just the color mixing, it was the color selection, creating shapes with areas of color rather than lines, getting my eyes to see what was really there (versus what I thought was there, which is something different), getting my hand to follow my eye, nailing the proportions, when to clean the brush, which brush to use for which areas, whether to use painting medium or straight paint, right down to how to hold the rag in my left hand.  Most of these decisions are things I shouldn't have to think about, they should be automatic, but they aren't.  Not yet, anyway.  I need more sessions in the studio.

We finished the session, I photographed the sketch, and then wiped it out.  This painting isn't a keeper.  I probably won't have any keepers for a while.  This to me was like spring training for an athlete - a much-needed session to get warmed up and back on track.

Whitney was the model for my last painting, "Impertinence", completed two years ago.  She hadn't seen the finished painting, though, and I hadn't realized until now that the painted image was bigger than she is!

So it's great to be painting again, even as rough as it is right now.  More to come.

Myrtle Beach

Last week, I celebrated a rather big birthday milestone.  It's one that ends in "0" and no, I won't tell you what the first digit is.  Janis and I celebrated by jumping in the truck and heading to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  We had never been to Myrtle Beach, but we needed to get some sand between our toes, and we thought that hitting it in late April and early May would be just the ticket.  It's late enough in the spring so that the weather should be fairly warm, but not so late that all the kids get out of school and go to the beach, with or without their folks.

Janis found us a small 1-BR rental just a couple blocks off the ocean that takes pets.  Turned out to be a nice little place, certainly better than the last rental we experienced (where the only thing stopping us from falling through the rotten floor was the linoleum).  It's in a quiet residential area in North Myrtle Beach, which is far removed from the boardwalk, bars, and T-shirt shops just to the south.

We had heard that this area is cheesy and tacky.  I gotta say, those reports are accurate.  Most of this area seems to be geared towards cheap food, cheap entertainment, and cheap stuff.  I suppose it works for families with hyper-energetic kids, or college students still learning how much beer they can drink before passing out, or those who might be looking for as much as possible as cheap as possible.  But if you're looking for, say, quality food, you have to really look for it.

But (speaking of quality food), we did find some gems.  In this area, we found it at P.F. Chang's, Tommy Bahama's, and (gasp) Olive Garden.  Seems like some of the chain restaurants are more careful about their cleanliness and quality standards than most of the independents in this area.  All three of these gave us really well-prepared and well-presented meals along with first-rate service.

We did a bit of exploring and discovered that the area to the south, particularly Pawley's Island and Georgetown, were more to our liking.  There were more independent businesses, shops, and restaurants, and they generally carried more interesting, and higher-quality, stuff.  There were fewer people and everybody was moving at a slower pace.  We even found some interesting art and are heading home with a new sculpture piece.  A far cry from the "Show Us Your Hooters" attitude around here!

I don't think we'll ever come back to Myrtle Beach.  Just not our cup of tea.  But we will come back to the coast, and when we do, it'll probably be to Pawley's Island or Georgetown.  

New Studio

My new studio is finally ready for business!  Today I finished putting all my stuff more or less where it needs to go, cut up a bunch of boxes, threw out old packing materials, swept it down, and arranged things pretty much like they needed to be arranged.  I can walk in there tomorrow, squeeze out some paint, and start working.  

The main room has about 600 square feet.  I've got a desk, workbench, and storage rack for large paintings at one end of the room, and my easels and painting area at the other.  There are built-in shelves high on two walls, where I'm storing my smaller artworks and some random supplies.

There are no windows in here, unfortunately, but I've installed special daylight fluorescent bulbs that provide plenty of light.  Not shown in these photos is a small storage room off to the right in the above photo, which leads to a bathroom as well.  One thing I really appreciate is that this place also has an effective air conditioner and heater.

It has been a long road to get here.  When I signed the lease, the walls and ceiling had been spray-painted a hideous mustard yellow.  It also had computer network cables running all over the place.  Janis and I spent a lot more time refurbishing the place than I anticipated (surprise), but it has finally come together.  As a reminder, here's what it looked like when we first started:

Quite a difference, huh?

And to top it off, today a lawyer bought several of my courtroom drawings from the Bobby Medford trial five years ago.  He worked on the case and was great friends with the judge and prosecuting attorneys.  So this was an auspicious start to my new studio.

Can't wait to start slinging some paint!

Studio Developments

For the first time in two years, almost to the day, I have all my art stuff in a studio rather than a storage unit.  Woo hooo!  It's been a long road.  One of my early posts said that it would take about a week to get everything done.  Wrong.  It's been a month.

You may recall that the space was painted a fugly bright mustard yellow (even the ceiling) with a cold gray floor.  And it had computer cables running everywhere.  Janis and I set to work painting, ripping out cables, and patching things up.  Once the ceiling tile supports were painted white, the landlord came in and replaced all the ceiling tiles.  The last step was painting the floor.  Now the space has light warm gray walls, white ceiling, doors, and trim, and a dark brown floor.  It's a nice-looking space.  Today, I finished hauling everything from my storage unit into the studio.  Wore myself out, but now the storage unit is empty and the studio looks like the aftermath of a rummage sale.  Tomorrow, I'll start putting the shelves together, getting everything arranged and organized, and turning the rummage sale into a proper artist's workspace.

