more from the land of sketchmania. So, I was sitting here, minding my own business, watching my Acrobat distiller reject all the postscript files that I fired it's way and the phone rang. It was Don Ivan Punchatz from Dallas. I had sent Don a short thank you for the hard work he did in putting together the panel of artists and illustrators to share their work, impressions and life with us during the week in Fort Worth. I also included the first Memento Mori books which he LIKED and was very encouraging to continue with this. He went on to tell me about a series of illustrations he created as a direct outflow from being diagnosed with stomach cancer and the entire, intense treatment program he went through to come out the other end to health. So, my plan is to send him another go round (book two) and he was going to share with me those cancer driven images. He told me about a former student, a fast burning star,who has made a career of these basic, black and white images with skeletons as a central image...that is an inspiration, a Jean Michel Basquiat type of star. Don is very interesting, supportive and truly a nuturing teacher who shares, and shares and shares. His reach is wide and his kindness and arts headset is distinct and uncommon. He is a delight...and I hope we can continue the conversation. I love it that both of us drew our way out of confusion...and fear....

We took a marshy walk on the adjacent property...filled with water, mud, birds and lots of wild privet hedges. A bit of an eye opener relative to what this piece of land looks like, functions like. More later>>