My Ancestry DNA test contains few surprises. As expected, the results show I am mostly English and Scottish. Also expected is a Northern European connection, pointing to Northern France and Belgium. Family lore maintains that we have Native American ancestors which turns out to be true. But there are a few surprises. 3% Welsh? I…
I recently finished the science-fiction trilogy The Remembrance of Earth’s Past, by Chinese author Cixin Liu. The first and most well know book in the series is The Three-Body Problem. The team that produced The Game of Thrones is making a Netflix series about the trilogy so you’ll probably learn about the series soon if…
A reader, responding to a recent post, asked if my recurring problem with ‘seeing’ is physical. I do wear glasses these days but no. The seeing I’m describing is seeing with judgment. This is aesthetic judgment that engages beauty. Unfortunately, when most people hear the word “beauty,” they think of Playboy models. While this example…
Two Fridays back, I became tired and took a nap. I never take naps so everyone instantly knew I was sick. My body ached and I couldn’t get warm. I remained in bed from Friday afternoon until Monday lunchtime. I treated myself with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. By Monday afternoon, I was feeling better. If it…
I never use a palette knife on my palette. To mix a tone, I plunge my brush into the paints and use the brush to mix what I need. For example, on this nearly-fresh palette, I dipped my brush into the cobalt blue–the second blue from the bottom right–and used my brush to mix it…
Yesterday I was late to the studio. I dragged my lazy butt into the studio at 8:30. Morning people know how head-shakingly lazy that hour is. I painted until lunch at 12:00. After lunch, I was back in the studio until 3:00. The studio sessions were good–better than the previous day where my energy was…
I’ve written before about the difference between paint thinner and OMS (spoiler: they’re just different names for the same thing). I’ve also written about the turpentine that I routinely use. Why haven’t I written about Naphtha? I use Naphtha to clean etching plates but for painting, I use it less frequently than the other top…
The annual Woolybear Festival in Vermilion was yesterday. The weather wasn’t perfect but that didn’t stop 100,000 festival-goers from converging on the little town of 10,000. I went armed with my Nikon Z7 camera and managed 875 pictures in 2.5 hours. The annual festival began in 1973 and has occurred every year except for the…