Pulling all the artworks out of their 2-year hiding places was like seeing old friends again.  Most of them were wrapped up in one way or another, and too many suffered various sorts of damage, either from poor wrapping, elements, or banging around in shipment.  It's clear that I have some repair work to do.  But hey, they're back in a place they need to be.

Photos?  No, you're not going to see any photos until it's somewhat presentable.  You don't take pictures of a lady until she's properly made up, and a studio is the same way.  I'll post a few pictures once things are looking better.

Wounded in Afghanistan

I've learned more about my State Department friend who was wounded in Afghanistan on Saturday, in the same blast that killed Anne Smedinghoff (a State Department public affairs officer), a DoD civilian (whose name hasn't been released yet), and three soldiers.  My friend, Kelly, suffered massive damage to her skull along with shrapnel embedded all over her body.  She was medevac'd to Landstuhl hospital in Germany, where she is now in a medically-induced coma.  Parts of her skull have been removed due to swelling of the brain.  In other words, she is in bad shape.  Fortunately, she's in Landstuhl, where she's getting the best care available anywhere.

I didn't know Kelly that well, but had worked with her during the last few months of my time in Afghanistan.  She is the one who started the ball rolling on publicity for my "Faces of Afghanistan" drawings that eventually led to the exhibition at UNC Asheville.  Kelly is a dynamo, standing barely over 5 feet tall, with a quick smile, quick wit, and intense dedication to her job.  She is also, I think, tougher than she believes she is.  Which is a good thing, because her toughness will be sorely tested for a long time to come.

ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff suffered similar injuries in 2006 in Iraq.  Like Kelly, he was in a medically-induced coma for 36 days at Landstuhl, then spent several weeks at Bethesda, and was finally to a facility closer to home.  He was back on the air a year after the incident, although it was clear that he wasn't quite back to normal.  I am hoping that Kelly is able to follow a similar recuperation.  Like many other traumatic brain injury victims, she will probably suffer some effects for the rest of her life.  But at least she'll be alive.

Let's not forget the others who died in the blast: Staff Sergeant Christopher Ward, 24, of Oak Ridge, TN; Specialist Wilbel Robles-Santa, 25, of Juncos, Puerto Rico; and Specialist Deflin M. Santos, 24, of San Jose, CA.  They died trying to protect the team.

Many people seem to forget that Afghanistan is still a violent place.  Having a friend get hurt so seriously is a stark reminder that it's still going on.

Afghanistan ... Inbound and Outbound ...

So I spent last week training a group of military guys who are heading to Afghanistan.  As mentioned in my last post, my role was to mentor a team of four as they went through our immersive training course.  They spent a good bit of time in classroom training and, more importantly, a lot in role-playing scenarios.  Each of these scenarios is very much like what they'll encounter downrange.

My team were four very sharp guys and they did very well.  Throughout the week, the scenarios that we put them in got more complex and nuanced, with surprises that could trip them up if they didn't keep their heads on straight.  Which they did.  It was very rewarding to watch them develop throughout the week, to learn from their (minor) mistakes, and to become comfortable in dealing with Afghans in an Afghan world.

The role of a mentor is a complex one.  I was there to guide them through the maze of classes, preparations, and scenarios.  Some mentors have "taught the exam" - in other words, they told the students what was going to happen so that the students would know the "right" answers.  I don't subscribe to that theory.  My approach was the Socratic method, to try to guide by asking questions.  "Okay, so you're going to meet with the Provincial Governor tomorrow.  What do you know about him?  Where would you find information about him?  Who do you know that has dealt with him?  What do you want to get out of this meeting?  What will be the roles for each team member?  Will using your sketchy Pashto language skills be good, or will you stick with English and use your interpreter?  Who else might be there?  Will you try for a group photo?"  In Afghanistan, there are a very few things that are black, a very few that are white, and a whole lot of shades of gray in between.  In other words,there is no one "right" answer, so they need to be able to think for themselves as to which course of action is appropriate for them.

One of the other trainers this week used a great word to describe our mission: compelling.  For me, this is very compelling.  It's a national mission.  People's lives are on the line.  The success or failure of a nation is at stake.  And I have the opportunity to help train some of the people whose efforts will affect the outcome.  This work is tremendously rewarding for me.

Just how important it is was hammered home the day after training was over.  Two suicide bombers hit a convoy carrying the Zabul provincial governor and several Americans as they traveled to deliver schoolbooks.  Six Americans, including a young State Department public affairs officer, were killed.  Several others, including another young woman whom I knew in Kandahar, were wounded, some critically.  A number of Afghans were also killed and wounded, although I don't know how many.  It was a routine trip outside the wire, the kind that I had been on many times in my own area, only this time too many of them didn't come back.

