Landscape of Virginia

Took a hike on the Skyline Drive last Saturday with a close friend, it was the best because the sky was clear the air was cool and the trail was tough. A friend said many people who take the Riffrap trail fall on the ruff rocks which line the floor of the trail. Needless to say, we didn't fall but we did see a wonderful scene at the top of the overlook. The Riffrap trail is on mile ninety of the Skyline Drive and even though it is only three or so miles from the road, it can take a while to climb because there are a number of steep assents and descents on the trail to the overlook. Once we came back we felt good, the air was clean and cool. We could see far into the Shenandoah valley below us. It was a beautiful trip. All together it may have taken four hours of our time from the time we left Charlottesville. It's really wonderful to have such a nice resource right hear outside of our city.

The day is about to unfold , it's not the most important day but it will be another day to live and enjoy life. I feel good about the artshow, my current health is also good and the state of my emotions is pretty good as well. I have plenty to do in order to keep active. But more importantly, I enjoy doing all that "busy work" all of us have to do every so often. It's enjoyable to take care of things, like my cat, my eating where I can cook freely just whatever I want, and reading both online and off. I've been reading how Bob Dylan is getting a new album out soon. I'm looking forward to it among all the other things like getting to a new painting of my own making, reading a book by Gorge Luis Borges whom I think was the best author I read in the nineteen seventies back when I lived and worked in Philadelphia and a number of other enjoyable things. I also can say I'm enjoying keeping fit. I exercise at Gold's Gym and I'm headed...

The day was bordering on "Hot" , I went for a long walk with one of our students and it was just warm but by five thirty when I left work it was bordering on Hot mannnn. Baseball was being played at the field in back of our schoolhouse and everyone had the summer open air style of talking. It was truly surprising that only a week ago school was called off due to only four inches of snow but still..... It was a fun day none the less. It's always nice to supervise my students in their efforts at the University Cafeteria of Observatory Hill. We all seem to like it their, the people are friends or at least acquaintances with my men so there is good harmony happen'n. I think my men are better at there job today then when we arrived in September. We work in what many people wouldn't get into, but that's why we get paid for our efforts because if people wanted to do it then we would be paying them for the fun job of washing dishes, taking trash and...

The show is up. Many of my paintings were hung up yesterday, and there was nothing like seeing all of them up and together where I or anyone could see them all together and view them all at the same time. It was quite something. The opening will be this coming Friday evening but they hung them all up yesterday. It was a couple of dedicated women who hung all the work in the gallery. The Virginia Artist In Action has treated me well, they welcomed me into their gallery and have done a good job showing my artwork to the local area. I have nothing but good things to say about them because of their hard work to promote my art. Now I feel like I have to make as many newer paintings as there are hanging on the walls of the VAIA gallery. I'm kind of obsessive about doing paintings and having a good number of new ones accessible to the galleries or otherwise ready to show to the public. I have to learn to be happy with just what I have and what I have spent the last...

The New One is out. My newest paintings are of trees in an imaginary landscape. Tomorrow, I am able to take a couple of our guys out to a painting workshop on landscape painting, so let's see where that goes and takes my thoughts on "how to do it". But this one of Tokyo is from another of my dad's many photos from the 50's when I was but a young one, in this photo the downtown area we were in was very noisy and polluted while all the vehicles drove down the streets. One can see the three wheeled trucks ambling by while the trucks wait the changing of the light. It's all quite busy and bustling, much the modern city when one might consider that they are less then ten years out of a major War by these same people against us. As a young boy, those people that I met were all very wonderful to me and all of my family members (two) who were their for the six years we spent in Kamahura and Japan as a whole. It was actually very surprising to me and ma...

The art opening at VAIA otherwise known at this time as Virginia Artist in Action which is a non-profit organization of local artist has had it's first opening in it's new gallery space on the downtown mall. Even with all the construction of rebricking the mall, the people found us this past Friday night. We had over two hundred guest drop in on us on that night at least that seemed to be the count by our very scientific estimates. Ha! It's always nice to talk to people about my current work. I enjoy seeing and hearing what people think about my paintings. Most just enjoy the hard bright intense color I use in my canvases. That's ok with me. I enjoy it too or I wouldn't have made them that colorful. Many more enjoyable times to come I feel. In March I will be the featured artist in the gallery. I will have my newer work I've been doing on the photographs my father took while we lived in Kamahura, Japan in the fifties. So a book about...

The Ice Storm was a bit of a fizzle in as much as there wasn't a lot to it. It did stop the schools from opening but overall it was dealt with pretty well as far as the roads go. We haven't had a good deep snow in a good while, I think back in 1997 was the last time, when we had twenty two inches in as much as I measured it myself in our driveway. That's a good long time to go without having a deep one. But the valley gets the snow around here, as in this photo where a snow squal is crossing the Shenandoah Valley up around Harrisonburg, they get the snow, we get the ice.