Stuff and Stuff

Caterpillars!

2011-06-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Jane and I went to the nursery to get some plants for around the house. While looking at some leftover veggies plants they hadn't sold I noticed one of these guys on a dill plant. I called Jane over to check it out and she pointed out there were two other ones right in front of my eyes I hadn't seen. I wanted to take these guys home so I bought the dill plant that had two of them. We named them Harriet and Harriet. I took these pics but the light conditions weren't right, I figured I would take more pics the next day.

Cool, right?

But when I got home the next day Harriet and Harriet were cocoons! It's pretty insane. Click on the images to see them full size to really appreciate what you're seeing. They connect themselves to the plant at their base and then tie a line around themselves so they're dangling like a telephone pole climbing repair man! Plus they look like West Highland White Terriers, these Harriet guys are crazy! In a few weeks we should see them emerge as butterflies, I'll post pics of the Harriets then if all goes well.

Fishing the reef

2011-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Went fishing during the last couple weeks, adding some pics here:

This star fish has a weird wiener.

Horse shoe crabs trying to catch up to the receding tide.

Accidentally impaled these little buggers.

The blue fish were thrashing around as I unhooked them and started puking up the sand eels they'd been gorging on.

Never put your fingers in the mouth of a blue fish, yu will not get them all back.

A bunch of random pics taken around the house.

2011-06-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

These are some lilies I planted this spring. The plants look a bit stunted but if the come back next year they should be much bigger once they set up their root systems. But even though the main part of the plant is dwarfish the flowers are still their normal humongous size.

Here you can see the leftovers from a satisfied chipmunk.
Here are some peonies before the flowers have opened up.
And this is one of them after.
So while these clumps of "grass" have nice little purple flowers on them I wasn't happy with where they've been growing (we didn't plant them, they came with the house). So I've just been ripping them up left and right. But when I went to the plant nursery they had them there, smaller than these, at $20 a clump! I must have killed at least $300+ worth of these guys. I guess I'll replant them after I rip them up next time.

I think the scientific name for this one is poochius ignoramus.
Here are some of the calla lilies I planted coming in nicely.
I thought I'd throw in some fishing pictures in the mix to spice things up. I didn't see one fish on this outing but I found some mussels on the reef I was walking on.

It's really incredible when you look at this picture to see how many of them are piled on top of each other. Now remember how many of them are on this little clump.....

Now look at THIS!!!! That's all mussels piled on top of each other for about half a mile. Insane!Ok, back to the flowers.

The flowers on this bush smell of Nilla Wafers. :)
Here is a patch of wild flowers I try not to mow each year. The patch keeps growing and growing.
I picked up a sickly looking rose bush from Home Depot on sale for $5. It still looks a bit sickly but so far it's knocked out some nice flowers.
This is a Japanese maple I'm growing from a seed I found in the woods. No, I promise, it's not marijuana.
I planted about 500+ morning glory seeds along the bases of some of our fences that I collected from about 10 plants I had last year. Hopefully they take, if the do they should turn the fence into a wall of flowers for most of the summer.
I think these are foxgloves. My mom (Hi Mom!) gave us a container with a few last fall and they came back in the spring. I'll take more pics when it's in full bloom.

I don't know what that guy right behind the foxgloves is, I didn't plant it and it wasn't there last year. I should know soon.
Here is a pic of another stunted lily, but these are different types that open later in the year. That is if the beetles don't kill them all first. They've been attacking in force for weeks so I've been dusting them with this organic bug killer. It works, but those bastards keep coming back. Good luck lily.
I got a bag of ......., I can't remember the name of them, but I got a bag on sale at Home Depot. There were 70 bulbs, I planted a bunch here and a few by the road. It's supposed to be a mix of colors so we'll see in about a month or so.
These are some agave plants, we've got a ton of them. They're not the prettiest but they put up these crazy stalks which blossom to be covered in white flowers. I'll post pictures of the flowers once they bloom.

This stalk is shy.
And last but not least I got Jane a dahlia plant. The flowers look like pom poms.
And that's it for now. I'll be taking pics of my garden this weekend, in the meantime I've got to get started on my next art project. Argg, and finish my last one. :-/

Cacti and Baby Birds

2011-05-26T20:13:00.001-07:00

I found a package of cactus seeds at the store and decided to give it a try. And guess what, they're growing! At first they were these tiny green globes, then they split, then BAM! they started growing spines. Pretty nutty.

Here is another image to show just how tiny these guys are.

Ok, now back to the car shitting bird story. The babies are growing up. A few posts back I showed a picture of the nest with three pretty eggs in it, then a few weeks later I posted a picture of three little hatchlings. Now here they are a few days ago.

So tell me, how the hell do we now have FOUR baby birds!?!?!
Crazy! I thought maybe the fourth was from a "brood parasite" bird. If you don't know a brood parasite bird finds a nest of another bird that already has eggs in it and it quickly lays her egg amongst the others and then leaves, sometimes taking one of the original eggs so things look back to normal when the original mother comes back. The mother of the nest comes home and she starts taking care of it and raising it as her own. Then as the impostor bird baby gets bigger instinct tells it to push the others out of the nest, killing them. Then all that's left in the nest is the impostor bird baby until it's big enough to fly away. It's nature's cut-throat welfare system. But I don't think one of these is an impostor baby bird though, all of these guys look the same. So where did that fourth one come from?!

