The 2026 Tournament of Art part 4

 I'm finally getting to this today.

On one side of the Final Four bracket I had a Big East team and one of my art schools, so it was a win/win kind of situation.  I didn't care much about the other side- two #1 seeds that I had thought would have lost by this point, so I had no picked teams left on the bracket I had filled out.  

In the first game, U Conn defeated Illinois in what had been a relatively close game, and Michigan defeated Arizona in the second game.  Never saw the final score, but early on they were crushing them.  So now I was completely out and U Conn was facing Michigan for the championship.  Michigan won what was a fairly close game to win the annual championship, but I have no art connections to either school, so I had no reason to care either way.

And that is the end of this year's tournament of art.  I don't think one of my schools has ever taken the whole thing, but I watch every year.   Even if I don't have a school involved, it is still as exciting a sport as you will find on television.

More Studio Work

At first I figured I would continue work on my current block today, but then I got a package yesterday.  I had ordered some supplies last week, and the first package arrived- inks.  And while I am expecting a large supply of paper as well (it hasn't arrived yet), I do have a few sheets still available in the supply I did have, so I decided to do the first stage of my saint print sale project, and print the blocks.  In this case the potential patron picked out what she wanted last year, so it is just a matter of making them.  First step was to tear a sheet of paper in half, to give me two sheets the right size for saints.  Second was to remove the old tape from the blocks, which was regular masking tape.  Third was to print them, first St Romulus, then Bd Peter Geremia  That done, I cleaned up my palette and printing tools, then put everything back to where it belonged.  The two proofs went in my rack for now to dry, and I after blotting the blocks, I found places for them as well.  I'll make sure the proofs are dry before I tape then down to a drawing board for coloring.  Results can be seen below:

On the way out of the building I stopped to take a photo of my framed works on display for the next Tenants show.  My work seems to be installed in the place where it has been recently, on the short wall next to the theater.  That's good and bad- it puts me away from the larger walls (where more art will be), but close to the theater door and where the food would likely be.  A photo of it can be seen below:

Only a few artworks are up so far, but it seems notes were left saying what is expected on each wall.  There is a section near me that is reserved for Molly.   I'm glad to find out she is participating in the show at least.  No idea if she is coming to the Open Studio.  She has never been to one that I remember.

For music today I went back to the storage box and selected two discs by bands I know and like, although in these cases I have not listened often to these albums, which I guess is why they are in the loose pile and not with the alphabetized ones of the regular shelf.  I started with an album from the White Stripes, called Get Behind Me Satan.  I'm not really sure where this came from.  It's my writing on the disc and the list of songs on the cover.  I must have burned this copy myself, but I have no idea where I got the original from.  One song I know well (must have been the single and got a lot of airplay), but that's it.  Nothing really stands out otherwise, which may be why I haven't played it much.  When that disc ended I put on one that Dave sent me, Under the Big Black Sun from the band X.  The opening song "The Hungry Wolf" I know well; there was a video for it back on the early days of MTV, in the days where having any video got you on MTV.  Plus I have a live version of the song on my live X disc.  In fact, several songs from this album also appear on that live album, so some of the songs were very familiar. This album also seems to have come with bonus tracks, although what is listed here is not completely accurate.  Dave filled up the disc with some Cajun stuff, but I didn't have a chance to listen to it this time.  However, I have a feeling I will be listening to this disc some more.  

Studio Work

 

Today I took a break from woodcutting to take care of something else- framing.  I know that the next Tenant show starts going up next week, and the Open Studio event is two weeks from Sunday, which meant that I had to deal with this sooner or later.  Last week I finished making new labels for the backs of the frames (making changes to a label format document from the last show) and a few days ago I sent Jeanne the information about works I intended to show.  Since I couldn't include images in the email, I just posted everything to an old blog post I wasn't using and sent her the link.  I guess she didn't see it, as she mentioned photographing my new works for the show.

I saw her car in the parking lot, so the first thing I did was take the three new prints for the show to the office and allow her to photograph them before I put them behind plexiglass.  She did so, using her phone.  (my phone is a phone, my camera is a camera, and that's how I like it)  I brought the prints back to my Studio and got to work.  

