Vinyl Art

'Tis The Season

2009-11-05T15:58:00.003-07:00

As we near my wife's due date, time is getting wacky. It's almost my birthday! Then all the holidays. Man.

Imagine throwing a wedding into the mix?

The fellow up in Canada who has commissioned these pieces is getting married early December. My wife and I got married late December, but we did it in Vegas, baby! He's apparently doing the whole deal as these four are for his groomsmen. How cool! What a neat idea. All get basically the same thing, but personal for them. It adds that edge of thoughtfulness.

I am finding that my Vinyl Art makes for a great gift, for any occasion. People seem to feel much better about splurging on art if it's for a loved one.

I certainly know I'm thinking pretty much only about things to give Abbey once she's born!

Peace.

SOLD - 11/05/09

Show And Tell

2009-11-03T09:36:00.007-07:00

http://thegoodfoot.com/gallery/exhibit/43/daniel-edlen

This past weekend, Vinyl Killers 7 was open and is now online. My 5 pieces are still available and can be bought online.

The show looked HUGE! Every year it keeps getting bigger. This year, Jason used my Tom Waits from last year for the poster. Very cool.

The nice thing about these group shows is the new audience that gets exposed to the concept. Recently it's become apparent how helpful taking advantage of every opportunity for exposure can be, online and off. Profiles with online galleries I created long ago have brought new customers while the new video has done the same.

All it takes is one person at a time. I've said that before, but it deserves to be mentioned again. I really don't pay much attention to the ups and downs of the numbers of people following me on various sites. That doesn't have any impact on my business. I sell work to one person at a time. Heck if someone sees my work online somewhere, gets the concept, and moves on, that's great! If they bookmark it, share it, or contact me, even better. But I don't expect people to follow all that I do. That'd take, well, as much time as I take doing it!

So I show you what I do, as I do it, and tell you about what's going on that's relevant. If you get hooked, cool! If you say to yourself, "Hey that's neat!" and think about it months later when figuring out a birthday present, awesome! If you go, "Wow!" and then tell all your friends right then, beautiful!

That's how the ripples spread, and that's how that one person connects. That's how I get to do what I do, that I love SO much. So thank you for what you do that helps. You, one person.

Peace.

THIS Is What It's All About

2009-10-30T08:11:00.002-07:00

Here is Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam on "Vs.", received in trade, painted for Nate Anderson of Ear Candy Charity, inspired by a photo by Paul Martin with his blessing. So cool.

Peace.

SOLD - Eddie Vedder 10/30/09

On The Wall

2009-10-29T15:27:00.003-07:00

Jon was kind enough to send me a shot of the 4 pieces he commissioned as they hang on his wall. This is a cool layout! It's a nice alternative to the square. Even though it was really hard to sell these, I'm so glad they've found a good home.

I love getting to catch up on the story of my pieces, following them where they go. I've talked about this before, missing out when I consign pieces because I don't know who buys them, or when pieces get bought at charity auctions. But I have been lucky enough to have several owners send me pictures of their Vinyl Art.

If you own one or gave one to someone, I'd love to know what people think, and a picture would be awesome. If you can send one, just email it to me!

Peace.

How Twitter Can Help An Art Business

2009-10-27T13:59:00.006-07:00

This video wouldn't have happened without Twitter. Plain and simple.

I've been participating on Twitter for some time now. It's been hit and miss as far as usefulness in the moment. But when it hits, it hits. And the hits are much more fulfilling than a straightforward sale. This post is about some examples of those hits I've had with my Vinyl Art.

For me, my art is largely about the connections I get to make. That's what Twitter is about. Yes, there is the noise in the room there, but if you get good at tuning your twitterstream, you can make some great connections.

I've had several. Some that have ended up with transactions financial, others with transactions social. I've developed a relationship with one of my favorite musicians, Bob Green (@thegrassyknoll), whose music I'd discovered years ago during my lazy college days spent listening to random used CDs. Brilliant stuff. I've communicated friendly-like with Prince Campbell III (@chartreuseb), whose blog blew me away, and he even entered my last Vinyl Art contest. Also, brilliant stuff. I respect these creative people enormously. To have produced the content they have and put it out there, and then to interact with people on a very real level is wonderful.

