Not Slacking Off...Busy Making A Book

I just sent most of the files for the new Cat Scratchin' book off to the designer yesterday. Just have a few more tweaks to do, like writing the intro/acknowledgements, back blurb, and cat rescue directory. I wish I had a pretty picture to put up for you today, I'll do a little search and see if I can't rustle up one. Lately the only art I've been making is the cats, or misc folk art birds, dogs and cats. I'm trying to use everything up in the next 6 mos. or so. I still have my plan to be mobile, either in a drive around RV or pull-behind trailer. Stay tuned for that. It's my 'retirement plan', since I really don't have any other ideas or options. I own a home with partners and hope to be putting that on the market in 6 months. I'm restless as hell.
I've been thinking a lot lately about money, jobs, the rest of my life etc...I'm about to drop my health insurance in hopes of getting a better (cheaper) plan when they open up the exchange in October. I have been self-employed for over 20 years, and have always had insurance. The only time I didn't have any was my early years at art school when I was dirt poor, going full-time and working at a burger joint and any other job I could find. So I'm more than a little nervous. Although, if I hadn't had insurance when I had the whole thyroid cancer thing I think it might not have been as much money out of pocket for me. How does that make sense??? It doesn't. Anyhow, instead of spending $300.00 a month for crappy insurance I'll just pay for my prescriptions and hope for the best.  Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. I've been happier, and I will be again.
Here's a photo of "The Lucy's", two chickens I had in my urban backyard in Austin. Next book--Chickens! They were fun. Eggs everyday.

Upcycle-ReUsed Vintage Lumber Folk Art Dogs And Cats

I've been in the process of tearing through a heap of vintage lumber that I moved three times in the last three years. The big pieces are becoming table tops and rolling work stations. I'm left with small scraps and I just hate throwing good wood away. Here you go--I'm in the process of building little dog and cat folk art gee-gaw statues. These are in the rough right now. I will throw some paint on them and embellish the eyes and such. Stay tuned, I'll put finished images up here. I work on these in my kitchen (on the counter) while watching episodes of whatever I can find on Nextflix and Hulu and Amazon. My favorite thing to do is to find a series so I can "binge-watch" while working on art or craft--go figure, it works for me.
I'm still working on the Cat Scratchin' book you can click here to jump over to that blog. I'm on schedule and happy.
I also have a small kickstarter project going to create posters from the Dog Scratchin' book. You can click here to see that.  I used some super cheap poster frames from the big box hobby store to show them off. Here's an image below to give you an idea of what they look like.

It's hot as hell, my ac is working overtime, my electric bill just came and it's almost double what it was last month. I'm remembering when I lived up on the mountain three years ago with no ac and only two windows that opened, during the summer! It was a good day when it was only 80 degrees in the house. How did I survive that??
Hey, have a day!

Funding Art Projects and Other Stuff

The above are earlier works of mine using Ampersand Scratchbord and mixed-media. There is nothing wrong with them. In fact I'm pretty fond of where I've been and where I am now with my art journey. Putting together the Dog Scratchin' book, and now the Cat Scratchin' version has helped me to become better at my chosen trade.  Below is one of the dogs in the book that shows how much better I became as I drew one after another. Practice is good.

All this is to say, I'm running a project at kickstarter right now to create a limited series of posters using 80 of my drawings from the book. If you will please take a look and see if any or all of them interest you. I'm not asking for money for nothing (hey, that could be a song), I have a product to offer for a fee. And I think it's a pretty cool, fun, and lovely product. If you can think about art as part of the commerce stream (and we are) we are just as important as the plumbers who fix our toilets. Believe me, being a former contractor, I am coming at you from both sides of that world.So take a look here to see what it's all about. It will be up for 28 more days and it's already going well. Thanks. Buy art, fix your plumbing, and enjoy your world.
The first artwork shown above is available (size is 16"x24") the title is "Big Dog In The Backyard", and I'll make you a deal and a half. Contact me.