The Blog of Jonathan "Jonsmind" Williams

.... I want to continue the painting project, I had begun earlier today. A still-life painting of my "converted" worktable, strewn with paint-tubes, jars, brushes. It's to be one of my least pretentious looking efforts. After the still life portion is done, I'm considering adding my image to the painting, in an equally, not pretentious pose.

.... happens tomorrow, And the funeral for my step-Grandfather falls on the following day. I am of course sad, but my grandmother (now the only surviving grandparent) Is obviously feeling the worst. It was a 30+ year old, happy marriage (her third)

So another chapter is writing itself. I've been a 40-something since last April, and thus I realize that this is the time where you begin to lose your elder family members, if you haven't already, in the past.

In my case, back in '68 when I was born, I had only 3 surviving. biological grandparents. My 2 maternal grandparents passed away in the early '00s. I remember seeing my maternal grandfather for the last time back in 2000, when I had my first art-exhibition in San Francisco.

He was so mellow, such a far cry from how I've always remembered him, and was suffering from the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, which has you not remember people, in one's life, one moment, an the next, abeit brief moment, profound lucidity of thought.

.... I've had to depend on my old, spare CRT monitor. The sucky part of this, is that the colors are awful, especially, when viewing my fine-art-reproduction-jpegs. As a matter of fact, I had to print a picture I took today, just to see the (much) higher-quality image, so knowing that there is nothing wrong with the quality of the JPEG, itself .....



"A Snow Flurry"
24" x 18"
oil
2008
Jonathan Williams

.... here's my entry for today. Last night I began work on a new Winter-scape, with no source of reference, other than Debussy Music, playing, and the memory of walking through Central Park, 8 years ago, on the day of New Year's Eve, the day after a snow flurry blanketed the city in a layer of virgin, white snow.

I force myself to think about where my art would be (or not be) hadn't it been for meeting my late, special friend, Alex Schell. Most of the themes I paint about have come about in the wake of meeting him, initially online, some 9 years ago, and especially in the wake of his passing. I would gladly sacrifice everything I've painted in the last 3+ years, if it brought him back. But it's out going to happen.

Anyways, I'm headed up Friday to Antioch, CA for my Step-Grandfather's funeral, and I'll be back by Tuesday.

My Step-Grandfather, Marvin Burchett has passed on, today, complications of some bad infection (Pneumonia, I believe) It happened around 1 am, and I just received the news from my Grandmother. He was a walking miracle of sorts. He had suffered from cancer in the past, had congested heart-failure, and the the last few years of health decline were downright scary, but until today, he had always proven the epitome of resilience. things, that he excelled in, knowledge-wise, though in politics I didn't see eye-to-eye with him. He was to the extreme-right, and most of the things he sent to his network of email recipients, made me cringe, even though, I consider myself a left-leaning centrist. In spite of that, he made my Grandmother happy for the past 30+ years. He was part of a crew in a WWII bomber, on missions over Germany. He married my Grand-Mother, over 30 years ago. She was married twice before. My Paternal, biological Grandfather died in the 50s, thus he was the only grandparent, whom I hadn't met. I am 40 now, and have one surviving grandparent, who is coming on 90, but has aged quite graciously, though the phases of a decline are somewhat evident. I will be heading north for Antioch, CA within the week.

.... to write a new entry, and it feels like a sort of force-feed. There is a constant awareness in me, of a growing feeling of retreat into myself; of becoming the dreaded hermit(dreaded by myself) it is partly due to having been burned by acquaintances in the past, however by few, few enough to be counted like digits on my hand. Though I don't anticipate being "burned" on a regular basis, as if I had a "Deceive me" sign posted on my back. I also fear the initial greeting to and by an affable stranger, as something that may segue into a mental, "What do we talk about, now?" How I crave staying up with a good buddy into the early hours and talking, crying, laughing about something or nothing in particular.
enter long Sigh
I want to travel, again, especially after I get "Showcase" up and running. Slowly but progressively, I am filming new clips, for my first episode, a profile on myself, and a showcase of my paintings from a 10-year period. Photoshop, Moviemaker. and AfterEffects have proven indispensable. The project is and will continue to prove therapeutic, in few ways, such as developing a working tolerance of my own voice, which has had the notoriety of making speeches, now and then.

