Tag: FMSphotoaday

April Photo A Day: Detail

This is a quite small detail from a larger painting I’ll be shipping out. I enjoy photographing and zooming in for closer looks at paintings (anyone’s paintings). Doing so always makes me think of that scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, my personal favorite of John Hughes’s movies, when Cameron’s gaze focuses on increasingly smaller sections of a Seurat painting.

I read an article the other day which posited that creative people don’t need to be paid well for their efforts because their reward comes from creating. I think I can speak for most creative people when I say, “Bullshit.” I love to write and I love to paint, but I also like and need to make money. A big thank you to the people who’ve given new homes to twelve of the works I put in my Make Me An Offer post a few days ago. You help me pay bills and just like every person who ever bought one of my novels or art works, you sustain my creative energy.

Prompt from FMS Photo A Day.

April Photo A Day: A Place

Houston is known for its diversity, so it’s a great city for the installation of artist Jaume Plensa’s seven sculptures, “Tolerance,” on Harmony Walk just off of Allen Parkway near downtown. My photo shows five (or four and a half) of the seven. You can read more about the art here, if you’re interested.

You can also click here to see a larger version of this photo.

I love driving by these sculptures, especially at night when they’re lit from within. And I appreciate having found my own place in this city with its fascinating people, art, architecture, and energy.


Prompt from FMS Photo A Day.

April Photo A Day: On Your Plate

Tim and I are going through all the short stories we were sent for the Best Gay Romance 2014 anthology and that is a big thing on my plate. There are so many good and intriguing stories; it’s going to be tough to pick only a few of them.

At Craft Night this past Friday, Lindsey was breaking down meal plans for a ten-day raw food detox she and Rhonda planned to do. At the same time, I offered her the Bottlecap painting she inspired. She wanted to pay for it, and somehow in that discussion, I decided I wanted to do this detox thing with them. So we bartered, and Lindsey added a third person (ME!) to her grocery runs and meal plans in return for the painting. End result: I’m doing this detox thing. I have to modify it some to keep my blood glucose levels where they should be, and I’m not really detoxing so much as I am giving myself a break from meat and starches. I’ve also thrown in a few things that aren’t part of the plan (like ground flaxseed, upon recommendation of Geri and Tim), and dashes of cinnamon, a spice that’s supposed to be good for pre-diabetics and diabetics.

Even though I’ll still cook meals for Tom and Tim, it’s AWESOME to look in my fridge and freezer or at my kitchen counter and see that someone else has divided up three meals a day for me–and it’ll be this way for TEN DAYS! I always said if I won the lottery, the only rich person thing I’d ever want would be a chauffeur. But I could get used to this meal planning/cooking thing falling to someone else. Thanks, Lindsey; it’s nice to be spoiled.

It’s the end of day one of this adventure. I’ve never felt so freaking full on a day that wasn’t a holiday. I thought I’d show you what lunch looked like today. This was on my plate.

Prompt from FMS Photo A Day.

April Photo A Day: This Happened Today

Had to run some errands today, including a stop by the post office. And there was a package there from St. Louis Rob. I had expressed envy to him that he was able to find bags of black-only jellybeans at Easter–so he sent me a package for my birthday, along with the CUTEST origami dog to guard them when I’m away from them. I MIGHT share them with Tom and Tim.

If you want to see Rob’s daily puzzles, all the origami he does, and wonderful photos and facts about St. Louis, check out his blog. Bonus: Many photos and tales of wonder dog, Renee, one of my long-distance loves.

Thank you, Rob and Renee!

Prompt from FMS Photo A Day.

April Photo A Day: Something Beginning With A

“A” is for Alexander McQueen, and more specifically, the lenticular photograph on the cover of this book, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which is either McQueen’s face or a skull, depending on the angle at which you view it.


The book was a birthday gift from Lindsey and Rhonda, a perfect opportunity to consider and study McQueen’s genius for creating art and fashion that expressed his perspectives on “race, class, sexuality, religion, and the environment,” as reviewers have noted. The full page photographs are images from the exhibit by the same name at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can find many of those here, if you’re interested in seeing what I get to enjoy with this book thanks to The Brides.

Prompt from FMS Photo A Day.

April Photo A Day: Blue

Last night I finished a commissioned painting that I’ve been working on a while. Though it has some blues–today’s theme–I can’t share it before the new owner gets it. Now I’m staring at a blank canvas, so much like staring at a blank page. I’m not daunted. All I see is possibility.

I pulled out the blues because I’m inspired by the little box of notecards you see on the right in the photo. Those were a gift from Tom’s mother, along with a matching pen, based on Tiffany glass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Funny thing. A few years ago, finding out that I see colors differently from Tom and Tim made me aware that I sometimes don’t know what’s blue and what’s green. But I think all these paints are blue! It’s when I get into the aquas, teals, and turquoises that I begin to stumble. Fortunately, in my kind of painting, it all works.

Blue is also for Autism Awareness.

Prompt from FMS Photo A Day.