Then there are those connections that have resulted in both a friendship and a sale. First to mind is the one with Ryan Barton (@RyanBarton). He's the fellow who made this video for me. I won't tell you all the particulars about his generosity, but basically he bought 3 pieces from me after I'd jumped in on Twitter seeing he had bought a print from Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) and was thinking about buying my art next. That's the beauty of Twitter, the evesdropping on relevant conversations that persist as tweets but occur as real-time exchanges.

It is the strange hybrid structure of communication, both asynchronous and synchronous, that allows for more connections and more development and expansion of those connections. It happened with Brian Clark (@Copyblogger) as well. He and I conversed first about @chartreuseb and his blog and the crazy comments they'd gone back a forth with long ago. Then he took a liking to my art, eventually buying 4 pieces, sharing my work with his followers and even writing a blog post suggesting how I could improve my business. It is that building of relationships and the ripples which spread uniquely on Twitter that have added a marvelous dimension to my art business.

I was able to give back to a hero of mine too. After finding David Lynch on Twitter, I was then made aware of his foundation (@DLFTV). They enjoyed my work enough to have me paint Mr. Lynch and then have him autograph the piece for a future auction benefitting the foundation. I then painted Mike Love of the Beach Boys for the same purpose, Love signing the piece at one of the foundation's charity concert.

This connection to reality with Twitter relates to local action as well. I will be having a solo show locally at Bookmans (@bookmans) this winter. This is because of Twitter, as Scott Henderson (@espressojunky) found me there and offered me the idea of a show, and then bought a piece for himself. Further, I was able to learn about Nate Anderson and Ear Candy Charity (@earcandycharity) on Twitter. Nate and I have struck up a relationship and $50 from every piece sold or commissioned at the Bookmans show will go to the charity and their efforts to provide musical instruments to kids music programs.

So I get to give back in a very real way to people not even involved with Twitter due to relationships formed on Twitter. I'd say that's a hit.

Peace.

Yay! I CAN Paint!

2009-10-26T16:54:00.004-07:00

I'm still adding more pieces to my redone online gallery, but I'm back to painting too. I've gotten some really cool commissions, and I'm excited to get to them!

I feel so lucky that I CAN paint. Not that I have the skill, but I have the opportunity and wherewithall. This is thanks to my support system, primarily my wife, now in her 3rd trimester (http://tinyurl.com/VAbaby). To have such support is incredible.

This piece is Robert Johnson. I'm trading it to my friend John T. Unger. He has a place in my "Online Motivation" list to your right in the sidebar. If you haven't checked out his article about life and death, do. It's insanely inspiring.

I'm trading this piece to John because, 1) I like him and want him to have at least one of my pieces and 2) he needs financial and moral support. A used car salesman has ripped off his designs and then had the gall to sue HIM to overturn his copyrights for his Artisanal Firebowls. The legal fees could bankrupt John, but his attitude is so amazing (see the article he wrote, really) that he's fighting back with creativity. He's taking the scrap metal from the already scrap metal he uses for his firebowls to make whimsical small sculptures he's calling Fire Imps.

Here's the one I'm getting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johntunger/3948843548/in/set-72157622441515552/

This afternoon, he's finally released the info about the lawsuit, having been advised by his lawyer heretofore to stay mum.

Here's his article about the situation along with how you can help: http://www.johntunger.com/legal-defense-fund.html

I hope you'll take a moment to check out his work and see if you might like a piece of his, or if you'll be moved enough to share the story with others. I know I was.

Peace.

Traded - Robert Johnson 10/26/09

Can I Paint Again Yet?

2009-10-23T14:26:00.003-07:00

Whew! What a week!

I got it done though. My new gallery!

http://www.vinylart.info/why.htm

This is just in time, because that video I talked about a little bit ago is done too! It turned out amazingly! I'm so proud of it. Ryan at http://rhynomarketing.com did such a good job.

