11/29/10 Fountains of Youth

The springs are our favorite places to visit and they offer an experience unique in the world. These are the "Fountains of Youth" and their crystalline waters flow from deep, mysterious caverns. Natives know the saying that "Fall is for Floridians" and we know that during this off-season time of year it is possible to have these places all to your peaceful self, quite the contrast to summertime when everyone and his yahoo brother is here getting cooled off. The temperature of the water remains a constant 72 degrees year round and actually feels warm on a cool day.

11/20/10 Studio Nocturne

In our enchanted woods along Possum Creek, there is always inspiration for a studio nocturne and plenty of room for magic!

Rosemary Hill Observatory

Members and guests of the Alachua Astronomy Club were treated to a special star party at UF's Rosemary Hill Observatory, one of the many perks of membership in the club. Near the town of Bronson, and graced with dark skies, it is indeed a big hill covered with aromatic rosemary bushes. UF owns and operates 18" and 30" telescopes housed in domes on top of the hill. We were given a tour of the telescopes and their instrumentation. I came away with an evening's worth of experience and good results with low level light photography. The image of the winding path to the observatory dome and the winding path of the Milky Way to the Universe will be the subject of a new painting.

Melrose! This town is hoppin' !

Melrose Bay Art Gallery opens Side By Side, a group show with 20 artists. I will be showing side by side with Marianne Gamble, fused glass artist. The whole town is gettin' down this weekend, Sat and Sun, Nov 13 and 14, with big events at all 3 galleries, MBAG, Bellamy Road and The Grand Opening at Shakerag, featuring a '60's dance party with The Imposters! Third Stone will be performing at Bellamy Road on the outdoor stage by the bonfire. Check out why they're calling Melrose the small town with the big art scene!

Starry Night / Fri. Nov 12, 5-10pm

Starry Night is back again, bigger and better than ever. Last year's event drew 2,000+ visitors to the Florida Museum of Natural History to turn their eyes and thoughts to the stars. The Alachua Astronomy Club, UF Dept of Astronomy, Santa Fe College, and Kika Silva Pla Planetarium will be presenting educational and entertaining exhibits. There will be high grade telescopes set up for live viewing, most notably, the Sun, the Moon and Jupiter. I will have my Space Art Gallery set up inside the museum (Central Gallery) and will feature 4 paintings from The Keyhole Project. The event is free and for all ages. Be sure to get a prize ticket for a chance to win one of my artworks.

10/31 Halloween Trek

Joanne and I portrayed our Star Trek counterparts, Nurse Chapel and Captain Spirk on Halloween. We set up the telescope under the streetlight at the top of the hill and gave all the kids and parents an awesome view of Jupiter, and of course candy too! The eyepieces needed some serious cleaning aftrewards, what with all the heavy makeup and sticky fingers!

10/19/10 Look up in the sky!

The attendance and response for the Keyhole multi-media showing at Bellamy Road has been amazing! The star party last Saturday night was a huge success thanks to the Alachua Astronomy Club and the wonderful folks at Bellamy Road. Our events of the last 3 weeks have competed with Gator football games but we have had a good turnout and a packed house for them all. Again, the response to the Keyhole Project has been excitement and applause, all good, encouraging, supportive from all ages, young and old. I am very grateful to Keith, Linda and Karen at Bellamy Road for all they have done for me. I have finally given in to the exhaustion of too many looming deadlines so the website launch and mural project have been postponed and the full moon reception on the 23rd has been cancelled. I am looking forward to a relaxing week's work on 3 commissions here at home in the studio.

10/16/10 Other Worlds Star Party

Just back from a week long public art event in the historic downtown Jacksonville area, Painting the Region. Upon leaving from Gainesville to start the event, my truck was unable to make the trip. Artist friends Aliye Cullu, Charles Dickinson, Elizabeth Ferber and Robin Popp generously shared their rides and creative companionship with me during the week. It is always the most inspiring experience to be in the company of and work with such good, talented and helpful artist friends. See some of my works here on this blog site. Now, on to the...

Other Worlds Star Party Oct 16, 6 - 10 pm
Alachua Astronomy Club with live telescope viewing of the planets Venus and Jupiter.
Lunar Observing Group with live viewing and a presentation on the moon by Dr. Howard Eskildsen.
The Keyhole Project - My multi-media space art production seeks an audience.

9/27/2010 The Keyhole Project Premiere at Other Worlds Show

The Keyhole Project is moving at warp speed now toward the premiere my new multi-media space art production at the Other Worlds - Science Fiction / Fantasy Show at Bellamy Road Gallery, Melrose, FL. The presentation is subtitled Part One / Voyage of Discovery and runs about 15 min . There will be late Saturday night showings, Oct 2, 9, 16 and 23. Psychedelic space rockers Maserati provide the soundtrack for this exclusive performance at Bellamy Road.

Sat, Oct 2
Award Winning Grand Master of Science Fiction, Joe Haldeman, will appear for a presentation on the Art of Science Fiction Writing to kick off the month long Other World Series at Bellamy Road.

Sat, Oct 9
Reception for the visual arts with music, food and entertainment and the works of 25 artists, each portraying their own Other Worlds!

Sat, Oct 16
The Other Worlds Star Party with the Alachua Astronomy Club. Enjoy a fun evening of spectacular live viewing of other worlds, the Moon, Venus and Jupiter through high grade telescopes. Enjoy a showing of The Keyhole Project!

Sat, Oct 23
Full Moon ??? Stay Tuned...

So for now things are busy and soon to get crazy for sure. I feel like a little kid hesitatingly yet excitedly reaching way out to strike that match to a very short fuse on the bottom of a very big rocket!

www.thekeyholeproject.com Under Construction. Launch TBA.

8/23/2010 The Keyhole Project

I am currently very busy working toward 8 art exhibit venues between now and the end of 2010, with 9 more through May 2011. I will be participating in 6 plein air events, but my most ambitious efforts will be towards launching a new art project (7 years in the making), The Keyhole Project. It is a combination of space art and fantasy art with a focus on anthropomorphic and religious themes. Many artists and friends have previewed the work in progress in my studio. The 24 oil paintings are completed and I am now scaling the steep learning curve of building digital productions around them. There will also be public art interactive elements. I have secured so far 6 local and statewide venues to kick off the exhibit and hope to generate interest for a national tour. The project will debut internationally on 10/20/2010 through a website, http://www.thekeyholeproject.com/.

7/5/2010 Blog Debut - Plugging In

Testing 1...2...
Day one. Fun setting all this up! Hoping to keep in touch with family, friends, fellow artists, patrons, colleagues and the serendipitous chance of curious passersby. Hopefully there will be something to entertain and amuse you if you decide to pop your head in here on a whatever regular basis. At the start, I would love to keep this as an open forum to anyone and everyone. I have a passion for the venue of public art and will be planning art projects that anyone who may be interested can participate in. Look for new postings. I promise, some of them will blow your mind!