1984

These paintings I'm working on are hilarious.

I've decided I'm going to reach back in time to my teenage years and dredge up the worst of it all, all the mullets, the frosty blue eyeliner, the fat mean Hull hoodsie girls, the MC Hammer pants, all that John Waters type of stuff that made me think Columbine thoughts.

It's painful if you are the geek or freak at school, but when you grow up, and even before then, you should find the good and the humor in it. Consider it a blessing that the "norms" have singled you out. That means there's hope for you after all, that you might be the one to contribute something original and meaningful to our kind, that you will be the one who won't be doomed to a life of subdivisons, minivans, the grey office cube and watching Friends reruns.

It's not enough to merely exist. Bill Gates, Tim Burton, Lance Armstrong, think of all the geeks (yes, Lance was a geek, he didn't even get invited to his class reunion in white-bread super-suburban Plano TX) who have contributed something meaningful and inspiring.

When you realize they hate you because you are good, it may be shocking, but use it to your advantage. You have the edge, now use it!

These paintings will be about how we let culture, clothes and hair define us, how it separates those who "belong" from those who don't, and how those who "belong" are actually afraid of those who don't. It carries over from adolescence and our petty concerns about style and appearances into our adult lives and our obsessive desire to still be one of "them" through the same exact things.

You are not your job. You are not your khakis. Or, are you?


"There's safety in numbers
When you learn to divide
How can we be in, if there is no outside?"

I Am Dilbert. Hear Me Moan.

Finally. A week home to do office work. O Joy. I have so much to catch up on. They gave me a laptop to use for office work while I travel, and as soon as I get it just how I want it, the screen goes black. So all the important stuff I gotta do just has to wait until now. My inbox is stuffed to the gills. And this Dilbert-speak is making me ill.

The phone they gave me can't make calls unless you stand near a window. My first batch of biz cards said "Regional Mananger". They didn't believe me that it was spelled wrong so I had to scan the damn thing and send it to them! Everyday new rules, mandates, conventions, whatever you call it...are changed back and forth. I have no job description. They tell me...stay home. They tell me... we need this done, go do it! They tell me...we don't want you working weekends or nights. Then they send me an URGENT email after 7 on Friday night saying they need this or that by Monday at 9 am.

This will be a good week. I can catch up and get a grip. Plus, I've got 4 new paintings I'm working on that I can do in between breaks.

I'm not completely sold on Kerry. Maybe it's the pallor of leftism that the Bush camp has accused him of. That he's some sort of extremist with ties to socialist or even communist groups. They've accused Theresa of that already. They accuse every Dem that they are just steps away from being a dancing, singing, pinko-commie bastard.

What strikes me as odd is that the Bush administration is extremist to a degree we haven't seen since the mindset of the 50's or the cold war. The reglious right has been vying for this power to influence the direction of our country and they have found the ticket in George W. Bush. Anyone else....moderate Dems, Libertarians like myself, Independents, moderate anything, even though we comprise a large part of this society we are being left in the cold.

Jimmy Carter...now there's a good Christian if I ever saw one. If I read the New Testament, and I have, and wanted just one living example of how to live my life according to that faith, I would look to Jimmy Carter. He's got the Jesus message dead on. He's been loving his neighbors and working for peace his entire life. And he is against Bush, and judging from his speech during the convention, has fear about another 4 years of him.

So do I.