Chicken with a Chain Saw

The rains have come, we're officially in hurricane season. The fires have stopped and I see as we drive down the Western Highway, the burned patches are turing green again. Every morning there are big fat juicy bugs clinging to the door screen, attracted to the porch light. The bird swoop down every few minutes and pick them off. I use the word bug, like I'm describing an insect of normal proportions, these, I assure you are NOT.Last Sunday was Bigness's...

Just Stopped By to Say Hello

I'm in the bush now painting for a show in November, in case you've been wondering where I've been these past few weeks. I just came into civilization to buy fresh food and get my email.Ahhh... civilizaiton, its a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.Me: do you think the jaguars will come and drink out of the baby pool at night?Bigness: no, but the neighbor's dogs will.Me: Fat Rosa has put a hit out on me.BIgness: she has to catch...

Doing the Rain Dance

In another great big burst of creative energy I've released 5 new paintings. Four are here in this blog entry and one is in the Prayers for Rain post. With Bigness busy killing leafcutter ants and talking to his baby mango tree, and United Nations Baby with MCS and not asking me to make koolaide ice cubes every 5 minutes, its amazing how much I can accomplish when - people freakin leave me alone....

Illustration Friday - May 12 - Angels and Devils

I painted this a couple of years ago. Its pretty large and is the one of the bedrooms of Alamina Beach House. I read about the technique of oil over acrylic in a book I bought on one of my yearly trips back to civilization, I mean the U.S. Before painting the acrylic background I built up a texture using a palette knife and modeling paste and let it dry 24 hours. The oil paint was thinned down and...

Famous Last Words

Easter weekend we went to Bigness’ brother’s 50th wedding anniversary party. It was lots of great food, open bar, and a band. Who could turn down an open bar? Almost the whole extended family was here from Belize and even the states. The party was next door at his nephew’s restaurant. We had all had a few drinks and the band was playing. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t drink. I’m a cheap drunk,...

Prayer for Rain

As we leave Belize City and take the Western Highway out to our house, the fires have started. We smell the sweet smoke first before we drive next to brush fires started by cigarettes thrown out windows by careless passengers. Whole fields ablaze and no one putting them out, most of the time they burn themselves out. There are more important things to do with the 5 fire trucks in Belize than to put...

Seven Deadly Sins on Caye Caulker:

This could also be subtitled: Things they don't tell you in the guidebook1. Not saying good morning. People will say “She noh hail me.” Not saying hello, good morning, good day, alright, yah yah, good evening, will get you branded as a snob. Once you’re branded a snob you’ll have to work 3x harder hailing people so much that eventually you’ll just put your sunglasses on, paste a smile on your face...

Hopkins Village, Then and Now

On our trip to Placencia we got off the highway and took a quick trip through Hopkins Village. It renewed in me a sense of urgency in photographing old Belize before the cruise ships and big buck tourists "discover" that Belize is a safe and friendly country and come in and spoil everything.Change happens, kinda like shit happens, and not all change is good. We saw a lot of seafront mansions going...

Silk Painting 101

Mesoamerican Shell on silk Mesoamerican Conch on silkI finally caught a break with MCS and United Nations Baby on Caye Caulker, it was just me and Bigness at the house in the bush and he was busy killing fire ants and spiders for 2 days. I was finally able to get some head space and created these 4 small paintings for the store....

Illustration Friday - April 28 - Under the Sea

I painted this on silk in 1998, along long time ago. This painting was shown at my first professional show. The paints are actually dyes, powder and liquid made espcially for silk and the resist is a rubber cememt base product, although the crackle effect on the background water was created with wax for a faux batik look. Check out more Illustration Friday entri...

Jane

I see her standing on the pier waiting with MCS. I don’t have my glasses on, so I can’t tell that she’s crying. But I can see from her posture that something is wrong. She and MCS come over to where Bigness and I are retrieving our big plastic bins full of supplies and produce from the water taxi. We've been gone a few days to the mainland to my studio so that I can have some peace and paint. I see...