Comedic Re leaf

Ok, sorry to be so macrabe' yesterday. One of the most influential people in my life, an old friend and ex-business partner is dying. Not sick, but dying. He and his wonderful wife were to arrive in a couple of weeks to spend the summer with us, as several times before.
We got news that he is too weak to travel, and that he has a few weeks on the short, the end of the year
on the long side. I know he is in his 80's. I know he has led an incredibly full life. I knew he was in his final chapter. But I did not know how deep he was in my heart. I did not know how much he has influenced my work. I did not realize how much of me is him and me of him.

Meanwhile, here are some old sketches that fall forward the kind of inflatable sculptures I am cultivating, and the king of ornament that the honorable WNF, or Henly Swerthing, would want me to be.

Heartbreak

I suppose the upside to having your heart broken 
is that it proves that you still have one, 
and that it still can be broken.

And it will grow back again. 
with this scar, 
another part of your mosaic.

Flag Renderings

Working on flag designs for the Amphitheatre. Each flag will be 5 feet wide and 20 feet tall. 16 flags in all. Digital transfer - sublimation dye on to fabric. The top sketch is 6 flags wide, the second 7. it should be fun to see them all fly as a single (big) picture. Click on to see detail.

Ah, Vegas....

Only in Vegas


A blurry shot of a short Elvis with a member of Kiss talking shop while on a break on the strip in Las Vegas. Surrounded by Americans. Who didn't notice.

Another note, I practically closed down security at the Las Vegas airport when the jacket Terry tailored  for me (including l.e.d. lights and battery packs....) went through the x-ray. It was actually the light bulb samples  we got at the trade show that triggered the bag to be opened, but when they saw hand stitching on the lining of a jacket and wires coming out, all of a sudden there were a lot of official people stopping by and speaking in hushed tones and using a lot of letters as we saw all the lines in front of us shut down. They were all very nice people and handled by electric jacket with grace. So Terry's fashions are at least being photographed by some very important people! We were swabbed, frisked, ask a million questions and sent on our way. The guy in front of us had a huge steak knife "he uses to fix his car" and that seemed somehow reasonable. They kept the knife.