The Wicked Wizard of OZ...

Wait till you see this!!!    (just edited this)  here is my first rough draft......My daughter says I'm a bad man for making Dorthy Bad....... I'm just fooling around hehe

Portrait of an artist Friend from Dieviant ART

Allow me to introduce The Famous "Famimao"

Autmns Golden Warmth

i love these colors in my life...

ok I am an early starter hahaha "Happy Halloween!"

Canyon View

This was painted in art rage and a bit in photoshop and color enhanced in  image ready. a lot of work for a hobby huh? LOL so I really didn't like the first attempt at this so I did some more color corrections and thought I'd post it next to the old one and get any ones advice about the differences.Oh! hehe the bottom pic is the new one.

Fairy in the lake

a new sketch I'm considering to paint.

For ever in blue jeans

A Little warm up paint I did the other night ......

Late summer afternoon

 

I painted this last night. it was fun

VAMP

OK, I know this is a bit sexy but hey I wanted to see if I could pull off SEXY? Did I?

Shhhhh, "Can you hear the snow?"

Something I did to just warm up my artistic self.. So to speak,

A grouping of my work For your viewing Pleasure. Book Covers and other print graphics and Oil paintings and art work.

"Pushing Mom"

This is the beginning to a new story :

Pushing MOM

 This was about how deep the snow was

   The day was not over till the night had been written. That’s how this day was to be. It was a cold and wintry day, even though spring was officially upon us. I did not much care about the time of year it was. Being all of five years old, I just wanted to play in the snow.  Mom had bundled us up like over stuffed suitcases and let us outside for a while but soon called us back in because the snow had started falling even stronger and the wind had picked up. I can remember her tugging at the metal buckles that latched my rubber boots. They had frozen over from all the snow. Unwrapping me like a mummy my scarf fell to the newspaper covered floor to reveal my little red cheeks and my now runny red nose. She grabbed a dish towel and cupped my face and nose and said “blow!” She then picked me up from the middle of the pile and sat me down on a dry spot of the kitchen floor and said, “Stay there till I get you some dry socks” Groaning deeply She took hold of the kitchen chair and pulled herself up off her knees to stand there for a minute or two. I noticed something wasn’t quite right. She clasped her Belly and rubbed the top of it and started saying quietly, “Not now baby, not now” She bit at her bottom lip and I could tell she was holding her breath.  My mother was very much pregnant. My Sister still standing there with her face covered, bunched her eye brows together, while looking intently at her, she said “OK, Mommy”. Brother Dale was standing behind her and said “Not you silly, Mom’s talking to the new baby”. I chuckled  and Mom glanced at me with a wisp of a quick smile and said, “Come on kids let’s get dry and warm.”

    Donita and Dale finished taking their winter coats and boots off as Mom took my hand and pulled me off into the front room to put some dry socks on me. “there!” “feel Better?” she asked while she poked at the bottom of my feet. It tickled and I laughed.  She reached up above the back of the couch and parted the curtain just behind it and looked outside. She looked with a longing in her face I’d never seen before. She then said. “I hope your Father gets home soon.” Dad was late getting home from work. He worked nights and He was always home before we even made it to the kitchen table for breakfast. But today was different. Mom said the Snow outside had slowed Dad down. You could tell she was anxious about that and something else was in the air. Something we would all experience and never forget.

    Mom got up and went over to the fuel oil stove and lifted the lid on the fill tank and just looked up and said “Ugh!” Dale and Sissy had run off to the back room and also had started an argument over who was going to use the port-a- potty first. We had no running water in this home and actually there was no Electricity. We didn’t know about these things and we didn’t really care. It was the way we lived. Mom yelled at them and told them to stop or she was going to make them do chores. They got quiet immediately.

