Drop the pilot, try my ballon

I had a welcoming blast from the past yesterday morning. Since those of us in the Garden State have been lucky enough to enjoy a string of pristine weather over the last few days, I decided that yesterday morning would be the kick off day for my "power walk" exercise routine which I dedicate myself to rather compulsive/obsessively as soon as the weather turns sufficiently warm. I stick with it until the onslaught of cold weather returns again which, thankfully, is still many months down the road. In a nutshell, I have arisen from hibernation and want to drop the winter weight.

Mind you, I did have a gym membership for all of the last year, however, with my unique schedule, it just wasn't a place that I found convenient enough for me to dedicate myself to. Frankly, I also just never "clicked" with that particular gym. On the fistful of times that I did visit it, it just didn't do it for me. For some reason, which I still can't put my finger on, I felt like an intruder while exercising there.

When the very perky, overtly sweet smelling, middle-aged gym manager with the glitter pink eyeshadow asked why I was ending the membership, I had to think quickly to come up with an answer that seemed appropriate. I told her that I was moving back to Delaware. I could tell from the brief and awkward moment of silence which seemed only too accentuated by her plastered-on toothy smile and the blank stare the accompanied it that she didn't believe me. It lasted only a moment, but it seemed as if the entire time her eyes were flashing some coded "please rescue me" signal with each blink of her sparkling pink frosted lids.

But I digress. Yesterday morning, I let my iPod shuffle randomly select tunes from my playlist so as to accompany me on my power walk. I was out on the lovely morning when I had my blast o' de past.


Ah... Joan Armatrading. Before there was Corinne Bailey Rae, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, and yes, even Tracy Chapman, there was Joan. I had forgotten what a huge fan I was until I heard "Drop The Pilot" loud and clear through my earphones. Ignore the rather cheesy and highly dated video above and just listen to the song. Clean, concise, brilliant.

She still tours and performs brilliantly, mostly in Europe it seems, and I would love to see her perform live. Here she performs the amazing song "Love and Affection" from a concert from last year.


What a treasure.

Hazel Court

Hazel Court, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

Movie 'scream queen' dies at 82

http://www.wickedlady.com/films/ladies/CourtHazel/index.html

Happy Birthday...

I've been some what in a bit of a whirl wind of activity since my last blog entry for which I am quite pleased. I've always have been the type of person who likes staying busy. Most of the work has been involving some PR issue for myself which I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment.

I did want to pop briefly in order to make mention that today was/is the birthday of two important people in my life. First, my father would have been 71 on this day had he survived passed the age of 65. Secondly, my friend Tony hits 43 on this date. Tony have been close friends since we first met back in 1978 whilst in Junior High.



Needless to say, he and I have seen and experienced quite a bit together over the last 30 years. He and his lovely wife are quite busy with their very young boys as of late so we've not been able to communicate as frequently recently, but the connection is there nevertheless. He's one of a small group of other wonderful people that compose a very special "group" that has been an important part of my life for a very long time. You know who you are if you happen to be reading this - but, what the hell, here is the list, in no particular order...

Tony
Mary
Kathryn
Mark
Helen
Dan
Kurt

Of course, there are many others that spring off from the list, but that is the "core" so to speak. I must admit however, that if anything, I am a man that has been blessed with an amazing, invaluable, and substantial list of close friends. Some I have known for many years, some just a few. Many of them have never met the others and often they have no concept of the others simply because of geographical locations. I tend to think that all of them would get along together fabulously (though I have had that proven wrong on a couple of occasions - but that's best saved for some snowy night before the fire) and that we could throw an amazing party. I'll have to work on that one.

The Red Tie

The Red Tie, (© Michael Sprouse 2008) originally uploaded by sprouseart.

It's a cool though sunny Monday morning here by the shore this April 14th. My friend Marnie has been visiting us for the weekend and after a rather wild Saturday night and wonderfully mellow Sunday, we are now sitting around the dining room table sipping our coffees, conversing, and reading the morning news.

My latest digital collage work entitled "The Red Tie" (above) is now available (like the majority of much of my work) on http://Sprouseart.imagekind.com/. You'll find it under the "Digitalart" icon.

The Bee Keeper's Daughters

Good news - Yesterday was so lovely that I didn't bother with the blog at all. I did however go on a long walk, wash my car by hand, and enjoyed a wonderful cookout at my friend's house up the street. While today is cooler and a bit overcast, I'm still retaining the elevated mood from yesterday and am glad for it.

