Art

Painting is a big part of what I do. I love Van Gogh, and Klimt, mainly and a few selected works by other painters. I've been working in oils for a few years now and really have taken a liking to the medium. The example here was an alla prima, done in about three hours one night.

I gravitate towards strong hues, the primaries quite a bit, and seem to always find a way to get into patterns and such. Sold "Ascent" (the painting depicted in my first blog post and also my first sale) to a doctor in Long Beach. I really need to get into a gallery. The business side of things does'nt really appeal to me. I just wanna create. I could probably spend more time refining things, but I like to keep it loose sometimes. My patterns are somewhat structured however. They take a bit of time. i'll post a couple of those paintings later on.

On the Road Again...

Never really got into Willie Nelson's music, but hey if the shoe fits... So my vanagon is running. The big noise was all the collapsed tappets. Every single one was devoid of oil. Pulled each one by hand and I'll be danged, they were all easily squashed. So my friend Donnie who sold me the engine, (who finally answered hi phone) said warm it up, and the engine will pump 'em up, maybe run it up to 4000 RPM, and sure enough after about 15-20 minutes of running, they became quiet. So now I am happy. Except for when my wife tells me she doesn't like my choice of furniture. Yeah , I found this cool folding chair, canvas over stell, nice and low, took it camping. Very comfortable. Hey it was free and looked brand new. So I have it in the house right now. But she keeps making comments about getting it out. Give it a rest already! I'm putting in my younger boys empty room. Yup 2 gone, 1 to go!! So now I can get ready to finish out the summer camping some more, start painting again, read a few books, which reminds me. Found out a friend of mine has decided she doesn't want to be married anymore. All of a sudden she wants out. Why? She says all her man wants to do is read books all the time. Hey, she knew that going in. But who knows? There's always more to the story. I hope things work out for them both.
Well, nuf said GO Giants!

the Crucifixtion

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christ crucified

washed in the blood

The painting was inspired by a photo of a mosaic or stained glass that I saw in an old architecture magazine from the mid 60s. I found it in my art class. I started with a previously painted canvas, a small color study, some squares over which I suprimposed the image of Christ, crucified. I may have added the gold spikes and lance in His side. The painting says a lot. We are washed by His blood which was spilled for our transgressions. What transgressions you may ask? The world's and each individual. Even me. But as for you, only you can answer that question. God alone can convince a person of their spiritual condition. The cross of Christ is confusing until we see the love that was poured out, through that broken body. It's all too much at times, I know. Why would God do this? We, like children, don't always understand the why, but when we begin to realize that He comes looking for us, we feel a little bit of that concern, as a parent has for a child. It's a love that difficult to know. But it is an awsome thing when we realize that we have been found by Him.

Optimator das es goot...

a sad story, I thought these things only happened to others. So I fired up the used vanagon engine I installed today. It's got a !@#$&*!!!* rod knock. I only have myself to blame. Pure laziness, since I didn't feel like rebuilding the old one , and I gave up on the Turbo Diesel, this is my reward( ever heard the song "My Reward" by Paul Baloche? more on that later...) Anyway, it's knocking like crazy. Needless to say I came unglued. Bad words, foul language, and swearing to describe my attitude. But I didn't throw any wrenches. Why break stuff? So I called the guy who sold it to me and left a message. Two messages to be exact. I want my money back. It supposedly was a good engine. So wait and see.
  Meanwhile I was kinda hongree so I went to our favorite German deli and got a Bratwurst sanwich and a beer. Optimator is my favorite Duetsch bier now. I like to look at the German travel books rita the proprieter keeps for the customers to look at. It's a beautiful place. I'd like to see the mountains there. She says southern germany is where her favorite places are,  and also east near the Austrian Alps. So I'm calmed down a bit. It's a bit of friggen work putting that motor in, only to have to yank it out again. Damn!!! Don't get me started. I'm just gonna sit and read some of Arthur C. Clarke's work and wind down for the evening. So worse things happen to better people than me. I just get really pissed when I have car problems. Supposed mechani that I am and all (former grease monkey... I'm giving it up for Lent, some sacrifice ,huh?) O.K. enough ranting, life ges on bra! Geoman

Grease monkey too...

