2003-2005ArtNoteHighlights

2003-2005 ART HIGHLIGHTS

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2005 Art High Lights.


December 31, 2005, Saturday Life is just a Jimmy Buffett song .... This year gone by ain’t been a piece of cake. .....just another candle and a trip around the sun. ................................................................................................. There’s one thing I’ve learned from all this living ... it wouldn’t change a thing if I let go.


December 16, 2005, Friday I know it might be hard for some of you to believe, but even I thought it was COLD last week. That news, along with a letter from my cardiologist suggesting that I needed to lose over 50 pounds after my visit Nov. 7. This body mass index thing is a crock, especially since I calculate out to be OBESE. When I was in the best condition of my life, swimming 8-10 hours a day in the ocean doing research, free diving to depths of over 20 meters, and I would have had a body mass index of 34.4! I've been working hard on finishing up some manuscripts. To the right is an image of some of the recent castings I helped Künstler fire. It looks like I may have to help him make a number of castings this weekend. Plan on working helping my daughter, Meaghan, cast and fire a couple of ceramic sculptures she made. Having to make an unscheduled trip to the doctor today.


November 29, 2005, Tuesday Cold weather finally came to West Texas. It kind of messed up my full moon shoot as it was a bit too cold (for the model) for photographing nudes on the caprock at sunset/moonrise. I also survived my bear photography shoot this year without getting seriously injured (not always the case). I survived Thanksgiving and have lost almost 20 pounds since November 7. I meant to get a lot of artwork done over the Thanksgiving holidays but I didn't since one of my models shared her germs and I was ill for most the weekend. Now things are back on track and I am in the final stages of several research manuscripts. We did some interviews and video this evening for the art exhibit coming up in March at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, where Friday you can see the Star, Cross, Angel Exhibit (which will include one of my photos, Kruezen. I still have to finish painting my self-portrait for the exhibit. One of my many projects planned for the short Christmas holidays.	Kruezen


October 4, 2005, Tuesday I spent part of the weekend working on paleo specimens and then met some friends at the Lubbock Dog Show. I found out that I had several young ladies trying to track me down to model for my photography. The next two months are going to be grueling! Doug and I have spent much of the week sorting and cataloguing specimens for him to carry to some associates next week for them to research. I did take a break this evening to join the Tuesday Night Life Drawing group.


September 4, 2005, Sunday I ran the stats on my website this weekend and would like to thank all who have been visiting my website. I have surpassed 90,000 visitors to my website!!! Those of you who email me with comments, I would like to thank you. Your input and discussions have been very interesting, especially hearing from you in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands, who regularly check my Field Notes. I have added new images to some of the portfolios and will be adding more soon. The Field Notes, as you hopefully know, change frequently, so please visit again and if you know someone you think would enjoy the website feel free to email the link. I was recently criticized about my nudes on the Field Notes not being the artistic nudes I usually create. Some of the images in the Field Notes are created during the Tuesday Night Life Drawing sessions where I do not have control over the lighting and poses. Personally, I still think those images are beautiful in their context, or I wouldn't have put them on my website. The Caprock Photographers exhibit, Chirascruro, is up at the Lubbock Garden and Arts Center (image to right). I have been working with Künstler on the full-body mold we made last weekend. I spent much of today prepping on my anuran and drepanosaurid material.	Sunbeams


August 30, 2005, Tuesday It has been a busy week but I have got to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in a while. It was nice to see Frances Rivera and Angela Coronado on Monday. Tuesday was lunch with Mary Lee and Nicola. It was good to see so many other friends this week too that I hadn't seen for a while. This evening we hung the Caprock Photographers exhibit, Chiaroscuro,at the Lubbock Garden and Arts Center and I got to visit with the CPs whom I haven't seen since January. Then I enjoyed dinner with Joe and Eddie Jo Miller. The exhibit will hang through September 27.	Sleep


August 28, 2005, Sunday After debating on whether to submit it or not for almost three years, I submitted my petition to wipe out the metoposaurid genus Buettneria by pre-occupation. I discovered Buettneria was pre-occupied during my research on "Buettneria" bakeri almost three years ago. I do not like it, but the proposed replacement name is Koskinonodon. Spent this morning helping Künstler make a full body mold of a lovely young lady. I believe the final ceramic pieces are going to be really nice if Künstler doesn't screw them up. I did get a nice series of images of the process.


