06-29-13. "Mullet Admiration", a painting by Kara Eletto.

06-28-13. An inchworm, larva of Tanaorhinus viridiluteatus, a geometer moth found in Asia.

06-27-13. A 2010 sculpture by Kim Morgan, made from a latex cast of an abandoned lighthouse.

06-26-13. Baby Cookie Monster charm.

06-25-13. Neil deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye tweeting from the White House in 2012.

Porius (401)

Porius (401) - (2013) oil on canvas, 24x24 in. For sale on Etsy.

My clay model of a Celtic deity sits in front of my drawing of a still from one of my first Vine videos, which shows me sitting up late at night struggling with Porius, a doorstop of a book by John Cowper Powys about a Welsh prince meeting Merlin and King Arthur and various other people and enduring several battles and other hardships. At least I think that's what it was about. It's all kind of a blur now. I had to stay up late to finish reading the thing, one chapter per day. Here is the Vine: https://vine.co/v/b2dtKI1zjTt I chose to read Porius because, like I say in my little video, I was trying to learn about the Celts. Really, I was trying to get more of a general feeling about the Celts instead of just picking up a non-fiction book to read. I had a couple of those, too. One book was the source of the photo that my clay model was based on. The painting changed dramatically as I worked on it. Eventually I started to feel like the Celtic deity could be a symbol for Porius himself in a way.

The soundtrack for this painting is the Afro Celt Sound System Radio station on Pandora. That's what I listened to both while reading the book and making the painting.

Universidad (617)

Universidad (617) - (2013) 24x24 in., oil on canvas. For sale on Etsy.

A sliced kiwi fruit rests on a plate in front of my drawing of a detail of a mosaic mural in Caracas, Venezuela. The mural is “A Static Element in Five Positions ” by Oswaldo Vigas and is located in the University City of Caracas, a UNESCO site filled with noteworthy architecture, sculptures, and murals. I play a little randomizing game to choose the subject matter for my art. My three random elements for this painting were the color Campus Blue (color #617 in Naomi Kuno's Colorscape book), the color chartreuse, and northern South America.

I ate all the kiwi fruit that I used for the painting. (The kiwi fruit in the painting is a stylized composite of several different fruit.) By doing this, I discovered that the kiwi fruits are often sold while they're still unpleasantly hard and unripe. They can be ripened, but they still just weren't all that great.

06-24-13. A Tom Petty concert in Noblesville, IN last weekend.

06-23-13. "Handcuffs", a 2002 painting by Michael Craig-Martin.

06-22-13. Maxwell in April, sticking out his tongue.

06-21-13. Lincoln wearing 3-D glasses on a bag of popcorn at Meijer.

06-20-13. Halle Berry wearing mismatched earrings in 2009.

06-19-13. Four-Leaf Clover ball gown, made in 1953 by Charles James.

06-18-13. "The Garden at Issy, The Studio in Clamart", a c.1917 painting by Henri Matisse.

06-17-13. Maxwell wearing his pair of jeans.

06-16-13. A bow on Harold's 1st Father's Day gift.

06-15-13. Bagpipes in a 2012 sculpture by Peter Blake.

06-14-13. Bacon from the Smoking Goose in Indianapolis.

06-13-13. N. D. Austin wearing a fedora inside his NYC speakeasy, The Night Heron.

06-12-13. Hello Kitty leopard.

06-11-13. A crab apple bonsai tree.

06-10-13. "Yellow Cherries and Crab Apples, after G.G.", a 2011 photo by Paulette Tavormina.

06-09-13. "Cheesecake from Javatime", a 1963 sculpture by Claes Oldenburg.

06-08-13. Hummingbird art in a Vine by kim drew (RT by @ManBartlett).

06-07-13. Maxwell is 11 months old today.

06-06-13. "The Kiss", a 1908 sculpture by Constantin Brancusi.

06-05-13. The Pansy Fabergé egg, made in 1899.

06-04-13. A playsuit.

06-03-13. Iceberg between Paulet Island & the Shetlands Islands, Antarctica, a 2005 photo by Sebastião Salgado.

06-02-13. Mt. Rainier viewed from the airplane during our Oct. 2011 trip to the Pacific NW.

06-01-13. "The Skywhale" by Patricia Piccinini flying over Canberra, Australia.