Love'm Hatem

this was an auction prize for my son's school, Kansas City Academy

Sometimes when I open my web browser, a scrambled image of whatever I've been working on shows up for a split second. This is what it looked like today, decomposing a composite of my paintings of classical composers.

I took some pictures of my studio for an interview I did in January and with the recent rounds of big snowstorms I'm holin' up there quite a bit these days. Taking the pictures brought a fresh realization of what a pack rat I am, all the rows of things I've made and collected.

in dual commemoration of the 204th birthday of Mr Lincoln and the film Lincoln's 12 Oscar nominations, 12 portraits of the 16th president

stenciled numbers in a parking garage

my friend James Wrolstadt bought this before he'd even seen a sketch so I sure hope he likes it - I didn't have time to finish him for the exhibit and I think he's still upset about not being in the show

seems like a good day to finally post these sketches I did while watching the Democratic Convention

Joined my son yesterday for the last 45 minutes of a first-grade-mom-sponsored lego workshop at his school - one of the boys made the 'Z' for me as I struggled to finish on time. I barely did and didn't manage to get photos of any of the kids' constructions. Bad dad.

18 classical painters on exhibit at friend Joe Flores barber shop

Schubert, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, Dvorak, Bach

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Handel, Liszt, Bizet

Chopin, Mozart, Saint-saens, Debussy, Mendelssohn, Brahms

Without knowing why, I've been obsessed with cutting out snowflakes the past few weeks. Then I learned in a note from my son's grade school about some folks collecting paper snowflakes for Sandy Hook Elementary.

Doesn't feel like such a waste of time anymore.

I have a million things I should be doing but I woke up with this idea this morning. My entry for the New Yorker's cover contest: Eustace is taming a tiger swallowtail.

This Handel guy's estate must be raking in the royalties this time of year.

One of the paintings for an exhibit in January at my friend's barber shop/hair salon (for my sons it's a barber shop, but for most of his clientele it's a hair salon).

I'll deliver these this week. It's hard to imagine any of the recipients would see this post so they should still get a little surprise when they get their portraits. I did one more but felt real unsure if it looked anything like who it's supposed to be. 

I'm just finishing a job where I painted new faces into several master portraits, caricaturing the whole paintings a little, too, as well as the new faces. To stay ahead of the deadline I did these sketches before the individuals were selected for their portraits, even before I knew how many portraits there would be. 

getting ready for a show in January, sketches of classical composers I plan to do paintings of