    I sat there on the couch watching her intently and life as it was unfolding in front of me. She grabbed one of dads old work coats and wrapped her shoulders with it. She pushed her feet into some rubber boots and picked up an empty fuel can and said. “I’ll be right Back…” She opened the back door and some snow fell into the kitchen as she stepped out into the now total whiteness that was outside. I got up and ran to the back door as she pulled it shut behind her. I jumped up a couple times at the back door window to try and see where she had gone. I had an Idea where she was and I pulled a chair over and climbed up and looked out. There she was standing there in the blowing snow next to the fuel oil tank that stood beside the shed. Her long black hair was blowing every which way about her face from the biting and stinging cold wind that I remembered from that morning. The snow was falling so heavily it was hard to see her clearly. As she stood there waiting for the fuel to fill the can I could see her trying to keep her hair from her face with one hand and the other hand awkwardly attempting and failing at holding dads coat together over her large belly. I looked down at the snow where she had just walked and her foot prints were almost covered. The ice on the inside of the door window was thickening up as well.  I licked at the inviting thick ice on the window and I remember it was so cold on my tongue. The taste of frozen ice on glass is a taste that stays with you for ever. It’s like one of those bits of information your mind holds as a key memory to unlock others. I then heard Mom in a muffled way saying, “Move away from the door Honey….Please Mommy wants in!”  I had been licking the ice and had not noticed her there. I jumped down and pulled at the door handle. The door and the chair pushed in together as the wind howled and Mom and snow blew into the kitchen. “My god she exclaimed!” she turned and slammed the door shut. She went straight to the task of filling the Stove with the fuel that would keep us warm for the day. After that she reached behind the stove and turned up the burner a bit and walked over to the front door as she hung up dads coat on the wall just over our the wet cloths that we had left there. She rubbed her forehead of the wet snow now melting upon her face and took her bottom lip and caught the droplets of moisture that melted just above her lip.

“Come on Ed” ….she said under her Breath. Wiping both hands with her face she then pulled her hair back and said “Getting hungry for some lunch?” She turned away and walked into the kitchen.  The rest of the late morning was a blur until Mom sat us down for lunch. She had made tomato soup and grilled cheese on homemade skillet bread.

Enjoying my meal we all sat there in a tentative quiet. Dad was not home yet. While there with us she kept one eye on the kitchen window and fed my little brother Jerry some oat meal she had made him. He wasn’t old enough to eat anything on his own yet. My Mother had Jim, Dale, Donita, me and Jerry to care for besides being pregnant. The winter outside seemed like it had settled in for the day. I don’t remember it ever stopping at all not even for a moment.

“OH MY GOD!” Mom said loudly. “Your Dads Home” she said, standing and turning towards the kitchen window. We all jumped up and ran to the front door where we could see Dad coming down the drive towards the house. That was sort of strange. Where’s dads car? Oh well I thought, I was just glad to see him. Bent against the wind Dad stumbled a bit in the deep snow as he made his way across the front yard and to the front door. Mom said get away from the door guys let your Father in. Dad came in shaking and shivering and stomping his feet knocking the packed snow from his feet. Mom grabbed his rugged red face and kissed him and said “you OK Honey?” Dad said “I’m fine sweetheart. Snapping his hat against his knee he turned to look Mom straight into her face again. With a cautious tone to her voice mom said, “Where’s the car?” Dad gasping a bit while he kicked off his boots said, “I slid off the road down in front of Pipes house. I had to walk here. I heard on the radio we are in a blizzard. But we’ll be ok.” Mom’s eyes welled up with tears and she walked off to their room.

    Pipes house was about three miles away from ours. We lived in a small four room house at the end of a dead end road. Two miles from the main road and only one other

Family lived on our road. But their home was on the corner of our road and the main road. There was another home but it was empty at that time. Shaking his head my father said, “What now woman?” we all looked at him like wondering pups and he told us to sit back down and finish our lunches. Jerry Joe was still sitting in his high chair playing in the oatmeal he had spit back out onto the tray.  We sat there and ate our lunch and didn’t say a word to each other. We heard Mom and dad having a conversation but could not understand what was going on. Dad burst back into the living room and hurriedly put his coat and boots back on. All we heard him say was “Jesus Christ!” Jesus Christ!”
Out the door he went still saying “Jesus Christ!” We knew Jesus wasn’t there but maybe Dad was going off to find him I thought. The front door blew open and the snow blew in as Dad disappeared out of sight. My big brother Jim caught the door and closed it just as I heard my Mother call out for my sister Donita to come to the bedroom. I looked at my Brother Dale and he shrugged his shoulders at me and asked me if I was going to eat my cheese. Just then a dollop of oatmeal smacked Dales face. We had let Jerry Joe try to feed himself. Mom was right…..he wasn’t old enough yet.

