Polyamory

Polyamory
(Feb.14.2009)

So this storytelling painting here (unlike the last two) I'm pretty sure I know what it's supposed to be about. There's happy people in it, and they're touching each other. That's one of my favorite stories.

So this weekend has been a really interesting BloodThirsty Vegans week (that's the name of my band). The old school UU BloodThirsty Vegans met last night and started planning this year's church service (YES! I get to rap in church again!) which will take place March 22nd. And the current BloodThirsty Vegans are meeting tonight to rehearse for a bunch of shows coming up in March (including one on March 21st) so if any of my out of town friends would like to come visit that weekend I will find you a nice place to stay and make sure you are fed. If not, we'll try to get out of Buffalo this summer and come play shows around (maybe you can find us a nice place to stay and make sure we're fed.). The BloodThirsty Vegans also have back to back shows on March 6th and 7th (Dance Alive and a show at Merlin's Saturday Night). Come see us and dance with us and stuff. We have fun new songs (and fun old songs).

peace,
-Alex

Ex-Champion

Ex-Champion
(Feb.10.2009)

So here's another storytelling painting I did in January. Again, not really sure what the story is exactly, but I learned to use the flat brush to paint the background here which turned out nicer than the backgrounds I'd done before.

Yesterday I did my first ray tracing in about 4 years. Ray tracing is a way to create 3D photorealistic images that come out pretty good. You can get a free copy of the program I use here (PERSISTENCE OF VISION - RayTrace Engine). And now I've started creating Ray Traces and doing digital painting on top of them which looks reallyy super cool. So that might help me make better looking backgrounds than ever. I should really get a move on about putting a decent gallery up at AMProSoft.com. That's been on my to do list for a year now. *sigh*.

Peace,
-Alex

Barkeep's Daughter

Barkeep's Daughter
(Feb.05.2009)

Here's a painting I did a while back called Barkeep's Daughter. I have no idea what it's all about, but I know that I like it. I wanted to work on my story-telling abilities with paint. And I feel like there is definitely a story going on in this painting. Have no idea what it is though. If it's obvious to you what's going on here, please let me know.

So, after 3 years of killing myself for the man and working to make my boss and our customer as much money as I possibly could, I have been denied unemployment. New York State (in it's infinite wisdom) has decided to classify me as fully employed. Why? Because I run a website at AMProSoft.com and someone COULD conceivably buy one of my books at some point. Or a t-shirt. Nevermind the fact that no one (not even myself) has ever bought one of those AMProSoft t-shirts on the website and the last book I sold on the web was in 2006 or something, just the fact SOMBODY could THEORETICALLY buy something from my website... means that not only am I employed, not only am I full-time, but I'm all-time employed. Yep, I'm fully employed even when I'm asleep. 24 hours, 7 days a week, employed. Don't make any money, can't aford to live, but I'm apparently very, very employed every moment of the day.

If you're in or around Western New York tomorrow and you want to see me rap/perform, I'll be performing a lot at Dance Alive tomorrow. Here's the facebook event page http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=49046561532. Really fun night of food, music & dancing. Dance to keep warm, dance your blues away, dance my blues away, dance because it's Friday, or...really, who even needs a reason? Let's DANCE!

Peace,
-Alex

Sports

Sports
(Feb.01.2009)

A guy stopped me on the street today and asked if I had a quarter to spare. I'm still super broke and deep in debt and all that, but I had a quarter to spare. But I had to fish it out. As I'm fishing it out he starts making a bit of small talk. He asks 'Who you votin' for tonight?' 'There are no elections tonight,' I replied with a fair amount of certainty. Elections are never held on Sundays in America. I'm fairly certain of that. He clarified 'No. I mean which city you rootin for? Pittsburgh or Arizona?' At first I had a sinking feeling that this was some reality Television show thing, and feared that one of the "cities" was going to be voted off the map or something. Then it gradually dawned on me that this must be the Super Bowl thing I've been hearing rumblings about a few times through the week. I asked him if he was talking about football and he looked at me kind of funny. At first I replied that I had no tv and really didn't care much about the outcome. But then I gave a quick mental review of the options and realized that he had listed Pittsburgh as one of the options. When I watched American football Pittsburgh was always my favorite team (after Buffalo). I really, really like the city of Pittsburgh. If I were ever forced to leave Buffalo it's probably the place I'd chose to go. So I changed my "vote" to Pittsburgh and gave the guy a quarter.

So even though I have only watched a few glimpses of football on the internet this year and really hadn't thought much about it for the last couple months, it must have made its way into my consciousness somehow since I painted this picture more than three weeks ago. This picture, "Sports", was painted mostly using the mouse and using a program called GIMP (click here to check it out). I usually use the last version of Paintshop Pro that was made by Jasc (before they got bought out) to do my paintings. But I am trying to slowly get used to using GIMP. Since it's what I plan to use in the future. GIMP is open source and you can try it for free and you can pay what you think it's worth. That's the only kind of software I can afford, broke as I am. And I really like the idea of pay what you can when you can and the idea of teams of people coding software for people to use simply because they love coding. So I will definitely be using GIMP more and more as I get used to it.

Lastly, just wanted to say that I had the high honor of performing with Gruvology last night and they are an AMAZING musical experience. Buy their CD, but definitely catch them live any chance you get. They are breathtaking.

(next time I'll post a painting that's not a close up of a face. I promise.)

Peace,
-Alex