July 31, 2005, Sunday Dawn found me on cliffs overlooking the Rio Grande. There weren't any clouds and it was slightly hazy so it was nothing special photographically; however, it was a beautiful sight to me. I watched a small herd of javalina down below. A small flock of turkeys were roosting in the trees below me. A couple of white-tailed deer moved through the cane below. There was a huge variety of birds observed below. When I returned to camp, the traps had not had been very successful; however, the netting of bats went well. It was decided to cut the stay here short so I headed down in the canyons to get my photography done. By the time I crawled up the edge of the canyon (carrying 3 cameras, lenses, tripod, and accessories) it was getting back up into the upper 90's. We broke camp and split up with three of us returning to Lubbock.


July 30, 2005, Saturday We got a fairly leisurely start this morning and headed south towards the Rio Grande. It had been too long since I had seen the Chihuahuan desert and I was looking forward to it. The countryside was green from Lubbock to the Rio Grande which is unusual for the beginning of August in this part of Texas. The smell of the sage in the Chihuahuan desert brought back lots of memories. When we arrived at our destination seven of the biologists began setting their traps for the night. Two of the biologists and I went down into the canyons. They to scout for localities for netting bats and me to check out the photographic possibilities. It was pretty warm. To the right is an image of the Rio Grande, near sunset, showing the vast borders of river cane.


July 15, 2005, Friday A stormy day in a stormy week. The weather today across the plains is beautiful. I enjoyed working with a pretty model the other evening and got some nice images. I haven't got as much accomplished as I intended. Maybe next week will be better. I may have to adopt the lifestyle of one of Tim McGraw's songs to go along with some of Jimmy Buffett's songs.


July 10, 2005, Sunday Summer thunderstorms have been scattered around the plains this week. I have been a bit neglectful in updating my field notes. Not much to report. Continued work on the research projects but no interesting trips to the field. Although we did have two "rescue missions" for field personnel in the last couple of weeks. I'm trying to gear up for upcoming art exhibits. I spent yesterday working with a pretty, young woman for images for the upcoming exhibits.


June 14, 2005, Tuesday It was a beautiful, sometimes stormy weekend. Saturday was a cool, gray morning as Stephanie and I arrived at my research area just after dawn. The coyotes were serenading the morning. Wildlife was abundant with us seeing five species of snakes (including Stephanie's first rattlesnake in the wild), six lizard species, and some 35+ bird species. Then we also saw some Trilophosaurus, Malerisaurus, Buettneria, Phytosauridae, and I found some more parts of my third dicynodont squamosal. Sunday I did take off to go to the Wine and Clay Festival. This evening I took a break to work on art. I have to start getting my images created for the upcoming exhibits in the fall.


April 26, 2005, Tuesday Spring thunderstorms are scattered around the plains again today. Instead of drawing, this evening I spent developing film and submitting my image to the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day Gallery. You can see my image (thumbnail at right) in the Gallery. It is of the Longhorn sculptures in front of the Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University.


April 14, 2005, Thursday It has been a beautiful week in West Texas. I visited with a friend who I hadn't heard from in way too long. It was nice to know that he has been checking in regularly on my Field Notes to keep up with what is going on. It is nice to know people enjoy this bunch of garbled, verbose, ramblings I produce. I do enjoy the email feedback from all over this third rock from the sun about my field notes. The Lubbock Arts Festival is this weekend. I am exhibiting the image to the right, Mondsuchtig II, as part of the invitational exhibit. I think it was a compliment when people told me they saw my photograph (Mondsuchtig II) and knew it was mine before they were close enough to read the name tag. We are getting ready for the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day next Sunday. Yes, it does exist David. You can even see my contribution to last years WPPD. I'm not sure what Kimberlin has in mind, but I think you will enjoy the images Künstler and I have planned (if they come out).	Mondsuchtig II


April 7, 2005, Thursday It was a gorgeous day in West Texas. The temperature has got me in the mood to do some photography as you can see from a photograph to the right I made earlier this week. Frances has her metoposaur pretty well prepped. I was finally, with a bit of cleaning, able to confirm the identification as a Buettneria bakeri. It is a very nice skull missing only the premaxilla. The specimen is not only huge for a B. bakeri, but possesses some interesting characteristics.