I'll write more later.....

"A Bird in the Bush" a short story from my new Book , "A Piece of My Mind"

yay I call it done cept for some editing haha

A Bird in the Bush

 

       It was a wonderful birthday gift for sure. A brand new Daisy, single spring action, 1873 Winchester replica, a want of millions of young boy’s. It looked just like the gun Chuck Conners used in his TV show, The Rifleman. I knew that when I carried this out onto the barn yard all my friends and brothers would look on in envy.

    I could not figure out what I had done to deserve this most wonderful prize. My Mom always said, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” I think that was the first time I understood that old expression.  Now I could go out and shoot at bottles and cans and perfect my aim and become the finest shot in the mid west.

    Getting up from the table, my mother, wringing her hands, looked at me and smiled a strange sad smile. She turned and walked away into the kitchen.  My father looked at me with a great big smile on his face. This was something he had wanted for me too. I could see it in his eyes and in his smile as he shook my hand and said, “I guess congratulations are in order.”

    I think he felt it was like a right of passage for a young boy to a young man. Funny, I still felt like a boy. I was all of a fresh 10 years old. He gave me another wrapped gift and I opened it quickly, this birthday could not have gotten any better. My older brothers looked on at me. I knew they would argue later as to who would try my new  B-B gun first.

“Wow!” “Thanks Mom, thanks Dad,” It was a package of targets and four tubes of B-B’s for my new rifle. I was so overwhelmed. My father looked at me and said,

“Now you take this and practice and practice hard and then you can join your Brother Dale and help kill sparrows and rats down at the barn.”

I heard what he had said but I had not truly listened. Because I did not realize how much the word “kill” and this B-B gun would change my life that year. The summer months blew by.  I took my B-B gun everywhere, I shot up bottles and cans and I had become the envy of my friends. They all wanted to shoot my gun. It was a wonderful summer but before I knew it the harvest months were upon us.

    After dinner that fall evening I came in from taking the trash out to the burn barrel. That was one of my chores.  I wasn’t to burn it but just take it out to the barrel. I wasn’t old enough to manage a fire yet.  My father sitting at the table in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee, looked up at me and said, “You ready to show me how good of a shot you are?”  Excited, I said, “Ya, Let me go get my targets. I began to run off when he stopped me and said that’s not what he had meant. He told me that starting that weekend a few of the farms in the area would be paying for dead pests. The bounty was, fifteen cents a sparrow and ten cents a mouse and a whopping fifty cents a rat.  Mom was standing behind him drying one of the super pans and was putting it away in the cabinet. Throwing the dish towel over her shoulder she looked at my father with a squinted frown upon her face and then looked at me and winked and went about her evening. She patted my arm softly as she passed by me and went into the living room. I stared at her so intently trying to figure out what was going on.

“You know you can start helping out around here more and you could use the extra money for school.” he said. I snapped back to pay attention to him and what he was saying.

“Yes Sir” I replied. He chuckled a little and took his cigarette box out of his shirt pocket and started snapping it in his palm. He took one out of the pack and put it in his mouth and lit it with his lighter. Snapping the lighter lid shut, he tossed the shinny silver lighter at me.

    We were never to touch his lighter.  I used to put my nose on the edge of the table close to it when he would leave it lay there. I always loved the smell of the metal and the lighter fluid. It smelled like Dad.

    I fumbled a bit but caught it. Why was he giving it to me?  I looked at him with a big question on my face.  He said, “Go ahead use it to start the trash barrel on fire. You’re old enough to take on that chore.” “You know what to do don’t  ya?” he asked.

