Floating Spherical Cats of Virginia

The beginning of High Summer in the foothills of the Shenandoah in Virginia is, as always, signaled by the arrival of the giant floating spherical cats. These creatures, which feed on mist, air, and emanations from fields and vineyards, seem threatening, but are actually harmless. They have been known to settle in meadows to bask in the sun. Residents often try to shoot at them, but nothing has ever harmed them, which suggests that these may be multi-dimensional in nature. After the autumn grape harvest, the cats float away and disappear, escaping to some unknown place where it is warm, to return the following June.

Inspired by this picture on "Cute Overload." Photoshop, a couple of hours, June 30, 2010.

Threads of Light

I still think blue and red are the best colors for space paintings, given that the real colors aren't visible to our human eyes. Add a line of pink clouds and you have instant spaceability. I used more blotter paper work on the red stuff, plus brushwork. Illuminating gas is always an astronomical image enhancer.

My work on Bizmac has been hampered by a bad cold which developed into bronchitis and has cost me days of work. I haven't been Productive and it bothers me. I am a good red-pink-and-blue American and believe that Productivity is the most important thing to have. Meanwhile I stare at dazzling work by 21-year-old Chinese illustrators and realize how far away my goal of being an Illustrator is.

"Threads of Light" is the usual, October 1991.

Unreal City

This is the first Photoshop sketch I have done on the new iMac. All these little color fragments are produced in Photoshop's "scatter" mode which the previous computer hesitated on. Bizmac powers right through it. When I think of how much calculating work it takes to make this type of thing, I am awed and amazed. The clouds were done with "pre-set" shape makers, too. But I added the lightning bolt by hand. We could use a bit of that right now here in well-heated Midatlantica. The air conditioning goes all night long these days. The computer is also hot if you touch the top of it. I love the look and feel of brushed aluminum which is what the iMac's case is made of. I hope my creative output is worthy of this 21st century marvel.

"Unreal City," Photoshop, 10" x 7", June 27, 2010.

Welcome, Bizmac

Let's give a hearty welcome to my latest studio computer, a brand new iMac! This beauty is a 2.8 gigaherz quad-core intel core i7, with a 27" diagonal screen and 8 gigabytes of RAM, expandable to 16. Equipped with 1 terabyte hard drive. Its name is "Bizmac," after the 1956 computer made by RCA. You also see my geometric abstraction titled "Bizmac" on the screen. A Wacom graphics tablet is visible in front of Bizmac.

Both Internet browsing and all my graphics work just dandy on this system, so I now must get creative and make it worthy of my expenditures.

Meanwhile, I seem to have to pick off Chinese and Indian spams from my comment list here every day. I wish that someone more clever than I would help Blogger combat this insidious infestation.

Sapphire in Gold

As 1991 went on I used more unusual colors and textures in my space abstractions. This one features a yellow-orange nebula and textures created by pressing paint-loaded paper towels onto the surface. Then the bright blue star (which may have given off the nebula during a nova explosion) was added on by airbrush and some more brushwork.

I will probably be buying a new computer today. I feel a mixture of sorrow with some happy expectation. I have had "Macarios," my current iMac, for about 3 1/4 years. Macarios has had a number of problems over those years, probably caused by me somehow because with a Mac it's always the user's fault. Macarios got the vapors when asked to do too much work, just the way I do. But with the current OS update forced upon it, and working with the overwrought Adobe/Photoshop CS4, Macarios' performance was just too erratic for me to continue using him as my main computer.

I feel bad about this. Computers are like people, but they grow old far faster than we do. They are our helpers and sometimes our antagonists. I can't help but personify this machine. He has tried his best to do what I asked of him, and now I'm dismissing him from my service. How would you feel if this happened to you? I only hope that I can find another home for him, with a cash-poor student who will be glad to have 2007's best computer for her schoolwork.

"Sapphire in Gold" is the usual, October 1991.

Summer Fireworks at the Snack Shop

Enchanted night lights of Summer, fireworks and fireflies, illuminate the board for Mena's snack shop for the next two weeks. The macaroni salad is about a half a cup's worth, and it's really good.

Chalk markers on board, about 30" x 20".

Unquiet Sun

The Sun is not a serene place. It is constantly erupting with explosions of flame and charged particles. Great loops of fiery gas, constrained by magnetic fields, rise above the star's surface and then fall back into the burning abyss. The Sun shoots blasts of particles out from its surface called "coronal mass ejections," some of which reach Earth and wreck our electronic communications. Maybe one of these days the Sun will emit a flare so powerful that it will short out all our telecommunications and return us to the days of handwritten letters on paper sent by postal mail. Then you will receive "Art By-Products" in a manila envelope, if color copiers still work.

I am thinking about this because due to a massive download of so-called operating system updates, my iMac hardly functions any more. Most of my familiar websites are inaccessible and Photoshop runs slowly and haltingly. Fortunately, I was able to get Photoshop working enough to prepare this picture for presentation, and "Art By-Products" was accessible. I am probably going to get a new computer, and put my 2007 model out to pasture. Yes, that is extravagant, but actually the current machine had not been performing well for quite a while, for whatever reason. If there is an interruption in By-Products, the reason will be "migration" to a newer computer.

"Unquiet Sun" is acrylic on illustration board, 7" x 10", October 1991.