April 5, 2005, Tuesday Sub-hurricane force winds again today. I went to drawing this evening and one of the points of discussion was our upcoming exhibit of our artwork at the Underwood Regional Arts Center in 2006. Frances has the metoposaur skull, which she found with me in November that Gretchen and I collected on Sunday, a quarter of the way prepped and for now it does appear to be another Buettneria bakeri, contrary to what I thought initially. My examination of the Trilophosaurus buettneri holotype and the Trilophosaurus jacobsi paratypes has been very interesting this past week, confirming a number of details in my research.


March 11, 2005, Friday I just returned from a week in Austin. I got to visit with a old, dear friend whom I hadn't seen in too long. I am going to make sure it is not nearly as long until the next time I see her. It was actually not a social trip but a working trip. It was very productive. I got a lot of research done in the collections of the University of Texas at Austin. I saw a number of friends and acquaintances and it was nice to visit with them. It was very enjoyable to have lunch with Dr. Langston and spend part of the afternoon discussing a variety of subjects. On my way home I detoured over to my research area. I was somewhat disappointed in how little material had been uncovered by all of the rains during the past month. I did find a very nice, tiny astragalus and another one of my "Site IV strange archosaur " dentaries. Künstler's preparations for the alien migration are seen to the right.


February 22, 2005, Tuesday All of us are anxious to get Frances' metoposaur skull out of the ground but storms hit the locality again. Now they are forecasting possible snow this coming weekend. The Howe House Soup and Champagne dinner last weekend was very enjoyable. It was nice to see a number of people that I hadn't visited with since the HHS&C last year. Tonight I drew to relax before an interesting day tomorrow. The model was a very nice young lady who I am looking forward to photographing on the caprock when the weather warms up. A West Texas howdy to all my website visitors from Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. I appreciate all of the emails.


February 8, 2005, Tuesday It was another beautiful day in West Texas! It has been a busy day in a busy week. A "blue norther" is supposed to be coming in this evening. In the mean time, I spent the evening photographing and drawing a pretty, young model. She did an excellent job as usual. The MoTTU Paleo Division's website is uploaded. Forward the link to anyone interested.


January 17, 2005, Monday This past week saw sunshine, a gray overcast sky occasionally spitting bits of snow or sleet, a freezing wind, gail force wind and sand, but it was a great week. Our photography show opening at the Lubbock Arts Alliance went well. My website is approaching its 40,000th visitor. I am enjoying the emails and feedback. The oil well is drilling along and is doing fine. So far this trip around the sun has been good!


January 7, 2005, Friday It was another beautiful evening in West Texas and we had a very nice opening for the Caprock Photographers exhibit at the Lubbock Arts Alliance.. The First Friday Art Trail appears to be taking hold and hopefully will continue to grow. It was nice to see a lot of friends who came out to see our photography. To the right is one of my images that I have hanging in the exhibit, Mondsuchtig II.


January 1-2, 2005, Saturday, Sunday One more candle and a trip around the sun. Well, we are now on our way on another trip around the sun. My New Year's Resolution for 2005 is to complete (one way or another) at least half of the projects (43) I have in progress before I begin another one. We will see how long that lasts, but I truly am sincere. Just enjoy this ride ... on my trip around the sun.

2004 Art Note High Lights.


December 31, 2004, Friday Well, like I always say .... life is just a Jimmy Buffett song .... This year gone by ain’t been a piece of cake. .....just another candle and a trip around the sun. There’s one thing I’ve learned from all this living ... it wouldn’t change a thing if I let go. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.