Savannah, GA

2011-05-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

Jane and I took a road trip down to Savannah, GA for a few days with Aaron and Amy (who we met there). Both Jane and Amy went to SCAD so they wanted to revisit their old stomping grounds. The trip took approximately 14 hours, in the Mini, and after the 7th hour my butt was sore as hell. But we trudged on like troopers, and then we found this beast. He stole my clubbin' shirt so I swiftly put him in his place with a well placed fist pump and we were back on our way.

This is the view from the condo we rented. Awesome location, but there was no hot water. At all. That was not awesome. But since they couldn't fix it we got a sweet discount. That's Amy and Jane crossing the street. At night, once the bars kicked everyone out at 2am the streets would get so loud with people drunkenly yelling, but 30 minutes later it was perfectly quiet again. This happened every night including week nights. The corner building on the left is where I'd get my cheese danishes in the mornings.

I loved these ferns, you could find them growing out of old buildings all over the city.

What a cutie!

We decided to go to the Wilke's House for lunch. They're only open from 11-2pm and you stand on line and as people finish eating you get let in to take their place at the tables. We met this baby on line, she had a slack jaw and it's tongue would just hang there, like a dead fish. She was actually very cute for a dead fish tongued baby.
Once inside you sit with strangers, 10 people total to a table. They had probably 20+ plates of food that you passed around family style. OMFG, this was some of the best tasting food EVER! We were on line for over an hour and everyone coming out would say it's worth the wait and we were all like "Well it better be, it's hot in this motha f*cka!" but seriously, it was. And when we left we told the people still on line the same thing. This was my plate minus about four other scoops of food that I just couldn't fit. If you go to Savannah you MUST go to the Wilke's House.
Then we went sight seeing around the parks.

Hahaha, gross! Seriously, I'd change my name. Unless I was a janitor at a peep show.

If you don't know Savannah is in the south, and in the south it gets HOT! Luckily there are some smart people down there and they have these types of play fountains in many of the parks for the kids. And the kid at heart. Notice the kid in the background. Now that's the life.

The worlds most powerful man in a wet tee shirt you'll ever meet.

I love my waterproof camera.

The ladies staying dry.

But not for long!

Later we went to find some grub.

Mustard and Ketchup strike again.

More sight seeing, this time down on River Street. We must have hit every single candy shop in the city for their free praline samples.

Old wallpaper Amy wanted a picture of. Here you go Amy.

Restroom graffiti.

Aaron, what was it that post-it on your door used to say? "I am a powerful man!" Obviously it's true.

My Dali filter on the iPhone.

It was Aaron's birthday and Amy gave him his present, a personalized pillowcase of Ketchup and Mustard riding Night Wing. Super cool!

Damn, these four people are cool.

I had an amazing time with Jane, Amy and Aaron and I hope we get to do it all again soon. :)

It's mid May already!

2011-05-15T17:56:00.001-07:00

It's mid May and I still don't have everything in the garden yet. I'm running behind. Last year I was too far ahead and so I tried to compensate. Looks like the sweet spot is right in between. Next year!

Sooo, I checked in on the eggs today and found out they're gone, because they hatched! I didn't want to mess with them for more than a second to ensure the mother didn't abandon them so I was only able to get this one image. Damn, they are UGLY!!!! I hope these guys grow up to be swans, otherwise......

(click on any image to see a higher resolution version)

I finally got around to putting in the soaker hoses. It looks silly but my hope is it will cut down on the amount of time I need to spend each morning and night watering the garden during the summer with a hand held hose.

Here's a close up, you can see the water dripping off the bottom edge of it.

Snow peas in the ground!

Beans in the ground!

The trellis I built for them and the cucumbers which have yet to sprout.

Carnival squash in the ground!

Giant gray pumpkins in the ground!

Potatoes are finally sprouting.

Onions coming up. I got these from my uncle Oscar last fall from his garden.

In the bed towards the bottom of the image there are two types of lettuce, spinach and red cabbage. The top bed I am just going to plant flowers. I have two types of sunflowers, columbine and lupines in so far. I will replant the lupines in the fall.

Gnome with the spirit of Jerry Garcia still keeping vigilant watch. Don't mess with him, he's crazy.

Chive flower blossom.

I don't know what these are but when they take over and area they take that spot over! Good luck trying to get rid of them.

Random flower that sprouted around the front door.

These tulips didn't like the rain.

Close up of a raspberry stalk and it's thorns.

Dandelion.

Our driveway looking towards the road. Nice rock work Jane!

Jane's pigmy rhododendron has finally blossomed.

Some random wild flowers coming up through the lawn where I haven't mowed yet. I try to go around these patches and not kill them when I can, they're pretty.