I've embedded it on my "About Me/An Introduction" page. If you want to see it in high quality, you can go straight to YouTube. Then if it doesn't start in HQ, you can click the HQ button in the bottom right of the video box. It'll take a bit longer to load, but the paintings look way better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjagBX3VFug

I also sent out my email newsletter this morning. Baby and Bookmans news were the main topics. Good stuff. If you'd like to be included in my mailing list, just email me and let me know!

http://www.vinylart.info/press.htm

Have a good weekend! I'll be back to painting next week. Some cool commissions.

Peace.

Under Construction; No Dust

2009-10-20T13:05:00.003-07:00

The nice thing about having a virtual gallery, instead of one made of brick and mortar, is redoing it doesn't require closing up shop during construction. Handy.

In my last post, I introduced new genre labels for my blog posts. This week I'm going to revamp my main site gallery to be more user-friendly. Each piece is going to have its own page, bookmarkable and shareable. The pieces are going to be the actual pieces, instead of representative images. And they are going to be organized both alphabetically and by genre. Cool.

I realized after creating the blog post genre labels that I have enough pieces to do this now. The gallery will have the pieces listed for sale with PayPal "Buy Now" buttons, or will show the pieces as on consignment or sold. This'll make it much easier to tell people which pieces are on your wish list. Nice.

I'll be letting my newsletter subscribers know first when the change goes live, along with some other cool personal and art-related news. If you're not on my list, you can simply email me at the address above and let me know! Easy.

Peace.

Nina Simone 10/19/09

Categorically Reluctant

2009-10-16T16:09:00.003-07:00

I have over 400 posts on this blog now. I've tried to keep posting every weekday both for my sanity and to keep sharing with you, my art and my life.

This week I sold a Clapton to a woman as a surprise anniversary present to her guitar-playing husband. Very cool. But it was difficult to, over the phone, have her get to the examples of my paintings of blues guitarists. I only have that drop-down list over to your right.

But how do you categorize Clapton? Is he blues? Is he rock? Is he classic? Is he psychedelic?

I really don't like labels, but I know to expect you to be able to find who you want from one huge alphabetical list with a scroll bar is quite unfair. So I'm working on labels. Here they are so far, you can click on each to get all the posts which I've put in that category:

classic
popish
alt
metal
grunk
soul
jazz/blues
hip-pop
country

What do you think?

Peace.

Culling Curators

2009-10-15T08:57:00.003-07:00

Middlemen have it the roughest these days. Record labels, book/magazine publishers, car salesmen, art galleries, realtors. With artists like Slash breaking traditional industry boundaries and with the well known issues of online distribution of information and content, it's tough.

But there's a new breed of middleman. Some of them are calling themselves curators. I'd not use such a, well, stodgy word. I'd use culler, a word not commonly used yet, but accurate. These people are filters.

Remember portals online? Like Ask or Infoseek or, well, AOL? Of course you don't. They've been replaced as the active, social media sites have revolutionized the sharing of information. I don't mean the actual information, the content. Blogs and the like have revolutionized the sharing of that. I mean the sharing of the sharing, the filter, the value-added directory.

So now, on these highly active sharing sites, the deal is to be the best at focussing on what you like to share and then finding the best postings online about the best examples of that, the fastest. These people who have thousands of followers on Twitter and hundreds of friends on Facebook spend their time grabbing links, repeating the ones that fit their focus, perhaps scanning original source sites like newspapers or even content producers and sometimes sharing links from those that haven't yet been shared. It's about building a reputation as the one to follow if you like such-and-such, and it's about connecting with other cullers to get insider tips, faster links, more followers.

I'm not sure what'll happen, but I know there'll be a shakeout, a quick one because everything on these social media sites happens, like, yesterday. It's like a vacuum in 2 senses: it'll suck you in and spit you out, and it's very echoey. Many are basically acting as relays. There are clever uses of the technology though.

I joined in one last month. A lady, @kim on Twitter, started #Artwalk. On Twitter, one way information gets connected together is through hashtags (#). Twitter makes these into links so you can click on them and it acts kind of like an indexing function. Kim's idea was to, once a month, have people share art links they like with the hashtag #Artwalk. Sort of a stroll through art online, turning Twitter into a virtual gallery. Culling at it's finest, if the quality is there.

