Saturday is my birthday. I will be 32 years old. Yesterday morning I had one of my "mortality attacks" which is what I call it when I am suddenly struck by the realization of the thin line that we skirt by being alive. "Death is a mere foot fall away" as someone once said. I then went out to my car and found a dead cat in the yard. A sign? Where am I going with this? Don't worry I am not depressed, quite the opposite. I am finding real enjoyment with my life. Hard work has at last become a fullfillment to me.I watched the rest of the Andy Warhol documentary and was struck that if I had been 19 I might have bought into its glorification of Warhol's genious, as it is I am too old and have made and sold art for too long to believe the hype. If you want to be fullfilled in this life then you had better start enjoying work, thats the true genious of Warhol, he was a hard worker.

Here is a little before and after. I told you this work is like peeling an onion. First we were just going to move the door to the bathroom, then we decided to enlarge it, then I ripped out the tile, and finally we decided we might as well gut the whole dang thing. The tub was unbelievably heavy; I bet it weighs 300lbs. I wrestled that thing for hours, and decided that they must have built the whole room around it. I finally got it out of the bathroom and thought I would never be able to get it back in. Shannon and I began pricing Fiberglas tubs, but we both agreed that it would be a shame not to use this cast iron beauty. Through lots of strategic planning, mathematics, geometry, and brute force we managed to get it back in and its beautiful.

Did anyone see the Any Warhol documentary on PBS? I really enjoyed it.

This is a picture of the dog that came with the house. His name is either Chopper or Harley we are not sure which. The previous owner left him with the neighbor but apparently forgot to tell him.

I am starting to feel like everything is breaking down. My wrists are hurting, they have been bad ever since my skateboard days when I broke the right one doing a jump from one ramp into another and set it myself by grabbing and squeezing. My broken break light came on in my truck so I made time on Saturday to change the pads which looked like they were about to turn to dust. Our computer was not working last night which made me feel really tired. After work my broken break light came on again and I figured out that I had a break line leak. This time I left it to the professionals to fix because I am really tired. I am considering gutting our bathroom a little further because I could not get the floor as level as I wanted.

Busy hands are happy hands.

Just because I am working on a house does not mean that I am slacking on my paintings. This piece, along with another is on its way to Ferrin Gallery. I like the way my collage work is going. They are larger than the last group, I have more antique books to draw from, and the frames are much more elaborate. I sold one of the pieces that I sent to the Harrison Center In Indianapolis. The show is called Schooled and has works about...uh, school. I wish I could have gone to the opening, but I have house work to do.

The big "vacation" remodel is almost over, one day left. I have done so much, pulled all the paneling out, gutted the kitchen, the bathroom, refinished floors, plastered the ceilings, refinished a bead-board ceiling, reinforced the floor, and much much more. Tomorrow is Shannon's birthday and I have not gotten her anything yet. I need a vacation.

Here is a little before and after. This house is like peeling an onion, one room leads right to the next. I had originaly planned to do the kitchen and bathroom in phase two, but one thing lead to the next and now I have gutted the whole thing. The kitchen floor had two layers of vinyl under white tile. Pulling up that floor took everything I had. Today I did some framing to make a walk-in closet and widen the bathroom. I found that the seal on the toilet was broken and had been leaking for perhaps years causing floor rot, I gutted it down to the sub-floor, an unexpected turn for the day.

I have been working super hard at gutting our new house. The realtor came by the day after we bought it to give us a key and take down the for sale sign; she was shocked at all I had already done. We closed on the house at noon and by 3:00pm I had one room gutted. I have pictures, but left my camera at the house. I'll post some images soon. This house has at least three layers of plastic, shag and muck on top of original beauty. I am working morning to night peeling back the layers to reveal things like hardwood floors, beadboard ceilings, and handmade cabinets. I really love this kind of work. I have realized that I am truly motivated by beauty. Money is not enough for me to want to work hard, I need a project that I can truly get behind and then I will really crank it out.