And really, the first carved stone piece I’ve ever done. This is alabaster (supplied to me by my old friend Sue Toorans, a wonderful stone carver, metalworker and jewelry maker – you should check her stuff out). This isn’t in my portfolio yet. The base is painted pine.
Abyssal No. 1
“The Dilemma of Strings” , just finished about 15 minutes ago.
Just finished this tonight: “Medium Fit”
Specifically, the tattoo gallery; there are now two sub-albums now: designs for myself and designs for other people. Also the designs are in order now, from newest to oldest.
I’ve now got 4 designs completed for other folks. Two of them are recent; I did one for my friend Bronwyn when she decided she wanted to hang out with me, in Portland, when I was getting my new one done on my recent trip. I also did another one for my friend Nancy, who was one of my hosts on the trip. I like doing these for people who want them. Most of the time I won’t charge, if we are friends (you can insist on paying me if you want and I’ll graciously accept it, but I am not looking to make any part of a living with this), and contrary to all the rumours, I will work in color for other people (it’ll still be abstract, but hey, color). So, if you really want a tattoo design from me, and you really will get it applied, feel free to get in contact with me about this.
The trip has been a very good one for me. Though the ride up was initially tough, I enjoyed it anyway, and the weather in Portland has been brilliant. My hosts are wonderful; and they are usIng my visit as a wonderful reason to throw a party – I am so lucky in the friends that I have. Yesterday I saw a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in more than 30 years; he and his wife will be here today, as will another friend I haven’t seen in that long. I’ve gotten to see other old friends that I haven’t seen in some time, and get better acquainted with newer friends who I haven’t seen since I was last in Portland. More of that will be happening today as well – and will continue until I leave for home. Even better, I’ll get to meet a bunch of new folks and introduce many of my friends to each other, which pleases me no end. I have two more friends who are in the process of moving to Portland; I’ll have that many more friends to introduce them to once they are up here. And I like it here enough that I could easily see myself living here at some point. I’ll even be able o touch base with another old friend on the way home, stopping in Yreka to do so.
For today, until it’s time to prep for the party, I’m just chillin’ with Belmont, The Pitbull of Silliness and reading Gene Wolfe’s Book of The New Sun (which I attempted and failed to read when I was 14 – this time I’m enjoying the hell out of it), and remembering my dear friend Jay Lake, who introduced me to so many of the good people in his life (including my hosts).
When I get back, I’ll be celebrating my 21st wedding anniversary with my wife and best friend, then I’ll be resuming my physical training regimen, do some online training-related seminars and, in June, take another trip, this time to Indiana (and then Kentucky) to visit yet more of the wonderful people in my life. When I get back from that, the certification training begins, first for PMI then for Agile/Scrum master.
I’m looking forward to it!
This will be inked on me by Adam Lunoe at Imperial Tattoo in Portland, Or, when I am up there – my calendar says May 9.
Tattoo #15, “Vigilance”. I’ll get it into the gallery eventually. This will be going on the back of my upper right arm. Sadly, I expect it to hurt; it’s ~8.5″ x 3″.
Okay, the thing that has stressed me the fuck out (on top of all the other shit in my life at the moment) was issues with FOGCon, the convention that I have helped to run for five of the past six years.
I have been banned from the con for the next two years. It is unlikely that I will ever go back, or to any other conventions. I will not discuss the details or causes publicly; I see the point the board is making, but I disagree with them. I may discuss them privately with certain people.
The persons involved (that I am aware of) have been blocked from all of my social media. Those people know how to contact me should they care to (I will be shocked should that happen).
Five new pieces (and remember, feedback is always appreciated).
2 in Works from 2014: Pointed Stick & Broken Lantern
3 in Works from 2015: Scintillate, In Memory of A Wren (this is a memorial piece for a friend who died last year), and CardMash (an odd piece – ink on chipboard)
…if you are a friend of mine, in any form, I’d really appreciate if you would actually read this – it’s actually pretty important to that relationship; if not, no worries, It is somewhat long.
So, yeah.
Feeling a bit down again. and I have figured out why. I feel like I’m straying a bit form parts of my core – the things that I self-define as that make up a significant chunk of my identity. In short, I have not been doing any art, and my local circumstances and internal excuses for not doing art are distressing me rather a lot. The house, including my workspace, is a huge, untidy mess, and that mess is almost 100% my doing. I have many, many excuses for it, some of which even hold water for more than a few seconds, but none of them useful – because I really, really need to get this stuff dealt with so that I can get working again. This sort of thing also leads to me feeling a bit off in my social interactions (whether anyone else notices this or not, I feel this way – and if any of you have noticed anything amiss, and need to talk about anything, please do contact me directly). I have many other excuses as well, but they all boil down to, in one form or another, “waaah, I don’ wanna do X right now” and then procrastinating (which seems pretty lame for the adult I claim to be). The various forms of “X” are pretty widespread, so I feel that I’m spinning my wheels in lots of areas, and quite likely disappointing people; I’m certainly not happy with myself right now.
So, going to work on that, basically starting now – seems as good a time as any.