And that's the trick I think, quality. With so much repeating of links and connections for the sake of connections, the actual content, the painting by Van Gogh on the museum website, can be lost. We need original, um, content. Again, not the actual content, the link content. The cullers who will make it out with maybe a real thing going will be those who find real stuff to share.

Seems obvious, but the noise level is rising online and it's still hard to tune in a signal. So I call out to you cullers, what do you really want? What do you want to share? Be as specific as possible and put that in your bio info. Then you can become the active directory people will remember and go to, like the old Yellow Pages.

I don't envy your mission, but if you choose it, commit.

Peace.

Slash 10/15/09

Time For Change

2009-10-14T10:04:00.005-07:00

I keep getting taken by a fit of the evil chuckles when I look at this piece. Not sure why. Could be that the painting is shaping up to be awesome.

Could be because that video profile I told you about yesterday is shaping up to be awesome.

Could be because that show at Bookmans this winter is shaping up to be awesome.

Could be because my opening up to change is shaping up to be awesome. It's really a matter of deciding, committing. And then accountability, daily. Getting small goals done, checking them off a to-do list is so rewarding. Completing tasks is reward enough! Heck, it's getting me closer to my dreams for my Life. That's the point. Having that end in mind and then creating your journey to it positively, enjoying the way there.

Do you know what you want in order for your Life to shape up to be awesome?

Peace.

Mick Mars 10/14/09

Head-On Profile

2009-10-12T14:30:00.003-07:00

Something hopefully very cool is developing. The fellow who bought the 3 blue jazz pieces, including Miles Davis, is working with me to create a professional video profile! Using our new Flip videocam, my wife recorded me as though I were answering interview questions about my Vinyl Art. I then recorded myself painting this piece of Miles Davis. It'll all be editted together with music and stills and timelapse shots into a clip to share online.

I was really nervous filming myself. I'm not familiar enough with how I sound, let alone look, on camera to know how to do it. Fortunately my wife is honest! After half a beer I both sounded and looked much better, apparently. Yeah, I'm a light-weight. ;)

But having grown up an introverted listener, speaking about myself, especially in public, has always freaked me out. I'm bad enough writing about myself without questions to answer. And you should've heard me give my high school graduation valedictorian speech! I'd wished I hadn't done as well in school after that.

I do like talking about my art, answering questions. That's why I redid my 'About Me' page on my site as a Q&A. Along those lines, oh readers of mine, I'd love to know what other questions you have about me or my art. I am really open and, when prompted, can ramble until my wife tells me I should stop. ;)

So, what do you want to know?

Peace.

Rock

2009-10-08T07:33:00.003-07:00

Do You Wake Up To Music?

2009-10-07T08:00:00.003-07:00

I've been really curious if this happens with other people.

I wake up with music playing in my head. Usually it's something I've listened to the day before, but sometimes it's totally random. It's like the iPod or jukebox in my head is on shuffle.

The cool thing? If I loop whatever chunk of music is in my head I can go right back to sleep.

Does any of this ring a bell? Or is it just me?

Peace.

Friends, Family, Fans, Followers, Flickr, Phew!

2009-10-05T10:25:00.006-07:00

"Badges! We don't need no stinking badges!" I added the above Flickr Badge to my Facebook fan page today. I was trying to figure out a way to make a widget so that those of you who'd want to would be able to share a mini-slideshow of my work on your site or profile or whatever.

I'm a little famooshed this morning after trying a bunch of new things with my online stuff. Stuff. What else do you call it? Presence? Accounts? Profiles? Social Media?

There's Facebook which has a fan page and my personal account with friends and family. There's Twitter with followers. And there's Flickr with contacts. Each site, each environment requires a different approach. Subtle, but different. All try to do the same thing, engage and connect with music lovers and artsy people, yet...

Flickr is the simplest. Upload images, add tags and description, add to relevant groups. The strange thing is though that I get more random connections there. People just interested in art. A lot of street artists. I only communicate with them there for some reason. News about vinyl art shows usually ends up there first.