The provincial governor said that he was the intended target, rather than the Americans.  Probably so.  The insurgents know that we're drawing down now and leaving soon, so there's not much reason to hit us besides the publicity value of killing infidels.  Their attention is more focused on the Afghan government officials that will be there over the long term: the governors, chiefs of police, Army officers, judges, and so on, who are picking up the fight that we're handing over.  I saw this developing in Maiwand last summer and fall.

So the next time that I go to Indiana to train Afghan-bound teams, this event will be first and foremost in my mind.  

Back at Muscatatuck

I'm back at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, helping to train a group of mostly military guys who are heading to Afghanistan.  We've been at it a couple of days now.  I'm in a different role than last time.  Now I'm a mentor to one of the student teams, trying to guide them along the training process.  This is a fun role: I'm directly involved with the same students every day, helping them gel as a team, and preparing them for both the upcoming events this week and for what they'll encounter downrange.  These guys are sharp, too, which makes my role easier in some respects and harder in others.  A good thing, all around.  America, you should still be proud of the people you're sending in harm's way.

When I came up here last month, I flew from Asheville to Indianapolis, and then hooked up with a couple of other trainers for the drive down to Muscatatuck.  This time, I rented a car in Asheville and drove up.  I figured that the total travel time would be about the same, driving is more fun (to me, anyway), and this would ensure that I had wheels for the entire week.  Good call.  The drive was, indeed, fun, especially the first half, which wound through the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  It's a beautiful area, really spectacular.  Once past the mountains, I-75 rolled along through Kentucky horse country, which was beautiful in different way.  Great drive. 

I wound up with a Nissan Altima for a rental car.  It's a pretty good machine.  The styling is kinda generic, the seats are comfortable, the interior controls easy to learn, and the sound system is strong.  The best feature is the handling, by far.  It's really impressive, with great response and great grip.  The first leg of my trip was on two-lane roads through the mountains and the Altima was a hoot to drive on those twisty roads.  On the negative side, the sound isolation could be better as there was a bit of rumbling coming out of the rear end over different road surfaces.  The steering and brakes are both way too light - Nissan should dial some of the power assistance out.  And I'm not a fan of the continuously-variable transmission (CVT).  It works fine, but I felt like it made too many choices for me, isolating me from much of the driving experience.  If Nissan would give the car a manual transmission, tweak the suspension to get some of that rumble out, tweak the exhaust to put a little rumble in, and make a few other minor changes, they'd have a killer sports sedan.

So now it's back to work.  Gotta do a few things to get ready for tomorrow.  

Life Drawing Again!

Last night, I went to my first life drawing session in two years.  Two years!  Yes, I was rusty, but that was to be expected.  We had a lovely model who provided some unexpected drama when she fainted dead away in her first long pose.  Fortunately, she was sitting on the platform when she passed out, so she didn't have far to go, but it was a little frightening for her and for us.  She rallied back and was perfectly okay the rest of the session.  So here are a couple of the sketches:

This one was done with a pen.  Drawing a soft female figure with a harsh black pen is a challenge, which is why I did it - the whole point being to loosen myself up.

This later one was done with a really crappy plastic mechanical pencil.  I like a good mechanical pencil, but this must've come from K-Mart or something.  But you run what ya brung, so there 'tis.

This 'n' That

Spring has sprung

The grass has riz

I wonder where

the flowers is?

They're buried under the snow!

So here we are, a week or so into spring, and we're getting walloped with snow.  It's almost 6" deep on the deck and still coming down.  Good day to stay home and catch up on admin and related work.

I went out and shoveled the driveway a little bit ago.  The snow wasn't too deep, but I needed some exercise, and past experience showed that driving over the snow just packs it down and makes it stay longer, usually right where you don't want it.  While I was out there, I discovered that our bear is back. Yesterday, he destroyed our bird feeders and knocked over a candle lantern on our deck.  Last night, he apparently went looking for food under the fiberglass covering for our well pump.  At least he didn't destroy the cover, he just knocked it over.  I'd rather he didn't look for food around here (besides the bird feeder, there's nothing outside, not even trash), but having bears in the vicinity is just part of living in the North Carolina countryside.

The studio is coming along well.  We've painted the walls, trim, doors, and the framework for the ceiling tiles.  The next step is the landlord's: I've asked them to replace the ceiling tiles, since the tiles are all painted yellow.  We'll see if they do; if not, I'll have to pull them down and paint them.  NOT looking forward to that task!  After that, we're going to repaint the floor.  The landlord had it painted right before I moved in, but even though we used drop cloths, the floor is still covered with drips and splats.  Anyway, I want to change the color from medium gray to a medium brown, just to warm things up a bit.  Once that's done, I'll move the remainder of my stuff from storage.  And then I get to start painting!

