Thursday, April 1, 2010

EACH FOLLOWER GETS A THOUSAND DOLLARS !!!

I won the Texas Lottery, so in gratitude, I am sending each of my followers a thousand dollars and a half-eaten Krispi Kreme Donut!!!


OOPS. Did I say I won? I meant to say WHEN I win the lottery, I'll send my followers a thousand bucks. Tsk, tsk....my bad. However, if you send your name and address, I'll have that stale donut in the mail to you by next week. Any questions, check the date of this blog.

Now that's taken care of. On to the Flying
Moleskins. I have Michelle Burnett's sketchbook. Michelle's theme is loosely souvenirs, postcards, memories of youth, or whatever oddity my warped little mind can concoct. Well, I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid. We had 4 channels...ABC, NBC, CBS and University of Houston Public. So I put some of my favorites in Michelle's journal. I suppose you notice that I am glued to the TV with a program that matches my I.Q.... the test pattern.

There were so many other shows that I didn't include...Mr. Wizard, Zoo Parade (Wild Kingdom later), Science Fiction Theater, Life of Reilly, Fibber McGee and Molley, Little Rascals, Outer Limits, My Little Margie, Our Miss Brooks, Superman, Wagon Train, Yancy Derringer, Cisco Kid, Rifleman, Captain Midnight, Sky King, What's My Line.... I could go on and on. I think I did OK on most of the depictions, but I definitely got the Gong Show Award on a couple of em. My sister said that was the best Obama caricature she'd seen...as she was studying The Twilight Zone with Rod Serling. And my sincere apologies go out to the Roy Rogers family....Dale, Trigger, Pat Brady, Nellie Bell, Scout and whoever. I did Roy's face 27 times and still couldn't get it. He has so much acrylic paint on his nose, it's gonna cost two dollars more to send the journal. I started to put a mask on him and call him the Lone Ranger. Oh, well. It was fun, it is colorful, and maybe Michelle will like it.
Windows to the Words Challenge
Last Month's challenge was "For the Birds" and I received over 4o exceptional submissions. A couple are illustrated below...
You can view the rest of these great artworks by clicking HERE.

And a couple more Moleskin related notes. Adebanji Alade had my sketchbook this month and created
two "Jolly Llamas"...ouch. You can see that work by clicking HERE. There are 4 or 5 ranches around Burnett that raise them. Llamas are quite docile...to the point of seeming bored to have you around.



A few days ago, I was coming back from The Llano Art Guild's Annual Show (I received a Second place in water media and a First in miniatures) and spotted these grazing...so I stopped and
cameraized em. They just looked at me like they were saying "Unless You've Got Beer and Pizza, We Can't Be Bothered". Kinda reminds me or what a buddy of mine from Colorado said about Texas. He said we should put signs at the state lines saying "Welcome to Texas. Leave your money and get the Hell out". Ah, what do Coloradans know?

And, my first journal assignment was Angela Elledge's sketchbook. in which I depicted a Texas scene complete with "Bottle Tree". See it by clicking HERE. I got several comments and E-Mails from folks who had never heard of such a thing, and thought I was making it up. I wasn't....they're kinda common around here. In fact, there's this place in Llano called "Tin Lizard" that sells bottle trees and related yard decor items.

When you pass by, it's hard to keep your eyes on the road, because you think The Land of Oz has just magically materialized on the side of the road. I took several photos of the place, but none do justice. I offered the intriguingly interesting elderly gentleman who owns the place to pose in the picture, but he replied "If I did that, the next thing ya know, I'd be swamped by all them glamour magazines wantin' pictures". Yeah, I know how he feels.

HAVE A JOYOUS AND MEANINGFUL EASTER !!!!!!

12 comments:

  1. Great April Fools gag! Too funny. I love your painting for the travelling moleskins. My son is upstairs right now watching some of these shows on retro teletoons!

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  2. This may be one of your BEST blogs - I laughed out loud at the jolly llamas. The photos you took are excellent. Now I guess you'll have to take pictures of the bluebonnets and the Indian paint brushes in all their glory this month.

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  3. OMGoodness how I love your post' they definitively put a smile on my face. I had hope the $1000 bill was real ...... Happy Days to you.

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  4. Thank you James! I absolutely love the sketchbook and all things retro! Couldn't have asked for a "funner" painting! Happy Easter to you!

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  5. Happy Easter to you. OH could I ever use that thousand dollars. Got the good news from the dentist today that I need a grand worth of work.
    Great photos and entries to your challenge.

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  6. Love your Traveling Moleskin for Michelle, it's perfect...I love the static on the one screen too!

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  7. And what about Bat Masterson, hmmm??? LOL I can see you are a wee bit older than I am, James. Rin Tin Tin and Howdy Doody and maybe one or two others were already off the air when I began my tv loving life. And thank you, as always, for the smiles!

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  8. Your moleskin for Michelle is wonderful, James! The original Twilight Zone is my favorite tv show of all time - never get tired of them.

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  9. We wish you had won the jack pot- cause we just know you would have loved it.

    My mommy said don't forget Lassie.
    love
    tweedles

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  10. Love your moleskin for Michelle!! Your posts always make me laugh!!
    You may not have won the Texas lottery but you won my print giveaway.....yay!
    Email me your address and I'll get that out to you!

    manondoyle@me.com

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  11. Wow, James, your posts are so chock full of goodies. Love your retro tvs--I watched all of those shows. Incredible bird paintings for the Windows challenge --it's really taking flight! Llamas look huggable, but I hear they spit. Or is that camels? Always a treat to visit your blog. I'm trying to picture those bottle trees in a wind storm. must be quite a sound. They sure are colorful!

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  12. Your blog posts are always so entertaining! You should paint that bottle tree!!

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