a work in progress

Happiness, 30″ x 40″
A woman came into my booth at the Eureka Springs Fall Art show looking at my paintings of the girls with big eyes. She said something to me about them looking like hybrid children and asked me something like whether I had painted them of hybrid children or if they just happened to resemble them. I said, “Huh? I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” She said “Google it, hybrid children” and something about alien abductions.Some other people came into the booth and I got distracted and when I looked back she was gone. Alien abduction?

Anyway, I took her advice and googled it and here’s the best thing I came up with:
Question:Should I baptize my alien hybrid children?  I also saw drawings of big eyed aliens  inseminating women. Is it interesting to note that when I  first began the Happiness painting (without a plan or end in mind), we all thought she was going to be an alien?
A little later that same day, a brilliant eleven year old friend of mine came into my booth and talked about life forms found around the vents deep in the oceans and how different it is from any other life forms we have known. She told me that she is surprised life has not been found on Mars and that she fully expects the exploration of Jupiter to lead to the discovery of life. That would be exciting news, but when would I think about that? I cannot imagine there being time enough in my life to marvel at and begin to unravel the mysterious and persistent life here on earth.

BTW, the girls have big eyes because they are observers.

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man… I am satisfied with the mystery of life’s eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence — as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.”

click here to read more of this essay

This is my friend, John Rankine posing in front of my booth at the Eureka Springs Fall Art Show. John’s a photographer whose work earned him the Best of Show Award.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have all had a day full of little moments of pleasure and big warm fuzzies of gratitude.  My day has been full of wonderful shared food, old and new friends, and a huge fire with lots of drumming and laughing and talking while the kids roasted marshmallows. Just my idea of re-creation and just in time.
Tomorrow I’ll be setting up my booth at the Eureka Springs Fall Art Show at the Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center.  It is such a luxury to be able to set up the day before the event and to have just a couple blocks to travel! Doors will be open 10am-6pm Saturday and Sunday 11-6. Admission is $2. and there will be, as always, a group of incredible Eureka artists sharing their unique gifts.

12″ x 36″

My friends Peggy and Martin grew these peppers and have generously shared with me throughout the season. This batch was so perfect that I took about a million photos of them and left them out to enjoy gazing at until the last possible moment before they had to be roasted.With the freezes coming on, I think they may have picked their last peppers of the year now. They have such a bounty that they roast and stuff them and fill their freezer with enough yummy freshness to get through the winter. I’ll have the pictures of peppers to feast my eyes on. I can’t wait to add their incredible colors to this painting.