Fierce Flora

I hadn't been living in NYC that long, and I'd never seen the beautiful Brooklyn promenade, so my friend Juliet gave me the grand tour one night after Etsy Labs.

Gorgeous!

Making our way back to the sketchiness that is the NYC subway system where we'd part ways she gave me some of the best advice for a new New Yorker.

"Listen to your instincts.

If it feels like something isn't right, it isn't."

I don't know how many times I've heard her words echo in my head seconds before I dart away from where my instincts say somethings about to go down.

Like when I crossed the street only to look back and see a mugging and other times, too...

I think living in a city with so many people requires you to turn your instincts up a higher level than other places. Not that you're completely safe anywhere, but in NYC anything can happen any time.

After spending a nice chunk of my life here, I try not to get into situations where self defense might be required, but I've found that tuning into your instincts will serve you well as a first line.

-------------------------------ALSO-------------------------------

Thistles are awesome.

They're beautiful, but are clearly quite capable of tending to their own defense.

Here, have yo self a juicy little history nugget:

In 1540, King James V established the Order of the Thistle. He and his 12 knights wore a badge depicting a star, a thistle and the words "no one harms me without punishment."

Love is a temple

Dr and Mrs A

-married 6 years

-moved 7 (soon to be 8) times

-survived high school

-survived undergrad

-survived medical school

- said "adios!" to 99% of our earthly possessions twice

-survived fast food jobs, night shift jobs, ultra-demanding overtime-all-the-time jobs and life without jobs

-survived living in a foreign country

-survived trying to restore an old as dirt cottage

-Survived living in a teeeeny tiny Caribbean apartment, and an even tinier one in NYC

- survived 1000 pointless fights

- and 100000 odious puns

- has taken hundreds of walks with our pup

Even though....

-He's science... ...and I'm art

-He's digitally generated compositions and I'm folk

- he's video games and I'm crosswords

-because after almost a decade of hanging out together we still both think the other is cool and fun and interesting

-because we have a strong mutually shared belief system

-because when one of us is all "this sucks and I can't stand it" the other is always "it's going to be ok! We'll be fine without any of our stuff/living a million miles from home/ after we bury the dead cat/ completely broke/ with no privacy. We'll get through it."

-Because we know God won't give us more than we can handle.

- Because at this point we're fairly used to living by the skin of our teeth

Because we're awesome

Threepeat

subject: Radar the labrasaurus

breed: labrador and golden retriever, but looks 100% labrador

job: dragging humans around on the end of a leash & cuddling General Beauregard,

hobbies: fetch, fetch, fetch, and FETCH!!!!

habitat: wherever Dr and Mrs A are!

goals: finally getting that thing that's under the fridge & catching that waggily thing just behind him

Lately, I've been having a little luck with prints. It's inspired a whole streak of experimentation with digital alteration.

With an original, what's on the canvas or paper is all she wrote, but when creating prints, you can enhance certain features, alter color tones, or even change hues completely.

drawn again

There are few things in life that make me as happy as my dog does.

There are few things in life that make me as happy as art does.

Lately I'm finding myself dragging in dog tired and sitting down with the sketch book and reworking the same thing over and over again.

There's a freedom in doing something for the tenth time you'll never get the first time. The first version of this piece was a ghosty shell of a dog. One of my biggest artistic hang-ups is the fear of messing things up by doing too much too it. It's a mistake I've made time and time again. Take the same sketch and draw it and redraw again and again and more and more comes out of it. The ghosty version was followed by more intensely colored versions, inked versions, and swirly skies. I don't know about anyone else, but for me it takes a lot of comfort with a piece to be brave enough to start drawing swirls with a pen.

animal magnetism

Immanual Kant said

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

I'm pretty sure Dr A passes the test.

If you want a friend for life get a dog.

For me a house or an apartment becomes a home when you add one set of four legs, a happy tail, and that indescribable measure of love we call a dog. - Roger Caras

Art Hound Hooray

Goodness gracious!

One of my paintings was featured as a pick of the week on Art Hound!

(A couple weeks ago.)

Art Hound is awesome, and henceforth will be found in the List Of Blogs I Actually Read.

A Muir Inspired Doubletake

John Muir quote and the mountains take #1

Keep close to nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

John Muir and the mountains take #2

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

Let's get digital... digital. I wanna get digitaaaal.

Geez, la sha, paint birds much?

Photoshop artwork while Dr. A plays Smash Bros much?

Sell them on your Etsy page much?

Nope. not much... yet.

Blog weirdly in third person perspective much?

nerd.

Dawn at 8:00 pm

Tomorrow night I'm going to see this lady and also, this guy (Elvis Perkins in Dearland) at The Bell House in BK.

