Issac

Experiments on canvas. Still in progress. Dried leaf series number.....? 

The more paintings I hang up, the more I feel like I'm living outside. I love it.

Issac. You ain't no thang like a chicken wang. 

Wasn't anything more than a regular summer rainstorm but did give a good excuse to have a day off and chill. The weather channel likes to instill fear in everyone and funny how they weren't around to show how nothing got damaged. 

After a week off, I start work again tonight. Wish I didn't have to. Really enjoyed the time off, need a break from servicing people from time to time. Especially these summertime peeps.

Clean off the brushes. Clean up and go in. 

Beetlemania

Finishing up the beetle for a t-shirt design. Still learning illustrator and photoshop as I go along but found a site via a friend that I'm going to submit to.

Its a cool kids clothing line and what the hell. I played around with this image on a long sleeve t-shirt I drew out and scanned in.

The deadline is Sept 1st but my deadline is before hurricane Issac comes in and knocks out the power. That's some motivation.

Keep having crazy dreams. Last night an alien came to visit me. I'm pretty sure its the same one from my ayahuasca journey and it scared the crap out of me.

So much so, I had to leave a light on in the kitchen. Haven't done that since I was a kid.

Loving the non-work work days. I want more.

Dream house

I've been having the craziest dreams lately. Like monster three parter dreams which include a different part of my life mixed together with all the people I've encountered. Must be why I wake up three times a night.

Last night I was in this beautiful house pitched atop a mountain top. It had a delicate frame with four giant floor to ceiling windows one facing each direction of the square house. One side had a misty mountain range, another a forest, a desert plain, and the other side a deep valley complete with Buddhist temple at the bottom. 

I commented to my mother who was also there, "No wonder grandma never wanted to leave here." Grandma started to walk in front of me, age and then dissolve right before my eyes. I too imagined myself slowly dissolving in this house. Spending my last days in a peaceful container looking out at the beauty all around me and it felt wonderful. 

I went down to the temple but it got a little crazy in there. At some point there were TV screens showing people going up an escalator at Ross in Dallas. It seemed so trivial, people shopping for stuff looking miserable while doing it.

In the past week I've been in lots of places with lots of people in my dreams. Must be why I can get so tired sometimes. 

The week off work has been so great, I hesitate to even go in to kayak today. Feel like there's so much to do and so much to process. 

Final Rinse

Hurricane Issac is on the way and all I can think of is what a bookend of sorts. 

Let me back up. When I first got down here Hurricane Wilma was on the warpath. No one thought it would be as bad as it was as she ripped across the island blowing things to and fro. At the time it accurately mirrored how I felt. 

About 7 years ago, life as I knew it was done. Adulthood unhinged. Everything I thought my life was going to be was now an afterthought.

Unhappy and stuck it took one fateful break up to finally unstick what I had tried to keep together for too long. As that hurricane washed everything away, I felt like my own life was getting the same treatment and a chance to start over.

Finally leave corporate life, a relationship that sucked me dry, cities that never really fit and a nagging feeling in my gut that I should be doing something else. All in all it was a life I had created based on what I thought I should do. Not what I wanted to. 

To be quite fair, I really didn't know back then what I wanted. I had glimmers of it in my mind but fear always kept me from exploring. 

After traversing down to mile 0, I landed with a carload of belongings and nothing to lose. 

Stepping out of your comfort zone is a hell of a lot easier when you're already at ground zero or mile zero, so to speak. There's nowhere to go but up. Looking back its these breakthrough moments that have been the hardest and most rewarding in my life.

So while at the Parrot last night I get word that we're on track to meet Issac. And I learn of Issac's impending doom while I'm cleaning up something else, a friendly relationship on the wrong track. For me at least. 

Its not messy and I've been grateful for what I've experienced but this time I know what I want and easily explain that this is done. I want to go for it all and as fun as its been, this is not it.

This year I've been feeling like clicking along, getting the training wheels going on this life I've been building since I got down here. It feels so natural now but there have been bumps and bruises along the way. Part of the learning process I've grown to accept and appreciate.

Its been worth it. Great place to live in, good jobs to go to, great friends to hang with and creating art that I'm not afraid to put out there anymore. Above all, knowing that I create the life I want and its all possible. 

So I look at this hurricane and instead of fear...I get excited. 

I believe this is the final rinse to a 7 year journey. 

That's right, one more rinse and spin cycle to go after a laborious 7 year laundering. A final cleansing of sorts and I'm ready. 

Ready to receive it all.  

Dog Days of Summer

Summer is wrapping up and we are definitely entering the dog days fo' sure.

Ready for fall and maybe a quick trip outta my beloved town for a bit. The summer peeps have worn me out and I'm starting to feel like taking a vacation sooner than later.

Luckily the restaurant closes for a week this month so I might at the very least get a staycation. I'll take it!

Beautiful skies lately and last nights rainbow was awesome. Stretched all the way to the Green Parrot.

It was actually more fun to watch all the adults stop and yell "look a rainbow! A RAINBOW!"

Great to see the wonder in people. Found out that rainbows and dolphin sightings pretty much get the same reaction. Also I got mistaken for a French tourist while taking rainbow pics. Especially special cause I was talking like Pepe Le Pew right before that and did not think it was coming off so well.

Very cool.