Okay, 10 of my Raven Paintings are now flying around the dining room at Chocolate, the Restaurant on Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA.    They'll be on display through December if you are out and about, otherwise, visit my Raven Page.   

I've been communicating with the Cornel School of Ornithology about all things Ravens, and they have provided me with some interesting information:  since 1970, the Raven population has increased over 7000%!  That's a staggering figure!   They attribute this to our human population growing, producing more accessible garbage, and as the Ravens are scavengers, they are taking advantage.  I also wonder if the removal of using DDT has contributed.  Around the same time, our local brown pelican population was in danger of extinction as DDT was prevalent in our environment and was causing the pelican eggs to be too soft to produce viable young.  Since ridding our environment of the DDT, the brown pelicans have come back mightily.

Regardless, ravens are taking over our entire west coast - and it is a bit ominous in my book....thus my paintings.

After years of participating in Open Studios, I have come to believe the Open Studios Goddess demands a blood sacrifice every year. 

 
In my earliest years, this would usually occur during the framing process while cutting mats, now having lost count of the number of sliced fingers I’ve suffered.  These sacrifices of course happened when a new, very sharp Exacto blade had been installed.  Nothing but the best for the Goddess!  If I managed to NOT bleed on a white mat, I was happy.  My left index finger suffered slices on the outside edge while holding a straightedge - that little side pad just hanging over a bit.  Not a biggie - just rinse with hydrogen peroxide, goop with a little dab of betadine ointment, and tape it together.  Amazing how these things heal!  I’m beginning to think my index finger is like a starfish, regenerating a new appendage when needed.  I am now extra cautious with my blades (and fingers). 

 
This hasn’t kept the Goddess from extracting blood, though, with sharp glass edges abounding, frayed hanging wires (Boy!  Those ends are pokey!), and lethal wood splinters.  So okay, this year, I made it through most of the matting process without slicing off a body part. The OS Goddess took note, and waited patiently until I was removing staples from an old frame, lost my grip on the dang staple, and skewered the pad of my thumb with the needle nose pliers.  They’re called “needle nose” for a reason.  My old tube of betadine ointment is almost gone.  Plenty of peroxide and bandaids, though. My sacrifice for this year has been extracted in full.

A woman asks her husband, 'Would you like some bacon and eggs for breakfast? A slice of toast and maybe some grapefruit and coffee?' He declines. 'Thanks for asking, but I'm not hungry right now. It's this Viagra,' he says. 'It's really taken the edge off my appetite.'

At lunchtime she asked if he would like something. 'A bowl of soup, homemade muffins, or a cheese sandwich?'

He declines. 'The Viagra,' he says, 'really trashes my desire for food.'

Come dinner time, she asks if he wants anything to eat.

'Would you like a juicy steak and scrumptious apple pie? Or maybe a rotisserie chicken or tasty stir fry?'

He declines again. 'No,' he says, 'it's got to be the Viagra... I'm still not hungry.'

'Well,' she says, 'Would you mind letting me up? I'm fucking starving!'

I love to share humor.  If I see something that makes me laugh, I will share it with you.  I used to send out email jokes to several hundred people each day.  And now that is a bit spotty, so I thought I'd try sharing humor & art via my Blog.  Please be warned that much of the humor I love is not politically correct, often it is down and dirty.  If you are easily offended, you probably don't want to subscribe to my blog. 

I will not blog cute baby or pet photos, unless they are so funny I've wet my pants laughing.

A joke a day keeps the doctor away!