Meanwhile, back at home, I've done some fiddling with my computers.  I installed the newest version of iPhoto on my Mac, adjusted the settings, and now am able to use this thing called "the cloud" to some basic degree.  I can take a picture with my iPhone and, miraculously, it also appears on my Mac.  I can make an entry on my Mac's calendar and it shows up on my iPhone.  Very cool.  

One thing that was not cool about iPhoto was that, when it imported all my pictures from the old version, it deleted all the associated comments.  That really pissed me off.  It's also slower and hangs up more often.  I won't say it crashes, it just shows the "spinning wheel of death" for a while before suddenly completing the action.  Good thing I have Solitaire installed to keep me busy while I wait.  My guess is that the new software has much more code to chunk through and it just takes longer, especially on my 5-year-old laptop.  Later, I looked at the comments about iPhoto on Apple's own web site and they're horrendous.  People are complaining that their upgrades wiped out all their photos, that iPhoto crashes and burns on a regular basis, and many other complaints.  Janis has asked about upgrading her computer so that she can use the cloud, too, but I'm a bit leery of doing it now.  Just because it worked (more or less) on my computer doesn't mean it'll work on hers, too.

Not only did I "upgrade" my iPhoto, but I also upgraded to the newest version of Photoshop Elements. My old one was, like my laptop, five years old.  It worked fine, but didn't have all the newest bells and whistles.  It's going to take me a while to get moderately capable with this new version.  

That'll do for now.  My dogs are telling me that it's time to go for their ride.  It's funny: part of their daily routine is to ride along on the regular rounds to the dump, post office, grocery store, and whatever else we have to do.  If we don't get on the road by noon, they come looking for us, saying "Hey, get on the stick, time to go do your errands!"  Which is exactly what they're doing now.  So, excuse me, but I have to obey my dogs.

Studio Developments

We're still working on getting the new studio ready.  I yanked out almost all the computer cabling that lined the walls so there wouldn't be any interruptions.  Meanwhile, Janis and I (mostly Janis) have been busy painting.  If you compare this picture to the one in the last post, you'll see that the yellow walls are gone (yay!), replaced by a neutral light gray.  We're also painting the doors and trim a bright white.  The ceiling tiles, though, still have that nasty yellow on them.  I've asked the building manager for new ceiling tiles.  If that he doesn't come through, then I'll have to paint them white.  The yellow affects all the colors in the room - in fact, you can see it in the photo, as the door, walls, and other areas have a yellow tinge to them.  Imagine what that might do to a painting!  We're going to have to repaint the floor, too, even though the landlord did it right before I moved in.  We put down drop cloths but still managed to get drips, splats, and light gray footprints all over the floor.  Besides, with the gray walls, there's just too much "gray" in there.

Still, it's coming along, and I'm very happy with it.  Next month, I'll be a working artist again!

New Studio

My big news this week: I have a new studio.  It's about a 650 square-ft studio in the Riverside Business Park, which is about 3 miles NW of UNC Asheville, right on the French Broad River.  I'll have one large room for painting, drawing, stretching canvas, and life drawing sessions, and one small room that I'll use for storage.  To say I'm excited is an understatement!

The Business Park is an interesting place.  It was built as a textile mill, but closed down around 1990.  In 1995, new owners began converting it into a bunch of small offices, warehouses, industrial spaces, and artist studios.  There are a few of my artist friends out here, including Brian Mashburn and Julyan Davis.  The studio next door is used by the NC Stage Company for rehearsals.  There's a green-earth company around the corner, a kayak company downstairs, larger firms like Mountain Mobility and the Metropolitan Sewerage District, and a whole host of others.  I like the vibe of the place: it feels purposeful and friendly.  It's a place where people come to get work done.

Here are a couple of "before" pictures of my new studio space.  The previous tenant (a telemarketer) painted it a hideous yellow and ran phone and computer lines throughout.  There were ten cubicles stuffed in here.  Ack!  I can't imagine having to sit jammed in a tiny cubicle for eight hours a day, calling people who don't want to be called, having to meet a quota specified by some goon at the end of the room.  Talk about a sweatshop!  I'd rather go work in a war zone.  Oh, wait, I already did that ...

So the telemarketer environment has to go.  Janis and I are repainting the walls to a light neutral gray with white trim.  We even have to repaint the ceiling tiles, for chrissakes!  I'm yanking the phone and computer lines.  This afternoon, I hooked up my stereo system so we'll have some tunes to keep us entertained.  It'll probably take a week to get all that done, and then I can move everything over from the storage unit.  I'm thinking of having a grand opening sometime in April.

Not much longer, and I'll be able to say that I'm a working artist again.  Damn, that feels good!

A Week of Training

The training that we did last week at Muscatatuck is over.  All of our students are now in Kabul, getting the last bit of training, going through lots of boring briefings, getting issued more gear, and waking up at 2 am and not being able to get back to sleep.  Ahh, yes, do I miss those days?

