WTF??!! Thursday

I am so sick of the never ending torrent of bullshit that flows from every nook and cranny of the White House. It's become nothing but a brothel for a tired looking collection of corporate whores each battling to become the next madam.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3082076

Flickr Fav Wednesday

I ran across this advertisement on flickr.com today -



It's for Swift's Premium Table Ready Meats and it tells the story of Bill coming home for furlough. This inspires Mom to whip up a batch of Furlough Fixin's, which, ultimately is a plate of cold meat arranged about a grouping of "carrot flowers" which has been added to "glamorize the meat platter". Mmm - meat platter and carrot flowers. No wonder sis enlists as well before the end of the story. You should click here to see and read the large version - LARGE version

One very odd addition to the ad is this:


What the hell does that mean? Perhaps this is something that only folks who lived through WWII can relate to. It seems macabre to me.

In any event, I would like to post more here on several other topics, but I must get back into the studio. I finished this work yesterday -



But I have so much more to do. I will say that I fell in love with this cool news story this morning...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/25/habitable.planet.ap/index.html

It's very exciting to me and can certainly be the stuff of some great sci-fi. - an earthlike world where only half of the planet lives in light. Oooooo. What, pray tell, lurks on the dark side?

Self-Portrait Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Here I am looking very early 1960'ish with my retro glasses and shirt. What fun. I love time travel.

Last Sunday afternoon, I found my thoughts suddenly preoccupied with a friend of mine that I haven't heard from or seen in over 10 years. Last night, as if by magic, I found a message from her waiting in my myspace in-box.

I love the way the universe works. Just send thoughts out there and wait for it to respond.

Have a great Tuesday.
Always,
M

Monday and Calla Lillies...

Hey - it's Monday April 23. It's also been 10 days since my last blog entry. There were several reasons for the absence and it's rather difficult to pick one out over the other in terms of importance. I will state that one of the reasons that I wanted to stay clear of the blog is that , in my opinion, it would have been odd not to have mentioned anything about what occurred at Virginia Tech. I felt like processing that terrible event in my own manner. At the same time, there was so much media coverage about it, that it was overwhelming. So, I took a little break from the blog.

Besides April 16 being the date of that terrible event, it also would have happened to have been the 70th birthday of my now deceased father. In fact, I have more than one friend that share that same birthday.

I managed to have a rather productive week artistically and am almost finished with my latest work. The weather turned absolutely beautiful last Friday and it remains the same. So, before I spend the rest of this lovely day in the studio, I'm going out to plant these...

Have A Great Weekend

Have A Great Weekend, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

It's Friday. Go have fun.
Always,
M

WTFF??!! Thursday

It's raining like mad on this chilly Spring Thursday morning. It's raining enough that I think that there is a strong possibility that the run off may seep underneath the heavy metal door of my studio. That means that I will have to battle with the cumbersome wet-vac for a bit today. What fun!

It also happens to be WTF??!! Thursday - and here is my WTF??!! for today. It seems that important (and more than likely incriminating) emails from White House staffers have "potentially been lost". You can read the details in the story from ABC news, but it is infuriating, in my opinion, to say the least. Infuriating, and also pathetic.

The current administration in the White House has created, and perpetuated, such abundant lies that it is practically impossible to know when they are, or if, they are ever speaking the truth about anything. This latest trick only exposes more of the sliminess and chicanery.

Article here : http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3032600&page=1

Flickr Fav Wed. - CraniTonic Hair-Food, 1903

CraniTonic Hair-Food, 1903, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

I ran across this on flickr the other day and was floored by it. Your really have to click on the image, follow the link to flickr.com, and then click on the magnified view to see how amazing the imagery is here. This advertisement is 103 years old folks!
Amazing!

Self-Portrait Tuesday: 4-10-07

Self-Portrait Tuesday: 4-10-07, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

Here tis - Tuesday morning already. That means that it is Self-Portrait Tuesday. I'm going to spend the day focused on my art. I have to start this morning preparing my latest work to ship to the gallery in Richmond. Then, the rest of the day is mine to spend in the studio working away on my latest painting.
I'll share imagery of it at some point soon.
Oh, and by the way, just when you think that the current administration couldn't get much more slimy, you read something like this:
White House unofficial e-mail accounts draw scrutiny.
Filthy pigs - the lot of them.
Always,
M

NO MORE JUNK MAIL!

I hope that everyone's holiday weekend was a lovely as mine. Though the weather was (and still is I'm afraid) more winter than spring temperature wise, I still had a thoroughly enjoyable time, even if I didn't get to see one single easter egg.

I did, however, happen to notice a rabbit in my backyard Sunday morning as I was preparing my special Easter Breakfast of Blueberry Lemon Buckwheat Pancakes and Rosemary Garlic Turkey Breakfast sausages as for George and myself. It was the first time that I have seen a rabbit in my yard at all since moving here a year and a half ago, so it was appropriate that he make his appearance on Easter morning.

One thing that I also began to notice after moving to this part of Southern New Jersey, was the overwhelming amount of junk mail that I receive on a daily basis here through the tiny mail slot in my front door. I really do believe that it is the largest amount of unsolicited junk mail that I have ever received in any location that I have ever resided. Though I do recycle all of it, I would much rather have none of it to begin with. So, as I was surfing the web this AM, I ran across this posting on the Ideal Bite website.

Is your mailbox a junk mail graveyard?

I found several useful tips there that I am hoping will work. Especially this one, which appears to be the junk mail equivalent of the "national do not call" list. Check it out here -

https://www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

Have a great holiday folks!
Always,
M

Have a lovely Easter....

And don't forget...

WTF??!! Thursday

It's Thursday, almost the weekend. It's also WTF??!! Thursday, and here it is.
I found this story so tragic. Click on the link below to read about how the director of that wonderful Holiday classic "A Christmas Story" was killed along with his 22 years old son early Wednesday morning when they were hit head on by a drunk driver speeding the wrong way down the road. After I first read the headline, the inital shock of it had me uttering, WTF??!!

'A Christmas Story' director, son killed in crash



Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on my latest work and sent an image to the gallery director in Richmond. He already has a potential client for it. That's not a bad way to start off the end of the week.


"Due Sorelle", 36" x 36", acrylic on canvas. © Michael Sprouse

Always,
M

Flickr Fav Wednesday

Hombre Problematico Numero Once, originally uploaded by mrwaterslide.

So, I missed the last several days of blogdom. I've had quite a bit on my plate with deadlines and what not. At this very second, it's 5:32 AM and I am listening to a Doors tune that I've never heard before called 'Runnin' Blues". It's very odd, but I dig it. I've been floating in and out of a insomnia cloud the last few days and have been up this morning since 4:45 AM. It will pass.
I found the above photo on flickr.com just a bit ago and it struck my fancy, so here tis - posted for my new sprouseart blog addition, Flickr Fav Wednesday. I know I skip around on these things, but, hey it's 5:30 AM.
Enjoy.
Always,
M