everything else is crap

During the last couple of months I've been visited by quite a few ghosts from Artman's past. Old acquaintances who've found me through FaceBook and distant relatives phone calling out of the blue. I've bumped into a few past lovers
(in one case literally) and was visited by an old friend and former band mate who I hadn't seen in 40 years.

Now, I accept, as an axiom, the proposition that all we create our own realities. But sometimes it boggles my mind how
that works.
Like now, with all these recent "blasts from the past".
As far as I knew, I was happily living my low-key island life when all these chance encounters came along. What the hell did I do to manifest this stuff? I'm not saying any of this is bad stuff, just very curious.

Understandably, revisiting one's past can run the mind through a gauntlet of memories and emotions, re-open old wounds or re-live past joys, reawaken former pains and prejudices, issues unresolved and unfinished business.
Then there's the boatload of "what ifs" and "whys".
"How could this or that situation been better or worse?" "What difference might it have made to have turned right instead of left?"

Selfish questions all steeped in ego; a sort of feeble attempt to over-master memories of the past and surely not the best of all places for the mind to dwell too long.

Anyway, I put myself through that gauntlet and, in the end, happily came to the place where mind is right, heart is healed and soul is satisfied.
Detached from ego, it's an easy thing to be grateful for those children of God whose lives I've touched and who's lives have touched mine.

Our courses had crossed, drifted their separate ways and now, for some God only knows reason, have briefly crossed again. In the end, all that really matters is the happy knowledge that we're all still weathering the waves and making way
under sail.

Everything else is crap.

president's day, 2011 - VIDEO

Once upon a time, February 21st was the celebration of George Washington's birthday.
So it's probably not such a coincidence that on February 21st, 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated. At 555 feet, it was the tallest structure in the world and today must, by D.C. law, remain the tallest building in the capital.

Anyway, now the day is dedicated to all our Presidents.
(as if they all deserved it)
So what I've done here is a short montage of all the "official" Presidential portraits so far with a little music behind it.
You might be thinking I used "Hail to the Chief" in the clip
(it would make perfect sense after all) but I didn't for a couple of reasons. First off, it's not long enough, it's not a particularly good tune and marching music drives me up a tree. So I found something just as patriotic, much more interesting and a better representation of my left of center political views.

Enjoy. . .


Click arrow to start video. Run time, 2:40

sculpture key west

Sculpture Key West (SKW) is an annual Keys event dedicated to celebrating the arts. An outdoor event, Sculpture Key West features the work of artists from around the world at 4 distinctive venues. . .
Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, the Key West Garden Club at West Martello Tower, the KeyWest Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden and 540 Greene Street. (sorry, no website)

As I see it, the function of art is to draw the participant (I do believe viewing or listening to any form of art is a participatory action) to draw the participant, at least temporarily, out of their prescribed mindset. (although sometimes the impression can be lasting).
It can bring a smile, enrage passions, inspire new thoughts, inform or even confuse the holy hell out of you.

I experienced that gamut of motivations recently when I took advantage of my new found "auto-mobility" to visit a few of the SKW venues.
Here's a sampling of what I found. . .

Fort Zachary Taylor

Square Wave, Bill Wood

Photosynthesis, Myung Gyun You

Angel, Luciano di Rosa

Contemporary Cannon, Tom Risser

Hard Place, Jiwan Noah Singh

Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden

Diaspora Series, Lori Nozick

Anima, Susan Bennett

No Longer Waiting, Roberta Marks

Key West Garden Cub @ West Martello Tower

Wall of Wisdom, Susan Johnson

Rasta Rooster, Bounce Margil

Angeline, Lynn Umlauf

Templates of Clouds, Maja Godlewska

Now this is one of those pieces of art that informs.
(at least, it taught me something new)

Laid out in a large circle were better than a dozen old album covers that had been transferred onto tiles at actual album cover size. They were records from the 50's & 60's by a dude called "The Mighty Sparrow".
Well, I'd never heard of him so, being the kind of inquisitive mind I am, I looked him up. . .

