Vince Vaughn bought my daughter’s Prom dress.

He is making a movie in Atlanta. And the location unit chose the building where my art studio is situated.

I used to be in Advertising. And one of the accounts I worked on, was Orion Pictures Publicity. I am familiar with the movie business. Maybe not the production side, as this was. But I loved the hustle, bustle. The project to project. The excitement. I loved the collaboration. I loved how everyone was working toward a common goal. The hurry up and wait.

Is it possible I could have made a mistake to do what I do now? I am all alone. I see no one. Ever. I work alone. But I get ego recognition. The work is all mine.

In the movie business, you pitch in. There is not room for two egos in the limousine. With the exceptional Philip Seymour Hoffman hat sported by the guy on the ladder, the importance stays with the stars and the film company executives.

How did Vince Vaughn buy my daughter’s Prom dress? No one knew this was not an inconvenience to me. I did not attend the shooting. I did not talk to many of the workers.

But the preparation of the scenes demanded an excruciatingly long time. And, needing the money, as most of us do these days, I accepted compensation for the work done in the building.

When we lived in a quiet “In town” neighborhood in Atlanta, I used to walk quite a bit. I walked to the grocery store, which we called the Korean Market. How racist. And I walked just to walk.

A few years prior, after my job at the Ad Agency ended, I became a pet sitter, going from house to house, looking after peoples’ dogs and cats. I was attacked by a dog during one of these visits, and needless-to-say, I halted my job as a pet sitter. Why should I do this for money?

Therefore, my leisurely neighborhood walking excursions were filled with the fear of being attacked again. Around every bush, there could be a dog just waiting to attack me. And that fear bred more fear, because after all, don’t dogs sense fear?

I was leafing through a magazine one day and found an ad for a device a person could carry. It would emit sounds undetectable to humans (of course) and dogs would be repelled. It was perfect for mailmen, the ad said. And those on business having to come to unfamiliar houses.

Perfect! I would order this gray pancake-like item with little sound wave grooves on the end of it. And a button to push when a dog was near.

I carried it around on my walks. Still a little fearful. And also aware I was probably being duped. But hey, I had my gray dog repellent device and, if a boxer came near me, I would aim.

Whether it worked or not did not matter. Because I never had to use that thing. The other day, years after I had purchased this mysterious gray piece of plastic, I was cleaning out a drawer. I looked at it and with a little embarrassment, put it back in the drawer.

Belief in a dog repellent? Just like those round green termite traps that lie in our yards. Or the one inch square cut piece of sheet I own that Paul McCartney supposedly slept on at the Plaza Hotel. Or how do you know there is really a star out there with your name on it? Belief. Praying on love, fear or desire. It’s part of our psyche to want magic.

You all know about my love of fortune cookies. I blogged about it. Their meaning to me. Their potential for being correct for one’s life at a particular time.

I got one the other day that said, “IF YOUR WORK ISN’T FINISHED, BLAME IT ON THE COMPUTER!” Pretty cool. A lot of my work is done on the computer. But I get the point.

This project I am doing now is two fold. Doing the art for my solo show. Blogging about it. Allowing for a tangent, a rant. Tall order.

Blogging is time consuming. I don’t have to tell you that. But it could be looked at like this: Blogging will become my time manager.

I will have to paint. I will have to blog. I will have to paint in order to blog. Blogging will become my master. I will work for blogging.

To the contrary, the fortune cookie should have read “IF YOUR WORK ISN’T FINISHED, YOU ARE NOT GIVING THE COMPUTER ENOUGH CREDIT!”

Here I continue to post works of art in preparation for my next New York show.

The image above is from the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project. Fairly recently, I got a hold of one of the 28,000 or more blank sketchbooks issued to people all over the world and decided to make a sketchbook for the tour. And when the sketchbook tour came to Atlanta, I “checked out” my book. (These clever people have the tour set up like an actual library!) And looked at it again. Had to put it back, though, for the rest of its journey.

Because I plan to make a video animation of its artwork someday, I had it photographed. While my sketchbook was tooling around for others to see, I had the opportunity to alchemize it. I love to recycle ideas and extend projects.

Since I will never be able to touch the sketchbook again (It returned to Brooklyn with the other thousands of sketchbooks) and I will never turn its pages or mark it to make it different, I had no choice but to bring it out of its virtual world. And into the world I can alter.

The beginnings of this new series of work start with inkjet printed pages of the sketchbook. Bringing the work once again back to me. To look at and make different.

Here I am again. It has been a long time since I posted anything on a regular basis.

I am beginning a new series for my blog. I like to group things. I like projects. It was that way with “Afloat: An Installation”, my online exhibition here on WordPress. 100 collages, a day at a time.

The online show, “Afloat”, a continuation of the actual installation, shown in New York six months prior and reviewed by the Entertainment Editor in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution! The editor liked my commentary as much as he liked the images themselves.

Although I am not doing this blog series as a continuation of an actual exhibition, as I did the last time, I probably will do the same banter and stream of consciousness stuff I did before. This brand new project will be different in its visual content however. What you will see is a “working toward” another solo show in New York sometime in the next year or so…..process, finished pieces, drawings for finished pieces and things like that.

I hope you enjoy it. Please, feel free to comment. That is what makes doing these entries so much fun for me! And hopefully, for you as well.