Hiatus

Friday Free Ads for Kate will be off for a bit. I hope to return to it soon. The trouble is, there is a limited amount of video out there (at least that's good). Alternatives are in the works... Stay tuned!


Other blogging to start up as well. Things have been interrupted by my studio move. The small room on the porch was just not working, so hopefully everything will be set up by the end of Sunday.

Fossils in Shadowboxes



One Trilobite, 360 Kilobytes

A Conceit



the Artist as a Steampunk

Tease!





A finished detail of my current painting project.


More later...

I've blogged on this before

...but as Walking the Berkshires has a new carnival, called "Cabinet of Curiosities" I thought it time to post this again. Besides, my Cabinet has changed a bit since moving my studio.



One part of it is contained in a miss-matched set of barrister book shelves, with a drop front desk halfway up. My parents had bought these at a junk shop before I was born. (Of course, now they are antiques.)

On the upper shelf, you can see on the left a glass jar with the finger-bones of a coyote, which I found along with its skull and much of it's skeleton in the woods. The skull is to the right (on top of the remains of a pull toy that had belonged to my mom, and may be from the 20's or before). On the second shelf, on the right, is a small jar of knucklebones from the same unfortunate beast, and one of its thigh bones is on top of a cast metal level that has passed down through the family from my great uncle. The books on the second shelf are all antiques from the library of the house I grew up in.

There are even two Halloween skull candles from when I was a little kid (some forty and more years ago).

This is the type of stuff I try to surround myself with in my office/studio.

For more notes, and related pictures, go here.

UPDATE: My wife pointed out an omission on my part. On the top shelf, right hand corner, in back, is a small Bell jar containing my ponytail from a couple of years ago.

I have long hair, it's in a jar in my office!

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

You Are a Tuna Fish Sandwich

Some people just don't have a taste for you. You are highly unusual. And admit it, you've developed some pretty weird habits over the years. You may seem a bit unsavory from a distance, but anyone who gives you a chance is hooked! Your best friend: The Club Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Turkey Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

H/T, Dr. Sanity, with whom I apparently get along with rather well.

You scored as Clint Eastwood, Names aren't important as you dish out steaming bowls of piping hot brutality to your enemies. You also enjoy a good spaghetti dinner once in a while.

Clint Eastwood		88%
John Wayne		88%
Lee Van Cleef		75%
Charles Bronson		75%
Lee Marvin		63%

What Kind of a Western Bad-Ass are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Apropos of Nothing...

My brain is weird. Strange memories and associations come, at times unbidden.

Last night, my wife started asking me about reading 19th Century literature (the oldest boy is getting to that level). With the exception of Verne and Twain, there's not much in the way of fiction from the 19th century that I remember from my youthful reading, but it got me to thinking about my high school English classes.…

...Which got me to thinking about a classmate who for a creative writing class wrote an essay, "How to Commit Suicide With Style." The essay ended with the would-be suicide retiring to Barbados with boatloads of fraudulently received insurance money.


This struck me as potentially troubling, in an ironic way, considering that the classmate who wrote the essay went on to become a CPA.


Things that make you, in hindsight, go "hmmmmmm...."

Strange things in jars

My brain is overloaded with the current painting project, (that, and my wife is away for the week with the baby, and I have the other kids) so no deep thought for now.

Instead, try visiting these wonderful aggregations of webby information...

Maggie's Farm Friday evening selections, or go to their homepage and scroll around.

Viking Pundit, interesting political tidbits gleaned from cyberspace, and dispensed in easily digestible portions.

the Carnival of Insanities, newly posted every Sunday by Dr. Sanity

Friday Ephemera from David Thompson. Always good for the light hearted and slightly bent.

And while you're at it, visit the MoxArgon Group, who may vaporize me at any moment for my last snarky comment there....


For the time being, here are pictures of strange things in jars, from the Harvard Museum of Natural History...with a couple of shots from the current painting at the end.






and detail shots of "Erat Iona In Ventre Piscis Tribus Diebus Et Tribus Noctibus"


Jonah (detail)



detail shot of unfinished stained glass

for more of my paintings, see Jerub-Baal Studio

all images copyright MJ Andrade, 2007

Fun with my paintings, Flickr and fd's Flickr Toys

Making faux Motivational Posters

Decay



Oxidiztion




are you ready to take on the world now?

Children's Books that never made the Cut


With the approach of Christmas, it's time once again to release the list of failed ideas for Children's Books!
(this was posted last year to Concrete Frog, which has since gone idle)


Tigger & Pooh and Ritalin Too!