Here's a digital work I created this morning while sipping my coffee. It's titled "The Bee Keeper's Daughters".



Of course, if you're interested in wonderful and affordable high quality fine art prints or greeting cards of this work, click here: "The Bee Keeper's Daughters" prints

Enjoy your Friday!

Trained monkey anyone?

It's another cloudy and cool Spring morning here in the Garden State. I'm so anticipatory of just one purely warm and sunny Spring day that I have been stumbling half-awake to the window immediately after rising from my bed to see if my wish has been fulfilled. It makes me feel like a child hoping for a silent overnight snowstorm that would cancel school for the day.

It's just the bleakness of it all that I find so displeasing. All the lovely colors of the season seem to have been sucked away into some punishing vacuum formed by a reluctant sun. Even the beautiful blooms of daffodil and hyacinth that align my front yard sidewalk seem distant and shrouded. The forecast for tomorrow, however, seems much more promising with a hinted high of 73 and afternoon sunshine. Perhaps I can talk some friends of mine into a picnic at the local park.



I can't understand why I've not sold more prints from http://Sprouseart.imagekind.com/ as of yet. Perhaps it's the fault of our failing economy. I know that it isn't an issue of the work because after 20 something years as a visual artist, one develops the knowledge as to whether they have talent or not. I also truly don't believe it's the pricing as there is a huge range of prices available from a large selections of prints to choose from. I need to think of other ways to promote the prints and I am very open to suggestions (hint, hint) . Alas, if things don't improve soon, I may have to find a new line of work...

Mind blowing...

I've been rather busy today, but I wanted to share this quick link with you dedicate readers, all two of you (thanks to my dear hearts Kathryn and Jessie), that I found truly mind blowing, and please pardon the pun. Let's just call it food for thought...
P.S. It may take a moment to load, but it is really worth it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

"Power Pug"

As you can see, I spent the last three days not adding posts on my blog. It wasn’t that I had any particular need to step away from the Sprouseart blog, it was just that I needed to spend a little extra time focused on some other projects. I actually had a rather full weekend, but now it’s late Monday afternoon/early evening, and I simply don’t fill like posting any of the details.

I’m sure however, if it was sunny and 75°F rather than the bleak and overcast 45°F that it has been for the last several days, I would feel a bit more inspired to do something – anything rather than sit in a chair and stare blankly at the steely grey sky counting my blasé sighs.

Truth be told, I was never much for sigh counting, no matter the dramatic appeal. I spent the majority of my time creating art during the last three days. The first of my two works is a small painting that I’ve entitled “Perplexities”. Like the other works from this series (which I call “Narratives”) I chose the title from a word in a sentence from a 1910 book that I own. I incorporated the sentence into the work, as I did with the other works from the series. In this particular work, the sentence, which reads “life had suddenly become a maze of perplexities”, appears in the upper right corner of the work.

The other work that I completed is a digital work entitled “Power Pug”. These are works that I have created as of late with the goal of them being a bit more commercially popular - a la “bread & butter” art – than my traditional paint on canvas works. The “digital pets” are more whimsical, cute, and smaller in size, and, since they are open ended prints, quite affordable for most folks.

While the "Digi-Pets" series are shamelessly aimed at the animal lover, I being one of them, I do feel that I have added an extra spark to these works that, at least according to friends and others who have seen them, make them rise above the fray of hard-core “cutesy” animal prints. And since it beats lying flat on my back and beckoning in sailors in off the street, I also offer personalized digital works featuring the faces of anyone’s beloved pet. Here’s “Power Pug”

Now, just in case you were wondering where you can get a print of these works, the links are here:"Power Pug" and "Perplexities" respectfully.

Anti-Clinton Media Frenzy

For all of those out there that think that there isn't a massive media bias against Clinton, let Lou Dobbs set you straight...

April 3, 2008

cem1, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

I find it frustrating and disheartening that the majority of visitors to this blog probably never actually view this blog. That's because, based upon examination of my visitor stats, that the majority of visits come from people doing image searches on google.com or other search engines.

When someone makes an image search, and an image that is on my blog turns up as a hit on the engine, it counts as a visit to my blog, even though the only item that they have seen from the blog is that image and that image alone embedded in the search engine's hit page. Don't misunderstand me; I use the image search function often and think it a great tool, so I'm not advocating the end of the image search by any means. It's just that sometimes I feel that I'm creating my posts for no one but myself really. It's a rather lonely feeling, and frankly, I've never been fond of loneliness.

