Been Tagged

I have been tagged by Tomas and Yoon See. Much thanks. Somewhere along this path, everyone will be tagged… and then what?

These are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacularhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif details about yourself.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

I tag these talented people:
http://marcellomurru.blogspot.com/
http://oohlaladesignstudio.blogspot.com/
http://sentaplyer.blogspot.com/ yes… tagged again…
http://cockyerdoodle.blogspot.com/
http://studiololo.blogspot.com/
http://karenjasper.blogspot.com/
http://artsparktheatre.blogspot.com/

And these facts about me:

1. i cut off part of my nose when i was 2 and thank god it was the part that would have grown when i told "stories"…
2. thanks to my wife i now put peanut butter in my cereal…
3. i think i am turning my daughter into a bit of a geek… but she hides it so well…
4. working on my house has replaced working on my art… :(
5. my dog has been confused for a cat and a skunk
6. nothing makes me happier than my family… OK when my family is happy makes me happier…

quirky and unspectacular!

Opinion - Illustration Friday

Thanksgiving is just a few days away and of course it is a time to count our blessings… to give thanks… I started counting mine a long time ago… I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family… and friends… and I am so thankful for the creative gifts I have been given…

My job has taken me many places… this week the Museum where I work is closed for the holiday but are showing a film Thanksgiving evening… Trail of Tears : Cherokee Legacy… of course I am thankful that the native peoples provided life for the early European settlers… they taught them how to fish and grow corn and ultimately survive the winter…

So what's with the cows? I live in Jacksonville… named for Andrew Jackson our seventh president… and while I am certain that the USA would not be what it is today… or might not even exist… I am troubled to live in a city that is named after a man who championed Indian Removal… our record with the treatment of the indigenous peoples is appalling and continues to this day… Jacksonville has a long and storied history… and as a native Jacksonvillian… I much prefer our original name, Cowford to what we now have…

Happy Thanksgiving… God bless…

Pretend

Have you ever wished that you were from somewhere else? Or that you WERE someone else? At times, I am sure that we've all done so. I think it is a part of our human nature. One part of pretending that we are someone else is the "lie". One must lie in order to become who we are not or get what isn't ours. Sometimes we do it because we aren't happy with who we are. Or we want the excitement of being someone different… even if only for a little while. And it starts at an early age… in the games we play… in the excuses that we make… in the boasts we make to get attention…

I always thought that these were part of what made us human. Not in a good way, but human none-the-less. Some say that only humans kill for the sake of killing. But that isn't true. I find dead lizards on my doorstep and in my front walkway that the neighbors' cats leave. They kill to garner attention… or for fun. And it's not just cats… dogs kill too. It's part of the pack mentality. Killing seems to be the domain of most animals in one way or another. What I did not know is that animals can lie as well. I was recently watching PBS and saw the latest installment of Nature called "Clever Monkeys". One segments of the story told of a particularly shifty monkey who yells "SNAKE!" to send all of the members of his troop scurrying into the trees for safety so he could get that bird's egg for himself. It was eye-opening.

O'Connell Ye Faithful

For those of you you were wondering, here are the wisemen in color. It was the first draft once I got my illustration scanned and redrawn in Illustrator but I thought that things were getting too busy. Plus, the monochromatic palette gives it a much more nostalic feel.

Another color change and the right is the final useage… our Christmas card. I am burning CDs to give to our friends and family. Old timey holiday favorites… Elvis Presely, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Dean Marting, Eartha Kitt and Jimmy Durante to name a few.

Wise - Illustration Friday

We're creeping up on Christmas and this only seemed like the logical place to go with the topic.

Here's the same illustration BEFORE I went wild on it with photoshop color.

Illustration Friday – Vacant

Well, the hungry ol' cat went looking for a snack and his silly disguise only got in the way. And when he opened the cage, the "snacks" got away! (But not so far as to hang about and do a little bit of gloating!)

So here's a new one. Today is a big day. I already voted and I am so glad that no matter what happens one of those two blue birds of happiness will soon be the President. Now, I do like one so much more than the other, but after the last few years…

The White House has been vacant too long.