Happy Memorial Day!

Let's hope for peace...

I know 10,000 years of civilization

hasn't brought peace, but we can hope can't we?

Enjoy the parade...

Posters and Post-its

Today was a little scary, my first public speech in a long time...I went to my old high school (East Lyme High School) to talk about my role as an illustrator for "Heart of Stone" as part of an alumni lecture series. Fifty students were signed up, and most of them came (eeep!). They were surprisingly mature and attentive, however, which made the whole thing easier for me. They asked questions, I answered. Everything went without a hitch...except I forgot to bring my camera.

A friend of mine is a French teacher at East Lyme, so I visited her classroom and played French pictionary with one class, and sat quietly during another class and drew the students on some post-its. Here are the drawings:

So, at least, I have something to remember this day. One of [I hope] many more opportunities to talk in front of a group of young people.

That is all for today, more work is coming soon...

Where have all the bumbles gone?

In case you haven't noticed, the honey bee population is way down. There is a 30-90% decrease in wild honey bees this year, something that has been years in the making. I've read a bit about it, the causes could be pesticides, bio-engineered crops, development, and even cell phones (the cell phone signals supposedly interfere with the bee's 'navigation' system, making it impossible for them to find their way back to their hives).

Bears everywhere are distraught, as am I!

I wrote a poem about bees. Here it is:

Bees buzz
Buzz those bees
They build their hives in bumble bee trees
They shop from flower to flower, so pretty
Then, fly home to their honeycomb city
Bees buzz
Buzz those bees

I hope the best for these guys, and I will keep up with the research. If it turns out cell phones are killing them, I am getting rid of mine (oh don't take the crack from me!). A cell phone isn't a necessity, but food is, and without bees to pollinate our crops, food might actually become scarce...very scary.

If you want to read more about this, here are a few links to different publications that have written about this. Different opinions on the subject, but they all agree, the bees are dwindling...




http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1005_041005_honeybees.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1552024,00.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6299480

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/22/vanishing.bees.reut/index.html

Tomorrow sometime, I'll have to pollinate my strawberries by hand (a feather and some patience will do it). Boy, do I miss them bees!

New artwork...YAY!!!!

Below are two paintings on oak of some sumac bushes on a grey spring day in a park near my home. I've been working on about seven pieces, these two so far have come out to my satisfaction. Hopefully, there will be more soon (among other things).

These started with some black and white photos I took that day. This was a one-of-a-kind day. That day, the veins of the forest opened up and the melting snow flowed through. The river was full of whirlpools and chunks of ice. It was a beautiful day - the first warm day of spring.

Some of the pictures I took...

Now, the grass is all green again, I've planted my garden. All that is left of that day are some photos, these two paintings, and five others in progress. The dust has collected on that day, I won't see another like that until next year.

Well, enjoy! It's some artwork on my blog, at last!

More pictures...yippee!

More press?

Here's a blurb about

Heart of Stone in Lebanon Life,
a local free newspaper in my town.

Oooo I'm so famous!

I will post artwork soon, I swear it!

Link to Article

I was Google-ing my name (coming up mostly blank as usual), but I did find a link to someone else's blog, and they posted the whole Norwich Bulletin article...with a color picture (where did he/she get it from?). Who knows? Here's the link:
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007704200325