The training that we did last week was immersive.  We set up scenarios where they had to meet with Afghan "governors", "line ministers", and other officials, and carry out their duties.  The roles of the Afghans were played by Afghans who, quite often, had actually been officials.  Two "judges" had actually been judges; a "public health minister" had been a high-level official doctor, and so on.  Most have been doing these training scenarios for several years, so they know the ropes.  My job was to ensure that the scenarios went off more or less as they were supposed to.  In effect, I was the director of a series of plays in which only half the actors had the script.  Which meant that the plays could, and did, go off in unintended directions.  Nothing like sitting there, seeing the scenario getting hijacked into a subject that we hadn't considered, and thinking "I wonder how this is going to turn out ..."  But as I mentioned, our Afghan role-players were experienced, and they handled the curve balls with ease.  I was quite impressed with their ability to quickly adjust to an unexpected plot twist, deal with it realistically, and smoothly manage to get the train back on track.

I must have done my job fairly well because I've been invited back for the next round.  This time I'll have a different role: I'll be a mentor for one of the student teams.  That means I'll be with them from early morning to evening, providing some advice and assistance, answering questions, and prodding them along in their decision-making.  I'm really looking forward to it.  

Muscatatuck

I'm at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in southeast Indiana.  I'm here for a week to help provide training to the next group of State Department and USAID people heading downrange to Afghanistan. This is the same training that I went through 18 months ago, just before deploying, and it is really cool to be able to give back my experiences (or pay them forward?) to those who are on watch next.

Muscatatuck (pronounced mus-CAT-a-tuck) is an interesting place.  It was originally built in the 1920's as "a home for the feeble-minded" (their words, not ours).  It consists of a lot of old yellow brick buildings arranged in a campus-like settings.  Some were dorms, others were offices, classes, work areas, a cafeteria, a hospital, and so on.  In the 70's, the hospital was closed down and eventually it was turned over to the National Guard and revamped into a training center.  Now it is a national asset.  It provides realistic training environments to all kinds of classes.  Federal civilians (like myself) go through training for Afghanistan.  SEALS and other elite military forces practice operating in an urban environment.  FEMA, various local agencies, and NGOs learn about disaster response.  There's a permanent school for troubled teens here.

This looks like a ruined parking garage.  It's not, really.  It's specially built to give students the experience of operating in a devastated area.  SEALS, for example, might practice combat operations, or emergency workers can practice getting injured people out of a collapsing structure.  This "garage" has floors that can go up and down to simulate building collapse.  The first time I saw it, though, it looked exactly like parking garages I saw in Sarajevo after the war.

This is a specially-built area to provide training for emergency workers in flood rescue.  All those flooded houses were deliberately built to look like flooded houses.

Here's one of the old 1920's-vintage buildings, along with a section that looks like a street in some third-world country.  It looks like it's in bad shape, right?  Actually, the buildings are all structurally strong.  Many of the old buildings are desolate-looking inside, with crumbling concrete steps, broken furniture, and dirt and dust everywhere.  But it provides a pretty realistic introduction for what Afghan hands will find downrange.  The debris field?  It was specially created, along with demolished cars all over the place.

My job this week is to run some of the training scenarios for the students.  They're going to be put into situations where they have to meet with Afghan officials, talk with private citizens, respond to requests for assistance, have TV cameras shoved in their faces, and get "attacked".  All these are realistic situations.  The role-players are all Afghan citizens who now live in the United States.  They're a great bunch of people.  Many are very educated and had very responsible roles in Afghanistan.  Like me, they really want to help prepare these students for life in Kabul or wherever they're going.  Most of the role-players have been doing this for a long time and are very experienced at the different scenarios.

The other trainers are a great bunch as well.  All have been downrange for anywhere from one to four years.  There are ex-military, ex-cops, a lawyer, a European, former USAID and State Department workers, a former Assistant Secretary in three agencies, graybeards, and young folk.  What really distinguishes them is that all are mission-focused.  They're committed to providing the best and most effective training possible.  Clock-watching and nit-picking is NOT a part of their vocabulary.  Whatever it takes, it will get done, without theatrics and usually without asking.

So that's my business this week.  It's been a lot of fun since I arrived here Friday.  The rest of this week looks like it'll be even more fun.  Our first real scenario is in a couple of hours.  Time to get to work!

"Ten Years" Exhibit Wrapup

I took down my retrospective exhibit "Ten Years" today from the UNCA Highsmith Gallery.  Taking a show down is quicker and easier than hanging one.  Two weeks ago, it took me about 6 hours to get everything placed, hung, lighted, and labelled, and today it took about 3 hours to get everything down, packed, and loaded into the trailer.  Still, it's hard manual labor and I'm stiff and sore.  Good thing that I'll be planted on the couch watching the Daytona 500 tomorrow.

We had a closing reception for this exhibit last night.  Between the location, time, and other activities, there wasn't a big turnout, but we had a number of people there and all had a good time.