On top of my table were the three framed prints from the last show, and I have been moving them off the table every day that I worked there, and then putting them back upon leaving.  Today I took them off the table for good.  One at a time, I took apart each frame, removed the old print, taped down the new print, signed it, put everything back together, and put the new label on the back.  Took care of all three framed prints that way, inserting the new prints into the old mats and frames.  Results can be seen in the above photo, taken with a camera.

The next step was to go back to Jeanne and see if she is willing to hang my prints, or at least find someone to do it, and she said yes.  Then the last thing was to see when she wanted them delivered.  I offered to hold them until next week, but she insisted on receiving them today, so I went back to my Studio, got the new framed prints, and brought them to the office.  Those framed prints will be out of my Studio for a while, and will eventually go up on the wall on the 1st floor.  Meanwhile, I put stuff back on top of my table before leaving, but not those prints.  

For music I had something bluesy, an album called Blue on Blues featuring half songs from Charley Patton, and half songs from Blind Lemon Jefferson, two ancient bluesmen from the era when everything was acoustic.  Still not sure why this was mixed in with my loose discs and not on the blues shelf, but it was, which means I have access to it today in my storage box. I had also planned to play a label produced cassette blues related, but the little pad that presses the tape to the tape head had come loose, which seems to be a common problem for these label produced cassette tapes that date back to the 80's, when I was buying such things.  I think I managed to glue it back into place, but I'll listen to another time and find out.

Boardwalk Bar part 8

 Today's plan was simple.  Widen the two vertical sides of the border on the outsides, then cut as much of the image area as I could by the time I decided to head home.  Mission accomplished.  

I started with the outsides.  The image is closer to one side than the other, so on that side I cut the margin to the edge of the block.  On the other side I cut about a half inch more than it was.   Now on both sides I have a healthy margin around the border, and the top and bottom already had it.  There was a little more time left in the session, so I started on the broad areas of the ceiling, on the left side of the block.  None of this is finished yet- I just cut big shapes for now, silhouetting them.  Eventually I will hollow out everything I cut today, but not yet.  (the shapes I cut today and the shapes I left behind will both be color in the final version)  The photo below doesn't really show the margins, so you'll have to take my word for that.  It does show the other stuff I cut today:

For music I brought something from my storage box, a copy of a hits album from Frank Sinatra.  I believe this was a simple copy of a disc my brother had, and while he was away on his honeymoon and I was watching his house, I copied a lot of his discs.  For example, my Bruce Springsteen compilation (two discs, with copies both on my shelf and in the Studio) came mostly from his large collection.  This Sinatra set was called Sinatra Reprise The Very Good Years.  All I wrote down was that title on the disc itself, but I'm assuming this extra long album was all his hits from his years on Reprise Records (now part of the Warner Music Group), which overlaps with most of his best known songs.  It is probably because I wrote down nothing else that this wasn't on my regular shelf but in with piles of loose discs that made it into the box I took home from storage, and thus available today.   Not my usual style, but this was my father's favorite music, so I grew up with it.  And in any case, good music to work to.

The 2026 Tournament of Art part 3

 Another weekend is in the books for the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  Not a good one for me.  I only have one team from my bracket in the Final Four- Michigan.  And I don't have them winning another game, so normally this would be how things end for me.  However, this is about art, and I have one more of my art schools remaining- Illinois.  They beat Iowa over the weekend, which had beaten Florida in an earlier round.   So I still have stake in a team that is still going.

I do not have great confidence that Illinois will win the national championship; they are the lowest seed of all the teams that are in the Final Four.  Of course, stranger things have happened in the tournament.  After all, a few #1 seeds are already eliminated, so numbers don't mean so much this time of year.  It's really about which team has a better game on the days it plays.  What this means is that I will be back here one more time to report on what happens.  See you then.