April 1, 2008

Sunrise over Alice Springs, originally uploaded by Erwin Geertsema.

Today is the first day of April, 2008. I woke just before the sun this morning. I managed to find my slippers and robe in the darkness before somnolently shuffling my way into the kitchen to start the coffee. The only light in the room was the pre-dawn bluish and violet glow that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

I stood and silently and gazed out the window and witnessed the pink watercolor hues from the light of the rising sun stretch across the fading darkness of the morning sky. The room was silent except for the trickling sound of the stream of hot coffee filling the heated pot and the sweet warbling of a mockingbird hidden somewhere close by in shadow.

Not wishing to break the silence, I slowly and quietly opened the window just enough to let the morning air fill the room. A warm breeze fell across my face and I instinctively closed my eyes for a moment to breathe it in. It was perfumed with blooms of hyacinth and a distant light rain that had fallen at some point during the night. It was a magical and exotic scent that can only be experienced during the early morning in spring.

I stood there motionlessly and wordlessly just taking in the scent and watching the orange sun fill the room. As it occurred, my mind was also filled with the wonderful and exhilarating knowledge that winter had indeed passed and that today was the first day of the first full month of the spring of 2008.

148 year old voice recording....

Wow. Check out the following link to a fascinating little story about a recent discovery. I found the actual recording amazing, though, still a bit creepy nevertheless...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/27/france.recording.ap/index.html

Though, nowhere NEAR as creepy as these ( best not listened to while alone in the evening)

http://theshadowlands.net/ghostwav.htm

Couple, Wedding Or Anniversary, Toledo, Ohio

Couple, Wedding Or Anniversary, Toledo, Ohio, originally uploaded by mrwaterslide.

Hmm. Well, at least one appears happy. That's quite a cake. Yes. Quite a cake indeed...

In Memorium...

Oddly enough, just last night as I was having dinner with my dear friend and fellow film buff Jacquie, Richard Widmark's name came up in conversation. We were discussing the films of Anne Bancroft, one of my favorites, and I had said that one the earliest films that I could remember her in was one that starred Widmark and Marilyn Monroe. At that time, neither of us could remember it.

The film is titled "Don't Bother to Knock". According to the IMDB.com, it was " This was Anne Bancroft's first film. It was also Marilyn Monroe's 18th film and an attempt to prove to critics that she could act." It's actually not a bad noir piece.

In any event, Widmark had made several films by the time "Don't Bother to Knock" was released. In fact, his first film "Kiss Of Death" earned him an Oscar nomination and his performance of psychopathic killer Tommy Udo is to this day after 61 years is still highly disturbing and an amazing piece of acting.





In Memorium...

Richard Widmark
December 26, 1917 - March 24, 2008

Shine...

It came to my attention this morning that I have somehow manged to forget to mention over the 3 plus years that I've kept this blog going that I have been wonderfully enamored with Joni Mitchell - artist extraordinaire - for many, many years...

Star Ladies

Star Ladies, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

I've been a little overwhelmed the last few days trying to get my ducks in a row so to speak. So, this morning while sipping my coffee and watching the sunrise, I created the above little digital work in Photoshop. They are like doodles for me and they help to calm my mind.



I've entitled it "Star Ladies" for various reasons. I wouldn't stare at it for too long, however, if I were you, as doing so may cause your soul to flee from your psychical being, soar without your control through space and time and land in a freakish little jar that I keep on my kitchen shelf.

However, on second thought, I could use some help around the house after all...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

Across the universe...

I ran across the following item in CNN this morning. According to the article, a star exploded "halfway across the universe" which was so huge that "it set a record for the most distant object that could be seen on Earth by the naked eye." Mind boggling. This event occurred 7.5 billion years ago and the light finally hit our scope of reality last night! Here's the link:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/03/21/exploding.star.ap/index.html

Speaking of ties...

I have a feeling that Richardson's endorsement of Obama today is a soft introduction to the fact that Obama will select Richardson as his running mate. This concerns me on some levels, for which, frankly, I hope that my instinct is incorrect.

