Latest fam photo.

Lovers

Kiss

English Frown

Watcher

Another Vermeer

Afraid

I have the hardest time sitting down to draw. it's like climbing a mountain. The following is from a book on creativity by Elizabeth Gilbert titled: Big Magic Creative Living Beyond Fear. It pretty much describes me.

But I'll keep drawing anyway.

Spineless

As seen on the beach in Santo Tomas

Gear Brain

 

My mechanical mind needs feeding too often I think. I need a challenge. I bought an 80 year old clock that I'm restoring and this is the movement. It's a Seth Thomas Sonora chime clock that has bells for chimes instead of rods. Bells are pretty unique for chiming mantle clocks. They eventually switched to rods because they're easy to manufacture and tune. I now have to put the front plate on. Lots of fun lining up the gears with the holes. I'll post a pic of the clock when I'm done with it.

Desert Flower

 

 

I don't like the desert. I've probably made that pretty clear by some of my previous posts. Yet, it does have beauty if I care to look. This caught my eye in Arches National Monument. One must bloom where one is planted although I still don't feel very rooted here in Arid-zona. I miss the green as I've whined about before.

The Clock

Finally finished, almost. I need to change the hands since the current ones aren't really the Arts and Craft style. I can also see some things I don't like. I probably will make another to satisfy my perfectionism.

The Unreal Thing

Just something to draw.

 

Time on my hands

For those who visit here often and wonder what I'm up to, well, my "grasshopper mind" has jumped on to something else to keep me occupied. I'm repairing clock movements. The engineer in my blood needs something mechanical. I bought a clock kit when I was first married and have kept it going since. I recently had to overhaul the movement so I thought I'd try some others and I now have six that work and need cases. I've designed one and I need to build it. I'll post a photo of it when done.

Broken

Haven't kept up on the daily blog as promised. Resolution no longer valid since I missed some days. Yay, and I don't feel guilty.

Elf

Obviously raised by humming birds.

 

Promises Promises

Today is the twenty-four-thousanth-eight-hundred-twenty-second day of the rest of my life. So onward and upward or at least forward. Hopefully.

I had in the past made  New Year's resolutions but never was able to keep them. However, I made one some years back that I've kept until today. I suppose I should have broken it yesterday, that being the first of the year, but why mess with my track record of being unreliable. I promised, a ways back, to never make a New Year's resolution, to which I have been surprisingly faithful. I now break my resolve, and resolve to write something here on this blog daily. That is until I quit. It may be at the end of the year or tomorrow. I find I am hard to predict. The one or two who visit here can hold me accountable, or try.

Having fulfilled my promise for the first, that is the second day of this year, I anxiously wait to see if I will continue tomorrow.

Dave

 

His wife asked me to do a portrait of him. He liked to play Santa every Christmas; he had the beard and body for it. He tragically died earlier this year at his son's graduation ceremony. It greatly saddened all who knew him, a very gentile fellow.

 

A rough Vermeer

Something from my daughter

 

"Today my parents celebrate 42 years of marriage. I am so grateful to my parents for all they have done for us. My mom baked, cooked on the earth stove, taught us to sew and read aloud to us each night. My dad, I really thought he knew EVERYTHING until I was in eighth grade, he could kick the ball so high, he would always blow dry my hair (we had to do that in Oregon), could talk like Donald Duck and would pray for us each night. I am proud to call these 2 my parents. Thanks for staying committed to each other, always making time for each other. Thanks for loving us so well."

That was yesterday. I guess she's saying my knowledge doesn't go past the eigth grade.

I somehow ended up with a great family and am very blessed. I don't know why.

Morning

 

The sky is not cloudy all day mostly where I live. So when I saw this from my backyard I was pretty pleased. But a discouraging word was heard that it could get to 110 later this week. Oh well, Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. Sometimes.