September 14, 2002
Waited at the TW office all morning for the holiday issue to arrive from Kansas City, but it never arrived. Later found out Fed Ex dosen’t deliver on Saturday. There went a half a day.

I had high hopes for art this weekend. Wanted to do studies in felt tip pen, quick, vigorous drawings. I did do some quick washes yesterday, copying a John Singer Sargent painting of Teddy Roosevelt. Got some good loose washes going, then stifled it with my damn skin tone overpainting. It is so maddening. I end up just using the tube of “flesh tone” and some red and it’s so bush and one-dimmensional. I’ve got to get past that.

Scenes’ I want to produce today and tomorrow:
• Craig Hamilton’s “Church of The Outdoors” column scene
• Lewis & Clark, collage for opening spread
• 11 scenes for Kierland Commons Hotel
• Gunfight at The OK Corral overview for April issue
• Minnie Hauan as a young woman
• Spanish Kiss (for article on myths of the border)
• Cole Younger in prison and in the rain

And, of course, I did none of the above. Went to the grocery store on Sunday and Target (got extension cords to recharge battery on ‘49 Ford, $16 house debit). Came home and made an Italian meal, spagetti and wine, then Kathy and I watched the premier of “The Sopranos.” Really enjoyed it. Went to bed and read about Van Gogh. Both he and his brother Theo died of complications from syphilis. Ouch! How much of Vincent’s genius was from cognitive effort (more than I think is popularly believed) and how much came from either a conscious overriding of his brain and getting to a semi-unconcious state, or did the disease and the absinth take him there? That is the question. I would prefer to believe the former, but my suspicions won’t discount the latter. In other words, about half, which makes me a damn Halfist. I’ll explain later.