Share Learn and Love

No Pain No Gain

Last night, I gathered with twenty two other Jacksonville writers. We had a party. Hosted by Brad and Darlyn Kuhn, at their Trout River Home, it couldn’t have been better. It was a comfortable setting, with a beautiful view.

Our motive for gathering was to meet each other, and to read our writings.

Most there were professionals. All were talented. It was an enlightening experience.

After committing, to this party participation, I believe writers are a somewhat like skaters. You put yourself out there. Getting up to read is like climbing up the pipe, knowing your getting ready to make the drop. If you don’t climb, if you don’t go, there’s nothing. But if you do, and you take that chance, you can fly. And like the skaters, the writers have bit the dust and practiced enough, to be able to put on a good show. Each take their turn. They support one another, and have fun, including ups and downs.

JaxbyJax.com is community. It’s about Jacksonville, Florida. It’s about making our hometown a better place. It’s a gathering and it takes heart!

One must be strong ~ to be a writer.

This is the advertisement for the event which is happening next week, October 15th and 16th, at the Jesse DuPont Center, which I am fond of calling, the old Haydon Burns Library. 40 East Adams St.

Come out and support your local writers, watch them skate. They make some tricky turns. It’s heady and colorful. It’s art and it’s free!

Open this link for particulars ~ https://www.jaxbyjax.com

We Are Gifted With Their Stories

See you at the park!

The Family Finances

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Internal thoughts have a way of surfacing, lingering, and then diving to the nadar of my existence, only to break through my encephalon, carrying crayons. I must have a window to spend time staring out of. It creates a division of mental gymnastics, pulling thread through my thoughts and gluing glitter across the nature on the other side of the pain.  Continue reading The Family Finances

The Fearless Fish

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Every year on our island, we have a festival celebrating shrimp. Our town, Fernandina Beach, Florida, is the birthplace of the industry, in the United States.
I remember the first shrimp boat race that I went to. It’s many years in the past, but I  vividly recall the sun on the water, and the people on the dock. We were spectators to a highly, unusual event. Shrimp boats, decorated with colorful flags were “racing” towards us, on the intercostal waterway.
Every one always cheered for the Dixie Queen. It was the pride of the local fleet. Continue reading The Fearless Fish

Cosmic Infinity

k4Although largely forgotten after departing the New York art scene in the early 1970s, Kusama is now acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan, and an important voice of the avant-garde.

Her current show is Infinity Mirrors and it is breathtaking.

On CBS this morning, after a brief discussion, about the artist and her life, the hosts asked the spokesperson for Yayoi, “is she happy.”

My jaw dropped. I am perpetually surprised at the weird world that I live in.

The Creation Story

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEverybody has one.

I was going through old journals this morning. Hand written. Obviously, back from the days when I use to draw. A long time ago.

Life has changed. People have changed.

Bocas del Toro is no longer the hidden spot that it once was.

I have been re-born 4908 times, since the day I did the skeletal drawing.

Each day a new beginning.

Each day a new creation.

 

Freedom of Speech

Today is Veteran’s Day. And my heart goes out to all who have lost a loved one to war, and a sincere, feeling of gratitude, to all who have returned home.

Earlier I was watching a movie, about war. It had one split second scene, of a soldier’s blood. Two seconds, at the most, and I felt the impact of what that image conveyed. A U.S. soldier’s blood was spilt on foreign soil.

Art and images are powerful and open to interpretation, as are words. Continue reading Freedom of Speech

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Impermanence and equanimity, is the goal.

However, in the mean time, I’d like to do some stuff.

I am an artist.

I studied figure painting at UNF and earned a B.F.A. After receiving my degree, I chose to surf and surf and surf some more. I moved to Costa Rica, for the waves, not realizing that painting proved logistically impossible.

I’ve always carried a camera and surf photography just naturally evolved as my primary source of creativity.

Art is communication. We see a visual image and we relate on a common level, because of the human experience. People that have never been to the beach love images of surfing. Look what happened after the movie, The Endless Summer. Once land locked teenagers, rode the wave of surf culture, to California, Hawaii, Austrailia, Africa, Mexico . They’re still riding that wave.

Such is art.

Here are some shots of local Fernandina Beach surfers.

IMG_7566Like this one. Surfing on a boogie board. How cool is that?IMG_9193Cathching a little air on a skim board.

My blog and my Secondhand Surfer Page on Facebook are my art. Continue reading Page 6