The stream.
I finally got the mower working yesterday after a month of trying (changed oil, removed stale gas and replaced with 93 octane, new spark plug, cleaned air filter) and hit the grass at the front of the yard by the road. I should have taken a "before" image, the grass was literally three feet high in spots. Most of the mowing was done with the mower at a 45 degree angle, like it was popping a wheelie the whole time to get over it and keep it from stalling. Here it is after it was mowed. 30 minutes before this a teenager crashed just after the yellow arrow sign. There is an accident here every other week, and those are just the ones we know about. FYI, if it's wet outside and you're approaching a downhill instant 90 degree curve, slow down. Actually, here's some more driving advice. Always break before the turn, then hit the gas when you're halfway through it to tear out like a bull. Don't break through the turn, it's too late. I learned this from reading the Gran Turismo booklet. Very insightful.

Also planted seeds of brussel sprouts (totally the wrong time but whateva!), two types of carrots, basil and ZUCCHINI!!! I also planted some gladiolus bulbs and some elephant ears, we'll see how they do. Thanks for reading.

Starting the garden

2011-05-09T19:53:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago I woke up early on Saturday and went with my neighbors Tom and Nina to my other neighbor's house to shovel up some free animal poop for the garden. My other neighbors have a small farm which is totally concealed from the road, I had no idea it was there.

Here I fed the pigs some cracked corn so they'd hang out with me instead of trying to kick my butt. Notice my sexy friend in the back, he was trying to get sexy with everyone.
I like this little guy, reminds me of the little pig I had for a while, his name was Bacon.
This horse is about 30 years old! I had no idea they lived that long.
She looks so sad in this picture. It's ok horse, we all get old some day.
This guy was a total ass.

This goat has devil eyes.
Here he is again, this time getting sexy with the chickens. I love the look on the brown one's face.
With the buckets full of poop I shoveled I returned home to start getting the garden ready. My gnome friend kept the garden safe all winter. I rented a tiller and started plowing the field.
But I took constant breaks to take picture of the flowers starting to bloom around the house. Here are some tulips.
Close up of the interior of a different tulip, this one was all red, not sunburst style like the ones above.
Our mower is currently broken so I haven't been able to mow the grass yet. This has allowed some plants I didn't know existed in our yard to grow and blossom, like there guys. We've also been finding random tulips around the house popping up here and there in the middle of the lawn.
Here is some rhododendron flowering. At least I think it's rhododendron.

Here are all the empty poop buckets after I mixed them into the soil.
A quick shot of the bad ass tiller I rented.
And me trying to look bad ass. Didn't work. But I hope my kids look at this one day and laugh their asses off. Hey kids of the future, you're welcome.

Now, onto the continuing saga of the car shitting robin. Here is a picture of the beautiful nest it built after I gave it a shelf as a good foundation. She flew off (probably to crap on my car) so I snuck in to take a picture of the nest.Pretty cool. And guess what.....

Booya! She must have been ready to pop because she finished the nest the day before this picture was taken. So cute and pretty. Now I get why that color is called robin's egg blue. Duh.It was a long day but the garden was fully tilled and so was my attempt at raised beds. Next year I'll actually build some beds using wood. Right now the whole garden is not on level ground and during a heavy rain it can flood towards the bottom. It's hard to see but there is an apple tree in the middle of the garden. I planted it before I knew I was going to build the garden, one day it'll be the garden or the tree that has to go but for now she's safe from the hungry deer within the sanctity of her loving fence. If you're wondering why I have a row of rocks across the garden it's marking off the septic pipe from the house to the septic system off in the distance. I found out it was there when I hit it with the tiller last year and had to fix it. That sucked!

Since these were taken I built a trellis of sorts for the cucumber and bean plants to grow up. Also two types of lettuce are in as well as spinach and some red cabbage. Also some onions and potatoes. I have a bunch of my seedlings out on the porch hardening up and they will likely go into the ground this weekend.

My new friend, my sworn enemy.

2011-04-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

I was walking around yesterday on my day off and I saw something move in the mat of dried leaves. I looked a bit closer and saw it was a mouse. I had grabbed my camera on my way out and decided to try and get closer for a shot. It was a baby! And he didn't know what I was so he just kind of stared at me as I approached. I set the camera to the macro setting and leaned in hoping he would let me get close enough and he did. I had the camera within three inches of his face and he just sat there staring at the camera. After a couple pictures he'd had enough and started to hop/run off and latched on to the side of this rock where I grabbed the last pic and then left him to go on his merry way. I spent all winter killing his family without remorse but even though I know he'll probably be breaking into our house next fall and the hunt will resume I spent this moment with him as my friend. I wonder if this is how Dumbledore felt when he first met Tom Riddle as a child. Or am I Voldemort and the mouse is baby Harry Potter? Hmmm.....

On an unrelated note I would recommend not listening to the Deer Resistant labels on expensive shrubbery. Did someone say..... shrubbery? (dramatic chord!!)

