Minneapolis, I am a Compositionalist - Goodby and thanks for the dreams.

Today I am leaving my adopted home town of Minneapolis, MN.  My beautiful wife Athena ( of Such Good Dogs :)  ) and I have decided to try and live our dreams.  Athena wanted to become a professional dog trainer, and I wanted to become a professional artist.  We are now the people we have always wanted to be, and knowing that, we understand how much more we can become.      


Both of us have had the pleasure of truly knowing some of the coolest people in this city.  We both would not be the people we are without the true friendships we have built here in Minneapolis.  We love you all, and we are very sad to leave you.  Albeit, we are family, and we will never simply leave you behind.  Our home is yours.

I moved to Minneapolis in the fall of 1996 to become an artist.
This is my last oil painting I will complete in Minneapolis.  It is meaningful to me if only for that reason.  During the last 17 years I taught myself how to oil paint anything I want, anything my mind can see.  I have total control of my medium, and with that I am able to truly use my philosophy to communicate through the aesthetics of composition.  Now I am going to speak my mind.

 My current paint pallet.

A portion of my current subject matter.

BitTorrent #13  "Penitent Magdelene"

Thanks Minneapolis, I have been able to live the life of interesting dreams.  For everything you have given me, I am continually grateful.  I should be arriving in Maui, Hawaii in a few hours.  Athena and I are going to build a beautiful life together...a life of happiness and productivity in our chosen fields.  

Minneapolis, I am a Compositionalist - Goodby and thanks for the dreams...

...Maui, Hawaii here we come, welcoming the challenge.

Artwork of the month: Married Life.

Married life is a big deal to me, being a new husband and wanting my marriage to be successful I tend to look at couples in happy marriages hat have lasted a very long time and wonder.  Everyone has a different view on what makes a marriage a success.  For me, I want to be able to always improve the quality of our lives as a couple, and to simply maintain our happiness.  That said I want to show you a work of art that I see as comedy, and brilliance.

The painting "Married Life" by Roger de la Fresnaye, depicts a man reading the paper smoking a pipe with his naked wife around his arm.  That being how the artist views marriage is funny, seriously funny, and I am sure that artist laughed at it.  If you can't see the humor in that I can not help you.  Oddly, this painting has had a profound impact on my compositional choices over the last 10 years.  I truly admire the composition, the placement and bend of the objects, and the line work on the figures.  it is a strong cubist work, and I'll bet the artist was proud of his little joke.  "Married Life" is hanging out at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on permanent display.  I have been lucky enough to be able to spend a great amount of time studying this work.  

Roger de la Fresnaye

French, 1885-1925

"Married Life"

1912, oil on canvas

I am a husband...

...it is the best decision I have ever made.

My grandfathers drafting table

My grandfather Greg was an engineer, a problem solver for Honeywell.  In his spare time he did fine woodworking.  Pop built clocks, most of the furniture in his house, tools to do things he needed, and he designed it all.

This drafting table is one of his designs and it has been mine for the last 15 years.  

I use it for everything.

Its height is adjustable from 36 inches and it can extend to 60 inches tall.  Making it comfortable to work on sitting in a chair, a tall stool or standing.  I do most of my work on it these days standing.

The bottom of the legs are held by peg braces so it is easy to disassemble.

The adjustments are made by simple bolts and fly nuts.

                

The top can rotate its angle almost 180% and adjust to be flipped completely for working on complicated and tight compositions.  

His brother Rodney passed on a few years ago and I got his drafting tools.  This drafting arm is perfect for design and basic drafting.  I used it mainly for laying out tricky compositional elements when I wanted forms to coincide with one another.

I love this drafting table...

...I will be used until I die.

Today I am getting Married!

Today, February 29th, 2012 leap-day,

I am going to be Married to Athena A. Capen.  

(I pre-wrote this and had it scheduled to post today.)

My life is vastly different with Athena in it.  You may have heard this and just rolled your eyes, but I am twice the man now because of her.  In fact, I actually see myself as a man now.  I love Athena, she is beautiful, well educated, and completely herself.  

Athena is my best friend, we do everything together. 

Athena is completely loyal.

Athena is honest to me and all the world, she has nothing to hide and no regrets about who she is.

Athena is absolutely beautiful beyond words.  

She is tough, don't mess with her or she'll kill you.

Athena supports my career as an artist, loves my work, and is not afraid to tell me when she doesn't like what I am working on.

She stands behind my decisions in life, as I do hers.

Together we have been through personal tragedy, hard financial times, and of course way more good times than bad.  I have more good memories of the last 4 years than I can post in a single blog.  Through everything we have seen, we always came out on top, our relationship always was strengthened, and our understanding of who we are and what we are capable of increased.  

I am probably standing in front of my family and friends right now putting a ring on Athena's finger.

This is Athena, the woman I am getting married to as you read this.

At times she is an intergalactic gangster.

...she makes a pretty bad-ass princess Leia...

Chris (my best man), Athena and Philip.

Athena is a dog trainer, and she is good at what she does.  Her love for dogs, giving them the best life possible, and getting them to do cool stuff astounds me every time our pups know a new trick.  I have no idea how she does it.

Here she is on her last birthday, we went to her favorite restaurant, had her favorite drinks, and ate her favorite food.  I am not telling any of you where her favorite place is, it's silly american food and decor. 

Here we are at the State fair.  Its only fun when I go with her.

yep, you guessed it, the butterfly tent.

Athena is almost has the wingspan of an eagle... 

...or a trumpeter swan.

My vows to you:

I will do my very best to always make us happy...

...to always work to improve the quality of our life...

...as together we build a life based on our love and carefulness for one another.

Getting married to you is the coolest decision I have made to date.

Right now as you read this I am getting married.

Then I am off to my honeymoon...  

...I will see you all in a few weeks.