Theft

This artwork was stolen from The Comfy Cow on Frankfort Avenue on February 5 . If you have any knowledge of its whereabouts or who took it, please call The Louisville Metro Police Department at 574-7111; or contact me.




The stole artwork was an original pen and ink drawing; the framed size is approximately 11 x 14 (image size 7 x 10 inches).

Minor triumphs

 

 

Went roller skating last week and only fell down 1 ½ times (fell once, almost fell but caught myself on my fingertips and righted myself another time.)

 

Went ice skating today and didn't fall at all.

 

Checked at Half Price Books for the fifth time yesterday and finally found a used copy of the second book in the "Song of Fire and Ice" series (the sequel to "Game of Thrones.")

 

…and that's about it.

Books

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, and I really enjoyed it.  I'm eager to read the next book, although I'll try not to hurry, because he's only written five books of the projected seven –book series.  Even if it takes me a couple of years to read all five books, I might have to wait a few years for book six.

 

It took me a few chapters to get into it.  I'm not super impressed with Martin's style of prose, though it's not bad.  It never seemed very creative or evocative.

 

The characters and story, though, were great.  At first, it didn't seem any better than a typical fantasy story, but as details accrued and character portraits developed it became very engrossing.  I especially appreciated the organic feel of the complexity:  The characters all have natural-feeling personalities and react in believable ways within a detailed setting, so the way the story progresses never feels forced.

 

I also appreciate the refreshing lack of romanticization.  The whole setting is believably gritty and dirty, and people who are motivated by honor are at a disadvantage.  There are characters I like quite a bit, and I'm worried they are going to die, or worse, turn dislikable.

 

Right now I am simultaneously reading two books: Who Wrote the Gospels by Gary Greenberg, and Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Friedman.  Both are pretty interesting.  I enjoy reading about the linguistic analysis and side-by-side text comparisons that went into the detective work.

Along Main Street

 

 

Showing at The Comfy Cow

Yesterday I put up nine drawings and paintings at a local dessert place, The Comfy Cow, on Frankfort Avenue. One of their rooms has an area designated for display of local artists, and the manager there was helpful and gave me the freedom to put up a selection of artwork. I put up most of what I wanted to hang, including all of my local landmark pen-and-ink drawings.




It will be up through the end of March.



After I was done putting up my works (and drinking a chocolate malt), I stopped at the nearby B. Deemer Gallery and enjoyed a retrospective of painter Robert Knipschild, who (I learned) was an instructor to well-known Louisville oil pastel artist Martin Rollins, as well as to two of my former university professors, Ying Kit Chan and Guinever Smith.



Here’s a picture I took yesterday when I was done putting up the artwork. It’s a cell phone photo, so it’s not very high quality.

Glads in winter

 

 I have glads coming up, and not just barely poking out; this one is about eight inches tall. I noticed it when I was playing soccer in the back yard with the girls over the weekend.  It looks like the only ones coming up are ones that were in a bare patch of soil; I actually can't remember there being glads there last year, but I know there were some the year before last.  This is a spot in which I tried to dig up all the bulbs two autumns ago, and I don't know if I planted bulbs there since.  So these are either ones that I missed when I was digging (and which where dormant until now), or I planted them there last spring or summer and they never grew until now.  I really don't remember.  Anyway, I piled leaves around the glads to give them some shelter from the cold.

 

I did some garden work for the first time in months: cut down the dead fennel, tore up old tomatoe vines, raked out some dead vegetation, poured some old compost into the garden, cut down the asters.  It was a pretty day yesterday, but windy.

Still more old student work

 

I don't have any new artwork to put up.  I have just been commissioned to do a pen-and-ink drawing of some people using an Ottawa dragsaw (I had no idea what that was until I was commissioned to draw it.)  I'm working on another local landmark drawing.  I'm still working on the oil painting I started on Shippingport Island back in October.  And I'm slated to begin some mural work over at Candy and Will's house.  So I have a lot to do, but nothing finished to take pictures of.

 

Here's another really old student drawing.  This is a painting of a model from one of our classes, back around 1992.  I thought it was coming along OK, but I was very unhappy with the face, so I wiped it off to repaint it.  Our time for the day ran out, and we put up our work for discussion.  I explained that I was still working on the face, but my instructor, Ying Kit Chan, said, "Are you sure? It's kind of interesting like that."  That's why I never finished.  I was frustrated and my professor gave me an excuse to stop.

 

The painting of the buildings was done outside on campus at U of L.  This was done with large flat areas of bright color, which contrasts with my very painterly paintings of the same time period.  This one ended up with Ed and Loraine, and they might still have it somewhere.