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Rampaging over the steppes, carrying a reflective halberd, cometh Jonsmind! And he gives a spectacular cry: "I'm going to clobber you so thoroughly, you will wake up from the Matrix!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

..... decided to go along with the photo-meme,from the first time I saw it on, putzmeisterbear's blog, and posted it in his responxe field, as opposed to my blog, until this morning, when I corrected the matter and posted it in my blog

So here...
take a picture of yourself right now.
don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
post that picture with NO editing.
post these instructions with your picture....

..... what the latest meme is all about, so I've decided not to touch it. Maybe someone who's (paddbear) participated in it, can fill me in on it, just to satisfy my curiosity.

.... the canvases in my garage for the umpteenth time, but the changes this time around are quite dramatic, now I can afford to add at least another couple of years of new canvases.
The space in the garage seems so much larger. I've also done this reorganization with the first episode of my future internet video series, "Showcase" in mind. "Showcase" in mind. So far I've only composed the opening sequence/animated graphic, with Bryce 5, AfterEffects, and Photoshop. I'm still going through the pre-preproduction/mental planning phase. My intention is to shoot at least an hour's/2 hours' worth of raw footage, then to edit that footage down.

I've come to realize, that in the last 2 years, while my primary interests and passion lies and continues to lie in in the creation of fine art, that the art of film/documentary/video-making is becoming a good "second" outlet of mine. So, over the last few weeks, I've devised a new project, still currently in the mental/brain phase, but one that I don't seem to be shying away from, with my usual brand of semi-realistic realization/pessimism of my capabilities and limitations. The project, is to produce a series for the internet/youtube.com, called tentatively, "Showcase". It will profile an artist, showcase samples of their work, document the uniqueness of their style/technique, genre(s),etc; In a nutshell, their own "voice" in the global art-community. Now in the beginning, this series will not be particularly "global", but focus on local San Diego/So. Cal, eventually the whole state, interstate region, whole US, and ultimately (and hopefully) international (thus global) community.

The message is, "Art is one of the leading virtues of civilization, and separates us from our barbarity. Alongside Music, Architecture, philosophy, and religion, fine-art is as important, a conduit of human storytelling, as literature is.

I'm considering, myself as "Showcase"'s first profile, during which I will send a brief survey, to friends/colleagues, to conjure a question, about my art, for myself to answer, which just seems much less self-serving and less arrogant, than to post my own questions.

I'm not ENTIRELY new to this kind of project, as shown in this link, but it does far from rule out a virtually, untried adventure for myself

especially layers

Hey, "potatoe", "Mavrick" called, wants it's "e" back

A happy belated birthday wish for fogbear

.... is when some douche-bag on youtube gets off in my face, chiding me for my honest mistake, in misspelling "Faye Dunaway" by adding one "n" ie. "Faye Dunnaway" I truly believe that people should treat others as they would treat themselves. When they come off in your face like that, a knee-jerk reaction like mine may be called for, I think, though some may argue that I should not give this person any though or response, other than a silent "Whatever!" and I respect that. I have however, decided to channeled my annoyance with this person in to a little fun.

Here's my full, unabridged response to this person, who goes by "nakedboialex" on youtube.

"And I can tell you right now, without google or Dictionary that these are your mispellings:

"managgement" correct spelling: "management"

"uu pou ittel ting" - I don't even know what that is. Inbred hillbilly spelling? Maybe your wife/sister can offer some insight on that.

"senerio" should be "scenario" - As in, "When are you going to realize, that this tired, tirade of your's is merely becoming a "No win" SCENARIO for you

"U" Should be "You" - Really creative of you. NOT!! Prince should sue you for plagiarism.

"Boi" not an example of the "Queen's English" is it, boy? (No, I don't believe you're 42, either. When I was half, (no one third) your age, I was more mature/level-headed than that excuse of human behavior of yours.
"Douchbag" = "douche-bag"

"arn't" = "aren't"
"hopeing" = "hoping"

As for your "I'm really a white guy, trying to come off as black" username, I really have no desire to imagine you, naked.

One more thing, if I were, actually a woman, as you, apparently, think I am, I would take special offense to the word, "cunt" and separate you from your microscopic cock, and feed it to my neighbor's dog."

This response had too many characters to post in youtube's comment box, after all it's not a Blog-entry field

"Painting Sessions: ("Pears")"


"Painting Sessions: ("Three Columns (A Presumption of Delphi)")"

"Three Grecian Columns (A Presumption of Delphi)
18" x 24"
oil
2008
Jonathan Williams

A "Painting Sessions" video will follow in the near future.

How does one inform someone that they have "Aibohphobia", without risking an anxiety attack?

.... and i didn't know, I was until today.