Hey - I Didn't Do It

My site changed its look but I didn't do that -

I will be updating the look :)

Rob

The Poll

This is the poll I haven't ever seen taken:

Do you love your children and/or your friends children? Yes/No
Would you love to see them have a beautiful, prosperous future? Yes/No
Do you care about the health of your family? Yes/No
Would you like to see everyone have some level of quality health care? Yes/No
Would you feel good about the idea that everyone, regardless of their race or creed, prosper? Yes/No
Do you hope tomorrow brings more than today and that your dreams come true? Yes/No
If you had the power, would you create a world where people lived together in a free and open society? Yes/No

I mentioned earlier in my post 'Political Party' that most people share the same values - and this is what I mean by that. The next time you find yourself arguing politics with a neighbor - just remember, you most likely share the same values - you just both passionately believe your 'party' has the best way of achieving those values. To me, this is the only thing that explains two neighbors with two different signs on their lawn - whose children play together. We believe in more core things than we differ.

Ogallala

The last great depression was a terrible time for all involved.  What made it even worse, and practically unbearable was the onslaught of drought - at the worst possible moment, water stopped falling from the sky.  Farming practices loosened the soil and as the wind kicked up - at the height of it - some 100 million acres were nothing but dust.  Many fled, a few stayed and faced their fear.  What did they discover?  The Ogallala Aquafer - a huge reservoir of water just below their feet.  This story reminds me so much of Napoleon Hill who says it is a 'law' of nature that 'Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit" - There is that all too familiar Santayana quote - 'Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it' - and while this is true, it is equally true that there is always a way for those who search for it!



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Further Proof

Thoughts are things.  A thought is energy - that exists in different forms at different moments in time.  Further proof to this is 'Today's Quote' by Warren Hilton       Down deep in the inmost chambers of your soul are untouched stores of energy that properly applied will exalt your personality and illumine your career.  But to find and claim these hidden riches you must persevere.  You must endure.'

     - circa 1912 - A thought that can still move through space and time.

How I Start

This is a continuation of the bas relief project I am working on. A bas relief is basically the combination between a two dimensional drawing and a three dimensional sculpture. This combination is what I think provides the most challenging thing about a bas relief. In a drawing, there is a 'fixed' point of view - all perspective, scale and sense of form can be driven off that point. A full blown sculpture, that is three dimensional, takes on the natural sense of perspective as all other objects in the world - but a relief, at one moment and in passages of the piece, is flat and drawn - and, especially when a relief goes into 3/4 or 'full' relief - this part has to emerge into the three dimensional world but transition back into two dimensions in a way that makes visual sense. In the image here, I show the foundation of how I started with this project. I first take many images and combine them to create the final image. I then start with an under-drawing and begin to build the clay up in a very rough manner.

Spiritual Soccer

One of the things I love most is watching my son at soccer practice. I can't think of too many ways I love to end a day than going out to the field and watching him and his teammates putting their heart and soul into what they do. I think of it almost like a meditation exercise - especially on a fall day when the air is cool and the sun is just right. When they get into a passing drill, the rolling of the ball, the quick precision and then the big shot on goal! I know my son is imagining 'SCORE'! All seems right in the world at that moment.

Mind Trip

The mind is very good at taking 'trips'. Especially when things can seem bleak. Isn't it funny that the mind often doesn't take good 'trips' when the news seems difficult. I wrestle with this - stopping myself from creating and living with scenarios that haven't yet happened. Similar in idea to the 'power of now.' Often times - if I find my mind wondering and inventing I try and catch it - and practice imagining future scenarios filled with wonder.

What's The Point?