Another End of an Era

Last night we were driving home from my uncle's house, along the beach road in Manasquan, when my mother casually mentioned that Gee Gee's closed over the winter.  Really closed, with the whole place being gutted out by the owner-the pizzeria, the arcade, everything.  I guess it made sense.  The arcade machines probably belonged to an entertainment company and could go back, and the pizza ovens probably could be sold to someone else who wanted to get into the pizza business.  Some said it was the best pizza in town, but I don't know that.  I haven't been there in almost 20 years, and there are good places that are closer than where it was.  However, it was within walking distance and once I made that walk on the behalf of art, so it's worth talking about now.

Back in 2009 I walked down to the Manasquan beach front to check out Gee Gee's as research for a new boardwalk print.  The idea was to do an arcade, for a local show, and based on the show theme and my own interest, I wanted to base it on Belmar Playland, an arcade I went to occasionally in my youth.  Unfortunately, it had been torn down years earlier to make room for houses (a real common problem around here). so all I had were memories.  One thing I did remember was that it had a section of skee ball lanes and I wanted that to be in it.  I could probably find some skee ball references on the internet, but I always prefer finding things in real life, and Gee Gee's gave me that opportunity.  

It had two main things, side by side, each with its own door to the boardwalk.  One was a standard pizzeria, and one was a small arcade with the typical machines of the era.  That included several lanes of skee ball, so I took the photo below:

Before leaving, I also grabbed a slice from the pizzeria, which I recall enjoying.  The photo I took in the deserted arcade was useful and helped with my eventually creating the boardwalk diptych I would do celebrating arcades as I remembered them from the 1970's, which is shown below:

I don't think I ever went back there again.  Like I said, there are plenty of good pizza places closer to home, and I found arcades of the 21st century to be a lot less interesting than arcades had been in my youth.  (other than skee ball, which I like, modern arcades are too heavy with coin drop and driving games for my tastes, and not much of the video games and pinball that I grew up with)  Now I know I won't be going there again.  My mother wasn't sure what will be going into the empty spaces- maybe another pizza place, maybe stores.  I'm guessing not an arcade.  Back when I was a kid, the video game machines were far more sophisticated than anything available for home use, but now home video games are much better, and there probably isn't much demand for machines you have to go out and pay for.   Arcades might attract some attention from people staying there at the beach, but I doubt that people who live in town would go there.   In the old days, it was a little different, and that's what I tried to show in my print.

Boardwalk Bar part 7

 

My car is back to functioning again, so that means a day in the Studio.   During the time I was stuck at home without a working vehicle I did a little more drawing.  What I wanted to do next was put in some figures at the back of the bar, very small, barely indicated.  After thinking about it a while, I came up with a source- Mister X.  This was an 80's comic book, originally conceived by Dean Motter, but other than some cover art, he never had anything to do with it.  Instead, the first four issues were given to the Hernandez Brothers, who were doing their landmark Love and Rockets at the same time.  This proved to be a problem, as the team of Gilbert writing, Jaime drawing, and Mario contributing a short story now and then, only got out four issues in two years of what was supposed to be a bi-monthly book.  However, they were amazing issues, far better than any of the artists or writers who replaced them.  One thing I remembered about the book was that the visuals included lots of small figures in the backgrounds which struck me as the kind of thing I wanted to do with this piece.  So I pulled out my square bound copy of the reprint of those first four issues of Hernandez work (the original comics are still in storage) and studied what Jaime had done.  I didn't copy anything directly, just was influenced by it.  No one could do a crowd scene like Jaime, as you see in the center panel above. (that's Mr. X as the dark figure in the deep center background)  I added my small figures, with an idea of how I'll carve and color them.

Today I had three things to take care of.  First was to see what my supply of Japanese paper is, before I place an order.  Now I know how much okawara I have, and that will help determine the order I put it for supplies.   Second was to cut out the margins of this new block.   Got that done as well.   What I got done today was the complete top and bottom (the long sides) and part of all the verticals, including the space between the panels.  I need to expand the outsides, but that can wait until next time.  Third was to check with Jeanne about the status of the upcoming show.  What she told me is that she sent out an email with a deadline to respond, which will be the end of the month.  How many responses she gets will determine how many pieces we get to put in.  I haven't checked that email in a while, so I will later today.  Meanwhile, below if the example of today's work:

