My latest little abstract Black & Blue, 6x6", acrylic and pencil on Ampersand Gessoboard. Its the first time I've painted on the Ampersand boards and I really like the surface. Its a little smoother than I'm used to, but not slick at all. Had a nice feel when moving the paint across the surface. Yay!

I took this photo peeking out from under an overhang. The sun was overexposed, but in the eye of the refraction you can see the beginning of the eclipse!

A friend of mine from Fort Collins sent me this photo. During the eclipse, these were the shadows cast by leaves on a chair in his backyard. So instead of Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, how about a little Cat Stevens' Moon Shadow: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0rDW5j1KU

Actually, this is a photo of "a formally attired audience sporting 3D glasses attending the opening night screening of 'Bwana Devil', the 1st full-length 3-D motion picture at the Paramount Theater on November 26, 1952."

 The Denver Post newspaper turned 125 yesterday. Its first edition published August 8th, 1892. The newspaper industry has always been a turbulent one. And it was no different when I was there doing graphic arts from 1996 to 2009. Amazingly, for 1/10th of its history! The biggest story while I was there was the downing of New York's World Trade Towers in 2001. Also impactful that same year was the creation of the joint operating agreement that allowed the 'merger' of the Post and the Rocky Mountain News. I took the photo of the new building above, the merging of the rectangle and the arc symbolized the combining of the two papers creating the Denver Newspaper Agency. Typically mergers are good for companies and not their employees. The buyouts and layoffs began, and accelerated when the housing market tanked along with the economy. Alas, The Rocky having lost the newspaper war, never recovered and folded in 2009, less than two months shy of its 150th anniversary. Over 400 were laid off, including myself. Still, I have a lot of good memories, like the time I met Woody Paige, I walked into the men's room and there was the big guy in his blue pinstriped suit. He had just been hit in the face with a cream pie on his TV program! All in all, it was a good experience at the Post/Rocky/DNA, and the layoff allowed me to shift into doing more painting. Always a silver lining, which is what I hope for for the Post. Check out this Westword article from last year: 
http://www.westword.com/news/can-the-denver-post-survive-its-hedge-fund-owners-8348203

Happy 141st birthday! Colorado, the Centennial State, came into the union on August 1st, 1876. President Ulysses S. Grant signed Proclamation 230 admitting us as the 38th state. In honor of the occasion, I'm posting a plein air oil painting I did years ago of Guanella Pass near Georgetown at an elevation of 11,669 ft. (3557 m.) Alas, the image is a photo of a photo, but you can still see that purple mountains majesty thing going on! 'Tis a privilege to live in Colorado!