December 12, 2004, Sunday Two beautiful days in a row. I had wanted to go to the field today, but it didn't work out. I spent most of the day working on my paleo research. I didn't hear if they moved the drilling rig in today as planned. I hope they are turning to the right by daybreak tomorrow. I spent part of the day photographing sketches for the Tuesday Night Life Drawers for an upcoming exhibit. To the right is one of Künstler's 15 minute drawings. Busy day tomorrow. The beginning of the annual "Death Week". Final exams tomorrow also.


October 5, 2004, Tuesday It was nice to take a break from paleo this evening and go to our Tuesday Night Life Drawing group. We had a wonderful model and made some very nice drawings. We missed the debate; however, personally I think my time was better spent. Now I have to finish some drawing of several paleo specimens. Not nearly as interesting. Before long I need to start shooting some more photos for two exhibits coming up in December and January. I have about three quarters of my images finished. I just need to finish out my portfolio.


September 14, 2004, Tuesday I stopped by Prichard's Sports Grill on the way to drawing to visit with Lesley Sawyer and watch her and Andy Wilkinson perform. Not to slight the other performers but Lesley and Andy are friends. It was a very enjoyable performance with Lesley, Andy Wilkinson, Amanda Shires, and Kenny Maines. All were excellent. It was good to see Lesley and it had been too long since I had heard her sing. I know a friend in Arizona who is going to be jealous when I tell her how good Lesley's voice sounded when she sang Passionate Kisses. It had been too long since I had heard Andy also. I don't know why but it brought back memories of when I did the television commercial / info-mercial photographing the original Dixie Chicks (pre - Natalie Maines, and yes, they are related). ...................


August 3, 2004, Tuesday The past week has been very busy (and interesting) photographing Pre-Columbian artifacts. It has been exciting with our numerous paleo finds. So, it was nice to be able to go to the life drawing group tonight and relax. Although you don't have much time to relax when drawing one minute poses. After the short poses, the five minute poses seemed very long. The remainder of the evening was spent prepping fossils, working on a manuscript, and thinking of what I am going to do for a self-portrait for our December exhibit.


July 6, 2004, Tuesday It was a stormy evening in West Texas. I spent my Tuesday as usual, photographing a model, as you see to the right. I spent much of the 4th of July weekend working on Triassic dinosaur teeth, working on manuscripts, drawings, and prepping some aetosaur scutes. I did spend long enough in the pool to get a bit sunburned. The rains during the past three days in my research area may make for a promising expedition this weekend. ... Changes in latitude, changes in attitude, nothing remains the same. Some things change, even after 26 years, 3 months, and 2 days. Although I will not post a photo, to answer the multitude of inquiries I received as to what the change was ............... believe it or not ...... my beard got shaved!!! I know this is a shock ......... since even my daughter has never seen my face shaved.


July 2, 2004, Friday Yesterday there was another beautiful evening in West Texas. The full moon rose just south of a large thunderhead that was putting on a beautiful display of lightning in the twilight. Earlier in the evening we had photographed a Texas horned lizard in the light of the setting sun. We didn't photograph the tarantula (I still don't like spiders). ... Changes in latitude, changes in attitude, nothing remains the same. Some things change, even after 26 years, 3 months, and 2 days.


June 8, 2004, Tuesday It was a beautiful evening in West Texas after a very busy few weeks. The next few weeks appear like they may even be busier. It was nice to be back on my normal Tuesday night schedule. It was the second time (March 30) I had photographed the model I was working with tonight. As she did last time, she hit some very nice poses and I made some very nice images.


May 9, 2004, Sunday It has been a long, long, enjoyable week as I am house sitting while Carlos and Liz Jordan are gone. A bit reminiscent of another Jimmy Buffett song, Gypsies in the Palace: A full moon on the caprock on Tuesday, enjoying the pool and good company the rest of the week, paleo field trip on Saturday, enjoying the pool and good company on Sunday and Monday, ... "the order of the sleepless knights".