“Yes sir, I’ll bring it right back to you Dad.” I said.  I kind of just stood there dumb founded looking at the shiny metal lighter now in my hand. When I heard him say, “Go on, get it lit, it’s getting late and I don’t want you out there to long after dark.” Part of that chore was to stand there and watch the fire till it burned down so if there were any hot ash that flew out you could put it out. It is a very grown up and responsible chore.       
    Standing there that night watching the fire, I held the cool metal lighter to my lips. Enjoying the smell and thinking of the weekend ahead.  I looked long into the flame and wondered how the next couple of days were going to go for me. I had never actually killed anything before, unless you count ants, worms and a couple snakes. I hate snakes. Oh, and stink bugs and the occasional Grand Daddy long legs. The killing of a bird a mouse or a rat is different.  It couldn’t be that bad could it? Ya, I can do it, nothing to it right? If Dale can do it I can do it…I had mixed feelings about this and didn’t want to think about it anymore.

    The fire was burning down so I took the big stir pole and stirred the fire like I’d seen Jim and Dale do. The ashes settled a bit and a large puff of red ashes gushed upward out of the barrel. It felt like the imagined hot breath of a dragon. I jumped back and watched the red sparks fill the air and whirl around popping and a snapping. With a few more pops and snaps they were all gone. Then my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see out across the dried yellow weeds that now filled Mom's garden. There, just on the other side stood a large Mulberry tree. The coming fall had now bared its limbs like a thousand skeletal  fingers, dimly lit by the half moon sky. I could also see the smoke from the burnt trash as it hung eerily above the valley like a blue gray ghost. It seemed to wonder off  and taper down to nothing into the darkness of the wooded creek beyond. The smell of  the smoke filled the night air. the late Indian summer crickets were chirping and other bugs were rattling. I could hear a cow bellow from a distance. I felt my body shiver a bit from the nip of  fall as the warmth from the fire waned.   Out there in the blue cold starlit darkness, the night was alive.

    My father called out to me, bringing me back “It’s time to come in John, I need my lighter son.” I propped the stir pole up against the gate next to the trash barrel and ran back towards the porch I could see my father standing there silhouetted against the light from the kitchen that fell through the back porch door. My Dad was a tall rugged country man and I respected him very much. He was my very own renaissance man, my hero and my father rolled up into one. I wanted to grow up and be so like him. “Thanks son, he said, as I handed him his lighter.  “Now wash up it’s almost bed time.” He bent over towards me and I kissed his cheek and I said goodnight.  He exclaimed, “You smell like smoke boy!” Scruffily he messed with my hair. His work hewn hand felt so large upon my head. He then said, “Go on, it’ll be tomorrow before you know it.”

    I walked through the house and looked back through the dinning room window just as I saw his face appear in the dark. Glowing from the fire of his lighter, I could see his contrasted heavy brow and his dark eyes glint from the red yellow glow.  He lit his cigarette and with the quick metal click sound he faded back into the night.

    Still with the lingering smell of his lighter upon my upper lip, I thought to myself, I love him so much I never ever wanted to let him down. 

My father was one that rarely ever said I love you either. It was sort of like it never had to be said but you just knew that he did. I fell asleep that night comforted by this. Even still with a bit in trepidation.  I could feel the weather of my life was changing.

