Ahhh the tattoo; either you love them or you hate them.  As an artist I’ve always found tattoos to be quite beautiful, or in some cases I find them to show our ugliest and darkest sides in the most beautiful way.  

They are often the greatest form of self-expression and in some cases may even console one’s own spirit and mind.  Why do people so often get tattoos symbolizing a loved one, a belief, or a significant moment in life?  When people brand their bodies with something that noteworthy, it is the highest form of honor that you can give to a person, or a belief, or a moment.  Every time you look at it, you feel.  

The white calla lily has always been my favorite flower.  It has a simple, natural beauty.  I read somewhere that is the official death flower of Tibet (not sure if that’s true), and if I've ever pictured a heaven I’ve pictured a field of calla lilies.  If I ever had a daughter, I imagined I would name her Lily.  When I look at them, they make me tranquilly happy and in some ways represent a lost innocence.

I’ve decided to place the tattoo on the nape of my neck. It will represent a kind of  eloquent struggle of embracing the natural beauty of life and perhaps letting go of some things that life didn’t give me.  It’s almost a sort of powerful closure if you will, hence the title, “The Powerful Eloquent Tattoo".  The arts just have this awesome way of satisfying our emotions; enough said.  

Til next time folks!

If you’ve never practiced yoga I encourage you to give it a try.  Why do I love yoga so much?  Well, if you let it take you over, it truly balances your mental, emotional and physical state.  It's almost as though you have to humbly surrender to your practice in order for it to have an impact.  You must be able to clear your mind of all thoughts and just focus on your breath.  It's not easy but man, when you do it the right way it really makes you feel amazing!

In some ways yoga allows you to let go of bad energy and focus on accepting yourself for who you are, as you are.  I’m sure it sounds cheesy but I believe that if you don’t take care yourself you really are no good to anyone else around you.  

During one of my practices this week I was asked to close my eyes, sit up tall, and imagine this sort of white light or energy, gradually moving up my spine.  I was asked to think of this energy as my spirit.  I can only tell you that whether it be the power of the practice or my imagination, I really felt this awesome energy flowing up my spine.  Whoa, crazy, right?  And when I was done, all of the stress from the week just fell off my shoulders. 

The energy within each of us is so strong and it affects everyone around us.  If we practice seeing our energy in a white light and really noticing how it can be used for good instead of evil (hehe), all of us would be much better off.  So I say yogi it up my friends!  Worse case you get physically stronger than your present state, best case you balance your life and positively affect everyone around you.  Wouldn't that be a nice world to live in?

This week I’d like to tell you a story about my father.  How can I describe him?  In many ways he has the spirit of a child.  He can be very light-hearted and sometimes very dark.  He LOVES to have fun and he loves to be the center of attention, but often he needs his alone time where he shuts out the world for a while.  He actually reminds me a little of myself which is probably why we get along so well.

For a long time our family had Friday family night dinners almost every other week.  We’d all come together, drink, eat and share our lives with each other.  It was a great time but sadly as life goes, all good things must come to an end.

As we sat together week after week, in between sips of homemade moonshine and puffs of Marlboro Reds, my dad would spout off his philosophies of life which were most of the time ridiculously funny and in no way should have been considered to be actual advice.  My siblings and I still joke around to this day that we should write all of them down and make a book one day; and so I started this little artistic endeavor a few years ago.

I took some of his “philosophies” and created these silly drawings to go with them.  Throughout the years my project has fallen by the waste side a bit but I plan on slowly building up the collection of work again at some point.  

This one is probably one of my favorites...

Til next time my friends!