dispatches from the edge of madness.

Well, not too much madness anyway. I think the medication has kept my cabin fever at bay for the time but we are fast approaching one week of having been wrapped up however, that's getting close.

Here's a quick update; the surgery went well, I have a couple anchors in top of my humerus and hopefully this will hold everything together. For the most part I've been sleeping, playing Worms on wifi (and destroying my competition) and drinking through a straw. I'm fully capable of drinking like an adult but let's face it -- straws are fun.

That, and getting some cards. They are pretty awesome so I thought I'd share them with you :

By Justin and my fellow Portland workers.
We always joke about getting a gorilla arm for me.
____________________________________

By neighbor and friend Andrew Ramos.
Who knows how badly I want a Terminator arm.

____________________________________

I've gotten some movement back in my arm. My hand I can move and my wrist I can move but I can't move my arm too well, not much up or to the side. You may rest assured I am working on that.

All that to say work on Grimm and Other Folk Tales has paused a few days (as planned, I built recovery into my time budget) I've gotten all my work together and I shot all of my reference before surgery and completed all of my 4 in x 5 in thumbnails and color-comped them.

As soon as I can move my arm just enough...

Under the knife.

Seeking to reconcile myself to the fact that I am going to have surgery on my shoulder (again) tomorrow, I have worked on a piece this morning depicting my situation in abstract terms.

Behold :

the rough

the pencil

the final

* * *

Critical analysis contributed by a famous and reputable museum curator :

"One could imagine that the 'Troll Woman' represents 'The Doctor' or indeed 'Surgery' itself.

"The small figure in the foreground hides behind a vase of flowers, flowers clearly representing both happiness and ice cream cones while at the same expressing the small figure's love of classic video games. Obviously the 'figure' is trying to hide itself behind 'art and love' and yet while the figure hides, he peeks around the corner signifying his awareness of the 'Troll' or 'Surgery.' We know the figure must be cognizant of the approaching Troll and yet he does not run.

"The Troll Woman brandishes a long, wooden board with a nail, the nail could be interpreted as 'piercing' possibly leading one to believe that perhaps the 'Troll' does not represent 'Surgery' so much as the nail does.

"If one follows this thought through to the logical conclusion, the 'Troll' is in actuality a benevolent force; horrifying in its practice yet quite a necessary element in the piece.

"The nail, harsh in it's force is hammered with precision, clean in it's stab and pierce.

"The piece calls for us, as all great art does, to pause a moment and reflect; reflect on the nail and pray that this time it holds."

dislocate!

Hey everyone, just a quick note here to up date you -- I dislocated my shoulder again (for the seventh time) right before Christmas. It's getting better but each time it comes out it hurts like a knife and takes a few weeks to get back to mostly regular. So, that's where I've been.

Mostly I played the Zelda on the game boy as I sat in the corner fuming over my shoulder. I get cabin fever something terrible when I'm contained in that sling. But I beat Zelda. Ten years to the day that I got the game for Christmas. So there is that.


Well! All that to say thanks for stopping by, more to come.

Happy New Year.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who helped out Erin with voting -- she won 3rd! I'll get together a drawing for a drawing in the next few days and announce the winner. Thanks again to everyone who helped!

magic tricks and baby ducklings in a sparkling land of birthday parties

But I saved the birthday cake. And the ducklings are very grateful and the train swinging poachers are behind bars.

Ducklings.

Ducklings....

Or were they koala bears.

...

I have a magic trick. I can do it at parties, I can do it at weddings, I can do it anywhere.

I can even do the trick under the house in the crawl space, which is where I was this time.

My total magic trick count to date is six.

Six times I've performed this incredible trick.

Six times I've dislocated my shoulder.

Magic.

Colorado, dislocated

The Garden of the Gods

My shoulder is curious device, spasmodically dislocating having then to be realigned by a certified technician at a local E.R. Things are even more problematic when I am in Colorado in a swimming pool.

I had been just fine for near 12 months. As far as I could tell, the surgery had worked and everything was just fine. As I was to find out later when talking with my surgeon, in all his years of practice, close to 20, he had only ever had a shoulder he had operated on come back out of joint again once before; and that guy was playing football. I'm just lucky. When my shoulder comes out, it's another week before I can move it at all. It's like all strength evaporates. I've got a friend, Justin, who's left shoulder hyperextends/dislocates and he can throw his back in. It hurts like Charles Dickens but he's alright. Mine is just nuts. It comes out and the ball of the joint is next to my ribs. It just drops down and I can't put it back in. This particular time in CO, I had the doctors try to put it back in without any medication to keep the cost low. They tried it twice and the joint simply would not go. I opened my eyes and all I saw was blue. Finally after much medication and relaxers, they got it in. Then we went camping.

Brannon, a park worker, the Mighty Jeff, and me confronted with raw nature at high altitudes.

Chris, Jeff, Cate, Brannon, me, Jamin, and Mel.
Moments later I hurled my Nalgene off the face of the cliff to see if it would break. They kept their word.


Mel (Jamin's wife) me, & Chris somewhere in Denver.

Me, Brannon, & Chris. I lost my flashlight that you see there.
Now in the Rockies. And I carried my pack myself I am pleased to say.

* * *

Pre-dislocation fun in the room. That's a travel pillow on my head.