    Most of Saturday came and went uneventfully. Whew!,  I had worried half that day,  my Brother Dale had been gone all day so it was a good excuse to use, for not being able to hunt and kill  with my B-B gun.  Well, that's what a ten year old mind was deducing until dad got home. Man, was I wrong. I thought Dad was going to pop a cork. Not only was he upset with me but with Dale for being gone all day. I really think he expected a gunny sack full of dead bounty.
    Dad said, "You don't need Dale to kill Birds!" So I ran and got my gun and a tube of B-B's and lit out for the barn. That late evening I tried and tried to shoot a sparrow and or find a mouse or a rat to bring back home and save face. It was as if someone had told them there was a danger lurking out there and they all scattered and hid away. I was so afraid of coming back empty handed. It was getting late the evening sun had just gone down and the light of day was dimming. My Dad's Brother, Uncle Mike and his new wife had dropped by to visit that evening. The light from kitchen window revealed them all sitting at the table laughing and enjoying each others company.
I had finally caught site of a few sparrows. I was determined and in luck for they had not found the right place to roost for the evening. I came around the back porch as I saw the birds fly between the house and the smoke house. So I played the stealth hunter and went the long way around the smoke house. I creepd up the north side of it and settled myself against the corner. There next to the drive way stood a huge Lilac Bush The Sparrows had stopped there to roost for the evening. Back dropped by the dimming western light of the horizon I could make out a clear shot of one of the sparrows. I slowly brought my gun up and pointed it at the unsuspecting little bird. I took my time and aimed my gun. My trigger finger was now shacking. I could hear my inner voice in a loud whisper say, "Take the shot!...Take the shot!"  Suddenly I saw the Sparrow flutter and the other birds scattered into the darkness and I saw the unfortunate one tumble to the ground. My heart Pounded with excitement, "I got one!...I got One!!! My inner voice shouted out. I ran over and looked down upon the  bird. What I saw next changed my life.
    I saw the bird lying there it's beak moving as if trying to chirp or breath and I could see it's feet moving back and forth slowly as if to be running and the the bird fell lifeless. My mind swirled with a tornado mixture of emotions. My heart began to feel so very heavy. I had taken the life... of a bird while he slept. He didn't have a chance because of me. I began to hate what I had done. I picked him up so gently. his little head fell back and off the edge of my hand. I pulled at his wings a bit hoping he would some how revive and breath again. I began to cry. Big tears filled my eyes. Standing there in the light from the kitchen. I almost felt like a spot light had shown down upon me, because what I had done. I walked towards the window. I could see Mom, Dad, and my uncle sitting there laughing and talking about what ever adults talk about. I knocked on the window and held up the dead bird. My Mother turned and could see me crying and the dead bird. With a blank look on her face, She reached over and pulled down the blind. I felt totally lost just then and put the bird in my gunny sack. and wondered off to the front porch and sat there. I cried for a while and thought about what had just happened. This was a turning point in my young life. It was one of those moments you'd like to forget but actually shapes and molds you into the person you grow up to be.
    It was about an hour later and My uncle and his wife had left. The dust from the gravel road that had been stirred up from their car,  still lingered over the field just behind our mail box. A cool evening breeze touched my neck and I shivered a bit.  Then came the sound of the back porch screen door squeaking open. I just knew it was my Father. He  called out for me from the back porch. I just sat there with no answer to his call. I heard him call out to me one more time and I then heard his unmistakable walk coming up towards the front porch. He saw me there huddled up on the front steps.  He came over and sat down beside me. Sitting there quietly for a few moments he then spoke up and said. "The First time always Hurts son." Big tears refilled my eyes once more and there was an even longer Silence. Then he said,  "I Love you John no matter what. There is nothing you'll ever do that will ever make me not love you."
    He put his big arm around me and pulled me close to him and we just sat there for a little while longer. I know Mom must had told him that I cried and I felt like I had let him down. But then He said. "Fifteen cents won't buy much for school  so how about you clean out the horse shed and I'll pay you?"  In the awkward stillness that followed,  I could tell he understood me. Timidly, I said OK, warmed by his big arm and the words he'd spoke, he squeezed me again with a hug and we sat there in silence watching the evening stars fill the sky.

Music to bring back late summer 1966

In the Hay loft

The Barn

   
                                                                                 