It seems to me that a valid and prescient fact to keep in mind is that the majority of this country's population is not composed of the more liberal/progressive and race acclimatized folks ( like myself ) found in and around the metropolitan centers of the coastal areas, such as where I now reside and have so for close to 20 years. I hope that Democrats are not so busy praising the emperor and his new clothes with misted and glowing eyed chants of "change,change" that they overlook the importance of picking someone who can actually win! I'm not saying that an Obama/Richardson ticket absolutely isn't winnable, and God knows if they are chosen I will support them all the way, but I have lingering doubts.

I'll have to go to some obscure analogy which always works best for me; I could have worn one of my sparkling, hyper-colored ties to a recent funeral service that I attended. I love those ties and I feel that they more accurately represent who I am. They're filled with pizazz and vibrancy ( symbolic of Obama ). And while a few of the attendees ( symbolic of liberal/progressives like myself ) may have agreed with my tie selection had I chosen such , the majority of them probably would have thought it too over-the-top, disrespectful and in poor taste ( unfortunately, symbolic of a very large section of the country). The important thing is that they would have said nothing to me, though they most certainly would have thought unkind things and undoubtedly vocalized their feelings to each other on the long drive home ( i.e. the voting booth) . Being that all the attendees were all there for the common good of supporting our friend through loss and hardship ( symbolic of all Democrats) , I opted for the more conservative, yet equally effective, darker tie ( symbolic of - gulp- McCain ) which is what most everyone else would have done in the same situation ( symbolic of the voting booth).

If we ended up with an Obama/Richardson ticket against McCain - a choice between two brightly colored, cocktail hour ties and one conservative, business meeting, power tie - in these sobering times, which do you think middle America will choose to wear to the inauguration? I must admit that I'm not sure. And that uncertainty frightens me. Yes. Frightens. We simply can not afford, on countless levels mind you, another Republican in the White House!

Now - speaking of ties, I'm going to save my pennies and get a few of these beauties!

toybreaker.etsy.com

Of course, my birthday is only a couple of months away....

Spring and the key to the unknown...

Spring is here!, originally uploaded by sprouseart.

Welcome glorious spring! That’s right folks – today is the first day of spring. I am a spring fanatic. And even though it’s relatively bleak and chilly this morning, I know that the weather will slowly begin getting warmer from this point on and stay that way at until at least mid to late October (I’m an autumn fan as well).

Hyper-hued flowers have begun blooming in my yard and the melodic chirping of seasonal birds has begun to break the silent, steely, cold sunrise of winter. I say bring it on! This is a time for rebirth and renewal and I happen to be very ready for it on several levels.

Now that I’ve made my obligatory statements about the glory that is spring, I must mention something that has haunted me a bit since yesterday morning. As I have mentioned in earlier posts from the last few days, the mother of a close friend of mine died last Sunday. The funeral service was yesterday morning which I attended with other mutual friends. It was a solemn (yet touching) service. It was especially highlighted by three short speeches given by close friends of the departed. One of the speeches was particularly compelling. Not necessarily because of the words which she spoke, that being the usual verbiage which accompanies such forlorn occasions, but because of a particular event that she had mentioned.

According to the speaker, the deceased woman told her about a dream that she had had a little over two weeks ago. In the dream, she said that her mother and father-in-law, both of whom are long dead, appeared to her. They offered her a key, which she accepted. According to the friend of the woman whose funeral I was now attending, the deceased told her that she “had a bad feeling about the dream.” And that “someone was going to die soon”. Synchronistically, it was she herself who would be dead two weeks later, and indeed, buried on the very last day of winter.

When I heard this little tale of foreboding, I felt a slight chill run up my spine. I’m sure many of the others in attendance did so as well judging from the palatable silence that permeated the huge chapel that can only be formed from the vacuum created when 100 people take a slight gasp of air into their lungs as the implications of such a dream momentarily flood every nook of even the darkest corners of their mind with a bright and inescapable white light.

It’s important to remember however that death, in one way or another, does indeed bring renewal. In fact, the traditional meaning of the death card in the tarot deck is “rebirth and renewal” contrary to hokey, low budget horror films and vapid sitcoms. So, perhaps in some odd way, the untimely death of this woman was possibly, at least, seasonally, timely in its own unique manner.

Well, with that being said, stand up; shake off the old detritus of yesterday and picture yourself being revitalized. And by the way, if you happen to have any nocturnal visitations any time soon from deceased loved ones offering you the key to their condo, you may want to make a polite refusal, slowly back away, and force yourself awake.