What's the point of my blog? For some time now I have become more and more aware of the onslaught of negative images coming at us from all directions. Ever notice when the price of oil goes down it 'plunges' and when the price of oil goes up it 'surges'? When the dollar goes down it 'sinks' but if it happens to strengthen the news talks about another currency 'weakening' against the dollar. Almost 90% of all stories in the media (this is based on my scientifically accurate ability to guestimate) are designed (whether intentional or not) to speak about a story from the negative end. Here is an interesting point - if you buy into the idea that 'thoughts' are 'things' - that a thought is an energy impulse that has real characteristics, you can begin to discover another fascinating characteristic of these thought 'impulses'. In this instance, like energy attracts like energy. Hearing a story about something 'plunging' has an incredible psychophysical effect on your mind and body. I say psychophysical as short hand for both psychological and physical - I see these as intricately connected. See, it doesn't matter what is 'plunging' - what matters is that the subconscious mind picks up this imagery and is drawn down by it. 'Surging' also, inspires fear, especially when tied to something that directly affects how much money we have to spend at the end of the day. I won't even begin to get involved in all the other horrific stories that dominate the news and media. So, it's taken me a while to get my act together but I tried to imagine a blog that was dedicated to pointing out how I and all of us are affected, not by events, but how we feel about them - how these events are framed for our digestion. If you end the day being bombarded by negative thought impulses, they linger with you through the evening - and especially if you raise in the morning and are greeted by negative thought impulses it perpetuates the 'gathering storm.' Even more ironic is that (guestimating again) I would suggest that 95 to 98 percent of all stories we are exposed to have little to no bearing on our daily lives - except that they inspire negative energy.  I hope as people are 'attracted' to my blog they will begin to see the connection to all of my postings and my work and that it serves as a springboard to begin examining, and then hopefully eliminating, all of the negative thinking that creates barriers, affects health, and limits joy in life. If you come across an article, thought or idea that helps me in this mission - please share it with me. I love to post links to artists, thinkers, writers, stories that enlighten and inspire.

Dad

I spent the evening with my dad tonight. We celebrated his 82nd birthday. I can't believe I drew this picture some 20 years ago - but truthfully, he hasn't changed all that much. Maybe just a little grayer. My dad was a first generation American whose parents came over with next to nothing. One of our most favorite thing, as one of six children, was for all of us to climb into my mom and his bed on a Saturday morning and listen to his stories of him and his big brother collecting scraps of wood from back allies to burn back at their home and stay warm. He would tell us with quite a belly laugh about how they would walk into movie theaters backwards, while the crowd was coming out so they could see a movie. 1926 - boom and bust and war, and peace and war and boom and bust and boom, boom, boom, bust - funny, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I remember in high school, or even earlier, he taught me how to change the spark plugs in a car - he drew out the engine for me in the sand, along with the cylinders and explained how his first model A was made - he now has more sophisticated parts in his hip. Talking with him tonight about the market, I marveled at how he just looked at the television and smiled - today, on his birthday - the market fell an historical amount, I think 1.3 trillion. He smiled. Not mockingly or with malice, just a calm confidence that he's had it all and had nothing and wasn't too sure when was most fun. When we were little, all six of us, and he made fifty dollars a week - he'd have to decide to feed us, or heat the house - we had blankets, so he'd make his homemade pancakes (from scratch), the ones I make my kids now - and we'd watch our breath while we ate, but still, we ate. Dad grew up with very little, and gave all six of us everything. He got all of us who wanted, through college somehow. But I think, more importantly, taught me that there is always a way. Tonight it was rather beautiful to see my little six year old Meg laugh and smile with him when they blew out his candles together. Happy Birthday Dad! I love you.



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Political Party

Anyone who knows me well, knows I LOVE politics.  I was thinking last night I'd like to have a political party.  You know, a party where you're expected to talk politics - but everyone is encouraged to have fun with the other persons opinion.  Even try it on for size in a playful, party like way.  Tim Russert predicted that this election would actually end in an electoral tie. Whether it does or not, I have a theory about the country being 'deeply divided.'  I think most people in this country think very similarly, from a basic value point of view - but have varying views of how to get where we want to go.  Sort of like a map - everyone agrees they want to get to a beautiful destination but some want to take the scenic route, some the direct, no-nonsense way.   I do think one of the most distracting things about politics is that people can get too invested in the idea that their own particular success at achieving dreams and goals is based on whoever wins an election or whether a bank fails or not.  Part of my 'mission' of this blog - and my art - is to try and create a visual and written body of work focused on the idea that most all barriers are more a product of how we think about the things happening around us - rather than the actual things happening around us.  Some of the greatest 'obstacles' are really opportunities to grow in many ways.  In the next several days and months - it will be more important than ever, to try and remember that.