Boy, this old picture tugs upon my heart and stirs my memories like a warm bowl of soup. Can't you just smell that dried clover and wheat straw?  You could almost taste the thick humid morning air. My mind spins and reels from the memories of the tunnels and secret passage ways we created with in the bails of hay.  Oh, the adventures we had...even my first stolen kiss, confessions and secrets never to be told. My life explored was reborn in a hay loft just like this one. If the old barn wood could speak it would echo our thoughts, the laughter and the tears it captured years ago within its weathered grain. Just imagine the things the hayloft keeps. Not just bails of hay or straw but the young lives spent there or the swearing in of the childish alliance "cross your heart and hope to die", kind of stuff.  I have to laugh now because it was a promissory seldom broken till it proved necessary to save ones own behind.
    It is amazing to think of the life that this building witnessed and supported.  From the sparrows that nested every year in the high corners and trusses and the barn swallows that would gather under its eaves. Including the mice, that one could probably count into the thousands.  Oh and don't forget the ground hog family that had a burrow just under the north corner stone near the corn crib.
    I can remember lying upon the loose chat that covered the floor like a thick soft mattress. Nestled back looking up at the shafts of sun light that broke through the slats of the barn siding. Just like search lights of the night they illuminated the loft softly and sparkled from the dust with in them. The sparrows chirped and spoke quickly to their young. I almost believed I could understand there urging. "Fly, Fly, Fly" and the little ones would flutter from beam to beam.  I noticed one of the scraggly gaunt barn cats hiding in the shadows that had been waiting with hungry eyes.  Watching and waiting for one of the young birds to fail in its attempt...............I slowly reached behind myself and pulled out my inner tube gun from my coveralls and pulled one of the big black rubber bands tight over the trigger. The Cat had not taken his gaze off the sparrows. I noticed a few pigeons had landed on the edge wood of the bay door and were cooing and pertting, heads a bobbing, as if to say, “is it safe? Is it safe?”
    I took aim at the cat and let loose the black ammo. With a throng sound my large rubber band flew and then smacked the barn wall with a thud and the cat jumped like he'd been shot out of a cannon and vanished like the magicians they are. The pigeons popped into the air instantaneously with their wings making that rushing weeping noise with feathers flying.  Then out of the darkness from the peak of the roof came a huge screech owl, swooping down into the light, towards the bay door.  Wafting the warm mid morning barn air with his huge wings just over my head he flew. My heart pounded with excitement, I jumped up and watched him wing his way and disappear into the big walnut tree just across the pasture. That entire ruckus wrapped up in just a moment. Life’s sudden dramatic chain of events was only broken by my labored breath.  I stepped forward into the sun light that haloed the bay door and felt its warmth and wondered to myself about what other adventures this magic place would bring. With a shiver through my shoulders and down my back, my real life daydream was broken and came to an end.  I stood there looking at my spent gun and where the owl had flown... wow that was fun. I looked back up into the sunbeams and they sparkled even more fervently from the dust just stirred.
    A familiar ring filled my ears, I heard my Mother banging on the wash pail that hung next to the back porch screen door, 1965 technology at it's finest.  In those days we always kept one ear bent towards home.  Sometimes I would use my imagination and become the famed Marlin Perkins, the MC of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I can hear him now...
"Lookout Jim, that jungle jaguar does not look happy."
"While we continue searching for the ever elusive flightless, three legged, Red throat Congo bird, you can hear the drums of Borneo calling the tribesmen together."
Gosh it was fun to be a kid...
Back to my Mother, What an amazing woman, she had to do this almost daily because right after breakfast we would all scatter like Dandelion seeds to the wind.
"Jim... Dale Lee... John... Jerry Joe... Cathy!  Donita !!!"
" it's time for Lunch!" she'd call out.
You'd think with as many brothers and sisters, my mother would have just said,
" Hey, You all get your butts here now!"
My Mom was great though, she said, if she didn't call us all by name then she wouldn't know who to expect.

But if she called us individually and by our given name, trouble was a brewing.

"John! Charles! Blackford! She would snap the last syllable of each word and with a quip of authority. Her tongue could be like the crack of a bull whip, and our behinds suddenly grew a brain and could remember that very hot sting as our legs would begin to quiver. Because we all knew the business end of Mom's big wooden spoon all to well. Besides the fact after being re educated, by her first, she would always say, "wait till your Father gets home..."  Mom never liked the word punished.   That's another story in and of it self.

So, My how time can just fly, I had to sneak out of the barn because we weren't allowed in it while Dad was away... yes, I lived dangerously........I wonder what ever happened to Jim and that jaguar?

