it chose me! ...and it feeds itself

watercolors and stamps

2009-09-24T03:46:53Z

I've been carving my own stamps with that linoblock stuff, and mixing it with watercolors. I think these images are pretty simple(istic) and self-explanatory. I made work about mountaintop removal and the environment hoping it would go over well in a specific venue. People needs to sling a few bucks and it..if only I were schlepping my craft around Christmastime.

old and new finished paintings...

2009-09-22T05:03:55Z

I am done with canvas and plastic paint for a good while.

Clucky

Claque

10 hours of fun for 10 cents

cheap theater nickel dumps

snowpea @ 2009-08-13T01:18:00

2009-08-13T05:44:17Z

happy 60th birthday, mark knopfler.

summer art

2009-08-08T18:52:58Z

These are from almost a month ago...trying out watercolors for the first time in a long time

I installed a donation box below my paintings at Buswater, and made a cool 93¢.

These two paintings can be seen at the upcoming Dog Days of Summer show at Good News Garage Gallery, August 20.

My brother's face

snowpea @ 2009-08-06T21:10:00

2009-08-07T00:54:07Z

gawd how i hate them so.

2009-06-06T16:49:06Z

The Grateful Dead suck worse than a prolapsed anus on a bumpy carriage ride.

snowpea @ 2009-04-22T11:02:00

2009-04-22T14:49:46Z

It's strange to go into a grocery store and be aware of the consumer demographic the place is targeting. Yesterday, I went to Foodland in what I guess is north Charleston. The frozen foods section was bigger than the produce section, and the frozen desserts section was even bigger than that. There were two whole aisles of candy. Country music piped through the store speakers. As I drew my conclusions about all these observations, I started to feel unbearably self-conscious about myself. What is my target demographic? Anyhow, the store did have RAMPS, which I can't even find at the farmer's market.
The Foodland in Kanawha City plays old-timey 40's music, they keep a real butcher on staff during the day, and it's full of old people. Asshole place on Corridor G sells sushi, wine, and fancy soap, and it's full of assholes (aaand some nice people, including me..buying sushi..sometimes.)

I finished my design for the East End Streetworks banner project. I have no idea if it's what they were looking for, or had in mind, but it's "my interpretation" of the east end...
Beginning sketch:

Finished Product:

AMNATION

2009-04-11T16:01:55Z

I made this animation a couple years ago when I first started working at the TV station. It seems pretty chunky n choppy to me now, and the style is so underdeveloped, but watching it makes me want to do something like this again..only better!
Does it not make you want to watch TV and dream of the beach? I seem to have invoked Havana in the 50's as a representation of Sawgrass resort in Florida. hmmm...

old timey time

2009-04-11T03:17:23Z

1/2 hour documentary by John Nakashima for WV Pulblic Broadcasting. Appalachian Stringband Music Festival, or Clifftop, is a weeklong party I go to every year.
That's me and our band's awesome banjo picker, Chad, at 20:38. yay!

snowpea @ 2009-04-02T11:01:00

2009-04-02T14:49:08Z

Chemistry is often called on to heal the rift between body and soul. The relief that people that people express when a doctor says their depression is "chemical" is predicated on a belief that there is an integral self that exists across time, and on a fictional divide between the fully occasioned sorrow and the utterly random one. The word chemical seems to assuage people of the feeling of responsibility for the stressed-out discontent of not liking their jobs, worrying about getting old, failing at love, hating their families. There is a pleasant freedom from guilt that has been attached to chemical. If your brain is predisposed to depression, you need not blame yourself for it. Well, blame yourself or evolution, but remember that blame itself can be understood as a chemical process, and that happiness too, is chemical. Chemistry and biology are not matters that impinge on the "real" self; depression cannot be separated from the person it affects. Treatment does not alleviate a disruption of identity, bring you back to some kind of normality; it readjusts a multifarious identity, changing in some small degree who you are.

--Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

snowpea @ 2009-03-25T02:01:00

2009-03-25T06:00:49Z

I finished my painting for the "Emerging Artists of WV" art contest...I don't expect to place or win. The reception and awards this year will coincide with the dedication of the new state museum. The painter doing the judging is a realistic who paints natural stuff, and the division of culture and history will probably want a realistic pretty landscape of WV for this museum dedication. It's weird, when I started the painting, I couldn't care less about whether I'd place or not, I just wanted the motivation and the deadline to do a great painting. Somehow I've gotten all worked up over wanting people to like it. Anyway, I like it. I'm stoked.
Vanitas with Oversized Prawn

I got either a stomach bug or food poisoning last Sunday, which caused me to vomit up a ton of shrimp I'd eaten a few hours before. I had to finish that giant prawn with the bad taste still in my mouth. Ugh.

You're allowed two entries. I'm also submitting this one from last December:
Martini, Feather & Bomb

Toilet overflowed today.

2009-03-11T02:49:20Z

Exciting!

<3

2009-03-04T07:15:14Z

I always really liked the theme song to The Adventures of Pete & Pete by Polaris. It made me feel happy and sad at the same time. I had no idea it's about the shooting of Sandy Scheuer at Kent State. Harvey Andrews wrote a song called "Hey Sandy" right after the shooting... not the same song...

The full version is on youtube...and there's also a whole soundtrack of music to the show. Who knew?! I also forgot about Steve Buscemi as Phil Hickle, Ellen's Dad...

Hey smiley strange, you're lookin happily deranged,
could you settle to shoot me?
Or have you picked your target yet, Hey Sandy
Does your dog bite? Hey Sandy
Four feet away, end of speech its the end of the day
We was only funnin', but guiltily I thought
you had it comin', Hey Sandy,
Does your dog bite? Hey Sandy

and since i am one parts fifty sixth mighty choctaw...

2009-03-03T05:17:53Z

One evening many moons ago, an old Cherokee man told his grandson about an ancient battle that lives inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about those words for a minute and then asked, "Which wolf wins, Grandfather?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Monday Morning Haiku for Bobo

2009-03-02T17:21:16Z

Bobo snacks on soap
makes intestinal bubbles
breathe smells like mangoes

Sivas Zara Turistik Oteli 2 (1980)

2009-02-27T06:43:59Z

hmmm

2009-02-27T03:39:15Z

I noticed that all but 3 of my livejournal friends post anymore, and only two comment on rare occasion. I know I don't post often, but it seems people aren't so interested in thorough reading and writing anymore, in lieu of links and commentary a la facebook and twitter. Maybe it's time to give this thing up?

The Sad Girl Puts Balls In Her Mouth

2009-01-28T18:08:25Z

It's going to cost about $2,500 to fix my car :-(

list of accomplishemnts...

2009-01-12T18:23:28Z

Ahem.

"Bush was an embarrassment, every single day. He brought tremendous amounts of shame each and every time he opened his mouth. He seems to thrive on stubbornness and a lack of knowledge. On several occasions, he was obviously drunk in public. He had the intellectual curiosity of a rodent. He used the phrase “It’s hard work” to describe the office of the president so many times, one had to wonder why he took the job. He was so vindictive, he outed a CIA agent. He made torture, a practice America once hung people for, legal. He spied on Americans without warrants. His inept choices caused the death of hundreds during Hurricane Katrina, while America watched on television. He took us to war using lies and manipulation. He politicized the Justice Department and, therefore, the rule of law. He kidnapped and held foreigners without charges.