May 4, 2004, Tuesday It was another absolutely beautiful day in West Texas. The wild flowers were outstanding (although I didn't have time to photograph them, we did notice and enjoy them). Instead of my normal Tuesday schedule, tonight was a full moon so a beautiful woman and I went down on the caprock. First we shot some photos down in the canyons where the young lady found a piece of a metoposaur clavicle. We had found phytosaur material there before but never any metoposaur material. Then we went back up on top the caprock and prepared for the moonrise. There weren't any clouds or good colors in the sky for a sunset, so I concentrated on the moonrise which occurred about the same time as the sunset. The moon came up a beautiful orange (I made some color photos and pinhole photos too). We enjoyed a beautiful evening on the caprock shooting photographs, although the mosquitos were a bit pesky. Our last photos were at almost 10:00 pm as the moon continued to climb in the clear sky. The latter ones were for reference photos for some Wilhelm Künstler artwork.


April 25, 2004, Sunday It was another beautiful day in West Texas, for a while, then we had almost hurricane force winds and dust blowing (ah.... to live in West Texas!). I spent most of the weekend working on my paleo research and helping Wilhelm Künstler with some of his sculpture and jewelry projects. My scheduled photo shoot on the caprock today was post-poned, so I went back to plan A. I made a wonderful image for the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day with the help of a beautiful young lady.


April 10, 2004, Saturday It was a cold, winter day in West Texas (I know, grammatically, west should not be capitalized in west Texas; however, this is ... West Texas). Plans were to go to an art opening tonight; however, I ended up working on my own art and some reference work for Wilhelm Künstler. I did the reference work for several of Künstler's sculptures (the first of which will hopefully be unveiled at an art event by Carlos Jordan this coming July). Künstler will have to get busy to finish these and his new jewelry by then. I have been working on my pinhole camera series getting in practice for the upcoming Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.


March 9, 2004, Tuesday Some people claim there's a woman to blame, but I know, it's my own damn fault. Yep, life is just a Jimmy Buffett song. The way things are going, maybe I should write Mr. Buffett a song or two! I missed the full moon Saturday. I saw it rise just after an evening storm and rainbow as I was moving a load of fossils. I HAVE to get rid of more of my rocks and fossils! I have donated a couple of tons of them and have another ton to go. Tonight I only shot digital images of the young lady. Anyway, back to the fossils. At the right you can see some of the stuff at my house including several ammonites (Permian, Jurassic, Cretaceous) including one with hollow chambers; a hadrosaur jaw, phytosaur maxilla, Cretaceous turtle, Prorichthofenia teguliferoides, Permian silicified ferns. The Museum of Texas Tech has received some of my collection already, including a new genus and species of aetosaur, a juvenile Typothorax, ammonites (including topotypes) and a rudistid colony for their "Dino Hall", and assorted other specimens. My invert stuff is primarily going elsewhere. At one time I had over 4,000 species cataloged in my collection. It is dwindling fast.


January 1, 2004, Thursday. Dawn found me up and working this morning. I had made my New Year's resolution to procrastinate less and focus on completing the projects I have going. You will find I have scheduled fewer exhibits this year as I do not know how much time my research is going to take. After my morning shower I saw something that I thought symbolized the end of the year. It was an interesting image of a dead peace lily and I thought it would be appropriate to make it my first photograph for 2004. Now I have to go help Künstler work on a sculpture he is wanting to cast next week. May you all have a happy and prosperous new year.

2003 Art Note High Lights


November 30, 2003, Sunday. Too much driving for the holidays! The weather was nice, ate too much good food. Enjoyed visiting with lots of nice, interesting people. Did get to do some birding and wildlife photography at Brazos Bend down near the coast. Photographed a few alligators (right), Gallinula chloropus (Common Gallinule), Eudocimus albus (White Ibis), Anhinga anhinga (Anhinga), Coragyps atratus (Black Vulture), and many more. Saw some interesting tree frogs also, blue & black, I hadn't seen before!


October 03, 2003, Friday. Well, I am back in "action" after my angiogram. However, a number of my friends have expressed concern about my health and their concern over my photography in my "condition". Therefore, I have tempered their concerns. Since they are concerned my photography of nudes might be too much.........today I photographed a Russian candelabra. Tuesday I go back to photographing nudes. After all, I have a commission to do next Friday with a nude on the caprock with a full moon. I have to gear up. Since many of the males in my family die in the third week of December doing what they enjoy, I don't have to worry about photographing nudes until then. Ich dein.