10 great Music hits to bring back the summer of 1965

                           
this was my favorite song of the day in 1965

                           

Just something that came to mind today.

The old Steel Bridge 

Just a memory...

                          
I miss days like this…

 

    It was a late summer afternoon. I can remember walking down that gravel road back to my home. I had been fishing down at the old steel bridge that day. I had just stopped at the artesian well on Old man Evan East, property.  Ignoring the “No Trespassing Sign” and the fact that we all knew “old man East” would sometimes come busting out of his front door waving his shot gun, yelling, “You good for nothins” even firing a round or two just over our heads to scare us off his property. Knowingly with a bit of respect and an ounce of adolescent fear, I still drank my fill of the deep wells ice cold water. All the while, with one eye on my escape route and one on Mr. East’s house, just down the road.  I brushed the sweat from my forehead and then squeezed back through the falling down wooden gate there at the corner and made my way towards home. 

    The willows that lined the gentle bend of the creek that also followed the road, rustled in the warm Indiana afternoon breeze and their limbs brushed along the road side, like a broom dusting my path as I walked. I looked down as my feet shuffled through the gravel, my eyes always looking for that fossil or amazing stone to add to my collection.
    My life and my mind were simple then.

    I was a lucky boy living outside the city life. The country side is filled with so many different things to excite young senses. From the trees came the vibrating rhythmic beat of the invisible cicada’s song. It would rise and fall as it filled my ears. The flying grasshoppers chirped and rattled about in the tall grasses and wild Jasmine that also grew there. The smell of fresh cut hay laid slightly upon the early evening, as well the aroma of the corn fields that had been heated by the day.

     I remember as if it were yesterday. I kicked the rocks as I walked along, I can still taste the gravel dust.  I stopped and turned to look up and watch a red winged black bird as it cawed, while flying above the corn rows in the field next to me.  Then I turned back to continue upon my way. To my surprise, I looked straight up into the dark hazel eyes of this huge white tail deer. Looking into the wide frozen gaze of this massive animal scared me ... I froze and he froze. It was as if time stood still. I believe I could even feel his heart beat while I felt my heart rise into my throat, my chest tightened I couldn't breathe or even break the riveted stare. I can remember that feeling of rigid fright. Then I saw the deer’s nose twitch…he snorted and with a grunt he jumped an unbelievable distance across the road and over the small ditch and the broken wire fence next to the corn field. He disappeared into the thousand corn leaves. Like an actor at the end of a play, he took a final bow and in a wisp, as if the curtain briefly parted, he disappeared behind it. The road fell silent as if he’d never been there. Still in a bit of a daze, I shook my head, I realized I was sitting in the middle of the road … I grabbed my cane pole and my spilled coffee can of worms. Jumping up I ran the rest of the way home. Excited to share a new a tale, one of many that filled my evenings and those funny shared stories at the super table. Including a special place in my thoughts forever.

It's just one of those moments one never forgets.

hear are 10 of the top hits of the summer of 1964...Enjoy







                           

I'm stuck in Dragon mode hahaha "A dragon Bus Stop"

The Dragon Bus Stop

I drew these today while waiting for my wife at a class she had today.

These were a bunch of fun to do I actually caught the characters in my mind as I watched real people sitting on the bus bench outside the school.

 

"MY PET DRAGON" New concept for Halloween 2011

Hi everyone,

     I've started on the development of our new Halloween display for this year. I felt it was time to change. We always have had the Haunted Mine Shaft. (called the Ghoul Mine) It has been a lot of fun to build for the past 5 years  and it has been a pure joy to hear the squeals and laughter it brings to the neighborhood and the kids. We had close to 500 trick or treaters' last year.  I felt it was time to re-group and create something new, different and exciting. So, I dreamed this up...Let me set the scene for you so you can better understand the concept and where this is going.

 Dragon Head Design I plan to immulate, except for a much longer neck. Courtsey of:

"The Beast" by Cynthia Elizabeth Oakley 

Well known over at www.elfwood.com for her dragon sculptures.   