"He backed out of the Kyoto Protocol, making America look like the backwards hick of the world. He attacked nearly every environmental law that exists. He removed emails from the White House system, breaking the law under the White House Records Act. He’s committed war crimes. He allowed massive neglect of our veterans in hospitals. He failed in Afghanistan, the actual place where the terrorists trained. He mishandled North Korea, which lead to the country creating nukes. He created a massive mercenary army and privatized military support services, leading to price gouging, tainted food and water, slavery, corruption and murder. He allowed the energy companies to write U.S. energy policy and Enron was the result. He created the failure known as the Homeland Security Department. He gave tax cuts to the richest Americans during wartime and created massive deficits. He filled judicial appointments with corporate loving judges. He turned Medicare into a time bomb. He failed miserably on healthcare. He destroyed America’s image around the world. His policies led to Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip. He took no action to bring peace to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He refused to fund stem cell research. He encouraged the FDA to allow businesses to self-police. He filled consumer oversight positions with businessmen. He restricted the effectiveness of the EPA. He created a demoralizing and partisan atmosphere at the CIA under Peter Goss. He signed thousands of signing statements to bills. He devastated the National Guard. He overextended and broke the Army. He pushed for and signed the Grassley bankruptcy bill. He allowed Mexican trucks to enter the US without regard for safety or environmental standards. He gave us The Patriot Act. He waged a war on science. He paid for American journalists to write propaganda. He destroyed the labor department. He ignored a report on Bin Laden in August 2001. He declared ground zero non-toxic when it was not. He took health care money meant for ground zero workers back. His mining friendly policies led to the Sago mining disaster. He nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court in just one of many acts of cronyism. He allowed heath care providers to turn away patients based on religious beliefs. He weakened pollution controls and opened forests to logging. He antagonized Russia by making a ballistic missile agreement with Poland. He deregulated the markets and pushed for a “home ownership” society leading to the housing crash. He allowed Enron to gut California. He violated the Hatch Act by using the GSA to promote Republican candidates. He brought Karl Rove into power. He obliterated the Civil Rights Division at the White House and oppressed minority voting. He created the disaster known as No Child Left Behind. He sent Paul Wolfowitz to run the World Bank with predictable and terrible results. He attempted to politicize Public Broadcasting. He used America’s terrorist warning system for political advantage, gave Medals Of Freedom to men who oversaw the epic failure known as the Iraq War. He allowed aggressive proselytizing by Christian evangelical faculty and cadets at the US Air Force Academy, had White House officials re-write scientific reports. He created a totally ineffective and expensive non-continuous fence along the US-Mexican border. He “bungled” oil leases, which will cost American taxpayers up to 9.8 billion dollars. He punished military attorney’s who successfully defended detainees. He created a secret court. He halted the phase out of the environmentally devastating gasoline additive MTBE. He kept failure Donald Rumsfeld in office way past his ripe date. Created enormous tax breaks for idiots to buy Hummers. He failed to properly provide soldiers with armor. He vetoed SCHIP. He put Katrina victims in toxic trailers. He made sure there were no audits of Iraq private contracts. He gutted the Consumer Products Safety Commission. He gave a grant of $43 million on May 17, 2001 to the Taliban government for its efforts to eradicate opium production. He stopped the release summaries of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) to the public. He created “Free Speech Zones” for protestors. He destroyed tapes of torture. He oversaw a massive decline in employment. He sent to dollar plummeting to new lows. Sent John Bolton, who hated the UN, to the UN as ambassador. He buried negative reports on Iraq reconstruction, pollution in the Great Lakes and privatizing US intelligence. He turned the SEC from a watchdog organization of Wall Street to a co-criminal. Due to a lack of oversight, Bush lost $10.7 billion in Iraq. His de-regulation of the foreign crude oil markets allowed speculators to drive up oil prices to new heights. His total lack of oversight on the bank bailout did nothing to solve the crisis."

It's not a very long list.
Posted by Caduceus at 11:02 PM on January 10

ah...

2009-01-02T17:11:20Z

"I hope they cancel that show. What a worthless pile of stupid boring crap. That I watch."

perfect

2009-01-01T21:16:30Z

you decide ;-)

2008-12-24T05:57:42Z

more internet crap

2008-12-19T18:10:15Z

i cringed at this and on a subconscious level i immediately imagined it in the deep south somewhere before i read the whole sign.

Now's your chance to say thank you for throwing your shoe.

2008-12-19T17:45:03Z

We don't condone shoe throwing, but we prefer it to war.

snowpea @ 2008-12-18T00:31:00

2008-12-18T05:23:16Z