September 16, 2003, Tuesday. Fall was in the air. It was a beautiful evening. After working on my dissertation proposal all week it was nice to relax and do some photography. I had photographed the model previously (see July 15) and she is an excellent subject. Her lithe figure, beautiful skin, and beauty make photographing her easy. We have to schedule a shoot down in the canyons before the weather turns too cold.


September 9, 2003, Tuesday. The evening on the caprock was nowhere near as beautiful as the young woman I was with, and the evening was absolutely beautiful. We spent the earlier part of the evening hiking and looking at various photographic backgrounds, cacti, and wildlife. The evening became a bit more breezy towards sunset; however, that worked well with the photographs we made. The sun was supposed to set within minutes of the rise of the full moon. Clouds obliterated the sunset but we were able to make some images in the full moon with a little cloud cover and then the sky cleared. It was an beautiful moonlit evening until we left the caprock about 10 pm.


August 23, 2003, Saturday. The morning was beautiful. It was cool even without a breeze. I was planning to go out to see if I could find any images that might any last minute images that might "round out" my portfolio for the exhibit Quintessentially Texas which opens next Friday. There had been thundershowers in the area the previous evening so I went to check out my research area. I found a metoposaurus skull with the orbit and part of the skull exposed. At this time, it also appears to be Metoposaurus bakeri. I uncovered enough to see that more is there than was exposed and it needs to be jacketed. I collected a few other individual specimens at various sites and found two new sites. Then I headed north for the ranch where I frequently photograph. The only subject I had in mind for that ranch was a black widow spider. They were common in one of the canyons. I got lucky and found an excellent specimen who was having lunch.


July 8, 2003, Tuesday. The Italian/Spanish young lady with the exotic eyes who modeled for me on May 27 was modeling for me again. She was very pleased with the results of our first session. This time I used a white background which really accented her tan skin I photographed her in a number of excellent poses with three different black and white films, digital images and I shot a couple of pinhole photographs also.


June 26, 2003, Thursday. Shortly after rising this morning the wind began to blow. A little before six am the lightning began to crash and the wind began to reach gail force. Then the hail began to thrash the vegetation outside and a torrential downpour followed. By 7:30 am we had received over two inches of rain and the streets were beginning to flood. I had a friend who was coming over to model at 8:30. We were going to shoot some images with the sun filtering through the grapevines accenting the curves of her body. With her expecting her child in less than a month she had lots of curves to accent. With the rain we didn't have the sunlight to work with in the garden so we worked in the studio on bodyscapes. Then just before noon in the garden the overcast skies provided beautiful, soft lighting for creating some wonderful images. It was a very cool day for West Texas in late June with the temperature barely reaching 60 by noon. The light was beautiful and my friend bravely tolerated the cold so we could create the images.


May 15, 2003, Thursday. The shoot had been planned for two months. Risky business when you are dealing with Texas weather. The skies were gray most of the day but began clearing a bit as my model and I headed out to the caprock along the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado. We were planning to shoot some figure studies with the full moon rising in the background. The moon was scheduled to rise within minutes of the sun setting. Unfortunately, the clouds did not co-operate. So we put the backup plan into action and shot some nice images along the edge of the caprock. The warm breeze was nice on the overcast afternoon. We shot some photographs of her lying on a large log and then we hiked into the canyons. We went to a beautifully sculpted badlands area. I placed her on an outcrop (where we found a number of Triassic reptile bone fragments). A bit of sun came out just before sunset giving beautiful highlights to my model's figure as you see at right. We headed back to the top of the caprock to prepare for the sunset/moonrise. (At right you see an image from our previous moonrise shoot. Then the sun went back behind the clouds hiding the sunset from us. Only drab grays remained. The moon was high and it was almost dark when the moon came out from behind the clouds. We had a good evening of shooting so we relaxed, opened a bottle of wine, sat back and enjoyed the beauty of the evening. In the calm quiet, we watched the slow lunar eclipse as a few scattered clouds rapidly sped by the face of the moon.

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