Outside

2011-04-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

I took a quick stroll around the house and took some quick pics. Now I am posting them. Don't judge my photo skills on these as I've done no retouching, everything is straight from my point and shoot. Though I do think some of them came out nice.

The apple trees starting to bud:

A couple more pics of the spontaneous fountain:

Poison ivy vine gripping the tree:

Little bee/wasp guy looking for pollen:

The Secret Of Nymn style forsythia bush:

The empty garden:

Some tulip plants getting ready to bloom soon:

A ransom little flower:

I forget this guy's name but I'm amazed it lasted through the winter and came back:
A couple tiny mushrooms I almost stepped on. Sorry Leafmen.

Another tulip patch, this one is much bigger:

The stream:
I don't know what this guy is, I've never seen him before. Anyone have a clue? There are a bunch down by the stream but this was the only one with a flower:

And the shoots of a giant fern coming up:
And that's it for today.

Let the planting begin!

2011-04-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

After checking out the blog of friend and world reknown urban gardener Amy Staffaroni astaffaroni.wordpress.com it inspired me to start tracking what I'm doing with my garden this year. Last weekend I went out and scattered a ton of wild flower seeds I'd collected from different places last fall: my mother's garden, my uncle Oscar's garden, from my own plants, some rose pods from a hotel in Montauk NY, some lily pods from a lake in upstate NY, and of course a few random seeds I snatched from the plants at the nursery near our house (I figure they won't mind so I don't ask *wink* ). So they've been scattered all around the border of the house. Will they grow? We'll see I guess. Will they flower this year if they do sprout? I doubt it, most will likely need to toughen up this first year and save their energy to come back strong next year. But there are a bunch of perennials in the mix as well so we should see something.

Outside, around the house some plants from last year are coming up already. Some lilies, columbine and a bunch of other plants whose names I don't recall. But this must mean spring is here! And if I wasn't sure I was reassured by the amount of rain last night, it was cookoo crazy. So much so when I walked around the house this morning I found a fountain in the middle of the lawn. At what to me was a random spot on the lawn water was just coming up as if there was a hose underneath. Here are some pics:

Something else that was a little wacky this morning was the amount of dead bugs outside our one glass door. The hatch must have come yesterday for these guys because there were a ton of them trying to get into the house to get to the lights inside last night. This was the carnage I found this morning.
Gross.

OK, back to plants. Here is my grow room:

And some of the trays of plants. Last year I made the mistake of planting way too many plants in the garden and it was practically choking itself. For example I had about 50+ tomato plants in an area I will be planting 9 now. This year I'm going for less quantity for higher quality results. We'll see if it works.

Tomatoes:

Brussel sprouts and poppies:

The sun flowers exploded within two days, I've already had to replant them into much bigger containers. I wasn't expecting them to grow this quickly:

Here are some other trays with some plants (I'm only using red because it's all we had):

Here are my charts so I know what the hell everything is:

And then here is the shoe box of all my seeds, now half empty:

And then my buddy Vader looking at me wondering what the hell I was doing all morning instead of playing with him. I told him "I'm putting food on the table, what are you doing?!"

Spike And Fawn!!

2011-02-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

Finally! After years in the making I was finally motivated enough to finish the project I'd conceived years ago.

"Spike and Fawn's Home Security Service (At your service!)"

I was asked by the lovely and talented Rachel Tiep-Daniels to submit a piece of art for the "Art Blocks For Ghana" charity.

artblocksghana.blogspot.com

The charity is an art auction with the proceeds going towards providing boarding and education for orphaned children in Ghana, West Africa. Works submitted by Blue Sky artists will be on display at Culture Fix from Feb 8th to the 13th.

Here are some pics of Spike and Fawn. Started with a wooden block, a Munny doll, eight pounds of metal spikes, paint, coffee stirrers, an old tie and a lot of patience.

A couple pics from this weekend in Sully

2010-10-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

Lifted a piece of tarp left in the deep woods and found this guy. Wasn't totally afraid of me, which is how I got these close up pics. Probably never saw a human before.

"Do you happen to have any cheese?"
Driving home.

Montauk 2010 trip 2

2010-10-19T21:04:00.001-07:00

Just a few pics of my short trip the other day.

Montauk Trip 2010 - Early Oct

2010-10-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to Montauk to fish with some amigos. Here are some pics.

Getting ready at 12am to get up at 5am.

On the water before 6am.
My favorite lure. Even though he wasn't cut out for the conditions. 18ft waves on Friday and 20-30mph winds the entire weekend will kick your ass when you're trying to fish in the surf. I only got knocked down once, but I was almost knocked over about a hundred times.
This guy was hanging onto this flower for dear life.
My first fish of the trip, a baby blue. Bucktails were about the only thing that worked in those waves and in that wind. Red pork rind tails baby!
Steve and his first fish.
My keeper that within 30 seconds of this photo being taken was swept back to sea by a rogue wave that slammed up the shore and took her even though I dove into the sand to stop her. Live and learn, I will not make that mistake again. I hope to see you another day when you're much fatter.
Bass number two. A bit too small.
Bass number three. And that's it for me.