On Twitter, it's more about sharing ideas and people and links related to my art, but not my art directly so much. Followers seem to like big news, like being featured on Playboy, but the better updates are the ones that show who I am as an artist. I like architecture, this architect, these buildings. I came up with this saying on my way to lunch today. I like this lyric from this band I really like. There's this other cool guy here who does this neat artwork. That kind of thing. There is the ability to send messages, but users seem mostly to add images as favorites and occasionally leave public comments.

On Facebook, my fan page is solely news in various forms about my art. This is the charity event to which I donated pieces. Here is the video clip in which Mike Love signs my piece of him for DLFTV. This is the show in London to which I've submitted pieces. Those kinds of things. There is the ability to have discussions, but users seem to pay attention to fan pages more as a news feed with feedback.

Then, also on Facebook, my personal account is, well, more personal. Still about my art but mostly family and old friends and new ones I've made online. The updates are rarer there, as I figure most other stuff besides news about Abbey Grace is too mundane. I do go back and forth in comments more though, with multiple people joining in briefly.

And that's been the most complex part, figuring out where the conversation works the best. Since email seems to be fading, for whatever reason, and is being replaced by all these social sites, where do you find it the easiest to participate in discussions? The most comfortable?

No, really. I'm asking you. Where?

Peace.

I Know They're Out There Somewhere

2009-10-02T08:39:00.008-07:00

This Iggy Pop was a gift from a wife to her musician husband, a friend of mine from grade school. Here is my original post featuring the piece. It looks awesome right above a light like that, between more art even! Sid Vicious, Iggy Pop and the White Stripes. Doesn't get much better.

I love getting pics of people's pieces in place. I've only gotten a few, which you can see by clicking on "owner" in the label list at the end of this post.

I'd also dig pics of the stickers I've sent out, if people've stuck'em somewhere. My wife and I have ours in the corner of our rear windows. I'm looking forward to the day I first see one on somebody else's vehicle.

So if you have a piece of Vinyl Art or a VA logo sticker stuck and haven't sent me a photo, please please do. I'll feature you in a post unless you tell me not to, as well. Or if you know someone who has a piece, tell them! Thanks!

Peace.

Being An Artist Is Hard

2009-10-01T12:26:00.003-07:00

So I overwhelmed myself again. Not with too much to do, but with the other usual concern, money matters. I'm not complaining, and I'm not doing badly either.

But there're no roadmaps for being an artist, a financially successful one. Especially since I'm largely avoiding the traditional gallery consignment route. In the course my dad gave me I'm supposed to write a business plan today, and formulate an ideal day. What are those for artists?

I dislike the commoditization of anything let alone art, and certainly time. This idea is sort of rubbing me the wrong way. Yes, there are certain things I could put into a routine. I think I'd benefit probably. So I'll give it a go, especially when money is tight and will get tighter with the birth of Abbey Grace.

I suppose the planning and organizing is just another thing which right now has a long-term payoff with short-term expenditures of time. I hope so, because as I was contacting Sir Paul McCartney's publicist yesterday, I looked at this post again, remembering my most important ultimate personal goal of creating Vinyl Art.

Peace.

A Big To-Do To-Do

2009-09-29T14:12:00.006-07:00

"And they began this day with hope." I'm learning.

What could be better?

It's a big challenge to go from being the sort to float and get things done completely haphazardly to the sort to write down a daily to-do list. Besides getting the hang of figuring out how long it takes me to do things, I also need to decide how to break down larger tasks so they don't show up on my list for a whole week. I know I'm learning a good lesson to not be dissappointed in myself if I don't get to check off everything, but when I've written "work on Steinbeck" for the last five days...

But it's done today. I got Dr. Seuss's "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" today to use for my Liter(art)ure. Neato. I still feel a bit weird drawing in books, but the result is pretty cool.

I just sent out a special secret Vinyl Art commission that got a sweet frame job. I'd never floated a record or used matting before. It's really fun to get to do different presentations of my work. It'll be as fun to figure out how to present my Liter(art)ure when it comes to selling them.

'Til then, I'm just doing them for my wife and I. Checking them off my to-do list.

Peace.