The university staff had a new way for visitors to leave their comments.  They could write them on a small piece of paper (like a large Post-It note) and stick it on the wall by the door.  Here's what some of the visitors said:

I laughed out loud at "Pleasantville", which I imagined with the subtitle: "A Vision for America, brought to you by the NRA".  Spot on!

Rarely does an exhibit capture the complexities of war without being trite.  This one does.  Accurate, bright, and moving.

These paintings are very honest in their message; their impact was nevertheless very powerful.  Thank you.

I loved the emotions captured in the eyes of the people ... Since his pieces revolve around the people, this is a crucial thing to be able to deliver and I believe it was done well!

"You Don't Understand" filled my heart and soul with sorrow - familiar sorrow.  Is that the tragedy of the human condition?

I've always believed realistic art to be more powerful than abstract.  This exhibit proves it.  Brilliant!  Beautiful & inspiring.  Tragic & thought provoking.  Thank you!

Yeah!  Vet to Vet - you said it!

Thanks for keeping your eyes on military families.

"Lament" brought tears to my eyes.

Reality captured.  Very moving, Skip.

I think it is Buydouffl.  (Note: this came from a 5-year-old pre-schooler who was spelling "beautiful" phonetically).

I share these, not to build myself up, but to say that one of the reasons I paint is to say things that are important and can't be said any other way.  I want to connect with people.  Selling artworks is nice when it happens, but that is not why I do what I do.  And from these and other comments, both written and verbal, I know that these works have connected.  I'm a happy man.

Graffitti in the River Arts District

Yesterday, I went to meet a friend and fellow artist, Jeremy Russell, in his studio in a part of Asheville's River Arts District that I'd never been to.  It's in a rough-looking industrial section, away from the trendy and chic areas, and you pretty much have to know it's there.  I found some amazing graffitti covering the walls of the old industrial buildings.  This is really good work, beautifully done.  These buildings are most definitely not abandoned, either - they're home to artists, the Terpsicorps dance group, and some other small businesses.

Two Photographers

Two photographers have caught my eye.  They are both women, and the work they do could not be more different.  But both of them make stunning images.

A friend of mine let me know about Elizabeth D. Herman.  Elizabeth makes very powerful images of people.  Some series are portraits, some are life in the streets, some are a mixture.  She captures the soul of her subjects in a way that very, very few photographers can.  Elizabeth isn't concerned about making her subject look good, but rather, she brings out something much deeper than just a surface appearance.  

Photograph copyright Elizabeth D. Herman

I find that I respond to these images because she's doing with photography what I try to do with my drawings and paintings.  Her series "A Woman's War" focused on the impact of war on women who have fought in various ways around the world.  This is a similar theme to my "Meditation on War" series and my Iraq and Afghanistan works.  So, to me, it's wonderful to find somebody else who's concerned with the same ideas, but pursuing them in their own way. 

I've swapped a few emails with this young lady and she's doing some great things.  She won a Fulbright Fellowship to work in Bangladesh. This year, she won the Tim Hetherington Award for photojournalism (this is a Very Big Deal in the photojournalism world).  She recently returned from Bosnia, a place where I worked as part of the peacekeeping forces in 1996.  And she's only been out of college for not even three years.  So this is somebody who's going places.  Go look at her website.

The other photographer is Christy Lee Rogers.  Her work is very different: it's sensual.  It's more about color and the shapes of figures, almost as if the painter Rubens was an abstract expressionist photographer.  The figures are anonymous, bathed in light against deep black, swathed in saturated blues and reds and whites, and floating weightlessly in watery space.  Paintings and photographs that are about beauty, color, shape, and light usually bore me to tears.  These fascinate me.  Go look and see for yourself.

Photograph copyright Christy Lee Rogers

Art Exhibit at UNC Asheville

I have an exhibit of my artworks up at UNC Asheville.  "Ten Years" is a retrospective of works done in the decade since I graduated from there in 2003.  I have several paintings from the "Meditation on War" series, a couple from my political satire series, drawings and paintings from Iraq, a few of the "Faces of Afghanistan" drawings, and a couple of "model in the studio" paintings.

These walls have (left to right) Pleasantville, Portraits from Iraq, a group of drawings from Iraq and Afghanistan, and Red Dress, one of the "model in the studio" paintings.

Here's a better view of the drawings.

The other main wall has a number of paintings from the "Meditation on War" series, including Grand Re-Opening, Lament, You Don't Understand, Warrior, and Welcome to Sarajevo.  On the far wall is A Pachydermian Portrait of King George II, Pope Karl, and Lord Cheney.

The show is in the Highsmith Student Center gallery.  It'll be up for two weeks, until Feb 23rd.  There will be a closing reception on Friday evening, Feb 22nd, from 6-8 pm.  If you're in the Asheville area, it would be great to see you there.