A random sculpture on the beach.And here we have a video that is sure to upset most people. But I think Bobby McFerrin has that affect on most people.

Second post card submission

2010-02-12T12:26:00.001-08:00

I wanted to try another idea I had. I took the postcards and lit them on fire, all the black is from the flame coming up and "painting" the wood in unpredictable ways. I then looked at each and imagined, if those burn marks were people, what would they look like? And these are them.

Update: I never submitted these in the end. :(

Brownstones to Red Dirt submission

2010-02-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

Dave and Chad, co-workers of mine at Blue Sky, made a documentary and have organized an art auction to raise money to help build a school in Sierra Leone. This is my submission.

Graphite done on thin postcards of wood. I haven't done any hand drawings in a long time so this was a fun way to get back into it. Check out the blog with everyone's submissions here, there are a ton of gorgeous pieces up for sale for a good cause:

http://btorpostcards.blogspot.com/

VT

2009-12-17T19:36:00.001-08:00

I realized I hadn't posted anything in almost a year, but then I realized that's because I haven't done anything creative really in the last year. Found this image saved from a few months ago and thought I'd put it up. Hopefully more to come soon.

Happy Holidays!!!!

2008-12-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Montauk Trip Two

2008-10-13T18:40:00.001-07:00

Went to Montauk again but this time the weather was gorgeous. It was sunny, warm, the water was crystal clear and not a cloud in the sky. So of course there were no fish that day. Well, we saw some, but they weren't biting for anyone. Saw maybe three fish caught all day. But even though I didn't catch crap it was a good time. Even took a nap in the grass on the beach by where the seals come to play. Took some pics of things while I wasn't catching fish.

It's hard not to stare into the sun, it's so beautiful.

A wave crashing on a boulder I was fishing on. Once the waves started to crash I decided to move.

This dead guy was at least 40", I would have loved to have seen him alive. I stuck my lure in his mouth so when I say I had a 40" fish on the other end of my line I won't be lying.

Oh, and look at that, the hole in his belly offered up some life. They were calling to me "Remember that time when you were a kid and you accidentally drank maggots in your hot cocoa thinking they were mini marshmallows? Well, we're back!". True story.

Why are butterflies called butterflies? They don't have anything to do with butter. They don't make butter. They don't look like butter. Do they taste like butter? Should call them beautyflies.

This is my favorite pic of the day. Soon enough he'll be hibernating the winter away. Or dead after jamming his stinger deep into my flesh for getting so close.

Montauk Trip One

2008-10-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Went to Montauk with Steve last week. It was a pretty craze day. Never saw fish blitz like that, the sea was boiling with carnage and all you had to do was follow the boil and cast into it. If you're lucky a fish would bite down. That day chances were very good. We headed out at 2am (that's right, 2am). Got there at 5am, waited an hour for Steve's friend, hit the shore, fished straight from sun up to sun down, then headed back to White Plains. Got home around 10pm exhausted. But no sleep for me, I had to fillet my catch!

Kept this one, he was about 30".

This is Kuwata's house, sucka!

2008-09-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

Steve and I went up to Kuwata's place to fish out on the lake he lives by. It was ridiculous, it was like a fishing show. Together we probably caught about 35-40 bass ranging from the very small to the very large. Caught a couple pickerel, and even the sunnies were like piranas today, getting caught on lures almost as big as them. Overall it was a great time. The weather held up until we left, the fishing was fast and furious, and I got to hang out with the guys outside of work. After a summer of salt water fishing doing some fresh water was a nice switch.

BAM! I started off drawing first blood!

But Steve had to show me up with a MONSTER BASS!

Caught me a couple little brothers of Steve's fish.

Kuwata caught a bunch of fish too, but every time I tried to snap a pic the fish was already back in the water. The dude is too fast!

Could have used him as bait.

Obviously this fish I caught is much bigger than the one Steve caught. Just compare their sizes. (Kuwata included in image as scale reference ;-) )
All fish caught were released and swam off to be caught by his kids at a later date.

And someone asked me what types of lures I use when I go salt water fishing. This is my current arsenal. I really only use like five of these. But aren't they pretty?

Fishing

2008-09-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of pics from last week when I went out fishing with Steve and Kuwata at the reef in CT. Got there EARLY, 4am!! Saw the sun rise but did not see any fish. On the walk back saw this crazy jelly fish. I thought these guys only lived in the tropics.

Here's a video of the jelly fish:

the jungle

2008-09-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Jane is rearranging the apartment and it was time to move the vine I've been growing over the last three years. Take a look at the size of the pot in relation to the amount of vine material. Crazy! The vines were getting so long it was making the plant unhealthy, so, I'll be chopping it up into bits this week and starting a new.

My first striper!

2008-08-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Went to Rhode Island for a weeks vacation. Did a bit of fishing and caught my first, and second, striper. The second one was a keeper and so I took that bad boy home and carved him up good. Tasty! Here are some pics.

4th of July in Cabot, VT

2008-07-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

First here is a totally unrelated pic I took the other night. The phoenix vs. the mantis!

