Hello Key West

Back to the grind.

Started the day moving friends into their new place and had a mid-day lobstering excursion. Good to be back home!

BINGO!

BINGO rocks!

Time to check out the Green Parrot Bingo festivities. A team effort won the four corners Bingo game of the evening and a koozie full of crap. Vodka pop rocks anyone? All of it is to benefit the MARC house so let's get it on.



The BINGO caller asked me if I wanted to help him put his balls back in the basket. Laughing, I helped him out then told him that was a great pick up line. 10 minutes later I got to hear it being used on a new lady over the mike.



Loaded and ready to blot. Upgrades to the chip.



Get your BINGO on.



All his balls in one basket.



First stop, Green Parrot. Next stop VEGAS baby!

Contort and Distort

Pour some wax on me.

Wax.

It's not just for dinner tables and fetishes - you can paint with it too!

Today was the Encaustic Painting workshop at the Studios of Key West. Otherwise known as how to paint with wax on griddles. So fun.

An ancient technique used by Egyptians and Greek people on mummy tombs. You have resin, colored wax that you push down on a pancake griddle. The griddle is your palate to mix and blend colors. In between that you can scrape and layer, collage and then fill in more color with oil sticks. Oh and don't forget the hot gun to blend or fuse (it's a fancy hair dryer).

It was a day to get dirty and my hands are now multicolored and will look great serving food tonight.

Got to explore all kinds of fun stuff and just play. My only complaint was when the power went out. It happened just as everyone turned on their respective hot guns and afterwards we were all crouched around one or two griddles. It still was fun though cause everyone got to know each other and ask questions about technique.

Tio continues to be an inspiration for me as you can see. When I was painting around his head from this picture of our trip to the Picos de Europa, a fellow student asked in a weird way: "You know that guy???"

I just laughed and said "Oh yeah." mostly thinking of our death defying trip up and down the mountain that day and then I couldn't stop laughing randomly the rest of the afternoon. Extreme sports should have a 'driving with a 92 year old relative at the wheel' category.

Someone else came by and said "He looks SO cerebral.". That caused memories to flood in of me and him arguing politics, about how one can eat bananas for a full year or why he can't drive on the sidewalk.

All in all a great day.

(If you want to see Tio in action - check out My Splog)

What's the Happs?

Took a break from painting to take a quick jaunt to the water and see what kind of new stuff Ken has going on at his gallery. 

It was a nice overcast day and the weather was perfect. A light breeze and with a little water light show. Sometimes cloudy days are more interesting than the sunny ones. The water lights up into emerald, turquoise and jewel tones that pop out from the gray menacing skies. I just love it and have gotten caught in the rain many a time.

Ken is a local artist and has a ceramics gallery on White street called 7p7 Ceramics. He makes beautiful porcelain pieces that reflect the tones and textures of Key West. The one above reminds me of sand and sky. His studio is in the front of his house complete with kiln and wheel. It's a cool set up.

But really the star of this whole operation is Willie. Ken's lovable furry sidekick who barks like a madman when you scratch his butt the right way. Don't we all? 

WILLIE!!! WILBUR! or Williebear is what he likes to hear.

As we're chatting up about his new work, a stranger stops to offer flowers. Why that's so nice!  

He tells me to be careful cause the thorns are trying to start a war with him. I grab the beautiful flowers and give a very thankful thanks. That was a really kind thing and why I love living down here. 

He gives me very strict instructions to put it in the freezer at a very cold temperature so that it will live forever. "But nothing lives forever. And besides I have a very small, sad freezer that I don't want to shove this beautiful thing into." I try to tell him. 

He seems dismayed and gives me the instructions again and tells me "If you do this, you'll have it forever!!" I tell him I'll put it in some water when I get home and thank him once again.

After brief introductions, he tells me he'll be right back cause he's going to go pick me some more. "That's ok, James, I've got to be going anyway." I say. 

"Well next time I see you, I'll have some more flowers for you." he says as he rides off. 

Can't get better than that.