Sparrow Come Back Home, Buckley & Mark Harris

. . .and this cat is truly, "The King of Calypso"!
Check out these 3 links I've attached.
You're gonna love this guy!!

TEN TO ONE IS MURDER

DE BOTH AH DEM
CONGO MAN

i sat belonely

I sat belonely down a tree,
humbled fat and small.
A little lady sing to me
I couldn't see at all.

I'm looking up and at the sky,
to find such wonderous voice.
Puzzly, puzzle, wonder why,
I hear but I have no choice.

"Speak up, come forth, you ravel me",
I potty menthol shout.
"I know you hiddy by this tree",
But still she won't come out.

Such sofly singing lulled me sleep,
an hour or two or so
I wakeny slow and took a peep
and still no lady show.

Then suddy on a little twig
I thought I see a sight,
A tiny little tiny pig,
that sing with all it's might.

"I thought you were a lady",
I giggle - well I may,
To my surprise the lady,
got up and flew away.

John Lennon

"artists helping artists", anne mckee - 2011

Most of you know that for the last several years I've been a contributing artist in the Anne McKee Artist's Fund Fine Arts Auction. This year's auction is happening next Saturday night, Feb. 5 and once again, I'll be joining very nearly 100 other Keys Artists at the Fort East Martello Museum at 3501 S. Roosevelt Blvd. in Key West.

The evening opens at 7pm for an hour of viewing the collection that includes drawings, paintings, fine arts photography and sculpture and is followed at 8pm by the auction itself, conducted by auctioneer Charlie Bailey-Gates who's a pretty funny guy who really knows how to sell stuff. It's an easy evening under the stars of beautiful artwork, smiling faces, gourmet finger food from Small Chef at Large, and tickets for two complimentary cocktails plus unlimited champagne;
for all that, admission is just $25. per person.

Here is my offering for this year. . .

"She Dreams of Guitars"
Fine Arts Photography, 16" x 20" matted & framed
Gallery value, $500.

"Artists Helping Artists" is the engine behind the auction and the purpose of The Anne McKee Artists Fund itself.
The proceeds raised at the annual auction go back into the fund and are then are re-allocated to provide project-based grants to Florida Keys artists. I've been a fortunate grant recipient and can tell you, it's a win win for everyone. Buyers get a beautiful piece of artwork; Artists get a few bucks for brushes and paints or whatever it takes to keep working.

If you can make it, come on by. I'll be one of the guys with a flashlight directing the parking traffic. See you there.

beer • soda • ice • bait

The more time I spend up on Sugarloaf Key (for my out of town readers, that's about 17 miles north of Key West) the more I like the place.

You've gotta love how the items for sale here are prioritized

Maybe it's because I've got friends up that way, maybe because of the easy access to the water and maybe it's the richness of it's unspoiled natural nature.

Or maybe because it's usually nicely quiet and you can see more stars at night.

It's probably a taste of each of those things. But more than anything else, I've gotta say, it's something in the air.

I haven't really put my finger on it yet but the more explore, I'm pretty sure I'll figure it out.

Reflecting back to my previous life as a mogul monster on the NorthWest corporate corridor, I think that if Key West were New York City, Sugarloaf Key would be Connecticut.

what's up dock?

. . .Nothing profound or prophetic but maybe poetic in how these old and well worn wooden docks lend themselves to a memory of an earier time.

southernmost point

"A larger than life concrete buoy marks the Southernmost Point in the continental United States, only 90 miles
from Cuba.
Located at the corner of South Street and Whitehead Street, it's the backdrop for a Kodak moment for virtually every traveler to Key West."