Although I haven't listened to all the stuff I brought back from storage, today I broke with that process and for music pulled something out of my rock/pop book, something I've listened to in recent years, influenced by that television show, Jeopardy.  Sometimes the categories are little jokes that most of the audience doesn't understand, but I do.  (it's also possible that some are jokes I don't understand and don't realize are there, but I'm not worried about that today)  Anyway, the last three categories on this particular day last week in the first Jeopardy round were, "X", "Los Angeles", and "I Love That Album".   My parents probably didn't get it, but I did, as Los Angeles is the debut album from the band X, and I do love that album.  In fact, the combination of their first two albums is one of the discs in my rock/pop book.  (a more detailed write-up of this two record on one disc set can be found on this blog back in June of 2020)  In an odd coincidence, the first issue of Mister X includes a scene where Mercedes (a main character of the book) thinks she is alone and sings to herself lines from a song that I did not recognize.  Years later, I realized that they were lines from a song by X on their second album- Los Bros Hernandez were big fans of the L.A. punk scene, and X was a big part of it.  (I don't think that the book was called Mister X had anything to do with it)

The 2026 Tournament of Art part 2

 One weekend done, two more to go.  When some people fill out their brackets, they always pick by seeds, higher over lower.   This is also sometimes known as 'chalk'.  Most of the time I pick the higher seeds, as the reason they are higher seeds is that they are the better team.  Sometimes I will pick upsets, a lower seed beating a higher seed in my opinion.  In these cases, I truly believe the lower team has the best shot to win the game.  Sometimes these upset picks work out, and sometimes they don't.  Of course, sometimes the higher seed from a power conference doesn't win, and this happened a lot this year.   It's probably what makes the process of filling out a bracket and watching the games fun.  Just picking chalk is not so much fun. 

This all works out good and bad for my art schools.  For example, Villanova as an 8 seed lost its first round game to #9 Utah State.  (8/9 games really can go either way, and this year all the #9's won their games)  On the other hand, a school of interest that I had, VCU, rose above their 11 seed to beat powerhouse North Carolina (a #6) from the ACC, a conference that often gets more bids than it deserves.  Northern Iowa, from my old home conference of the Missouri Valley and one of my art schools was given a #12 seed and had the bad luck to draw St John's, a #5 with a chip on its shoulder for getting what it (and I as well) consider a relatively low seed for a team that won the Big East, both for the season and its conference tournament.  Not surprisingly, St John's dominated the game and won its next to get into the Sweet 16.

So what that leaves me with is Illinois, which beat VCU in the second game. also achieving the Sweet 16.  It was at Illinois that I had my first showing of the whole Fourth of July series, in 1994 I think.  So two of my art schools are gone, as well as my school of interest, leaving me just one of my art schools for the second weekend.  I don't expect them to survive those games, but you never know.  That is part of the fun of the tournament.  Whatever happens, I'll be back her next week to report it. 

St. Joseph's Day, 2026

Today is St. Joseph's Day, one of the few holidays we celebrate at Studio Arrabbiata.  St. Joseph is the patron saint of Italy, much like St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, except our celebration is a bit less drunken, and mostly about eating delicious pastries, like the one seen above- a zeppole filled with cannoli cream (I've also seen custard and whipped cream).  You see, St. Joseph is also the patron saint of dessert bakers, as well as woodworkers and many other things.  As a woodcutter who is also Italian, St. Joseph seems the way to go.

My mother volunteered to buy pastries today, and she did, bringing this one back from a place in town this morning.  It's a good thing, too, as my car wouldn't start today.  (it worked yesterday, and the day before) A check today verified that it's not just the battery, so work on it will have to wait until next week.  Good thing I brought the block home with me a few days ago.  Whatever drawing it needs will be finished over the weekend, and if all goes well, I'll have my car working again next week and begin the cutting.

