#176

Hello.
Hello?
I can’t hear you, but here’s a link to our art.


Jane DesRosier called us up the other day on an old invention called a “telephone”. Our phone doesn’t ring much these days. But when it does, it’s not like an email. You can actually hear the person’s voice on the other end. Jane’s voice said that she teaches art classes online, and she thinks it would be a good idea if we did too. You may know Jane better as Gritty Arts Studio.
Jane teaches online workshops and is encouraging us to do the same. This really is an intriguing idea to us. We like to pass on what we’ve learned about art…Jo is a natural teacher…and I have had a knack for making short videos ever since I took TV production in high school and did a short stint as a film major.
So, it’s officially on the to-do list…right after the five cheater quilt patterns we’re making…and my Paperhand Lincoln music video, which I’m very close to shooting now that my beat up antique top hat has arrived in the mail.

Jo refuses to let me wear it when I go grocery shopping with her…or by myself.

-Dylan

PS- Thanks, Jane, for reaching out to us!

#175

Latest newsletter ever…
Here’s the art. At least it was on time.

Our kids are on spring break this week, and I guess I got stuck in vacation mode. We had friends from the suburbs of Portland come and stay with us a couple of nights, then we went and stayed with them a couple of nights. They come here for the scenic beauty of our little coastal town, and we go there for the stores and food. Some highlights from our trip there include…
1. The oven catching fire just before three homemade pizzas from scratch had a chance to get baked. We ordered pizza delivery.
2. Our friend, Jim, interviewing Jo and I separately for a podcast he’s putting together.
3. Picking up an enormous bag of free shipping peanuts from a company I found on Craigslist. We nearly had to tie the kids to the roof rack to get home.
Hope some of you get to see some of those peanuts soon. Thanks again for all of the support and encouragement!

-Dylan

#174

Hey y’all.
Here’s the art…

You may remember in an earlier newsletter I mentioned that we’ve banned fast food for the sake of our wallets and waists. We’ve been doing really well adhering to that rule, but a loophole presented itself this week. We drove out of town twice to the printer’s shop…once to drop off our new patterns, and once to pick up the prints of them. Of course, we can’t be expected to pack a lunch for such trips. Think of the risk of food poisoning without proper refrigeration! It’s enough of a threat to force a man (and woman) to eat at Quiznos…and Popeyes. There is also a loophole about bringing leftovers home, so we ordered a bucket of chicken so big that it had wheels on it. I know what you’re thinking. What about proper refrigeration on the way home? Friends, it was quite cold by that time, since the sun was setting. It’s all very logical.

-Dylan

# 173

Howdy, all.
Here’s what we have listed now, and there is more to come on Tuesday…
Over on Jo’s blog, she gave you a sneak peek at some of the odd beasties that we made to go on my video set. Here they are in their proper places.

I’m not used to taking pictures with incandescent lights, but so far I’m enjoying the warm look. They look like the fading pictures in our photo album taken back when my mom had an afro.

The other thing that stands out about this week is the elliptical machine that we got a couple of weeks ago. I’ve spent a great deal of time on it so far, so I’ll give you an idea what that looks like. We’ll start at the bottom and work our way up.
Dark socks and slippers…green shorts with the pockets cut out…black t-shirt…headphones…and an abnormally long dark sock tied around my head. Most people would buy a headband if they needed one, but I consider that cheating.
Jo’s a lucky girl, isn’t she?

-Dylan

#172

Hello, friends.
Here’s what we made this week. Wait, we didn’t make it this week. We made it in November to send to a gallery in New York. Now it’s home for the week until it’s sold and shipped off to someone else’s home. Why does everything leave us?


Sorry for that little personal meltdown earlier in the newsletter. I’m feeling much better now. It’s just that colleges around the country are courting our little girl. I go to the PO BOX everyday praying for bills, but it’s always overflowing with college advertisements full of pictures of laughing students that don’t even look old enough to operate automobiles. Automobiles? I am really that old???
Yes, you are.
With all of this talk of college, Jo and I have been talking about what life will be like when both the kids are off to college. I think the general consensus is that we should get rid of 99% of our junk and take our business on the road in an RV or whatever type of spaceship is available in five years. Or we could catch freight trains and drink corn whisky depending on which way the economy goes. I’ll let you know what we decide when we get to newsletter #459.

-Dylan