The beautiful wreckage of the paper mills of Bellows Falls. Sketchbook study using a 2H pencil, to see if it films better than my preferred 3H - lots of people ask for film clips of my sketching practice, and we are trying to figure out how to do this. #ilovebellowsfalls #reasonablyfineartist

Buttiigieg: "Look, when you are this deep into your second year, if your reflex is to still be trying to blame the previous administration, it really shows that you are out of ideas, out of solutions, and unwilling to take ownership of your own choices."

I love making cornbread.

(I Sit And Watch) As Bears Go By.

Would certainly be interesting if Dems don’t take the House but do take the Senate in November (assuming there is an election, of course).

A former Mobil station in Cranford, NJ. I painted this 16x32 during a plein air event there in 2012, and was gratified that it won the ‘People’s Choice’ award. It’s really not ‘abandoned’ per se, but it makes a better title than ‘Gas Station Filled With Inexplicable Detritus.’

Oh, yeah, that was the Obama Iran deal.

Toil on, son, and do not lose heart or hope. You are not utterly forsaken. I, too, am here; here in the darkness waiting, here attentive, here approving of your labor and your dream. - Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

My name is ruin.

If the idea of dealing with ICE at TSA does not appeal, feel free to ask me about the feasibility of taking Amtrak. I have taken Amtrak literally hundreds of overnight trips and can probably answer your question quicker than you could by googling. No charge. I’m just a big fan of taking trains.

Working in the studio. #truckfump

Third day demonstration painting for Scottsdale workshop. 12x16, Cobra oils on linen panel.

Woke Marjorie Taylor Greene is wild

Draft Stephen Miller

Train travel is preferable.

Just led a three day workshop at Scottsdale Artists School. This is a detail of my demonstration painting on Day One. Cobra oils on linen panel, 12x16.

Dr. Abraham “chose to step down to address unforeseen family obligations,” according to the C.D.C. statement. Alrighty, then.

He was most likely called “El Mencho” because he was a real mensch.

I do get upset at the Trump administration but I do not need to hear that Mumford & Sons blank page rage song while being annoyed.

LAS VEGAS, NM I, 6x12, 2024, oil and encaustic. Thank you to McLarry Fine Art in Santa Fe for placing this with a collector.

Folks have asked that I post my art here as well as Faceplant to help populate healthy alternatives. Fair enough. OUTSIDE WILSAL (detail) 10x20, Cobra oils on muslin. Sold. #iceout

Jesus Christ he's even a dork when he's engaged in sex trafficking

When the cares of the world get you down, channel your inner Bernie Fuchs. Work in progress, 24x24.

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." -LBJ. Always good to remember.

We will.

The old songs still resonate. Will you be a lousy scab or will you be a man.

I wake up after my phone update and Apple is like, “Great news! We made the clock you look at 100x a day transparent so it’s way harder to read! And have you seen our new black text against a dark gray background feature?? You can’t leave us or you’ll die so suck it!”

Two of my mother’s interests were Civil Rights, and Children’s Literature, and she talked about both a lot when I was a child. I was today years old when I finally figured out that Louis Lusky and Lois Lenski are not the same person.

…”United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore…”

Experimenting with a painting using WPA photo by Arthur Rothstein (he did the famous one of the Oklahoma family escaping the dust storm), whose son, Rob Stoner, was music director for the Rolling Thunder Revue, among much else. There’s a family who have influenced the American cultural experience!

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

Hot take: Apple should never have given its operating systems cutesy names. Just NUMBERS. I'm looking up a problem and websites say "well in Caracal it works like this" and I'm like wtf is Caracal my computer just gives me a number. I don't have time to memorize all the cats and trees.

The Scarlottles wish you a Merry Christmas.

When the history of this cruel era is written, the shame should be no less than the shame we now feel about the roundups and detention of Japanese Americans in World War II. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-brazen-cruelty-of-the-trump-regime

NORAD Santa tracker is Woke

Is it just me, or does everybody who uses Substack have no idea how it works?

My favorite writer.

David Glosser, Stephen Miller’s uncle, told CNN his nephew is an “immigration hypocrite”: “Had we not been able to enter America when we did, Stephen Miller would never exist” (2018)

Messing with clunky paintings to break them up and render them less literal. Oh, and truck fump.

Sanders: Saturday, millions of people are going to come out on a No Kings day. Speaker Johnson said this is a hate America rally because people are coming out expressing their concerns.. It’s not a hate America rally, it's a love America rally.

I’ve stopped reading the news because I don’t need a constant reminder that the worst people we know are getting everything they want.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

The “enemy from within” is Trump. The “violent extremists” are Trump lackeys who have turned ICE into fascistic shock troops. In response to Trump’s brutal, racist, and unconstitutional campaign of terror the country must mobilize collectively. open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

The “president” is not just unhinged & unwell. He is also a colossal vindictive asshole and a completely incompetent moron. When I have more characters, I’ll tell you what I really think.

Litchfield, Connecticut is where every “It’s Wine O’clock Somewhere” piece of wall decor goes to die.

People are too nonchalant about the fact that birds can talk.