Boardwalk Bar part 6

 Not a whole lot of changes since last time.  I updated a few faces and bodies.  Added some bottles to the area under the counter of the bar.  Made smaller holes in the chain link fence at the far back.  What I was doing mostly was darkening with pencil all the areas that are as of now, black (things can change).  This is part of deciding if the value is balanced or not. I will also be coloring this print, and colors all have some value and can be used to balance the print values.  My original photos were all taken at night, so the rooms tend to be dark.  This print will take place during the day, so there will be more light and more color than the original photos.  All part of the fun.  Results from today can be seen below:

I think I'm about done with the drawing phase, so I plan to start cutting it soon.  What remains is some things in the deep background, and I may make some more changes there before I cut that section.  I'll start with the margins/borders first, and those are all decided.  As I cut, I'll have to decide what gets cut and what is left alone, to become black.  But like I said, I'll figure it as I go.

For music today, two more label produced Beatles albums from the alphabetical section of my box from storage.  Not something that I had in the Studio previously, though I could have fit them both on a single blank disc.  What I brought with me was With the Beatles and A Hard Day's Night.  As with all official discs, these are based on the original British albums, but that doesn't bother me.  With the Beatles was the first Beatles album I owned, probably one of the first records I had.  I had it on vinyl, a gift from my cousin Todd, who I believe had gotten it from a girl he had dated, so it was a regift.  Maybe he was trying to forget the girl. or maybe it just duplicated songs he had on Meet the Beatles and The Beatles Second Album, two popular record albums created for the American market, and widely available in those days.  Of note, the copy I had of With the Beatles was a German import, with lots of text printed on it that I still don't understand.  (I know some art German, such as the word for woodcut is "holzschnitt" and the American Flagg comic book character Titania Weiss got her name from the German words for the paint color Titanium White)  That does mean that it has the intro to the song "All My Loving" only found in German pressings of the song.  As for A Hard Day's Night, its history is even stranger.  The British release was the Beatles' third album, with 7 songs from the film and 6 more for the second side of the record.  In America, the soundtrack was put out by United Artists (who had their own record label) with the 7 songs from the film and the rest of the album taken up by George Martin instrumentals from the film.  Capitol Records owned the Beatles rights in America, and put most of the same songs on the Something New album and issued the rest of the songs as singles, and scattered across such American record albums as The Beatles Second Album, Beatles '65, and the 1970 release Hey Jude.  No wonder the compact discs just follow the original British releases.  Of course, very good music to work by.

The 2026 Tournament of Art part 1

 Earlier this evening we had the tournament announcement show, where all the participating schools in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament are announced.  It is my tradition to post here how many of the participating schools are also colleges I have an art connection to.  That would be schools I have exhibited at, been published by, have taught at, appeared as an artist, or been collected by.  There are always a few, some years more than others.

This year, there are three colleges that are in the tournament and are schools that are among my art schools, and one school of interest.  The three that are legitimate art schools for me are Northern Iowa (12 seed out of the East), where I had an exhibition and at least one publication (maybe a second, but I never saw it), Villanova (8 seed out of the West), where I had an exhibition, and Illinois (3 seed out of the South), where I had an exhibition.  All of these occurred before I had this blog, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  The college of interest is VCU (11 seed out of the South), which I never attended, though everyone I met at William and Mary who learned I was an art major thought I should have gone there.  I did learn a few years ago that not only is VCU still considered the top art school in Virginia, but also it was originally founded as a branch of William and Mary (which I did attend) and remained part of it until spun off to be its own school.  But I have no connections since it became its own place.

How many of these posts I will make depends on how many games these schools win.  If all lose in the first two rounds (the first four day weekend of the tournament), I'll be back here once to report it.  If any make it to the second weekend, you'll get at least 3 posts.  Of all the schools, Illinois is seeded the highest, and thus has the best chance to make out of the first weekend, but there are all kinds of surprises in the tournament, so you never know.

Boardwalk Bar part 5

 More drawings of people today.   I got up to the Studio in late morning, and found parking in the main lot in front.  Made my way to my space, cleared off the table, and got to work.  Since last time I have added several more people around the bar, modified a bunch that I had already started drawing, and fixed a few lines.  Also put in the clips that hold the fabric roof to the chain link fence in the deep background.  Slowly but surely, this is coming together.  Results of today's work can be seen below:

Although I do still plan to do a little more around the bar, right now my biggest concern is the space to the far right side of the block.  Nothing here yet, though there will eventually have to be.  I think I need to look at the original photograph again, see what was there in reality, as it may affect what I put there.

