My New York Trip

So I went home, got to draw in my sketch book a whole bunch, picked up a book of Tu Fu's poetry, a bunch of fly fishing books and a Remington Country belt buckle. My parents were doing well and I even saw a couple of my aunts.

Some big changes were going on at home. On Tug Hill there are now several hundred windmills that look super ugly. Well other than that there weren't really any big changes, but that was pretty big. I'm also attempting to get a piece into a show in Sacket's Harbor now. If my piece gets in I will be tickled pink, seeing that Sackett's is where all the artists that seem to do paintings of mallards their entire career seem to make all of their money. We'll see.

But for now I've got a couple sketchbook pages and the painting that I am sending into that show....

So this is what the windmills look like on Tug Hill. I was shocked to see them when I was riding home. Tug Hill was always just picturesque farm fields and whatnot.

I had animal crackers in the Airport. It struck me funny that none of the animals really looked like what they were supposed to be. I remember them being more accurate. Shame on Barnum's and Bailey's.

I was having a cup of coffee before I left on Wednesday, and this girl was in there talking about pea soup. She wanted to leave Seattle because everything reminds her of pea soup. I want to leave Seattle because of people that compare it to pea soup.


This is a small painting that I am sending into Sacket's Harbor. You may remember the sketch. The painting is a response to a Jack Kerouac haiku.

Dusk-the bird
on the fence,
a contemporary of mine

Hope everyone's day goes well. I on the other hand am late. peace.

I am Flying Home Tonight!

I don't have to deliver beer for four whole days. That is awesome! I also get to reflect on life for a while as I fly. Flying puts me more at peace than pretty much anything on earth. I always think of good ideas while flying. Or, at least I think of ways to link together things that I have been working on previously, so as to come to a larger overall understanding of what I am doing.

I have two drawings and a quick painting for you today. ( for some reason I just felt like I was speaking like Mr. Rogers in my head there. Everybody lets change into our indoor shoes and come along with me to the land of make believe. Now I know I need that vacation. )

So this is another journal entry. As you can see, I've pretty much started thinking of myself as Bruce Banner turning into the incredible hulk while delivering kegs. although I am really more akin to the "incredible bulk" or perhaps even the "incredible sulk".

What if robots were tiny? Jonathan Swift would have a field day. And I wouldn't have to clean out my own ear wax. O.k., that is disgusting, and on that note, I'm going on vacation.

Grad School or no Grad School

If I can just get organized....Applying to grad school is all of the same preparation as applying to galleries. If a school would accept me, wouldn't a gallery. I'm stuck in the middle again.

Fly fishing this summer has definitely led me to work on some fish pieces. I'm thinking an entire maze of mines that fish outfitted like world war two vets have created, while fishermen outside of the water look completely clueless.....Let me know what you think.

Very soon I will be back in New Hampshire, and when that happens the full winter walking series will be coming out. I think it will be really cool. The figures are pretty much going to lose some of their shape, because of the huddle effect. It's almost like walking in the winter in New England is like running into the Blob face to face over and over again......

Long live snow suits.

Does anyone want to write me an artist's statement?!

So I spent the night working on an artist's statement that should have technically been done approximately a year and a half ago, but this is generally the speed that I end up working. In other news camping proved fruitless this weekend, and I didn't get to go fishing either, but I did a couple cool sketches down.....

I've already started a painting of this one. It's going pretty well, though I don't think I am going to include the text in the painting.

This second one is actually two separate journal entries. They are both supposed to be visual poems in their own right, though I am more pleased with the completion of the first. It's simple like a haiku. (and that was a joke!)

and one more picture today......

This is beth looking good on the Astoria trip last weekend. That bluff was super cool too. Beth is standing about four hundred feet above a little cave that went into the rock ledge that was filled with water. You know that's going to be incorporated into a piece later.

Just a Couple Ramblings from my Journal

Last night I watched Finding Neverland. I found it especially interesting for JM Barrie's wife to be reading his journal. It made me think a little bit about how detached you can so easily become from the people around you, and how little they really know about what you are thinking by what you write in your journal. Most of what I write are notes or random poetry, or things to jog my memory, or perhaps a specific thought for a specific time......

I thought I'd show a couple excerpts though.


I've been reading a lot of Kerouac again lately. He always makes me draw people hitch-hiking or camping or on a mountain.

And here is an example of how I end up compartmentalizing my thoughts. I like to think of it as the comic of mike. Anyway, maybe I will put more of my journal entries up in the future. Hopefully you like seeing these.

New Paintings in Astoria

So this weekend Beth and I went camping at Ft Stevens in Oregon, then drove down the coast and took lots of cool pictures of the ocean, saw a tv show being filmed, and a bunch of starfish. We also dropped several bird paintings at Lunar Boy Gallery. I dropped off a disk with digital images as well, so you should be able to see all of the paintings up on the website soon too.


This one is called "Good Day Mr. Bird", and yes it has been up on the blog before, but I revised the bird. Now it actually looks like a red winged black bird which makes me very happy. Next we have "Just Push Play", a not so good example of what Aerosmith can do and a pretty good example of what I can do.


Last but not least. Bird on a wire is going to be a series all its own. I think more birds on more spread out wires though. I'm also kind of picturing the wires making up a patchwork like that in a mondrian. More from the end of his career though. The whole idea comes from this rad photo that I got from my buddy Billy in Portland, ME. So if you like it send props to Billy.

Response to Mockingbird

Here is a sketch of one possible way to take My friend Steve's poem "Mockingbird". I'm still working on this one though, so it may get a little more crazy, and for that matter even if I keep the same idea, I might try to work some newspaper heading fonts into the piece, and I think it should look cut and pasted. But it's just a quick sketch right?

Day 2: Laziness VS. Productiveness. the final battle

Bachelor still. But a productive bachelor at least. Rocking out to some Aphex Twin remix of tetris. Heck yeah. who isn't fired up about that? Anyway. there are some cool things coming up.

First off, I am going to be working with my buddy Camwyn on some poetry art response. His poetry totally kicks tookus, so you should check it out. (here)

Second off, a trip that was just going to clear some inventory and get some paintings out of my way is getting me totally psyched. I am loving the bird motif. I've gotten two new bird books in the past couple months and I am slowly trying to replicate more and more actual bird breeds as opposed to making generic cartoon bird. Scary huh.

So here's a golden eagle.

Let me know what you think.


I have a couple more pieces that should be done by weeks' end so I'll keep y'all updated.

hasta manana

Day 1 with no Beth

Extremely productive aaaand I watched baseball with my roommate. More importantly though I finally finished my wedding present for Joe Palmer and Maria Costanzo; two totally rocking individuals who I believe are in Chicago as we speak.

Here is their present. God I hope they like it.


The computer wasn't really stoked on the colors, so they might be a little bit off this time. I also finished up this little bluebird piece for Lunar Boy, which I didn't end up going to this weekend. Beth wants to go to, so I will be going next weekend when she is back.


Tomorrow, I think I will be able to get up the bird on the wire piece from yesterday. It is actually coming really fast, which makes me totally happy.

Until then.....rock on.

Home alone for three days.....

Lots of art to come, I would assume. Either that or I sit around and watch baseball with my roommate for three days straight. Both are likely. Oh that the mets don't experience a june-like month again.




Any way you probably don't care about my baseball preferences so here are a couple new bird pieces. Well one is a complete piece and the other is a drawing for a piece I intend to flesh out tonight. I'll keep you updated.



later