Steps Ahead (Or, In Front Of The Footsteps)

2009-09-28T10:20:00.004-07:00

In the Table of Contents off to your right, the Introduction is called "Steps Back" also featuring a painting of all four Beatles like this one. This piece is for my first baby barterer, http://tinyurl.com/VAbaby.

Now I'm looking forward, setting my dreams down on paper, organizing my goals accordingly, and committing to what I really want.

It's empowering to see progress. I'm still seeking balance, as I do tend to go too far sometimes with change, but I like the feeling of accomplishment.

One challenge, a big one, to my Vinyl Art venture is creating a new trail in the world of art. Still unclear even really how to characterize what I do in traditional terms, I'm not sure where the right people are to connect, to share. I hope eventually to bring them to me through various means of exposure, but I have a lot of seeking to do. A lot of unanswered questions. How cool! I love not knowing things.

So, where do you think I could engage people in conversation about music, art, and/or human creativity in general who might also be intrigued by my work?

Peace.

BARTERED - The Beatles 09/28/09

The Best Of The Most Popular Vinyl Art Posts

2009-09-25T11:14:00.004-07:00

I've been meaning to assemble a list of blog posts that have been popular and that I enjoy the most. I know that the prospect of not only keeping up with reading a post a day, but digging into the archive unguided is overwhelming. Your time is precious, and there're some posts that, beyond having a neat painting are, for different reasons, not worth that time and thought.

So I figured that I could at least share the posts that more people have checked out, those I think are worth your time.

The most trafficked posts are the one with JFK's famous line from his inauguration speech and the one with the discussion of my favorite funny people because of the reference to SNL's 101 top moments. These are found by searchers looking for something completely off-topic from my work. So I wouldn't count these, or point you to them.

After those, my introductory post with a painting of The Beatles is the most read. Good! That's the best post to get a handle on what I do, what I'm about and the point of this blog.

Next is one of my more philosophical posts with a painting of Tom Waits. I like this post a lot too, so I'm glad it gets seen. The painting is being used for the poster of this year's Vinyl Killers show, and Waits himself posted a tweet complimenting the piece. What I say in it is worth the read, I think, as well. About value and people.

Following that is my contest post with the painting of David Lynch that he then autographed to auction for his foundation. I received some amazing entries to that contest and this post shares my interest in stories, your stories. Stories persist, facts fade. It's still a good post, and hey, if you send me your story still, I'll send you a sticker.

Skipping a couple more posts popular only because of wayward searchers, my reproduction post with the painting of Santana that, along with John Lennon and Mariah Carey, eventually was reproduced for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel is a good story. The result of my adventure certainly was positive. I do still have to frame the copies I got.

Next is another great story post with my philosophical and practical thoughts about the largest record collection in the world and how to find a buyer for it. It's always a matter of the value. Not monetary. Human.

That is indeed why I paint Vinyl Art, to celebrate and find value in humanity. The creativity that I bring together, from the album cover artist to the photographer of the photo I draw inspiration from to the musician and the production of the album to me is very cool. With a simple portrait, I hope to share the meaning of all that combined contribution to humanity.

Something meaning more than it simply is, by being simply what it is.

Do you have a favorite post of mine?

Peace.

Beginning With The End In Mind

2009-09-24T08:16:00.003-07:00

Herbie Hancock, on my favorite single, "Rock It", will be the 5th piece for this year's Vinyl Killers show at The Goodfoot in Portland, Oregon. Since Jason used my Tom Waits for the poster, I wanted my pieces to be really good this year. The others are the Thom Yorke, Frank Zappa, Jay-Z and Michael Jackson I painted recently. I like the black on the label on these.

I really like how my paintings are turning out these days. Not that I didn't like them before, but they seem to be better. To me anyway.

I do basically start each piece with the end in mind. I mean, I have the image already. In a broad sense I am simply replicating the original photograph. I'm not insecure about that fact anymore, as I've recognized the value I add, I put into the piece, but it is true. All I really try to do is make the painting look like the photo.

It's all dots and dabs of white paint. That's all it is. I look at where the white is in the photograph and put it on the record. I'm not even really thinking about the fact that it's a face while I'm painting. Then, in the end, voila! It's kind of fun to see it develop, which you can do here.