    First There will be a faux ancient wooden entry with what looks like a massive dungeon door that you have to open to enter with a 10 foot high wall that covers the entire width of my garage with an exit door at the end of that wall.(This entrance will cover my front door where the kids will get their candy) But after you enter and receive your treat there is only one way to leave and it is through the darkened tunnel that goes in front of my garage. So, you walk down the path in front of my garage to the exit at the other end. But before you reach the exit door you will be met with jets of steam and warm air and the guttural sound of a giant lizard beast of which will draw your attention just to your left. There you will notice the concrete floor heaved upwards as if broken through and a huge object coming through it and laying there just a few feet away (Under lit with a red fiery glow as if coming from deep within the violent lava pools of the earths depths.) Then you will see some deep yellowish- red eyes open and look straight at you. With a rumbling growl to a a low roar the object rises and silhouetted against a darkened back drop the black lights will catch the sparkle of its scales...as it shakes it's massive neck, awakening to your presence. Just as you realize you are staring down a DRAGON....he will ROAR a roar that will rumble through you. Tilting his head back and opening his giant maw, widening it to bare is fangs and razor sharp teeth, he will swing his massive head to and fro spewing smoke upon you and your friends as you are hit with another blast of hot air.

 

    Thankfully you will notice that I have him chained to the broken concrete blocks from the floor so then you can leave in peace knowing that at least for the moment you made it out safe.....Till you meet the Troll guard on the other side of the exit door "Muahhhahahahahahahahahahaha" Fun huh?

    This is the experience I want to give the kids and all who enter this year. So far, I have built the base and installed the electrical Foot push buttons for the sound, fog, steam jets, dragon eyes and dragons breath. The entire show can be operated by the one puppeteer (me). The viewing area of this show is the entire width of my garage

(24 feet wide) and the field of depth is about 18 feet deep.  The dragons head will be a wire mesh covering a wire armature and frame work.  Then covered with latex and paper machete. The neck of the dragon is a ten inch in diameter by 8 foot long , black plastic covered flex pipe. ( normally used for heating and air duct work) it will have glitter scales glued to it. The broken concrete floor sections are large Styrofoam  blocks, a friend of mine in the stucco business gave me. I have fake flame lights and all the other lighting effects and a couple of skeletons and latex body parts  to toss around in the scene. I am currently putting together the PVC piping that will deliver the simulated steam jets and the volcanic smoke and hot air. (this is going to be so cool)
the entire cost of this project so far has been zero. I have most everything I need to build the Dragon and the puppet control chair. The only purchase may be some spray paint and the Black see through scrim curtain that will hang floor to ceiling across my garage. The curtain  puts me in the black and hides me and the controls behind the Dragon and the viewable stage area. Even though the scrim curtain is see through, when lighted from the viewers side the viewer can not see through to the other side. It works like a two way mirror.
    Well, Now that I've started this, I will post updates and hopefully if all goes well I will post a video debuting My dragon in all his glory just before Halloween. I would also love to have video or even live streaming video the night of Halloween so you all can enjoy it too as you see the kids and adults alike scream with enjoyment.  It will be a labor of love to complete. I will be updating this post this year as I continue onward with this project. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I am. and if you all have any suggestions as I'm going along please let me know.

"My Pet Dragon" Sound effect

click my arrow first to set the mood...

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

Hear are the sound tracks I'm using to produce the sound track for the "My pet dragon"  If you wanna hear what it will sound like please press the forward arrow button on the first two sound tracks then you can play around  with the other tracks creating your own complete sound track ....I think this is neat that the computer allows you to play all the sounds at once or in conjunction with.
Just imagine,  Dolby surround sound  through the computer for that perfect  digital  sound.  Pumped up and delivered to your ears by way of my 150 amp Sony Dolby surround system so it will actually vibrate you and make your skin shiver with anticipation.......... 

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

Get sound effects & royalty free music at AudioMicro.

 More To Come...!!!

Here are a couple color pages I created for a local Resturant Chain.

                                                                                   More to come...................