For music I went back to the alphabetical discs of my storage box.  Back when I had my rock/pop book in the Studio, I had a three page section (6 discs) devoted to the Beatles, which was a bunch of home burned copies I kept there, made from all the label produced discs I owned, including some of the first discs I ever bought.  One of the discs I burned was copies of two mid-period Beatles albums, Rubber Soul and Revolver, which both fit on one disc.  Some would consider them their two best albums.  I guess Molly thought so, because she ended up taking that disc, calling it a favorite of her daughters.  Back then blank discs were relatively cheap and easy to find, so I made another copy.  Unfortunately, that one also disappeared.  Probably Molly again (who else has access and cared about the albums)  This time I didn't replace it, just leaving that slot in my book empty. Then I moved and never set up my stereo system and the disc recorder, and then all the record stores and sections disappeared, and then I had my first hospital stay.  The rock/pop book came home so I had things to listen to, without a copy of my homemade Beatles disc.  Thanks to the internet and many devoted fans, I had access to all this music, but that was only at home.  However, today I was able to bring my two label produced discs with me and enjoy them in the Studio.  Excellent music to work by.

Boardwalk Bar part 4

 Today I was back in the Studio, working on my latest boardwalk block.  I actually did a little drawing at home over the weekend, but today I did some more.  This was all time devoted to figures, which will make up much of the composition.  On the left side panel (right side of the print) I have the band, a whole lot of dancers, and some people at the bar.  Some of the band and dancers are based on photos I took of such things years ago, while some are just drawings I did myself.  Some of these were first done a while ago, but I have since gone back and redrawn some of these faces and bodies.  I am by no means close to done with all the drawing of these figures, but I like what I have so far.  Results of where I am at today can be seen below:

Meanwhile, the right panel of the block (left side of the print) has the bar, and a bunch of patrons.  Some of these were drawn previously, though I have since gone back and made changes to all of them.  As with the other panel, there is a lot more to go, with figures to be added and changed.  The bartender is partly based on a 1 minute figure drawing from the group I was attending last year, but modified a little (clothing added) and changes to make her look a little more like a model I used to draw in Belmar a lot (and occasionally at this Studio) who said she had done some bartending at one of her many side jobs.  Results of this panel can be seen below:

I took a break from drawing to stop by the office and talk to Jeanne.  I learned a little more about this show next month.  Nothing is firm yet (no one else has yet responded) so she doesn't know yet how many framed works she will need.  At least two, so maybe I will go ahead and frame the two vertical Robert Johnson prints I pulled a few moths ago for this purpose.  Since they will go into frames that are currently holding earlier Johnson prints, no new mats need to be cut.  Jeanne says she will soon be in touch with news of how many prints she needs, and when they will be needed.  

For music today, I continued with my alphabetical discs from my storage box, bringing with me the Band's album Music From Big Pink.  This official label produced album includes the original album, plus 9 bonus tracks- outtakes and alternates from the original sessions.  The original album has a few of the Band's most famous songs, as well as other tunes from this era that fit well with the well known tunes.  Not too exciting, but as always, good music to work to.

The Old Website

 Yesterday I did something I haven't done since last summer- looked at the e-mail on my website e-mail.  I always had an e-mail account connected to my website (same domain) but last summer everything disappeared.  The company I was with folded into another company, and I was in the hospital, not in shape to do anything about it.  When I finally got out of the hospital, everything had changed.  What's more, I couldn't even remember the address of my old e-mail page, much less the password for it.  The website itself was just gone.

I put off doing anything about it for a while, but I do keep getting these e-mails from my new host, talking about checking to see if my accounts are still valid or when they will expire, but I have no way of finding out what happened by replying.  I learned recently that we have been offered a show at the Jersey Shore Arts Center, but the e-mail that Jeanne had for me was this mail I had no way of accessing.  For now I told her I was interested in being part of it, but I decided maybe I should deal with it.