Thought I shoud clarify, my interest in machines is relatively narrow. Mostly grew up playing with model airplanes, slot cars, go karts made from cannibalized lawn mowers, modified bycicles we all wanted to be like Evel Knievel, so we trashed a lot of bikes), then mini-bikes, motorcycles, cars, then girls in cars (oooh then girls in vans, oops,better not go there.) So cars is where I'm at still, vans actually, Volkswagen vans to be specific.
I've had several of these vehicles, I have a love -hate relationship with them. My love for them is cyclical. When they work just fine I love them, when they break I hate them cause they do it at the most in-oppurtune time. Like my current squeeze. Went fishing last Fall on the Tuolumne river outside Yosemite. A long dirt road in, bumpy and something happens to the transmission. Starts shifting funny, then funny noises, yet we made it to the bottom of the canyon. I thought it was just something loose, the linkage bolts were coming undone. So I tighten 'em up, and try to get out of there the next day. So we start going and it is shifting poorly, really bad, but we start getting out. We were going along then this really steep section with rocks was up ahead so I went at full throttle (that's not saying much in a Vanagon with a tired waterboxer) and she starts to bouncing, when WHAM!! it bottomed out, oh well couldn't stop there, kept up the speed til the road smooth out and leveled off and we are back at the pavement. Yeah! We made it! So I thought... I figured I better have a look underneath just to make sure everything was allright, well, the last of the motor oil was draining onto the ground. Oh man? #@!*&^%!! Shiite Muslim!!!(Robin Williams coined that I believe, not me) A rock had knocked the oil drain plug off, stripped it right out of there. So we walked back ( my oldest boy was with me 24 at the time) and we searched for that dang plug. No luck. So back to the van and got the lawn chairs out and had a beer. Sat there next to the paved road waiting, hoping, and about half an hour went by and here comes a pickup, and they go by before I could wave, but as I got up, they slowed down, and stopped, backed up and asked if there was a problem, said yup, we need to get to a phone, so the young man at the wheel offered me a ride to the nearest phone 5 miles up the road while his passenger, who happened to be his Grannpa, hopped out to wait with my son and off we went to a nearby stable where they had a coin phone. Called up the towing service and headed back to the van. This world still has some great folks in it, people who sense a need and take a risk to help someone. It is definitely a risk, like the guy I read about in the SF Chronicle today,who was stabbed by a man he took in that down on his luck. Quibbling over $25. Compassion sometimes has a high price tag. Anyway these folks that helped us deserve a special blessing.
So, in the meantime... that was back in October, it's now July 14 ,and I'm just now getting the van going again, after a false start while trying to install a late model motor, a turbo diesel from a 2000 Jetta, into the hulk. I almost had it done, but finally gave up when I found a good(Ihope) cheap replacement engine (another waterboxer)and so today I will try to start it up. The TDI engine was taking toolong, mostly 'cause I relied on someone else to do some wiring modifications to help me speed things up. That took 4 months...just got the wiring back from the guy day before yesterday. In the meantime I found a buyer for the TDI motor. He took it away last Saturday. I just want my life to get back to normal, you know? I'm tired of playing mechanic. It's summer and I just want this van to take me fishing, camping, and hot springing. It's all I want to do right now. Vacation time man! Look out trout and all you naked hot spring babes (don't tell the ol' lady...please), I'm on my way!

the world as I see it

In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye we shall all be changed. What started out as a color study has become a reminder that what we are now is just a shadow of what we will be. Just as the elemental colors are limited when isolated from their fellow primaries, when combined they allow for new and dynamic combinations. "Ascent" depicts the result of uniting the hues in various combinations, resulting in what amounts to a new creation, a being living in a world of dynamic creation. " No eye has seen, no ear has heard..." What will we ultimately become? Only the creator knows.

gamarti's universe

A new day, a new thing called a BLOG, coffee, awake O' sleeper, what is in store for today? Work,play,surf,eat,dream,and wonder.