Now here are the Vermont pics. Had a great weekend heading up to visit with Jane's parents and bro. We stayed at Injun Joe's cottages (yes, that's really the name, evidence is below). I should say we slept at the cottages, we spent most of our time around their house, on the lake or at the site of Jules' future house. Had a great time with Matt and Alex. Unfortunately Aaron and Amy couldn't make it. Maybe next time.

Our little home away from home.

Matt was ready to eat this guy right then! But he forgot his spices.

Jane was happy to finally RELAX!!!!
Jules chillin' by the dock.

Jane and I at a very special place.

Man, I love this chick. She's so cool.

Watched the fireworks over the lake. Those are islands in the mid-ground. You'll see one of them again later.

Went fishing at 5:30am. Took the kayak out just as the fog came in. Did you ever read The Mist by Stephen King? Well, I did, and this freaked me out! It was so thick at one point I couldn't see the shore and only knew which way i was headed because I could hear the birds in the trees. Spooky!
This is one of those islands.

The puppies. Lola, Ollie and Vader. Can you guess which one is special? And by special I mean retarded.

That's it for now.

Trying out my new waders and boots

2008-06-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

You know you're a dedicated fisherman when you spend your hard earned dough on some waders! Went fishing with Steve at Pennfield Reef Friday after work. Stayed late, and once high tide had gone out we walked out about 1/2 a mile over the reef into the ocean. CRAZY! Steve caught a couple blue's and a nice stripper, I only caught this one blue. But as long as I caught something I'm happy.

Camping at the lake on top of the world

2008-06-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

Aaron, Adam, Amy and I went camping for the weekend. Here are a few pics. Not many as I was relaxing. It was a good ol' time!

Queenie and the alien orchid

2008-06-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Some quick pics from this weekend.

Surf Casting

2008-06-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Caught my first blue fish the other day after work. Pretty sweet.

This ones for Antelmo

2008-06-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

The only person who reads my blog. ;-)

The only things I caught Saturday morning were two catfish. One dropped off the line as i tried to get the camera out, but this guy looked like he had been attacked by a racoon or something. he has claw marks down his body. They're some tough sonsabitches.

But even though I didn't catch any bass I did see this cool bit of nature. The bass must have spawned earlier in the morning before I got there, and try as they might the four or five bass could not fend off the swarm of sunnies that came in to feast on fresh caviar. Helping the sunnies were some pretty big shiners and the two catfish, which were the only things biting anything I threw in the water. This was cool to watch.

Fishy Fishy Fishy

2008-06-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

This blog has turned into a fishing blog. That's fine by me, means I'm out there enjoying nature instead of inside my dark office. Though, if I may be so bold, my office is pretty dope.

This funny guy was Steve's.

This guy looks like maybe she/he hurt it's tail building or fanning it's nest.

Couple other guys.

This guy us almost as big as the hook. I don't think he understands I'm only looking for the big guys.

Monday off? Time to fish!

2008-05-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

Man, I love fishing. This morning Jane got up with me and we headed to the lake. She went off and took some pictures soon to be posted on her blog. At one point she picked up the rod and threw in a worm. BAM! Within a few seconds she had her first smallmouth. Unfortunately she wanted to get it back in the water soo fast we didn't have time to snap a pic. Next time. Me? I know those bastards are tough so I always try to take a couple quick snap shots if I can.

First fish of the day. While I have been catching fish on Ricky Ricardo and Little Ricky recently they weren't working when I first got there. Switched to a purple worm, tossed it out and got this duder on the first cast.

Then after a while I went back to Little Ricky and got this guy.

Lost a small mouth at the shoreline on Little Ricky, but then I saw this guy off in the depths and decided to throw him a live worm when he wasn't interested in eating the lure. Got him, but it was a comedy of errors. First, the dude was BIG! And fat as hell. I measured him and he was approximately 22-23". Seriously, doesn't look it in the pic but he was. I saw he wasn't hooked very well so I tried grab him but he kept freaking out. As I tried to raise him out of the water for a better angle he gator rolled and the line cut deep into my finger (fair enough considering I had a hook in his lip). As I repositioned he gator rolled again and the line snapped and back into the lake he went. But I wasn't letting that fool get away, I shot my arm into the lake, nearly falling in, and grabbed him with my bare hands and pulled him up. That's right, I'm soooo bad ass. I took this one pic (you can see the hook in his mouth with the bit of line still attached just below where it snapped) and then he immediately thrashed again and landed in the grass (the lose hook went flying). I wanted to make sure he got back safe so I didn't take any more pictures and put him in the water. He took off like a bat out of hell, strong as hell. I was happy and it was all worth it, sliced finger and all.

Then I saw this guy waiting outside the drainage pipe that goes under the road so I got on my belly and grabbed him from the rocky bottom. Not sure what type of turtle he is, maybe a stinkpot (yes, that's a real type of turtle). Haven't caught a turtle like that since I was a kid. It was fun.

Overall it was a great morning. And Jane seemed to have fun too.

