Do You Like Art?

It's Friday. I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but we are in our 5th straight day of fantastically wonderful Spring weather. I suggest that, since it is Friday, you stand up right now, walk away from this computer screen, walk outside, and take a little break from whatever you may be doing.
Have a great weekend!

P.S. - Let's hope he means it...

1899 and football

I found this fantastic photo on flickr.com the yesterday morning. I meant to postit here yesterday morning, but other morning events pulled me away from my lap top. In any event, here it is now. The photo was taken in 1899. It's an early football team and based upon the looks of the fellows I would guess it to be a college team.

You can, and should, take at look at the larger version of this image which can be found here -
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/189/509529876_9fe73fc7e2_b.jpg

Their expressions are incredible and I find myself entranced with the image every time I gaze upon it. This photo is 108 years old! Who were these fellows and what became of them?

Take a look at the football that the fellow on the back row carries. According to wikipedia.com, before American football reached it's modern form in 1912, the game was quite dangerous - "By the turn of the 20th century, football had become notoriously dangerous; 18 college players died in 1905 alone. Colleges responded with a series of rule changes to open up the game, most importantly the forward pass, along with outlawing dangerous formations such as the "flying wedge", and introducing and requiring better equipment such as helmets."

The clearly older, wiry fellow to the right of the ball carrier with the hat and bow tie must be some form of coach or instructor. He looks so very different than the other chaps in the photo and, in my opinion, is the only one of the group that actually looks like he belongs in 1899.

The haircut that most if these fellows wear must have been wildly popular. I have a photo of my great-grandfather taken around this same time period with the same cut - medium length hair, parted simply in the middle and close cut around the ears.

New Week, New Delhi

I must admit that I had a wonderful birthday week (though, I always get confused as to what the actual parameters of the "birthday" week are - is it a week from your birthday or is it actually the week in which it falls?). In any event, I had a wonderful time thanks to family and friends and I am now ready to get back to a non-birthday week existence.

I have hardly been in my studio at all since completing my last work, but today I feel the urge to work. I don;t know why, but I like working under pressure when it comes to creating my art, Since I have an exhibit opening in about 2 weeks, I should find myself happy as a clam in my studio.

For some reason, my XM satellite radio has been in the "NO SIGNAL" mode for the last two days. I called tech. support, and after a somewhat obnoxious one-sided conversation with an "automated" assistant (READ - computer generated voice) my call as rerouted to India.



Unfortunately, my conversation with the robot was more successful than with the young sounding and very up-beat gentleman with the tongue-twister name. He did listen to what I was saying, but proceeded to respond with answers that seemed to come directly off of a laminated cue-card. I knew this was the case because each time I asked him very direct questions like "Why am I not receiving a signal?" and "How long do you think it will take to get back online?" he began each response with "I see" followed by a long pause and then a question of his own - completely unrelated to what I had just asked him such as "Would I like a 3rd radio for just 5 dollars?".

In any case, we were able to lob the conversation birdie back and forth enough for me to realize that there was some kind of satellite glitch that was being worked upon even as we were speaking.

Hmmm.

It's My Bithday!!!

I was born on this day 42 years ago. I think it's a very good thing that it's hipper now to be in your 40's than ever before. I am grateful for so many wonderful things in my life today that I can't list them all. Here is my official 42 birthday photo taken this morning.



Peace and love to you all -
Michael

Dear God - Say it isn't so!!!

I almost spewed my morning coffee out of my mouth and across my precious laptop like a washed up character actor from a faded 50's sit-com this morning when I ran across this shocking advertisement from the late 40's...



Today marks my 14th anniversary with the most incredible and important person in my life whom I love dearly. Fortunately, we don't need "Lysol" to protect our married happiness. But then again, we're not "married" and aren't allowed to be by law in any case even if we wanted to be.

Too much time - "Everything I've Got"

How shameful that I have let 11 days go by without a posting. I have been very busy however with upcoming exhibitions. I'll be getting back on track soon enough. In fact, perhaps even now. On the 17th, this coming Thursday, I'll be having my birthday. I'm sure I'll have something to share about that. In the interim, feast your eyes on this weirdness....

Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

My sister turned me on to this great online article. It's an excerpt from the book "Where Have All The Leaders Gone?" written by Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney. It's concise, hard hitting, intelligent, and most importantly, true - deeply, sincerely, instinctively true. You can read it here:

http://www.bordersstores.com/features/feature.jsp?file=wherehavealltheleadersgone

So, after reading that, you should then read the following link just to underscore your awareness of what a group of out-of-touch, hate-filled, paranoiac, corporate whores, we have in the White House. It's from CNN.com -

White House threatens to veto hate-crimes bill

My question is this - is it possible for someone to stick his head in the sand AND have his head buried deeply up his own ass at the same time? Methinks - yes.


Wicked Witch of The West Wing
© Michael Sprouse

Self-Portrait Tuesday and "Foxes"

It's Tuesday, May 1st, 2007. I'm just a little over two weeks from my birthday.
It also happens to be Self-Portrait Tuesday, and there I am above.

I've been very busy in the studio producing work for my upcoming shows, which is why I haven't been as dedicated to this blog as I usually am. Here is the last work that I completed -



It's entitled "Damigella". That's Italian for Damsel. I should be through with the most recent work later this morning. I'll post images of that as well. Last night, I watched a film that I haven't seen in years. The name of the film is "Foxes". It was made in 1979 and released in 1980. I first saw it in the movie theatre in my home town. I guess you could call it a coming of age "chick flick", so I probably saw it on a date. Though dated itself, the film was intriguing on some levels, possibly just because I haven't seen it since 1980, so for myself, it was somewhat of a time capsule. And that alone is intriguing enough. If you have Comcast On Demand Digital Cable, this is one of the free films showing for the next few weeks. If you're between 35 and 45 years of age, you may also enjoy it yourself.



http://imdb.com/title/tt0080756/