X-RAY STYLE

I have found that drawing with white on black is challenging but interesting. The results pop in a weird way that drawing on white paper doesn't. It also puts me in the mind of one of my ART SAINTS, Keith Haring. He'd do these quick chalk drawings on the black paste overs on ads in the subway that were ephemeral moments of urban beauty. I also think of X-rays. These (mostly) monochrome images give me a feeling of seeing into or under the skin of a picture. 

Saint of the Desert Cactus 

Partners

Deer King (for Jean-Michel Basquiat)

Petrified Saint

ABOVEANDBELOW 

Tubes and Beams

Do yourself a favor. If you're ever in downtown San Diego go check out the new library...It's a stunner. I'd put it in with Balboa Park, Point Loma, Cowles, Mission Trails, Bread and Cie, The Coronado Bridge and a few other locales as JEWELS of San Diego. Here's a few shots of how it looked to my eyes.

Particles and Waves

These pictures are my attempt to capture the way I see Christmas lights. I love the open handed nature of people hanging lights at this time of year. Everyone is an artist and for a couple of months each year they get a chance to let it come out for no other reason than doing so. Just filling the darkness with a blast of particles and waves for the joy of it.

Particle Dance

Accelerator 

String Theory 

Arabesque 

Ectoplasm 

A Light Rain

More O'side Muertos

Just a lovely day of color and LIFE and DEATH

Dias de Los Muertos O'side Style!

Such a great day at the Mission San Luis Rey Dias de Los Muertos Fiesta! The whole day was just an explosion of color and culture and worlds colliding. North County San Diego is a great fondue pot of folks from just about everywhere. Obviously the most pervasive culture is Latin. Latin in all senses of the word; Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Brazilians....the list could go on. But it's not only Latin. There are Hawaiians and Samoans and Asian people of every origin and place. Then there are the regional mixes brought in by military families from around the country. It's all a big swirl of humanity let me tell you! Well one of our blessings is the annual Dias de Los Muertos Festival held every year. It's a celebration that I hold close to my heart. The direct experience and acknowledgement of DEATH. The honoring of people we loved who are no longer with us. The playful interaction between the taboo (death) and the acceptable (life). I love the sugar skulls, the figures and renderings of the dead engaging in the same activities we do in life. Riding bikes, dancing, drinking, driving cool cars, playing music, dating, eating...everything. It gives your soul a first hand message that life and death are a continuum. That life is precious because it is so short and tenuous. That death is simply the next place we go...so HONOR IT! Celebrate it! Confront it! It's coming whether you want it or not...so it might as well be in the form of a sweet candy skull with your name across the forehead that you can take a giant, life affirming BITE out of...Vivan Los Muertos! 

The Dead come out to play!

Happy

Death Takes a Bride

Flores para Los Meurtos

Chalk Cemetery tribute

Ars Longa   Vita Brevis

Lowrider

Calavera Catrina

Culture Mix

Tribute to our old pal Louis

Artist heading inward and outward

La Luz

Mascaras

Calavera love Flowers and Fruit

Pan de Muertos

Street Eye Views

So.....here's a bunch of random photogs taken today whilst wandering the streets of San Diego. This lovely Sunday was a breakfast out at Hash House, a Hillcrest and downtown ramble, a trip to The Donut Bar (WOAH!) and a dip in my Mom's pool....ah! No deep message here. Just some fun with my family. Well, maybe that is a deep message actually! 

Oh those Bees and their smoking...

R2-D2 hanging in Dago

Powerbox Bamboo

Octo-Squiggler

Hamsa Power Circle

Acorn Grooves

Big City Bizness

Quality Social

Lidless Gaze

Power and Grace

Dog Day Snapshots

I guess that I am just like Bruce Brown...always searching for an ENDLESS SUMMER...I'm whining here but I'm SERIOUSLY NOT looking forward to the start of this new school year. It's gotten so unpleasant at times I've been considering getting out of teaching and doing something else. This will be year 13 and the external (read district and parent) pressures just continue to mount and mount. On the one hand I'm expected to fit these lovely square pegs into round holes. I disagree with that notion. On the other I have stressed out adults demanding that I become a combination social worker, miracle worker, doctor, superhero, best friend AND teacher! I TRY to maximize my student's potential. I look at them as PEOPLE. It just frosts my heart when the two sides who should be my partners make things WORSE and WORSE and WORSE. The toll on me is one thing, the lack of utility for the students is another. I'm ranting here. I guess like a lot of folks it's sort of LOVE/HATE. So far today has been sort of a drag. It could be worse....I know that these are just the whiny blathers of a cranky old dude in the morning. On the plus side here are some sweet eyeball poppers that caught my third eye (camera lens) this week. 

A GREAT school! I hear that their MFA program is the BEST in the world!

The Smiths know the angst of a night out

TOOLS

NOTHIN' BUT!!!!

I'm afraid to look up what this might mean

I'm Popeye the Freaky-Man!

Visual Artist Supply wall blaster!

AHOY!

URBAN STRATA 1

URBAN STRATA 2

URBAN STRATA 3

He KNOWS things you don't