Category: Uncategorized

Lou Bond was a musician recorded by Stax back in 1974. His music was not the typical Stax sound, he was a unique musician who played acoustic guitar and fit more in the singer/songwriter category. He had an orchestra for back up, and wasn’t following musical trends. But people, he could sing. His songs focused a lot on the injustice he saw around him, that he saw all of us suffering from. He was of his time, and he wasn’t.

I got to know him in his later years. He was a very close friend to the man who commissioned this portrait. I couldn’t find many pictures of Lou, so I used the photograph on his album/cd as a model for the painting. (The CD was re-released by Light In the Attic Records) so his music still available.

There were many struggles and shadows in his life. When I knew him, he was playing in coffee shops in Memphis. He rode a bicycle around midtown. I remember thinking of how hard it is to make a living as a musician if you don’t have the type of personality that can deal with all the confusion and ego of the music business. Lou wasn’t equipped to be a “star” and yet he shone in the life of those who knew him. He’d been abused as a child and hurt in ways he could never share. He was on disability for mental disorders, but the music in his soul still shone brightly.

You meet someone who seems to have so much potential, they could be famous. But Lou was someone who carried the weight of life, who didn’t belong in that harsh and dehumanizing light of fame. He was a man who recorded some songs, who felt things deeply, who was hurt in ways he could never recover from, but who sang any way. He passed away in 2013.

You can listen to his music here.

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Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to share it, if you’d like.

This blog is brought to you by the generosity of people who support me on Patreon , buy my art, and who support me in so many different ways. 

If you’d like to make a one time donation, you can do so at paypal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile

Cards and prints on some of my art is available on Redbubble.  

If you find a typo, let me know, and I’ll send you a postcard.

Each year I give paintings to anyone who supports me on Patreon (except those who specifically say they don’t want one for space reasons, or because they want me to sell the painting to help me stay financially afloat).

This year I decided to paint flowers I’d taken pictures of from my porch garden, but I wound up being obsessed by moonflowers, one of my favorite flowers. The moonflower itself has few lines, but I love the dancing star shape in the center of each flower, so I used blue ink to emphasize that in these paintings. I hope each painting shows the delight I take in these blooms that open in the late summer late afternoon with a burst of perfume, then close up and go to seed in the morning.

Here, then, is the Moonflower series:

And here is a short video I made with my phone of a moonflower blooming.

Now it’s time to plant the seeds from last years flowers. The circle of life and art has been so comforting during this past difficult year.

Thanks again to my Patrons for helping keep my life more financially stable and creative. If you’d like to contribute a small amount monthly to help me get my creative work done, you can see the details here.

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Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to share it, if you’d like.

This blog is brought to you by the generosity of people who support me on Patreon , buy my art, and who support me in so many different ways. 

If you’d like to make a one time donation, you can do so at paypal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile

Cards and prints on some of my art is available on Redbubble.  

If you find a typo, let me know, and I’ll send you a postcard.

So now that the winter is ending and spring is in the air, I’m getting out in my wheelchair (the flying turtle) more, strolling around the neighborhood taking pictures of growing things, interesting human structures and things that make wheelchairs inaccessible. In the past I’ve just kept these photos to myself or shared on facebook. But from now on, I’ll be sharing them on my Patreon page. I’m giving you a preview here, but in future it will be an exclusive Patreon benefit.

I am not a great photographer. I wouldn’t be a photographer at all if digital photography didn’t make it so easy and affordable. I rarely print up my photographs, though I add some to my Redbubble shop for cards and postcards. I take inspiration from the writer Eudora Welty, who took amazing photos with a simple Kodak camera.

Patreon is a membership platform that runs a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Subscribers pledge a small amount each month that is automatically withdrawn from their credit card. My Patreon is pretty democratic. I try to provide original art to my supporters no matter what the donation level. So for as little as a dollar a month, you can get all the special content I provide for my patrons.

Today I’ll provide everyone the first post in this photo series but afterwards, it will be a Patreon only publication. These are photos from my walk yesterday. Today it’s raining buckets and we’re having thunderstorms. Therefore, a cat nap.

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Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to share it, if you’d like.

This blog is brought to you by the generosity of people who support me on Patreon , buy my art, and who support me in so many different ways. 

If you’d like to make a one time donation, you can do so at paypal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile

Cards and prints on some of my art is available on Redbubble.  

If you find a typo, let me know, and I’ll send you a postcard.

I’m not against communication technology. I love my android phone, computer and even my kindle. But I’m very careful with everything and try not to be swayed by the “latest” and “newest” editions of anything. We are marketed these things without really being given information on the real cost of things. Cell phone and wireless technology uses what has become known as “conflict minerals” — and the conflict is in Africa, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and surrounding areas. If you don’t know about this, it’s not necessarily an oversight on your part. Our media rarely talks about it. Mining and the theft of resources has been a huge plague in Africa, one that has built so much of the wealth of the developed world.

The waste and trash left over from the constant upgrades and the flashy new items we are made to feel are essential cause problems in China, Africa, SE Asia — anywhere poor countries are willing to “recycle” developed world trash and mine these items for the minerals that were originally mined in horrific conditions. They are recycled in horrific conditions.

If you aren’t familiar with the life cycle of your devices, I urge you to look up how they are made, who is making money, and who is being condemned to slave labor, wars, and destroyed natural resources.

I think about archetypes a lot, and I recently thought of the Medusa myth where the gaze of that powerful female Gorgon could turn a person to stone. I think our Medusa is more male, the salesman — the culture of sales — and how they turn our hearts to stone when we buy into extreme forms of consumerism.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but I did make a painting to illustrate my idea. I used all my old devices and cords and chargers, all so perfect when I saved up money for them, and now so many broken or out of date. Technology that is no longer supported. I think the painting is finished.

(The shadows are a nice yellow green that doesn’t photograph well.)

What do you think?

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Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to share it, if you’d like.

This blog is brought to you by the generosity of people who support me on Patreon , buy my art, and who support me in so many different ways. 

If you’d like to make a one time donation, you can do so at paypal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile

Cards and prints on some of my art is available on Redbubble.  

If you find a typo, let me know, and I’ll send you a postcard.