I'm a news addict

So I was able to step out a bit this weekend and attend the 25th annual Artscape featuring local Baltimore and east coast regional artists. One artist Michelle Davis Petelinz captured my attention with her masks within shadow boxes. I collect masks, and one of her creations would fit perfect into my collection. She is on my "must have" list.


I've been able to work on some small painting studies. I alw
ays love the looseness and freedom of mark on the 4 x 6 thumbnails. I always don't carry over the looseness into the larger pieces, but at least I have begun to create quite a few these smaller thumbnails that I need to organize into a cohesive sequence.



I cannot help be captivated by what is unfolding in the mideast. The irony and hipocrosy on both sides reveal a side of human nature that remain fixed. One side calls the other terrorists, the other zionists, and violence seems to be the only expression of communication. It saddens me when I see images on Kevin Sites Blog , pay close attention to the striking image of the woman covered in dust and soot, that reaffirms my opinion of violence only begets violence. Even when we call on Iran and Syria to stop funding Hezbollah (whose members have representation in democraticly ELECTED Government), we continue to fund Israel with millions of dollars and the latest technology to create images of civilian destruction. This idea of "raining" down missiles on innocent cities in Israel by Hezbollah is highly inappropriate and needs some form of response. I'm just not confident that Isreal, despite its claim to "as precise as possible" is not being reckless. The UN tragedy yesterday didn't help matters. Read this here.

But hey some of the Christian fundamentalists that preach the fear of the end times and second coming of Christ point to these events as validations. Perhaps. I've read enough within the chapters of Revelations to find the text used as tool by many Christians to press conversion.

I think I'm watching too much news. Back to painting.

Schnoodle or Poodle?

When we took Picaso to the vet the other day the office had two other poodles. Comparing Picaso with these other poodles in the office didn't confirm our thoughts he was infact a pure-bread miniature poodle. Don't get me wrong. Helen and I still love our dog, even if he is a mix.
:)
Like a puzzle that needs solving, I wanted to answer the question: "What is Picaso?" We know for sure his mom is a poodle. Comparing Picaso to the other poodles in the vet office confirmed our suspicion. Pcaso has a shaggy, longer type hair free of curls. The other poodles are quite curly and hair a bit coarser. Lately, Picaso has become a charcoal gray - reminding me of a miniature schnauzer.

So doing a google search for "Schnoodle" actually revealed a number of sites and noted Schnoodle ad a recognized breed - although more hybrid. Wikipedia gives a great information here. Note: "Schnoodles are known for the "Schnoodle zoom" or "Schnoodle 500", wherein they run around the perimeter of rooms at very high speeds." Picaso is notorious for this when he is in a real excited mood. He is simply content on running laps around front yard much to the amusement of my neighbors.

I loaded a video to this post - my first one. More to come.

July 4th

Yesterday I dealt with citibank on a charge for rental car that totaled 786.00. Uh..hello! The charge was for the month of February to March at the omaha airport. I called the Budget rental in Nebraska and explained there was no way I was the midwest at that time. Budget told me it was either a mistake or fraud, because on the charge someone used my name address, and the card #. I called Citibank and they cancelled the card and told me there was a legal letter to send me. Now I wouldn't think my identity would be used ever because I'm extremely protective of my personal information but beware - Im just glad the charge was removed from the account when I logged into today.