My painting can be a metaphor for Life, if you like that sort of metaphysical philosophical thing. Which I do. In Life, if you have a dream, a goal, a picture in your head of how something will look when you get to where you want, you have a much better chance of getting there. Sounds kind of obvious when you think about it. People don't get what they want usually because they don't know what they want!

This has been on my mind a lot with the course I'm on, so I'll ask the question again, "What do you really want?"

I'm asking you.

Peace.

Preparation Prevents Perspiration

2009-09-23T08:28:00.004-07:00

So yesterday I didn't do a post because I kind of overwhelmed myself. I got so excited the night before about my Bookmans news that I bit off more than I could chew with my to-do list and I ended up discouraging myself. When really I had done a lot.

I have to be careful with myself, because I tend to swing pendulums to extremes. From no change to let's change everything! But being prepared is a good thing. I'm learning that for sure. And I'm learning that shortcuts are long on cost, end up causing more work down the road.

My website is one example. What seems like ages ago, NOTCOT did a post about me. It's one of those 'what's cool' sites. I had a huge traffic spike to my website. But I hadn't really designed it well, procrastinating because I couldn't make it perfect. I was amazed that I had even one sale directly from that post. I got freaked out because I didn't have any kind of inventory control or note about variations in commissions or anything. Sweating bullets that morning. Frenzy.

Now, my site's in better shape, partially because I was preparing for this. So now I'm ready. Not sweating. Excitement.

I've gotta get painting!

Peace.

Topsy Turvy, Icky Thump

2009-09-21T16:18:00.003-07:00

Well. What a day! Talk about a rollercoaster. It started out pretty crappy. Inefficient, frustrating, anxious-making. To boot, I left my phone in another room and didn't hear my wife calling repeatedly for about an hour. No emergency, but it left her worried and me pissed at myself. She did get a Slurpee out of it. Orange Cream.

And I did get this painted. Been wanting to paint The White Stripes for a long time. They are, after all, one of our favorite bands. Jack White's new band, The Dead Weather, rocks as well.

Then about 15 minutes ago I got an email. A VERY cool email. I'll be able to share the details in my newsletter. I've got to keep it slightly under my hat. If you want to subscribe, please just email me. I'm currently giggling kind of uncontrollably.

Peace.

Focus On Course

2009-09-18T13:46:00.003-07:00

That line. That line from "Swimming With Sharks". "What do you really want?"

It's a vital question. Your life won't go anywhere without the answer. Well, it will, but just not anywhere you want. We need dreams. We need to write those dreams down. We need to tell people about them.

It serves our need to be connected, to grow, to contribute. To be human.

I've got some big dreams, ones that will really just be goals for my whole life. I want to read all the books I want to read and go all the places I want to go. I want to feel physically fit. I want to be a good father.

I've got some other big ones that are more, well, directed. With end points.

I want Paul McCartney to be aware of my work. Yes, that Paul McCartney. He played at the first David Lynch Foundation benefit concert, but I just missed out being able to send a portrait of him to sign. Wasn't time, according to the Universe. Who am I to argue? But I want him to know about what I do, and if I can get one of him in his hands someday? I'll melt.

I want to put out a book of my Vinyl Art. It's going to be called "Groovy Portraits". I've bought the .com domain. I've started working on the text. First I'm going to put out an Ebook version to spread it around. You'll know about it. Then, I don't know how, but it'll be published someday. And I'll get to sign one for you.

I want to make something of the 33 abstract sculptures I did in my last years in art classes. I've shared a couple sculptures, figurative, with you before. These I haven't. And I won't until I'm happy with how they're being presented. They are the most personal art I've done, ever. They are me. Well, they are me then. Becomings. That's what my old art teacher called them. Me. Becoming me. I'm still doing it. So sharing those the way I want is a lifetime goal. The biggie.

We'll see. But it all requires focus. I'm learning. I'm on a course.

Peace.

In Memory Of Michael

2009-09-17T16:34:00.005-07:00

"Thriller" was one of the first cassettes I had, from my uncle I think. I remember the dancing, the video, the glove. An entertainer like no other, that chin jutting out, those hips popped. Remember the time?

Peace.