Thursday, July 31, 2008

New Art Offering

I continue to offer for purchase certain art works under glass, and pictured is the current piece. The title is Pele Rekindled, an oil on paper, 38"h. x 29"w. framed, 31"h. x 23"w. image. The price is $800.00 plus tax and shipping. PayPal is available. Contact me at mrcoolink@ij.net All are also welcome to visit my studio in Dunedin, FL. 727 733-1688 727 560-3766

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Brillante Weblog



My blog has received this cool award thanks to fellow blogger and primo writer Augusta Scattergood.

So now I get to choose some of my favorite blogs and spread the word.

Here are the rules:

1) Put the logo on your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Here are some very good visual art blogs:

Boxfotos

Toy Camera Play

Nancy Cervenka

Art Squeeze

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Picture at an Exhibition


A couple of hours ago, art buddy Matt Larson whipped out his cool i-phone at the Cool Art Show in St. Petersburg and clicked this pic. Actually, I don't think it clicked at all, just made an odd pixellating sound. He captured the artist as a relaxed chap. Art sales have a way of doing that.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Way Cool

In May, 1987 a friend and I sat commiserating in some dim Chinese restaurant. We had just completed our last outdoor art show of the season, and now faced a hot bleak summer of no shows and few opportunities to sell art.
Somewhere between the egg-drop soup and the Buddha's Delight, I casually suggested there should be an indoor show for artists who did not travel during the summer. Indoors and air-conditioned, we could call it, oh I don't know, maybe call it Cool Art.

At that, my friend looked up from his plate of Egg-Fu-Yung, and allowed that was the best idea I'd had in a long time. "Why don't you do it," he challenged.

Thus was born The Cool Art Show, now in its 20th year and one of Tampa Bay's oldest artist-run exhibitions. Early on, the idea for a show was taken up by PAVA, a fledgling local art group, and the first Cool exhibition of twenty artists took place only because of some gentle arm twisting and hopes for a few art sales.

For a completely volunteer, mostly unsponsered, artist run art exhibition to succeed for twenty years is extraordinary. This could only come about through the efforts of a group of dedicated people and the continued participation of exceptional artists.

The 20th Anniversary Exhibition of the Cool Art Show will take place July 19, 20 at the historic Coliseum in St. Petersburg. For more information go to http://www.pava-artists.org/ and click on Exhibitions.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Life In The Urbs


Natural selection has not been kind to the city squirrel. Or perhaps mom nature decided to have a bit of fun at the little rodent’s expense. There are 250 world-wide squirrel species, from a 4" African pygmy to a 35" Asian whopper, and I suspect they all share the same odd characteristics as the Eastern Grays that scamper about my neighborhood.

The inherited traits which could be said to have a most profound effect on urban squirrels are their curiosity, short attention spans, and hesitation. I’ve observed these same traits in the two that noisily stake out my yard. They race from tree to tree with carefree abandon, only to stop dead on a branch, and stare off into space for several minutes. One of them finally descends to the ground to dig for buried treasures, but just as quickly becomes bored with that task.

Eventually something across the street catches its eye, and the ever curious animal dashes onto the asphalt. And it is here where internal combustion trouble lurks. Halfway across, the squirrel comes to a halt, sits back on its haunches and looks all around. What was that strange noise from far off? What is that ominous vibration coming from below?

The squirrel sits perplexed, not knowing what it’s supposed to do. Should it continue across the street or beat a hasty retreat back to its leafy home? The sound gets louder and the asphalt moves under its feet, but the squirrel doesn’t budge. Suddenly it sees the approaching predator, a metallic beast bearing down on it.

Strangely, the squirrel remains in the middle of the street, hesitating, still weighing its choices. Then, as if a dim bulb goes on over its head, the squirrel turns and races for home. Too late, a shiny SUV flattens the hapless creature before it reaches the curb.

I’ve seen it happen too many times to be considered an isolated incident. There seems to be a common pattern in the various squirrel squashings, and I believe the answer lies in a squirrel's native instincts.

Nature, boiled down to its rude essentials, can be stated simply, “Eat and don’t get eaten.” For little critters way down on the food chain, that means don’t be seen, smelled or heard. And if a pine marten should get a whiff and come calling, squirrels know their best bet is to hide and freeze. This hard-wired reaction served the animal well for millions of years in primeval forests, but comes up short on America’s city streets.

You cannot hide from a soulless half-ton pickup barreling down the road at 50 mph. Play invisible and some unlucky city worker gets to scrape you off the black-top. But the squirrel’s real undoing may be that it just wants to get one more look at that fast approaching contraption. In the end, curiosity killed the squirrel.