The 2nd

Today is your last chance to vote for your favorite artists in ArtPrize.

My piece is titled Forget-Me-Not: please go online to vote for me again if you registered when you were physically present at a venue, that is, you were at least once present at the geolocation—as it is explained in the ArtPrize lit.

Thanks.

Here is a convenient link.
https://vote.artprize.org/explore-entries

The 3rd

I watched the film Ad Astra yesterday after work. It is a work of art, one of the best films I have seen. In a slightly distant future, odd things are happening in the solar system. They stem from an earlier exploratory mission; however, the real story is the inner and outer lives of a particular father and son.

Here is the only thing I will tell you. The main character admits that a long time alone in space sometimes leads to odd thoughts and strange behaviors. He had not experienced this before, but now he does. This is illustrated in the smallest couple of moments in the movie; however, the meaning is large—it matters very much to the rest of the story. As a consumer of stories, you will intuit this, feel it, understand it—at a soul-searching level—without ever being as explicit as I am being here. I do not know how artists get there, but the writers, director, producers and actors went there with this quiet, beautiful, inner-life film. They got to that special place: The dreamlike beauty of well-made art.

4th

I have a Flickr account. You can visit it and view many photos.

https://flic.kr/ps/AHmaF

Copy the link and paste it into a browser address line. There are 361 photos there.

My photostream looks like this.

I hardly use the account, so feel free to go there in order to keep my account active.

My neighbor at our venue got a prize last night.

I am not jealous at all—I am a sport. See a bit if my venue walkthrough. The jury clearly saw my work right there.

8th

I asked Copilot to show me a museum mockup of my photo. It will not remain a photo––I paint it. This is the right size.

This is a simple outline.

Here is my original photo, only slightly edited, about 40 years old. I am not going to work with the dewdrops.

I paint in the winter. I will start work on this soon.

10th

You are in the Presence of Greatness

There is beauty in everyone’s soul. Look for it. Try to find it. Nurture it. Most of us are dealing with the great ideas of Western Civilization, and more: The great ideas of the East. Give us some slack: We are okay. Stop trying to micromanage us. We are happy: Build yourself a nice egg-salad sandwich, and relax. Stop criticizing. Encourage, help, love, delight—get out of the way!