Corn fields

It's August and there are a lot of beautiful corn fields and corn to eat, yum.

For the next few months I will not have a featured artist on my blog.
Sometime next year I will start featuring artists again.

Stay tuned for new artwork and images from my mini road trips.

John Butler Trio, Treat Yo Mama

This is one of my favorite bands. They will be playing here in August.
Respecting women, great idea, ha. Now I want to ride a bike.

Dali Lama and Amnesty International

The last few days I have done a lot of different things, including seeing the Dali Lama give a talk in Madison. Before he came to Madison I helped get the Buddist temple ready, it was lots of fun and I met awesome people. If you are ever in Madison visit Deer Park temple south of Oregon. The temple is outside of Oregon in the country. There are murals, and lots of amazing decorative elements, it's a real gem. Above is part of the inside. The blue is gorgeous!

This month I was picked to paint an image along with 29 other artists for Amnesty International. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created 60 years ago, which is why we are working on the art. Each artist will represent one of the 30 articles in the Declaration. Mine is article 6. The art work will be displayed for their film festival in Vancouver November 13-16 and later moved to other public buildings. Later they will use the art for promotional material. Of-course I'm very happy about it and will start tonight. In the next few weeks I'll upload the painting.

New Phone Number!

Here's my new phone number (608) 444-2828. My other number is (920) 366-7130.

Move to Madison, new phone number, Ironman, Afternoon Walk...

To view more of Swamibu's photos and about the monk and tiger click here.

Several days ago I moved to Madison and am recovering from driving and lifting heavy boxes. This move was better than the last move, where I had to go to the hospital after a painful injury, ha. To get over my aches and pain I've been walking a lot, like the tiger.

This month or week I'll be getting a new phone number the 920-969-9812 will be replaced by a 608 number. I will be keeping the 920- 366-7130.

If you haven't seen Ironman, it's worth seeing. It's a far fetched fantasy. There was a lot of action and suspense and some humor. There were a few things I didn't like about it, but overall I liked it. Robert Downey Jr. was made for the role.

More about what I'm up to will be posted soon. There is an exciting project I'll be starting soon and waiting to hear back from them any minute, there's more...

Octopus in Madison

After the fourth of July I'll be moving to Madison,
where there are several of these Octopus car washes.

I am both happy and sad. Soon I will be starting a new job
and in the fall taking classes too. I have a pal/exercise partner
there, so we will pressure each other to be active and do a lot more
than go to work, how dull.

For awhile I will not be working on any paintings. Though I'm sure
after a couple of months without I will pick up my paintbrushes again.

Artist of the month, Dan Hardin

The artist for this month is Dan Hardin, a musician from Kentucky. He has a hauntinng voice and is an overall nice guy. Check out his videos on youtube
To view one of his videos on my other blog click here.

Jason Mraz, I'm Yours

My favorite Jason Mraz song, cool video too.

3 New Paintings on Etsy

Who's the lucky guy catching me.

Little me facing my challenge that seems out of reach.

Me floating down the river, while my friend plays in the sand.

Artist for June is Cathy Nichols

The painter Cathy Nichols is the artist for June. Click on the title to go to my other blog. To learn more about her go to her website: cathynichols.com

5 Useful Things to Know if You Want to Be an Artist(5 more coming later)

Here's a new video I uploaded on Youtube today. As I go along I'll smooth out the rough edges. Why is it so grainy, and my hair so dark? It didn't look that way on my camera???

5 Thing to know if you want to be an artist

Lately I've been thinking about all of the misconceptions there are about being an aritst, so I wrote down 10 things that I learned the hard way. Well I was naive about the whole thing in the beginning, but learned as I went along. Some people have a negative opinion and others a more romantic one about being an artist. With all of that in mind I've been working on a video to talk about these things, but have taken a time out from my camera, not doing what I want it to do for me,ugh! For now I'm writing these 5 down. There will be 5 later, cause that's how I planned it on the video.

1.Rejection, get used to it. Unless you are well connected, really lucky or a
marketing wiz, you'll get a lot of rejection.

2.Persistence, you must be persistent. This bussiness is more about hard work
less about talent. Like anything you must keep at it.

3.Bussiness and marketing, learn as much as you can. Read books, take classes,
talk to people, ask questions...

4.Write down your plans, what are your goals? How will you get what you want?
This can always change along the way, be flexible.

5. Have a website, start small, have pictures and a short bio. If you don't have
your own computer get one today.




Enough words, let's look at a pretty picture. It's another curious cow, they are the same everywhere.
Click here to view more of gardawind's pic's.

Lost e-mails

Last week, sometime before Thursday all of my e-mails were lost because of a power outage, ugh! If anyone sent an e-mail last week, please send it again.

Krazy Kat

Lately I've been looking at the drawings/paintings of an artist I love George Herriman. From 1913-1944 his Krazy Kat comics were published in newspapers throughout the US. These amazing comics about unrequited love are funny and sad at the same time. In his drawings unrequited romantic love happens between species, hmm? I love the rich colors he uses too and landscapes. For more about him click here.

negative artist stereotypes

This week on a sitcom one of the character's was convinced to be an artist, (this deep thought occurred while getting stoned,ha) instead of doing some real work. Over the years I have seen many of these negative stereotypes about artists on TV and in films. So I looked on the web for information, but didn't find much on the topic. There was a website with the artFBI, which ended last century sometime. If anyone has any info about this please e-mail me.