So I got on the phone with my new host yesterday.  First, I found out that my accounts renew in June, so I am okay there for now.  Then I got transferred to a tech person to deal with that e-mail.  After a lot of back and forth, I was given temporary access to it.   The last time I was there was probably last May or June, and quite a few e-mails had popped up in the meantime.  Most I ignored, as I could, but a few I answered, things written to me personally, ranging from a few months ago, to last year.  I also wrote down a lot of addresses on paper, in case my access disappears again, so I can get in touch with some of these people from another site.  For example, I found some communication with a couple that had expressed an interest last year in buying a few old saints I have the blocks for, if not the actual prints.  (they came to my Studio and saw the blocks) There was no particular hurry at the time, but based on e-mails sent, it looked like they wanted to buy two, and she requested two in particular.  I verified that I have the blocks, but I never got around to printing them.  What with the hospital stay and all that, I forgot all this.  (this communication was last spring/summer)  One of the prints is post-grad, and I have a small photo of it in a show I had in Iowa, so I can probably figure out the colors.  The other is from the original bunch done in Carbondale, and if I have a copy of the original, it's in storage.  I might be able to remember it, but I may have to call this a new edition.  In any case, I will need more ink and watercolors, so this won't happen any time soon.  My first step is to contact my collectors and see if they still even want the prints.  

As for my status with this new company, they were supposed to send something to a working e-mail that would allow me to choose a new password for this other e-mail account and I will be able to access it more regularly.  If that doesn't work, I'll be back on the phone with them soon.  Then I will deal with my website, but that's a problem for another day.

Boardwalk Bar part 3

 Lots of parking in the main lot today, so I was able to get a spot.  Dropped my stuff off at the Studio, then tried my luck at the office.  No one there.  OK, so time for work instead.  After clearing my table I got back to work on my current block.  My plan for today was to do some more work on the figures in this piece, and that I did.  Some were better drawn, and I roughed in a few new ones, dancers and bar patrons, plus a bartender behind the bar.  Not done yet, but a little further along.  I also put in some silhouettes of palm trees on the roof of the building, simple shapes.  My thinking is that these are cast shadows of palm trees on the stretched roof and will be carved as such.  (I had already decided to switch this from the original night scene to a day scene, which matches more with the summer season that sees the main use of boardwalks, and days are much longer in the summer.  People tend to show up at boardwalk bars during daylight hours. As for the palm trees, in the past, every year, large palm trees were planted around the building at the Point Pleasant boardwalk that included Martell's (a seafood restaurant mostly) and the Tiki Bar.  (I tend to think that it was the Tiki Bar that wanted the palm trees)  They came from somewhere down south, where such things grow, and lasted the summer, but I guess died during the cold New Jersey winter, to be replaced with new living trees the following summer.  The tree shapes are also something else for the brayer to hit in those big empty spaces in the ceiling.  Results of today's drawing can be seen below:

At the end of my session, I cleaned up, put stuff back on the table, and tried the office again.  This time it was full of people, so I was able to apologize for being so upset the other day and doubting there was a keypad in the back.  Jeanne said that the apology wasn't necessary, but I thought it was, and she seemed happy to get it.  She also mentioned a possible tenant show in April but said no one had replied yet.  I told her in my case I no longer had access to that email, but was working on that, and meanwhile I could probably show something, my limit being the number of frames I can find.  I'll give more information here when I know it.

As far as music, once again I turned to my storage box and took one of my home burned specials.  This one included a full album from Sam Blue called Delta.  I think I found it in the blues section of a record store in Carbondale.  Not a great album, but one that is pretty good, with a few songs that I used to play on my radio show.  In fact, my guess is that I put it on disc to give me more options should I ever get back on the air again.  Since this left a lot of room on the disc, I filled it up with more vinyl from radio days, things that had been left in my blues section, but weren't really blues and wouldn't get much airplay on my blues radio show, and so I was advised to either just take them home or throw them away.  I chose to take them home.  So this disc also has 5 songs from Standing in the Shadows by RedDog, which is southern rock, but no blues, and 4 songs from a self titled album by the Snakes, which is mostly a rock album, though it does contain a cover of a blues song called 'Aberdeen ' (I know a version from Bukka White) that I did play on the air sometimes.  As with everything else I bring, good music to work to.