Stephen paints...

Acrylic on a nicely sanded ply board. I used materials at hand. I kinda hate the red right now. I'll paint over it when I get a free moment. I may paint over the whole thing instead. I had fun painting that afternoon, but I am over it now.
Not a finer moment for my portfolio, but we internet people document all the crap of our age too, don't we? Who really thinks posterity will have time to look at us? Will the hard drives even last that long? Will the painting on ply board last longer than the digital record of the painting? Does it matter? Chew on that, Kurt Schwitters.
I am listening to the Ramsey Lewis album as I type this. Very tropical. I could use a beach and a cold mojito right about now.

T. .'s Room is getting a wall mural...

You might wonder what exactly T. . is. It is the name of my old boss' new baby. More specifically, that is what her name looks like when it is typed on my laptop that does not have a functional " " Key. To locate the missing letter all you need to do is look between the H and the K keys in front of you. Got it yet? Coffee and keyboards don't mix. That is no oke.

Anyway, she will be born soon, so I have to get a move on to complete the mural in the next week. I did what is seen in the photos in 3-4 hours of actual painting/drawing time. Before that, we had some beer and pizza while watching some Scrubs and My Name is Earl. Earl was darn funny, I had never seen it before.

The rest of the room was painted by my friends. They really are doing a great ob pulling it all together. Yes, I said they are doing a great ob. Remember: that key doesn't work.

The baby's bed will be centered on the wall underneath my little contribution.

The photos are bad because they came from my phone. For the record, Samsung phones take GREAT pictures. Other phones...not so much.

Congrats to Tony and Genie who will be wonderful parents.

You Cannot Change Your Answers - Banana

This painting was created for my co-worker and friend Patrick. I posed the question along time ago to he and his then roommate, Mike. Patrick quickly answered banana, Mike then immediately answered pink ... and then they realized what their choices sounded like when put together. My original intent was to paint a diptych. But they don't live together anymore. It's a lost opportunity now.

The Banana painting has been painted numerous times because I kept changing my mind on what to do. It has been burned, scraped and sanded. There are bugs pennies and stickers adhered in places.

I used acrylic paints that were left over from college and some flat black paint left over from re-finishing our new kitchen table. The table is not as finished as the painting at the time of this post.

I need to finish that.

The lady in the corner was based on a Ferrante and Teicher album cover. I glued it to the back of the painting for Patrick.

I drew her using a wax pencil. I think that is what they call them. I'm not sure. The stickers over the eyes did not stick very good, even with spry adhesive. I hope they last. The polyurethane smeared the wax pencil making the woman look kind of ghostly. Not intentional, but it was an improvement to me.

I was on Digg, and I dug this design for a WiFi dish/vegetable steamer.
I drilled 2 extra holes slightly off from the existing hole in the center of the steamer. I then clipped the remaining metal with tin snips. I bent the sharp edges back just enough for my usb extender to fit snugly in the opening. I tested my usb adapter first using net stumbler. I could see 4 APs. After adding the dish I could detect 25 APs during a slow 360 degree sweep of the room. A fun and easy little experiment.
The steamer was $6 at IKEA.

I have been painting pink ivy on a yellow wall for days. I am pleased to say it is nearly complete. The letter M in the center of the wall will have some more ivy around it within a week or two. I need a rest after rushing t0 get the bordering ivy complete.Melana needs to get used to sleeping in this bed now. It may take a few days. I hope she acclimates soon, because my wife will be going back to work very soon. 

I finally finished painting Lauren's room. We moved all the furniture back into place. From here on, Lauren gets to put it all together again. I also included a detail of the chair rail. I will be adding a floral version of the Eiffel tower later. It will hang above the bed. I have received orders to paint the baby's room next. Once it is painted, we can resume details for Lauren's room.
 

This is Cheddar. I painted it for Tony Lauro. It is the second painting in the "You Cannot Change Your Answers" series. There is an etched imprint of some Cheddar's Pink Dianthus flowers. I also adhered an embellished laser-printed map of Cheddar, England. Really crappy DPI, so it is grainy. The board is mainly painted in acrylic and a combination wash and drops of india ink.
I did not want to paint another cheese wheel. I have never attempted a floral subject before this. I might not attempt another floral subject after this.
Tony is kind of a man's man. So I got a kick out of painting pink flowers for him.
He likes the painting and will be displaying it in his fantastic new bachelor pad. 

This is Cheese. It is the first in the "You Cannot Change Your Answers" series. I painted it for Aaron Wilson. Acrylic on canvas board. I went to Germany about 11 years ago, and this painting makes me miss the excellent cheeses that my host family kept in their fridge. Thick slices of cheese right off of the wheel, placed on day-old Brotchen. I get hungry looking at this. 

This is my middle daughter's room. It has since been rearranged, but you get the idea. We tuck her in snug as a bug in a rug on a nightly basis. It is my favorite room in the house so far. She already wants me to paint it pink...go figure. 

So...I have resorted to writing in a blog now...
Honestly, I thought this might be a good vehicle for posing some photos of my paintings. I'll try it out for a while and see if I like this.
If I don't like it, then I guess this may be a pretty short run of posts.
My name is Stephen.
I am trying to create a habit of painting and making stuff again. I used to paint and create things, but that was quite some time ago. It is time to get back to some of those activities that made me happier once again.