More fishing at Byram Lake

2008-05-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

Went fishing with Kuwata and Steve the other night after work. Caught a pretty big largemouth but Steve has the pics. I'll put them up when i get them. It had rained earlier in the day and you can see the rainbow off in the distance. FYI, this was the first time I out-fished Master Steve. ;-)

Then I went out this morning by myself, at 5:30am!, and caught these delicious beauties (after getting lost for 30 minutes). But I threw them back so they could make babies (plus it's off season).

This guy actually had a crawfish in his throat. Sometimes they are quite the gluttonous monsters. That's the antenna sticking up out it's throat after he half swallowed it back down.

This is the second guy I caught. Both were pretty big, and you can see that I'm holding it behind my head so he's even bigger than it looks in the last pic.

Sun bleached ornaments

2008-05-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

Took these in my mother's yard. I loved the way most of them are sun bleached and desaturated while their environment is alive with the colors of spring.

A couple random pics

2008-05-14T21:22:00.001-07:00

Lenny pics

2008-05-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Went home this past weekend and took a few pics of things. This thing happens to be my sister.

Ice Age 3 : Dawn of the Dinos

2008-05-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

Quick image from the teaser trailer for Ice Age 3.

Click for a higher detailed image:

fishing again

2008-04-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Taken while fishing last week. On my first cast I got the bass, on my second cast I got the pickerel. Then I didn't catch anything else for the rest of the time, but it was great. Thanks for the pics Svetla.

Fishing

2008-04-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

This week I went fishing three times. Here are a few pics of the beauties, all caught and released. Steve caught one hell of a small mouth.

Too busy and too lazy.

2008-04-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

I'm extending my deadline for the Spike and Fawn piece again, this time until the year 2028. That should give me enough time to work on it. In the meantime here's a pic of the pup.

Vote for Silver Surf Dog here:
http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=928359&contest=jones

Spike and Fawn deadline extended

2007-12-28T11:41:00.001-08:00

Yes, I am extending my personal deadline. My secret work area has been marked off limits for a few weeks so I will now just try to get it done by Feb. 1st. With thenew puppy, the holidays, getting engaged and the unknown about Bobo and Betty looming over my head like a cloud for the last year and a half my brain is pretty fried. In the meantime, check out my two favorite images found on the internet from 2007 and Happy New Year!

Spike and Fawn deadline

2007-11-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

So, I've given myself a deadline to have my Spike and Fawn "sculpture" finished. January 6th, my birthday. By publicly (and by public I mean the two people who read my blog) announcing a deadline it'll force me to do it.
Why do I do this to myself?

Doodles

2007-11-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

Each of these doodles was sketched into my note pad at work while in the back of a dark presentation room while watching reels of an upcoming film to be released in 2008. Here's a hint, it start with an H and ends in orton. Each is for sale, $3, signed, and money goes to my sister's Nintendo Wii X-Mas Gift Fund. Do it for the children!

big wheels keep on turnin'

your mom

sexy 80's Russian spies

your mom, $35 hr

dog trap and the crown jewel of heaven

untitled

Buff Bunny and Jack Hammer Harry

Gorton Hears a Poo

Horton Hearts A Holiday Card

2007-10-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

This was my submission for the BSS contest.

Luchador Marty Reisman

2007-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

In response to Brendan's BSS Challenge post:

After his humbling defeat at the hands of the Ping-Ponginator, Marty Reisman turned his pain into rage and decided to enter the Octagon. After a few years of training, pumping up and kicking ass, just being the world champ wasn't enough. He decided to take up his life long dream, chainsaw juggling! That is, until that fateful day.......

The Ping-Ponginator!

2007-10-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

The second part of this week's (or month's) BSS challenge, Luchadores vs. Ping Pong Masters. Here you have her, The Ping-Ponginator!
This time I actually went old school style again and started out with a pencil. Then I went over that with a brush marker, then into GIMP for a little color. Needs some work, but once I had committed and put the marker to the page that was all she wrote, no undo's for me. But it came out all right.

Pencil drawing:

And the final image:

Mexican Wrestler

2007-10-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

So the BSS challenge finally got going again, I pulled this out in a fairly short amount of time. I've had some people ask me about my techniques and to be honest it's not by choice. It ends up that way as I'm using GIMP and without pressure sensitivity and almost exclusivly using either the soft edge or hard edge round brush heads I've got to do some weird things to make it work. But I've been doing it so long this way that now when I go back to Photoshop I'm lost and long for GIMP. And all lens flares and cheesy lighting effects are on purpose and yes, I know I shouldn't use them. It's my rebellion against my old art professor.
Anyway, the translation under the pic is "Oh Esmeralda, I must do this for you."

"Ay Esmeralda, lo hago para ti." - Goosaba

No Time For Nuts

2007-09-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a few images from Blue Sky Studio's Oscar nominated No Time For Nuts short featuring the Scrat where I modeled the sets. Not much worthy of showing off model-wise as the models themselves are very simple, but it was fun. Cool part about the locker room was the bra almost didn't make it in this shot but I really pushed for it and though it's subtle I love it on the Scrat's head.

