#223

Hello, friends.
As always, here’s where you’ll find our latest work. . .


This was a week of out of town trips for us, but we did manage to get some work done. We went to a high school production of “The Music Man” in Hillsboro, near Portland. It was incredibly professional. I probably saw the movie a thousand times when I was a kid, so it was fun to compare this recent production of it against my childhood perception of the story. I think I misunderstood a lot of the premise when I was a kid. Just subtle things, like that the music man was a con artist. I was trusting kid.
I also took our daughter up the Pacific University this week for a scholarship competition. I brought my ipod and a cheery autobiography about surviving the holocaust to help pass the time, but my plans were dashed. They had a host of seminars for us parents as well, all about paying for college. Once again my dreams were crushed when I was told that my plan of collecting aluminum cans may fall short of its goal.

-Dylan

#222

Hello, all.
Here’s the art. . .


So I’m half way through my February tests, and so far so good. The two tests are, of course, Valentine’s Day and Jo’s birthday. I got an A+ this Valentine’s Day, but it hasn’t always been so. I once paid $50 for a dozen nearly wilted roses at the local grocery store on Valentine’s Eve. I think waiting until the last minute is the number one reason for getting points knocked off. You want to give something that says “I’ve been planning this for years.” Wilted roses fits that description, if you ask me, but what do I know?
We’re looking forward to seeing our friend’s son’s musical tonight, The Music Man. Their school apparently has a lot of money and a top notch drama department. In contrast, when we first moved here to the Oregon coast, Jo and I were stunned by the first school performance we went to. A child with a script in one hand and a torn piece of cardboard in the other walked across the gym floor and read her script without looking up. It took us a while to realize that the scrap of cardboard she was holding was supposed to be a boat, but they had just drawn on it with standard pencils, making lines that were nearly invisible. The other disappointment of the evening was that the principal had to tell the PARENTS several times to keep it down during the performance. Personally, I would have fired off a couple of shots in the air, but I don’t want to tell her how to run her school.

-Dylan

#221

Hello, friends.
Here’s the art. . .

You may notice that there aren’t any newly designed pieces this week. We spent the week creating art that our greatly appreciated customers ordered from us, and also planning our first ever art show! It’s still a long way off, September 25th in Petaluma, California. It’s called Halloween and Vine, and we feel honored that that we’re going to be a part of it. We’re already sketching, scheming, scratching our heads, and dreaming.
One of the things we’re trying to work out is the best way to accept credit cards. An old fashioned “knuckle buster” to make carbon copied imprints of the cards? I once cut a man’s card in half accidentally with one of those things back when I worked at a book store. Or should we join the modern age and get an iphone and the credit card app? A wireless laptop and a USB swiper? We’ll have to figure something out, because we are no longer a cash economy. I remember the first time I saw a fast food restaurant accepting plastic. I thought that was so funny. Now I look them sideways if they say “Sorry, it’s cash only.” I’ve hardly touched any paper money since 2003. Before that, I was a bellman with a pocket full of the stuff. A pocket that Jo used to raid before I woke up, only to find the living room littered with bags of new art supplies.

-Dylan

#220

Hello, sports fans.
Here’s the art. . .


The little heart ornament in the group picture is actually a prize for a giveaway that Jo is organizing, so mosey on by her blog to enter.

Many of you will remember that I made a music video for one of my songs last summer using puppets. If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is. It’s meant to look like the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, and the original idea was to do a three song set. I got pretty burnt out on the project after finishing the first song, so it’s taken me this long to get back at it for the next two. I’m using real puppet heads now, which Jo was kind enough to make for me, instead of the photo faces. The song I’m working on now is called “Old Ghost”, so here’s a picture of me singing in harmony with my ghost.


It’s super bowl Sunday, so be careful crossing the street. I’m rooting for the pedestrians this year.

-Dylan