Macs and PCs

So you know that I'm now an independent consultant/contractor and working with a larger defense contracting firm.  I work from home.  And I've had a Mac for over four years now.  As much as I love my Mac, though, it just wasn't cutting the mustard for work.  So I bought a Dell laptop with Windows 8.  Which is a bitch.  But everything will work out in the end.  And now, the rest of the story.

I've been a Mac proponent ever since I got my little Macbook.  They're high-quality items: the hardware is sturdy, the software (mostly) just works without drama, and once you get used to the Apple way of doing things, they're intuitive.  I thought my Mac would perform well for work.  After all, it can read Word documents and save in Word format, and read Excel documents and save in Excel format, and email is email, right?

No.  Yes, the Mac will read Word documents, but then it saves in Apple's own Pages format.  You have to tell it to "export" a document into Word or PDF format if you're going to send it on to your cohorts on PC's.  That leaves you with at least two versions of the same document on your computer.  And the conversion process is not entirely error-proof, as I discovered when a client complained about some hammered files.  It's the same with Excel spreadsheets, which are opened in Apple's Numbers program, and Powerpoint presentations, which are opened in Keynote.  Now Apple's programs are not bad.  Pages is a really good word processor, and Keynote is as good as Powerpoint, but Numbers is only a basic spreadsheet that is nowhere near as powerful as Excel.  And there's nothing in the Apple world to compare to Microsoft's Access database (at least, not without spending lots and lots of $$$).

The Mac's Mail system had its own issues.  My computer monitors several email accounts, and it seemed to occasionally pick an email account at random to send from.  So instead of sending from my official work email address, it would sometimes send from, say, our joint personal address.  Very embarrassing and unprofessional.

So it was clear to me that I needed a separate computer specifically for work, and that the computer had to be a PC of some sort.  We've had two Dell computers in the past, and I worked on Dells in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I went with what I knew.  I ordered a 17" Dell Inspiron laptop with Microsoft Office Professional.  It came with Windows 8 installed, rather than the older (safer?) Windows 7.  The UPS guy delivered it this past week and I've been playing with it since then.

The reviews are mixed so far.  On the positive side, I've had no more embarrassing faux pas with my email addresses.  Outlook works well - it's much more capable than the Mac's Mail, anyway, and to my eyes, it's much easier to find, sort, file, and store emails.  It's a relief to be able to work with ONE version of a Word or Excel document rather at least two.  Excel can do so much more with spreadsheets than Numbers can.  And I've got some Access database files that I can finally open up and fiddle with.

On the negative side, I've got a few things to gripe about.  For starters, this Dell computer is not built at all to the quality standards of our previous ones.  The keyboard is flimsy and the casing doesn't feel sturdy.  It is nowhere near the same class as my 4-year old Macbook.  But all the hardware works and the 17" screen is nice.  If you're looking for a sturdy computer, though, go with the more expensive Dell Latitude or a Lenovo (previously known as IBM).

Although Microsoft Office works fine, this new Windows 8 system is a kluge.  Microsoft took two good operating systems, one for the tablet and one for desktops and laptops, and jammed them together.  It's like taking a football lineman and a tennis player and making them play each other's games while tied together for a 3-legged race.  They're built to do different things and they just don't play well as one.  I had to go over to Barnes and Noble to pick up a "Windows 8 for Dummies" book (the large one, over 1,000 pages) just to get started.  Good thing I did, too, or I'd never have figured it out.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, is intuitive.

One of the annoyances of Windows 8 is that a lot of things are "apps" and open only in full-screen mode.  Things like the Reader program that opens PDF files.  Whose bright idea was that?  I want to be able to open PDF files in windows that I can resize as necessary, so that I can look at the PDF file in one window while making notes or writing emails about it in another.  Win 8 doesn't give you that option.

Another annoyance is that some programs open up as both "apps" and "programs".  Internet Explorer is one.  If you open it as an app, it's full-screen; open as a program, it's in a window.  That in itself is not a problem, except that they are really two entirely separate things.  If you save a bookmark in the app version, it doesn't save in the program version.  Dumb.

But most of this is minor.  Microsoft is betting the farm on Windows 8, so I think they'll make major improvements in Windows 8.1 and 8.2.  Meanwhile, what I've got is now taking care of business, so I'll keep it.

Lessons learned:
- If you work from home, you need separate computers for your work and personal worlds.
- Macs are great, but they don't play very well in a primarily PC business network.
- If you want a sturdy computer, don't get a Dell Inspiron.
- If you get Windows 8, get one of the many books to tell you how to use it.

Busy Times

Things have been happenin' here at our household.  As noted in my last post, I've been working in a new job.  I'm still on the steep side of the learning curve regarding what, exactly, it is that I'm supposed to be doing.  I want to do what they want me to do, better than they expect me to do it.  And I'm not quite there yet, of course, but things are going well overall.  At the same time, I don't want to do more than what they want, because I'm a part-time help, and piling up billable hours when it's not necessary is a sure way to land on their wrong side.  So, as an independent contractor, the idea is to stay aware of what's necessary, do a great job of what you're supposed to do, but don't go looking for additional work.  How would you like it if you had a plumber who was great at what he did, but he kept going around your house reworking your pipes without you asking him to do it?  I'm the plumber.