Here was the design for the jewel heist set (can't find the one for the locker room).

El Diablito - WIP, Stage Uno

2007-08-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get into painting since I've never really tried. I bought some paint and am in the works of starting my first piece. I got the idea from mi amigo Antelmo, a folk tale about a devil who has one goat let and one chicken leg. Here are my prelim sketches.

Rhode Highland sketches of 2006

2007-08-25T14:04:00.001-07:00

Last year my friends and i went on our yearly trip to Rhode Island (this year we did not though). It was a great time and while there mi amigo Tony Jung was a sketching machine. I caught the bug a bit and tried out one of his brush pens. Here are two sketches I did from that trip.

IA2 - mini sloths lava pit

2007-08-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

On Ice Age: The Meltdown I was working in the modeling department and got the chance to build a suit of triceratops bones that Sid would fall into and wear (with a septer that had the skull of a dead beaver kid) to scare off the mini sloths. This suit gag was cut from the film so it never got used. I was sad.
Then one weekend I was working OT on the sequence and mi amigo Dan Lopez came over and was like "It'd be cool to throw in some bones down in that pit of death.". I agreed, (he does have an amazing sense of design after all) so I went into my old bone monster suit, ripped it apart and and created this set up. It's on screen for about one and a half seconds but I think it looks cool. I especially love the little dead beaver kid in the bottom right corner.

David and Goliath : part 2

2007-08-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

My second take:
David (Hasselhoff) and Goliath (& KITT)

David and Goliath

2007-08-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

The BSS challenge this time was David and Goliath, but I decided to cheat for my first drawing and go with Davey and Goliath, one of my favorite animations when I was young. I just threw in a little twist. The girl on screen is from a tee shirt design I'm working on as my first attempt at screen printing. Also tried to deviate from my normal way of drawing and don't have any dark black outlines around the character, just colors.

"No way, NO WAY! Dude, she's gonna do it! Thank God for chat rooms!" - Goosaba

Bridge Troll

2007-08-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple images I made for a short film mocumentary a few friends and I did for the 48 Hour Film Festival. The piece was called Bridge Troll, a story about the last troll in New York and how he was dealing with his existence.
The images were used to show his family history and his broken relationship with his father. Since there was very little time to do it I couldn't put much detail in finessing the images to make the heads really work in the scenes so instead I went with the idea that they would drasticly stick out (who doesn't like big heads on little bodies?) and I feel that worked better with the feel of the film. They are trolls after all. Also added a two minute sketch of the lead actor in his garb and the title card. It was fun to wor on a live action film again.

Quick image

2007-07-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Stuck on the couch today with a busted back I decided to try and make something since I was bored as hell. This is what I came up with.

2007-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest BSS Challenge I did. I put a fair amount of time into getting the chicks to look right from my reference photo, not easy. It still needs work but I've moved on to greener pastures.

2007-07-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

Finally posting some BSS Challenges I've done in the past few months.

Busy, busy and mo' bizzi!

2007-05-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

There's just been a ton of work recently as production on Horton is getting crazy so I don't have time to work on any art outside of work really. I am working on a little sculpture and I have my short work I'm doing, but other than that I have no time. But I try and force myself to do every BSS challenge. Once my sculpture is done I'll post pics.

About F'ing time!

2007-03-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Finally, after a million years, or since Novermber, I have just today been able to log back into my blog.
Well, now that I'm back check out some of these pics I've done for the BSS Challenge since then. And check out the other amazing work there, find the link in my links section.

The theme was Evil Robots.

I'll post more later. Welcome back.

Superheroes!

2006-11-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

This weeks challenge was superheroes. Obviously I drew up my favorite comic legend from the 50's.

Goosaba, Norse God of Sexy

Horton Hears A Who images

2006-11-27T11:09:00.000-08:00

I know these were released a few months ago but thought I'd post them here so la familia can see what I'm working on.

BSS Challenge - Past Posts

2006-11-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of the images I've done for the Blue Sky Studios weekly design challenge (which you can find in my Links section). First off I'll say I'm no illustrator so my stuff will never looked finished or perfect, but I do feel I've got my own style. I call it Shitty Style. It's what motha nature gave me and I like it. Also, one of my professors once told me that 80% of good art is in the title of the piece so I try and concentrate on the titles and writing within them. At least my mom thinks I'm funny. Ok, well, sometimes.

theme: Thanksgiving
title: "Young Love, Pilgrim Style"

theme: Sunday Funnies
title: "Poopnuts"

*The ones below were done with a mouse as I didn't have a Wacom hooked up yet.

theme: The Wizard of Oz
title: "????"

theme: Halloween
title: "Halloween Around 15th Street, Brooklyn, circa 1987"

theme: Classic Movie Monsters
title: "They swear they're still 'just friends'. Vacation photo, June 2006"

theme: Animal Hybrids
title: " Lazy post apocalyptic pit bulls enslave intellectually superior man-chicks."

theme: Muppets
title: "I love me some pork grinds!"