It's the merry end of January

 ...and I'm pleased that this may be the last day I'll be putting brush to painting on a piece I've been working on for around a month. It is an attempt to capture the mood and lighting in my pal Matt Melon's small detached garage workshop in East Nashville, on a cold day when he was working and invited me and my buddy Rocky Alvey over to watch Columbo reruns on his laptop with studio sound hooked up, whiskey's in hand, and cigars lit. My plan is to gift it to him for his great new workshop under construction in Lyles, TN. Here's a panorama pic of that featuring Rocky and Matt: 

I took a photo of Matt at one point that was head-down, mask-on, torch blazing...

And here's the current state of the image I have been working on. I will post the "finished" one after my class today with master Charles Brindley. As Charles says, "the artist paints the seen and the unseen, often to share what contributes to the piece's whole. I know many artists who are literalists, tied to reproducing everything in great detail and accuracy. They are, by and large, the unhappiest people I know. This afternoon I will be adding a very few little details and a blended blue glaze layer that will bring the fire to life, and it will be complete. I'll add it below this version when it's done. Just sharin'...

(added later: the final, signed piece, delivered to the collection of Matt Melon on 012823

Good day on ya.

Why?

 Well, I don't know.

I just know the arrival of each day is the opportunity to discover how one's being at any moment is important. I'm working on a song, a painting, and a...what? There have to be three things, don't there? 

What's the third thing?

The song is this (dashed parts are phrasings I need to remember):

If-I-had a timemachine clock

that ticked while it tocked

I don't think I'd turn back its hands

I many not have had

as much as I want

but believe it's bout all I can stand

Ahhhh, retirement

Stayin' alive 

is the sole requirement

I did my time walkin' the line

and now that it's mine

I play all the time

It's warmed up to freezing

which has me believing

that I may go outside today

I got nothing to do

but write this for you

to sing what I have to say

Although you may not hear it

or come anywhere near it

I'll quietly sing it and play

You-may-not-be around

to hear the sound

but that goddamn tree fell anyway

instrumental break 

Ahhhh, retirement

Stayin' alive 

is the sole requirement

I did my time walkin' the line

and now that it's mine

I play all the time

instrumental break

I will put on my hat

my coat and my gloves

and take my dog out for a walk

it may sound lame 

but just the same

sometimes I wish he could talk

Scheduliberation

the ultimate vacation

I did my time walking those lines

and now that it's mine

I play all the time...

The current painting is of my friend and brother Matt Melon, he of Magic Metal Designs fame, from a photo I took of him working while my friend and brother, Rocky Alvey, and I sat watching Columbo reruns on Matt's laptop, smoking cigars, and drinking bourbon in his makeshift workshop in East Nashville on a  cold November day. Matt is welding and well, I guess I just love the photo image and wanted it to be (more or less) immortalized in acrylics on canvas, as if my painting it would do that. When I finish it I want it to live on the wall of the big shop he's building outside of Lyles, TN. I'm still working on it:

The third thing is you. I don't thank you enough. I don't tell you I love you enough. I need to work harder to do both of those things. Thank you. I love you. If I didn't have a mental image of you I would not be able to do this. I do. Maybe I should paint that. Maybe it's too vast to reproduce, or maybe too miniscule.

Happy 2023!

 Happy New Year, y'all!

We had a fun get together yesterday, the last day of 2022, at our home in The Nations Nashville. I didn't take any pics because I was properly dedicated to enjoying the moment and the unique group of people we had in the rooms. After record low temperatures and snow, and rain, and wind, the weather took mercy on us and we had temps in the 60s, allowing me to open both front and back doors wide. The drop-in party was cleverly scheduled for 1pm to 5, and the 30 or 40 friends, family, and neighbors amiably killed a case+ of beer, 2 magnums and 4 bottles of Segura Viudas Brut, an affordable but delicious bubbly which is a staple of our home bar, along with 3 bottles of red wine and maybe 5 of white. We had sent out a Paperless Post invite only a week before, figuring if only a handful of folks showed up it would all be good. Turnout was impressive.

It all went swimmingly well and I am thankful for everyone who showed up. I wish all of them a happy 2023, along with all of you, which I am well aware is just another handful, but clearly one with discerning reading tastes.

This morning we started out the year with a bottle gifted by a guest, and sadly I have no idea which one or which couple brought this for us. Going from a packed fridge to a nearly empty one, save for 6 new and diverse bottles of bubbly, we figured that before Lee Ann had to go into work to oversee a store deep-cleaning by a new service, we'd better get started. We opened the Prosecco, which was incredibly cold and pleasing. I did a little food prep while my love sought something New Years related to watch while we ate (we settled on the 2018 Steve Martin and Martin Short New Years special. I plated a meal we have often, Nova Salmon with sides on an Everything bagel. DElicious:

New Years morning gnosh

As we ease into the new year, I want to reaffirm my gratitude to life for keeping me along for the upcoming next ride around our sun. I am completely blessed, whether by God or Fate or just (and I mostly suspect this is the one) pure blind Luck. 2023 marks the 40 years I have known the love of my life, and just how did that happen? Just lucky I guess. Here's a pic from the past to celebrate:

5 years ago at Couples Negril in beautiful Jamaica

That is all for now. I have a dishwasher to unload. May you be as lucky as I in your own way for 2023 and always.