At the same time, we've been really busy around the house.  Last week, we put new carpet in the living room.  The old one was original, laid down 14 years ago, and it was the cheapest possible carpet even then.  It was long past its shelf life.  So on Sunday, we started moving stuff out of the living room and into wherever we could put it.  By the time the carpet guys got here, we looked like something on an episode of "Hoarders" ... except in the living room, which was barren.  Shameless plug: we used Pearlman Carpets from Asheville.  They had done our bedroom last year and we knew they would do a  great job.  They did.  So that afternoon, we started putting everything back in.  Took three more days to get it all done.

Guys, you'll relate to this.  The big issue for us was the electronics.  A TV, DVD player, satellite receiver, and sound system can be confusing to connect, especially when they range in age from 16 years (sound system) to 2 years (DVD).  When we disconnected everything, the resulting spaghetti pile of cables looked like we'd never get it figured out.  But we took our time, and labeled everything before it was disconnected, and it all went back together easily.  Bullet dodged.

Another challenge was moving the couch and bookcases.  We're talking heavy stuff, and J and I aren't spring chickens anymore.  Ever used those sliding pads you can get from Lowe's or Home Despot?  We got a set and what a difference it made!  Even Janis could move the couch around the living room on the old and new carpet all by herself.

Immediately after the living room, we reworked our office.  We had a desk that was just too small for two of us to work on, particularly when one of us (me) was trying to do a real job.  So we bought a new component system at Office Max that is essentially two 55" desks in an L-shaped arrangement.  J's got her side and I have mine.  It's so much better than sitting in a chair with my Macbook on my lap, using the arm of the chair as a desk to hold a notebook.

Speaking of the Macbook .... no, I'll save that for my next post ...

New Year, New Employment

Yes, it's been quite a while since I last posted.  Holiday activities don't really make for interesting blog posts since everybody is doing something more or less similar.  I'm staying away from political rants as much as possible, so all the excitement over the fiscal cliff debacle was just background noise.  Annoying noise, but very predictable these days.  I was also getting over a bad sinus infection, and that really makes for a boring blog post.  So what could I write about?  Movies?  Eh.  Not many rate a post. Weather?  You must be kidding.  The dogs?  They're my life, but you don't really care.  No, I had nothing much to write about, so rather than launch lots of random words into the blogosphere, I decided to just shut up.

But now I have something to write about.  I am employed again.  I'm working as a program and project manager with a defense contractor on a really interesting project.  We're going to help build a security installation overseas.  I've been spending my time reading lots and lots of background material, emails, documentation, websites, and so on, trying to get as smart as possible as fast as possible.  Basically, I'm going thru the same routine here that I did in Afghanistan and Iraq, and repeatedly during my Navy career: I'm thrown into a new situation where I need to be an expert on pretty much everything by sometime yesterday.  And that's a kinda fun place to be.

This new job fits me to a T.  Besides giving me the opportunity to work on a very interesting and worthwhile project, it is (for the most part) virtual.  I don't have to deploy anywhere - I can do the vast majority of work from right here.  So my commute is from my kitchen to the office down the hall.  Cool.  There will be travel occasionally, but nothing that will last very long.  I can be (and am) interrupted by my wife and dogs regularly.  The job is also part-time, or at least it will be once I'm up to speed.  That means that I'll be able to set up a studio and start painting again.  About time, too: it's been going on two years since I've had a real studio and been able to paint, and I'm going through withdrawals.  (Well, not really, but whenever I walk into an artist studio now and smell the linseed oil and solvents, I go weak in the knees).  So I'm a pretty happy man.

Speaking of studio stuff, I learned the other day that two of my paintings will hang in the Pentagon for about a year.  The Veteran Artist Program (run by a group of veterans who are artists in the DC and Baltimore area) has organized an exhibition by veteran artists.  They selected these two works:

Lament

Oil on canvas, 60"x60" 

Warrior

Oil on canvas, 60"x60"

I will have to deliver these paintings to DC personally.  They're large (5 feet by 5 feet each, meaning the figures are life-size) so they'd be really expensive to ship.  And I just don't trust shippers.  Besides, I want to see where these are going to hang.  If they're buried in the basement or something, forget it, I'll bring 'em home.

One final note on art stuff.  Next month, I will have an exhibition at UNC Asheville.  Yes, I know, I just had a show of my Afghan drawings there.  This one will be different.  In the past, they've had a group show of work by various alumni.  This year, the school decided to focus on one alumnus at a time, and the Fickle Finger of Fate pointed to me.  So I'm going to show a broad selection of paintings, prints, and drawings done since I graduated from there almost ten years ago.  (Holy crap, it doesn't seem like that long ... but it is).

So.  Things are moving along.  Feels good to be getting active again!