The Polar Expectorant

Dora the Informer (and her sidekick, Concrete Boots)

Harry Potter and the Marketing Department’s Dream of Filthy Lucre

What the Berenstein Bears Did in the Woods

Mommies Make the Best Soup (by Hannibal Lecter)

Beatrix Potter’s Hasenpfeffer Recipes

My FIRST BOOK of Embalming

Kipling’s “The Slash-and-Burn Jungle Books”

The Little Suicide-Bomber-Drummer Boy (actually quite popular in the Palestinian Territories)

The Muppets Take Skokie Illinois

Robert Louis Stephenson’s “The REAL Treasure Island”



(and from a certain Doctor we all know)


That Cat Spat in my Hat!

There’s a Wocket in my Pocket (or am I just happy to see you?)

Horton Hears a World Health Organization

Green Eggs and Genetically Altered Corn

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Mercury Poisoned Fish




As I predicted last year, the Cease-and-Desist orders should be rolling in any time now.

Since the Glenn has been "pretty lame on the blog-photography front"...

...(to quote his own words) I thought that I might post some shots around the Jerub-Baal homestead.



Sunlight through the hickories on the back lot




The neighbor’s birch, just turning




Some of the low oaks turning yellow




Parchment yellow light



Hopefully that will be enough to entertain you, until his Blogging Majesty can get good shots posted from around Knoxville

Monolith (or, the Presence) just finished



copyright 2006 MJ Andrade 60 X 48 inches acrylic on canvas

Head of a Prophet



copyright 2006 MJAndrade

From a piece in the Boston Museum of Fine Art, sandstone c.1300 origionally from Strasbourg (possibly the Gallery of Kings).

Teaser





Here is a shot of my current project, entitled "Monolith."

Very First VW Beetle Found Near Frankfurt

I heard in the News recently that the very first Volkswagen Beetle to be manufactured in post-war Germany had been found as part of the estate of an elderly gentleman near Frankfurt. It had been 'retired' in a barn for the last few years, but was in perfect working order when the owner's heirs came to pick it up.

The history of the car is as unique as the condition in which it was found. When it was first rolled off of the assembly line, it realized the great emotional and political burden that had been placed on it's round little top. So it was very careful to always obey the traffic laws, especially in countries that had suffered under the invasion of Germany. It viewed itself as an ambassador for the new, and more peaceable Germany. Unlike the rude and loud Renaults, Fiats and Citroens that soon charged down the highways of Europe, it was always slow and cautious and ever so polite, patiently waiting at crosswalks for pedestrians and never ever beeping its horn. Above all, it prided itself as being the most dependable, if humble transportation that its owner could ever want.

Thus no one was surprised that it started immediately and still had its shiny black paint that looked fresh from the factory, because everyone knows that there is no rust for the wary.

Memento Mori


drawing of coyote skull, copyright 2006 MJ Andrade

Other sketches here, here and here

Previous Memento Mori here and here

If Warhol Had Photoshop







of course, he wouldn't be using my face...




from an antique photo of my cousin, upon graduating high school

Sketching

Going through my old sketchbooks I found this...


head of a young woman, after Michelangelo, copyright 2004 MJAndrade

I had done this in a sketching session with a private student I had two summers ago. Looking at it I realized that it is the only piece of sketch-work I had done in years just for the sake of sketching. All of my drawing has been subservient to my painting projects. It really felt like I had lost my chops. Yesterday I did the 'Deacon' of the previous post. Now I've decided to sketch every day for at least an hour. Below are the most recent. I will post new ones (of quality) as they are finished.


Head from the Gallery of Kings, Notre Dame, Paris - copyright 2006 MJAndrade - #2 5mm lead on paper with dark sketching lead


the Prophet Haggai, copyright 2006 MJAndrade - Gioconda conte pencils on paper

Sketch of "Statuette of Deacon"




































This is a sketch done with a #2, 5mm mechanical lead pencil, with shadows touched up in charcoal. The subject is from the collections of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and rendered from a photo-illustration in the book 'Medieval Objects in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Metalwork" by Nancy Netzer. The statuette is from the Low Countries c.1450-1500 of leaded lattan (50.7% copper, 13.8% zinc, 31% lead, 2.6% tin, and 1.9% antimony) and stands 8 7/16th inches high. Sketch is copyright 2006 by MJ Andrade