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"Who's on First"

2008-11-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

This was my Halloween costume this year. I really wasn't sure what I was going to go as, so it ended up being a bit last minute. Fortunately I already had all the pieces for the costume. You can look at it as just being an old time baseball player, but I think the "?" cap gives it a little something extra, especially if you're at all familiar with Abbott and Costello...

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T10:21:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's already the end of October. It's been quite a busy month. Being sick for a good chunk of the month (which I still can't seem to completely shake off) hasn't helped. But for the most part it's been very good.

There's been great weather. Lots of color in the foliage. I've kind of realized that I have a bit of a difficult time shooting broad foliage shots. I've known for a long time that wide landscapes are not really my thing, but it's hard to show the colors and a location in the same shot without it being a broad view.

That said, I've probably shot more pictures this month than in any other month in my life. The only exception would possibly be during my trip across the USA in October/November 1994. But shooting on film at that time, I don't think I took as many as I have this month.

There were some adventures around Vermont, as well as an overnight to Deer River, New York, and a quick weekend up in Maine. Eventually I'll get things edited, but it'll take a while as I'm working on several new ideas.

Happy Halloween.
Going to try and get out while the weather is decent and take more pictures. I still have a few hours before the month is over.

Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde, Maine

a new perspective

2008-10-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

Had the opportunity to go flying yesterday. Hadn't been on a plane in a year and a half, but my friend Clint recently got his pilot's license, and we went for a little trip yesterday.

the travel bug

2008-10-03T06:30:00.001-07:00

I really haven't been traveling much this summer. Trying to save money. Trying to save gas. Biking places as much as I can. But after a planned trip to D.C. and Pittsburgh, I seem to have the travel bug. Or maybe it's just because it's fall and the leaves are turning.

I've been out the last couple of days driving around Vermont, despite some not so great weather, trying to get pictures. It's been okay, but there's been a couple of instances where nature seems to be closed.

Wednesday, I headed south on Route 100. With darker skies I wanted to try and get some shots of Moss Glen Falls in Granville. But it was closed. How do you close nature, you may ask? They're putting in a new walkway, so there were construction vehicles there. Not much room to park, and everything taped off. I probably could have stopped anyway and asked the workmen if it was okay to get some pictures, but liability-wise, I could see it being a problem.

Last night I went up to Montgomery, to a bridge I've been to a bunch of times. The bridge itself has been closed off to vehicular traffic for as long as I've been going there, but this time there were big "ROAD CLOSED" signs and construction vehicles. The good news is that it looks like they're trying to save the covered bridge. The bad news was that it looked pretty rough.

I was pretty much ready to just bail, but decided to climb down and see what it looked like downstream just a bit:

From below, and through the trees, you can barely tell there's any construction going on, except for the fact that there's no siding on the bridge and you can see the lattice work very clearly.

recent activities

2008-09-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

Been keeping rather busy of late.
Just updated the the "recent images" gallery with all new photographs on my web site.

I also just completed a web site for Jeff Clarke, a photographer in Burlington. He already had a web site, but it had not been updated in several years, and he was looking for an updated design. After quite a bit of work, the site is finally complete and online.

Otherwise, plugging away on various projects and enjoying the Vermont summer, which is quickly disappearing. But that just means autumn is coming, which I tend to enjoy even more.

another season over...

2008-09-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

The Lake Monsters finished another season over the weekend. Got to see their last win of the season on Thursday evening. Went to five games this year, more than I've been to in any season since back when they were a double-A team, as the Vermont Reds/Mariners.

SEABA

2008-09-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

The South End Art Hop starts tonight in Burlington.
Once again, I don't have anything in it, but I did participate in SEABA's Flamingo Fling fundraiser earlier this year.

JPG Magazine submission

2008-09-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

JPG Magazine submission

2008-08-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

weird, warped strawberry...

2008-07-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Vote for me!!!

2008-07-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

and another here:

Vote for me!!!

2008-07-13T09:04:00.001-07:00

New image up for voting at JPG Magazine here:

Ouch!

2008-06-23T13:34:00.001-07:00

Black eye I got playing softball last Wednesday.
It looks a bit worse now than it did when I took this picture.

Fenway Park

2008-06-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

Last Friday my father and I went to Fenway for a tour of the park and then a game later that night. Unforatunately they lost. Badly. But it was still a fun time. Especially the tour. Neither of us had been to the park in 20 years, and there's been a lot of changes. Including the fact that it's now the oldest park in the majors.

cute and dangerous

2008-05-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

Back from a quick weekend trip to Maine. Saw this little guy in Acadia on Friday.

New portfolio...

2008-05-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

I've added a new portfolio to my web site featuring recent paintings:

Vote for me...

2008-05-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Little Monster

2008-04-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

First hike of the year on Sunday.
Found this little guy at the top of Camel's Hump.

Springtime...

2008-04-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

We've been having beautiful weather for the last week or so, and yesterday I finally spent some time walking around Burlington taking pictures. It's been quite a while since I had really walked around town with the only purpose being to take pictures. I ended up taking nearly two hundred shots, so editing will take some time, but it was the perfect morning to do it, especially since it ended up getting cloudy in the afternoon and it's supposed to rain most of next week.

One of the shot I got yesterday:

Vote for me...

2008-04-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday's opening...

2008-04-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

So Saturday I had my opening at Irises Cafe and Wine Bar in Plattsburgh.

All last week I was pretty stressed out. Because the restaurant has so much wall space, I needed to have enough work in the show to fill the space. But also because it's a restaurant, I had a very short amount of time to actually hang the show. The combination of transporting a large amount of work and needing to hang it in a short amount of time was only adding to my stress levels.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly. Then all I had to worry about was the opening itself.

Honestly I didn't have great expectations for the turnout. In part because I hadn't done a great deal of advertising for the show. I had been doing so much work just to get paintings completed, that I really didn't have much time left over to concentrate on advertising.

Somehow everything came together. About an hour before the opening, the weather cleared and the sun came out. Which was incredible considering that we were in the middle of a snowstorm the day before.

The big reason the weather was so important though, was because Saturday was also Plattsburgh's first Art Walk. You never know how something is going to go the first time you try it. This went great. From what I've been told, over 200 people came in during the opening to see my artwork. I don't think there would have been near that many people if the opening hadn't coincided with the Art Walk.

frustrations

2008-03-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I really wonder why I paint.
Or rather, why I continue to paint.
I know why I paint. I have to. I have to create. In one form or another. But there are times when I really struggle with it. Which I can take one of two ways.

I can see it as challenging myself, which is good. If it was easy, everybody would do it.

I can also see where it shouldn't be quite so difficult.

Of course, then there are other times when I feel like everything is coming together and it makes perfect sense. I can see the things that I'm currently working on, and know what I want to do next, and have a good idea of the direction that I'm headed in...

getting started

2008-03-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

Have to see if I can do this consistently or not. Really not sure about posting often. Right now I'm just trying to get the new version of my web site complete. Almost there. Just some work left to do on the home page.

But lots of other stuff to work on as well.
Paintings.
Photographs.
And possibly even some other web sites.