For well over two years I'd shake my paint and turn on some Bright Eyes (AKA any band Conor Oberst is in) or maybe some Iron and Wine, then get down to business. After a year Peter, who never really liked it much in the first place was sick of it.

Near the end of the second year, I pretty much was too, but I couldn't find anything else that was the perfect background music for creative contemplation... until we were out driving on a sunny day and Dawn Landes came over the radio doing an interview in her sweetness-drenched voice explaining how the song Little Miss Holiday is about an imagined meeting between a 12 year old Jane Fonda and the 15 year old prostitute she played in Taxi Cab. After we got home I bought her album "Fire Proof" then every other album she's made.

Happily, it wasn't long until I got to see her live at The Mercury Lounge, where she was so genuine and magical (and maybe just a little goofy) that cemented her spot a spot on the short short list of music I love so much, that I could listen to it all the time any time. You know what I mean... songs so precious, you keep actual physical c.d.s of it, just in case your computer crashes and your ipod drowns on the same day. My Bon Iver I could survive without, but not Sweetheart Rodeo.

Now, when the paint starts shaking, Peter knows who's about to start playing.

Post Edit: If you're in NYC, and you need an awesome way to spend this Friday night, why don't you come along? Buy yourself some tickets here, and get thee to The Bell House in Brooklyn.

100 percent chance of rain

I'm so ready for Summer

Sunshine and bright colors

sunburns and bug bites

the whole shuhbang

But tonight it's cold and raining, and I'm painting in a poorly lit little NYC apartment listening to Beatles.

Sun sun sun... here it comes.

I totally wish.

Post edit: By the way, if you're on your way out to Pier 1 to buy a crap crapp crappy piece of crap, please consider going here instead, or really, just annnny where else.

Friday night in the Ackercave

It's 2 AM.

Where are the Ackermen?

Base jumping?

ice cold.

reanimating dinosaurs?

Still extremely cold.

Carousing with celebs in the bustling Manhattan night life?

Sliiiiiightly warmer.

In bed asleep?

warmer! but not quite

On the couch looking at trail maps, reading icanhascheezburger and www.gotquestions.org?

BINGO!

We're awesome.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Gotquestions.org is one of the new sites on my fave list.

It's a good read.

Best when read with your spouse and a labrador.

photofail

I think you misspelled "see"... oh wait I get it.

Once in a while I'll sell a painting, then miss it a ton and try to recreate it.

Usually it doesn't work out and the finished product never sees the light of day, as it gets painted over pronto, but sometimes....

sometimes the second time around is better than the first.

That's definitely the case with one of the newest additions in my Etsy shop: I actually finished this last November for a show, but am only just now getting around to posting it cause I wanted to enjoy it for a while before possibly having to ship it of to a new home.

LOL Last November, when I got to the gallery with all my art, the curator asked me for the names of my pieces.

Names?

You mean "cute-square-painting-of-hands-making-a-heart-shape-in-front-of-the-ocean" doesn't work?

So this is what being put on the spot feels like.

Unfortunately, all I could come up with were weak puns.

Thus the name of this piece is "I'd Love To Sea You Again".

Also in the show was "You Are So Deer To Me"

And the smaller, but much loved "Wire we all just sitting around?"

Fortunately, the names weren't posted on the wall.

Unfortunately, I still can't think of good names for paintings.

The center of the stage is wherever you are.

"The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it is so accidental.

It's so much like life."

-Arthur Miller

I, for one, would love an encore!

Post Edit: We're prancing about here in the Naumberg Bandshell- a gorgeous relic of New York's 1920's opulence. It's hard to believe how widely ignored a place that has hosted everyone from Sousa and Irving Berlin to M.L.K. and John Lennon has become. Central Park is brimming with insanely gorgeous gems that inspire, nay, demand childlike play.

Q & A

Q: Where have I been and why have I not blogged a bit for 2 weeks (or so?)?

A: Working my fanny off and also... AcKeRpAlOoZa

Q: What, pray tell, is Ackerpalooza?

A: It's when the Ackerkids (Dr Peter, Nurse J., and meself) bend time and space to get together for adventures.

Verily, having time off and cash money enough to do stuff is a magical combination.

Q: Will I be recapping the adventures?

A: Absofrigginlutely! Let Ackerpalooza recap part one begin...

You know the party don't start till J walks in! The weather looked a little something like this: on day 1, so after getting settled in we went to Alice in Wonderland. Tim Burton is probably my favorite man in Hollywood, but Mr Depp seems to be slipping.

Day two was still rainy, so it was spent at Spa Castle where absolutely no pictures were taken. Absolutely none! Not one! Because taking pics at the spa is seriously not cool.

Day three was gorgeous, so we pulled out our compasses and other very serious hiking gear, and went exploring... in Central Park.

(By very serious hiking gear, I mean dresses with belts and cardis)