Well, that's pretty much the party line on the thing. . .
Actually the southernmost point in the continental United States is somewhere along the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor and as for our red, black and yellow concrete buoy, it's more like 94 miles from Cuba. (but, trust me, I understand better than most that marketing trumps truth every time).

image courtesy of conchscooter

Back in the day, the site was marked by a much less ostentatious sign that was stolen as many times as the city could replace it. So in 1983 the city fathers (and mothers) decided to plant a little something that was just a bit too big to fit in the trunk of a car. Since then, our Southernmost Point buoy has been the most visited and photographed attraction in Key West. (mostly, I'm thinkin', because it's FREE)

I've even heard a story that the place is haunted and if you get there at dusk or just before dawn, when no one else is around, you might see the ghost of a young man gazing out over the water to the horizon.
But like I mentioned earlier, marketing trumps truth
every time.

government road

In a moment of geek last week (yeah, I have them sometimes) I was playing with GoogleEarth and getting a bird's-eye-view
of Key West.
I found my current house, the last three places I've lived since I've been on the rock and traced the route I run on my bike workouts which led me to a look at the airport and that's when I found Government Road.
Now, I've always known that Government Road was there but, in all my years here, hadn't taken the time to go down it.
"Hmmm" I thought; a corner of Cayo Hueso I haven't explored; we just can't have that!

Government Road is a paved business that runs (I'm guessing here) about a half mile through mostly undeveloped natural nice-ness and parallel to Key West International across the salt marsh.

At the close end is Little Hamaca City Park and at the far end the road ends at a paintball battlefield. But it was the ruins I discovered in between that piqued my interest.

"What's all this then" I asked myself. Remains of radar towers (lots of them), concrete buildings big enough to warehouse Sherman tanks and something that looked to me
like a bunker.



That's when the light came on. . .
A military installation that just could date back to the
Cuban Missile Crisis.

In October of 1962 I was 10 years old and even though I have real memories of those days, the concepts of naval blockades, evil communists and nuclear armageddon were fairly abstract. I'm not even sure I knew a place called Key West existed.

Anyway, back home later in the day, I did a little homework and sure enough, here was one of the four firing batteries built to defend Key West if the situation between Kennedy and Khrushchev got out of hand.

It's a pretty amazing story actually. . .
On Oct. 20th, 1962 the 6th Battalion's 65th Artillery Unit and their low altitude defense missiles were ordered to move from Fort Meade, Maryland to Key West and in only 9 days, the troops and missiles were deployed and all four firing batteries were operational. (pretty damned quick)

Judging from the map, I'm guessing these are the ruins of Bravo Battery.

So it appears that Key West was loaded for bear in those days. It's got me wondering how weird it could get around here if the United States actually does decide to invade Venezuela.

another maxine moment

I could buy my girl a million dollar goose down bed
but she'd still curl up in a box the
U.P.S. dude delivered this afternoon.
Felines, go figure.

a love story

Shooting through a long lens on a boat, even in a light chop, is problematic at best.
All the same, when I spotted this Cormorant dance of romance 100 yards off my starboard rail, I had to give it a try.

At the end of the day, these are not the best pictures I've ever taken but, sometimes the sentiment of the story is worth more than the quality of the art.




"Love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
Elizabeth Browning

a new year in paradise

"A New Year's resolution is something that goes
in one year and out
the other."

I've never been big on New Year's "resolutions". I mean, why put that gun to your head?
Resolve to do or not do something and by
March or April you've probably screwed it up. Then comes the disappointment,
maybe shame and guilt and you end up riding your own ass over it until June or July when, finally, the warmer
sun and seawater
can wash it all away.

Self improvement is, more realistically, a day to day proposition and "New Year's Day" is just another day.
Live today a little more consciously than you might have yesterday and hope that tomorrow will be better than today.
No pressure, no pain, no problem.

"Live every day as though it's your last.
Because some day, you'll be right."

"Celebrating Paradise" a photographic study by Arthur Winstanley
© 2011 Arthur A. Winstanley
Original photography & PhotoShop, 10" x 20" matted & framed
Museum quality prints available for purchase