Long time no blog

Yeah so things have been hectic here...at least for me. I thought I had 8 paintings due thursday and I knew I had 3 prints due wednesday night so I've been working like crazy to get those done, get mats cut for them, go to work, walk the dog, and spend quality time with my lovely wife (love ya baby!). But no. The paintings are due NEXT thursday! So I missed out on being able to write my research paper draft so my instructor could proof it before I turn it in to be graded because I was painting for nothing! NOTHING!!!!! At any rate, things will slow down next week when the semester is over and I'll get some pics of my work from this semester onto the site.

Richard

PS- Wyatt bought an electric bicycle kit so he could turn his pedal bike into an electic bike. It's awesome! It can go about 20 miles on a charge and costs 50 cents to go 100 kilometers (i think). You have to give it a little peddling to get some momentum, but then you can hit the throttle and off you go! It's really fun to go up hills and watch people wonder how you can go uphill without peddling. Google Wilderness Energy (I think) if you want to know more.

This is one of my (Emily's) favorite pictures taken at our reception. We have been married almost a year. Wow! How time has flown! It really seems as though we just got married. We aren't pros yet, but we're getting the hang of being married.
We are looking for the great group shot from the wedding, but haven't found it in our proofs. We might have to unframe our copy just so they can be a part of our blog. They deserve a shout-out. Hopefully, we can take a break from studying (a big "yeah right" for the idea of Emily studying) and give our wedding party a proper write-up.

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY RICHARD!
I like the way you move! :)
Love, Emily

Oh yeah, this thing.

Alright so life has been too busy for me to update this thing. And if I have had any free time it has been devoted to Sims 2. Everything's going OK. I've got lots of work to do in my classes but it's good because they are pushing me. I've got a series of woodcuts I'm doing for one class that'll be done later in the semester so maybe I'll put the scans up here when I'm done. Anyway, I have to go to amazon.com and buy books on kathe kollwitz. Google her, she's awesome!

Richard

Aftermath

Hurricane Katrina came through a week ago. Not a lot of damage was done to Ridgeland. Some trees down, fences gone, occasional roof damage to homes and businesses, but nothing serious. We received heavy winds and rains. Our power went out Monday around noon. Emily and I had prepared for loss of power, water, gas and everything else, but we were not prepared for the boredom. You can only stare out the window waiting for the wind to knock down the tree in front of your balcony for so long. We played a game of Scrabble and for the first time ever I was able to use all 7 of my tiles in one move. I used them to make the word "remedial". We played Monopoly and Yahtzee. But mostly we worried about Emily's parents. Her mom was on duty at Gulfport Memorial during the hurricane. Her father was holed up with their dog Ginger at their rental house in Diamondhead. We were only able to hear news on them from other people because the phones were so crazy. Emily didn't get to speak to them until Wednesday I think. They were fortunate not to lose anything. They came to see us this weekend and we had a good reunion. I'm finally getting to go back to work and school tomorrow. I was stuck in the apartment for the week because there was no school and no power at work and I didn't want to use gas to drive around town. I was able to get some fresh air this weekend though. Anyway, things are settling down here. We were only without power for about 24 hours. We checked the thermostat when the power came back on and it was almost 90 degrees in the apartment! The gas scare is settling down. Fortunately Emily and I both had full tanks before the hurricane so we haven't had to wait in long gas lines. But I'll leave it at that for now.

Richard

Grad School

Well, we started grad school last week. We had to go to campus to register for our classes. That was awful. I can't believe Miss. College makes you register in person. The chair of the art dept. told me they might wake up to the 21st century soon and do telephone registry! Telephone registry? The telephone is so early to mid 1900s. What happened to internet registration? Anyway, not much else to tell except we are excited about going back to school. I'm looking forward to all of the new art stuff I'll be learning. Anyway, that's all I can think to say for now. I'll try to post some pictures....again.

Richard

The Spoils of Dumpster Diving

So there used to be a silk screen T-shirt shop across the street from the gallery. You know the type. It's literally a sweat shop because the owners are too cheap to pay for air conditioning and about all they make are T-shirts for the local little league teams. It closed about 9 months ago so all the equipment has been sitting in there until the owner found a new tenant to rent the building to. Well it seems he has found another person to open...wait for it....another T-shirt shop. So of course he promptly hires somebody to bag up all of the supplies and trash in the store and leave it on the side of the street for the city garbage men to clean up. Naturally, Wyatt Waters and I are watching him the entire time to see if he's throwing out anything good and waiting for him to leave.

Once he's gone, Wyatt and I venture across the street to see the goods. Mostly trash, cardboard boxes, and other various useless crap. But I was able to find a lot of leftover silk screen ink that I will hopefully be able to make good use of. I also found a stamp the old T-shirt shop used to put their logo, phone, and address on envelopes.

Now remember before you go dumpster diving that the rules are much the same as they apply to 4th Amendment searches and seizures. If the garbage is under the curtilage of the house (basically the roof, front porch, immediately around the house) you have no rights to it. However, if the garbage is beyond the curtilage of the house, say in the street or near the street, then it is most likely fair game.

Well, until next time, happy dumpster diving!!!!!! (I am in no way responsible for anything bad that happens to you in the process of dumpster diving ranging from tetanus from that rusty nail to the guy with the shotgun who changes his mind about throwing out those old TV guides. However, if you come across some primo goods like some golf clubs or hip retro furniture, I expect my fair share!)

Richard
PS- Hopefully some photos from our honeymoon show up (Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios Orlando)

Thad Cochran came to get me!!!!

So I guess ol' Thad Cochran saw my post about framing him because he showed up at the gallery today. I was just minding my own business reading 'the boondocks' when these black SUVs with tinted windows pull up out front. Then these big guys in suits jump out and come in and check everywhere, holding their hands to their ears to listen in on their mics.....wait a minute!!!!....those are Agents!!!! Where's Morpheus when you need him?! Just kidding. There were no SUVs and suits. Just Thad in a rental car. And he didn't come to see me, he just came to get some prints of the portrait that Wyatt had painted of him. He hadn't even heard of me and my framing of him (I know b/c I asked....not really). But I still got to meet Thad Cochran, one of the most, if not the most powerful Senator in Congress. He's in charge of appropriations (appropriations = money = power). I may not agree with him politically but he was a nice guy. He talked about his grandkids and how he hated to see LSU beat Ole Miss in football.

Hmmm...I just tried to post some pictures but it "couldn't find the server." I'll try next time.

Bye

Thad Cochran

I framed Thad Cochran today. Ha ha! Republican party fear me!!! I've got the dirt on ol' Thad. Nah. I work for Wyatt Waters and all I did was frame a portrait he had painted of Thad, but it sounded fun!

That sounds like a good start to our blog. Welcome. Hopefully we will keep up with this and not let it get covered in the digital cobwebs of the internet. If anyone doesn't know Emily and I, we are a newlywed couple living in Ridgeland, MS. We live with our young puppy, Tobey.

Our new apartment is great. There is lots of running room for Tobey and a fireplace for Emily to hang her bridal portrait. It's funny how people put some of their most expensive and treasured items at the place that receives the most fire damage if the fire gets out of control. We also have separte sinks so she doesn't have to put up with all of my toiletries...and vice versa.

Both of us are starting grad school on August 23rd. Emily is getting a Master's in Education and I am getting a Master's of Fine Arts. We are both excited about going back to school. We both plan on teaching after those degrees are completed in about 2 years.

Well, I'm going to end this here and try to post some pictures.
Bye.

Richard and Emily