A Time For Change

The holiday season, for me, is waning quickly. New Year's Eve is around the corner, and 2014 right behind it. Though not generally a 'resolutions person', I actually started thinking about changes a few weeks ago. Not your typical changes, but deeper changes. No, that doesn't mean I think I'm perfect, but I don't make resolutions about weight or eating habits. Those are habits I just work on.

The changes, the resolutions, I'm talking about might be more like revelations and revolutions.

I am neither a politician, statesman, nor a billionaire. I do not move mountains. Neither do I cause small hummocks to tremble. However, there are things to be said. I want to be a part of the change that I see needed in the world. If only a small part, that is better to me than to be a part of the problem or a part of the mindless detritus and flotsam getting in the way.

Hidden among the folds of our shiny golden robes are the hungry and neglected. I can't help by wonder why. The short answers are Greed and Apathy of course, but what about the roots? What insecurities and what traumas have created the Greed and the Apathy? And of course, those are not the only two answers to "Why?" but they are two big ones.

We have people, our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, SONS and DAUGHTERS living on the streets... homeless. How can that be... in one of the most prosperous countries on earth? There is a quote, by Einstein I think, that speaks of a fear that our technology has exceeded our humanity. I will tell you this, long before our technology exceeded our humanity, our prosperity and love of 'things' exceeded our humanity. Our CONSUMERISM exceeded our humanity.

What happened to us?

False Hope For False Gods And Fools

Aye, e'en as I cry in my dissolve, I wax poetic as if...

It's all a lie. It's all a bit marketing blitz to control us until we are too old to move. Redemption? HA! Karma!

I can see my Karma now. It's mostly negative. A great grey and black cloud, like the ones on TV that tornadoes come from. You can't run away from a cloud you know. They are so big, up in the sky, covering it from rim to rim. You can't run away. You just run around underneath it until you are really tired, and then you collapse on the ground, looking up at it, panting. BAM! You get hit by lightening. Or you hear a loud rushing sound, and you can't get up and run, because you are so tired. So the sound gets louder and louder and then you are picked up by a tornado and methodically beat almost to death against a dozen of your neighbors barns.

On the sides of the barns, giant leering faces of the people who have been sent as the instrument of karma's assault on your miserable existence. Here is the ironic silver lining of it all. I know I am not going to die any time soon. I now it deeply inside me. How do I know this? Too much negative karma. How can I be punished if I am dead? Nope. There is a long, painful, miserable life ahead of me. Wahoo.

Current stage is lots of pain and hopes being crushed and that sort of thing. Later, I will be alone and slink off into the woods somewhere, where I will be alone and lonely and hope to find peace. But that probably won't happen either, if the balance is still negative. If I have turned the corner and the balance is positive, then I will die just when I think I have a shot at a nice life out there.

Redemption Revisited

Ah-HAH! Wayne has bought himself a house. Never mind that, he's bought himself a nice big shop! Yes, and that means ART! And that means WELDING and WOOD WORKING! And that all means...

ANOTHER SHOT AT REDEMPTION!

I am not sure how to explain the connection I feel exists between the two... perhaps it is that I feel my one great satisfaction with myself comes of the expression of my soul-ism through the working of steel and wood. Art becomes me. I hope.

No, I don't hope, I KNOW this to be true. Art becomes me. And so I must become art.

Oh, now doesn't that just sound clever as all hell!

Hmm... I hope I can get started on the redeeming pretty quick, because there is plenty of feeling like shit about myself going on. Yeah, when I don't know how else to feel, I can always feel like shit about myself. Call it my comfort zone.

No, I don't mind talking to you about it, because I know you don't give a shit. Or, and this being more significant... I know you are NOT THERE!

And I can't TYPE WORTH SHIT TONIGHT so to hell with it all.

Redemption is for the Rich

And I'm not one of them. Hell, I'm lucky to be in the middles of the socio-economic strata... but I'm not rich, and I can't afford redemption. So I will have to settle for existing, and trying to learn to see the simplicity in any given moment.

What a pain in the ass. Hahahahahahaha

Oh look, I think I am going to be late to work today. But then, when you are staring down a 50+hour work week, does being a few minutes late really matter? Personally, I think not.

No, it's not the longest work week in the county, but it ain't no 40 hours plus OT. Hell, I can't type worth a damn this morning. So see ya later.

My Head Hurts

Hey, what does it mean when you head feels like this inside? Time to quit your day job maybe? Time to get away from your boss for a while? Maybe time to take a chill pill and forget about things for a while? Yeah, maybe all those things, eh? Maybe.

More Saturday Metal Sculpture Action = GOOOD

Well, what can I say, in welding and metal sculpture, sometimes one is NOT enough. So I was on a roll, and I created this smaller piece for my office. I have always wanted to mix the texture of the cord, string, rope, whatever, with the strength and spirit of the steel. This is my first, very minor, attempt.

Basically, it is meant as an exercise piece, so that when I am at work and need to remind my self who I am, I can look at this and remember. Also, the mix of techniques and materials will get my creative juices going at work so I can be thinking about my next pieces. As always, I struggled with whether or not to embellish further, and whether or not to paint it. What do you think?

Saturday + Welding = GOOOOOD

Well, to the person who threw away their trampoline a few months ago: Thank you! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it when I picked them up, but I figured there must be a sculpture in that pile of pipe somewhere. And it didn't come quickly. In fact, I almost, ALMOST, threw it all away once myself. Now I am glad I didn't.

Now the real agonizing begins. To embellish further or not? I have a tendency to want to weld this and that all over the damn thing. But I have decided to let it stay like this for a while, so I can decide if it really needs anything more. Perhaps it does, perhaps it does not. What do you think?

Meltdown

Okay, perhaps a bit melodramatic... but in case you get here first, this is one of my photo blog pics that will be posted later today. In the meantime I am using it to illustrate my feelings about going back to work tomorrow. Actually, having been on vacation for a week, I am going back to work this afternoon, just to try to reduce the pain that will be my Monday morning.

Other than all that whining, this was an awesome sunset I captured on Clearwater Beach, FL. Of course, taken with my Nikon D80. Shutter speed was 1/200, f11.0, 70-300mm at 300mm. ISO 100. And all that technical stuff courtesy of iPhoto's 'photo info' display. Because believe me, I am not the type to record all that stuff! And yes, just a very minor bit of tweaking... because I like it just fine the way it is.

I hope you like it too.