Stnk13

Sunday, May 27th I did a reading of my Original Story, "The Tale of Steve Silverado". This was probably the most important presentation in my life so far. I have been planning this day for the past 6 months. I have a terrible time with public speaking and it was very difficult for me to do. I practiced very hard and created a powerpoint presentation of the whole story. This past Thursday, I did a dry run of reading the story and discovered that the entire presentation was a bit too short. I decided to add a few of the developmental sketches of the characters and also included many of the newer designs of the characters for my new series, Swashbuckling Steve Silverado. This was one of the happiest days of my life. I wish others were there to share that moment with.

I did my reading with two other talented artists and writers, David Corrado and Robert Anderson. David presented his book, "The Legend of Alastar", by creating huge posters of some of his illustrated pages and reading excerpts from his book. Robert's presentation of his book, "The Cat, The Prince, and The Golden Heron", consisted of him reading his story in different voices much like a play. Robert also had background music provided by live musicians.

I always really gets me when people are very critical of movies or books. If they hate something so much, I think they should really take the time to create a story of their own that they themselves would enjoy or even take the opportunity to rewrite a story that they hate. It is a very satisfying experiences and I would recommend anyone to take the time to involve themselves in a creative opportunity such as this.   

This past weekend I broke my ankle skateboarding. I did it trying to land an Ollie impossible on flat ground. I landed the trick once, but when I tried it again, my back food that was spinning the board was slightly tilted inward. As I began to land my feet on the board, the back foot still tilted inward landed very hard first on the tail of the board followed by my other foot. There was a instant pop sound as my back foot landed on the ground first. It was scary. I had no idea what happened. Was it broken? Was it sprained? I was able to walk on it but barely with a lot of pain. So, for the remainder of Saturday I wrapped my foot with compression tape and iced it throughout the day. On Sunday, I did the same and actually stopped at the grocery store to get some basic items. When Monday came, I went in early to work and called a bone doctor about an appointment. I ended up going in the early afternoon to the doctor. After examination and getting an x-ray, the physician determined that it was indeed broken. The bone broken was the Lateral Maleolus on the Left Fibia. I was then prescribed to wear a boot for the next 6 weeks so it can heal. It doesn't hurt as much but moving around is a little awkward and will take me time to get things completed. I can't move as fast for the time being. It frustrates me because I felt that my skating was progressing in the past month that I started up doing it again. I started first simply pushing and riding around for a week. Then, another week I just practiced ollieing. The week after I practiced basic tricks at a small skatepark. And the previous weeks, I was able to drop in on a quarter pipe, grind a box and land a few kickflips. Before my ankle broke, I had no problem ollieing a skateboard and a few pieces of wood. This injury makes me think about how and why it happened. Should I completely quick skateboarding when my ankle gets better? Did I push myself too hard?

There has been a lot going on for me the past two months. At the middle of October, I took a week trip out to Los Angeles to meet with a childhood friend who works in the toy car industry. My goals in going out to California were to get a feeling for the area, meet with my friend about a job opportunity, check out some schooling opportunities and take some time to enjoy myself. I really enjoyed my time out there and would love to pursue moving out there in the future. Moving out to Cali has been on my mind a lot lately.

At the same time, my day job has been very busy also because of the holidays coming up. Honestly, my job isn't really that bad. The people are really great and entertaining there. In fact most of the people I work with have become some of my main subjects in my art in the past weeks. Whether it's my quirky boss accidentally locking himself in the bathroom or getting involved in a funny discussion about "deep v" t-shirt, there is always something memorable to enjoy and reminisce about with my colleagues.

Also, from my trip to Los Angeles I rented a skateboard and rode on the Venice Beach boardwalk on one day of my travels. As the sun began to set at the end of the day, I was able to watch some skateboarders at the skatepark. This instantly brought back a lot of memories for me particularly in my Jr High School days of skateboarding in downtown Wilkes-Barre and also at the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome. I used to really enjoy learning all of the board flip tricks with my friends. It made me think of how fun it used to be and why I stopped skating. I think the main reason was that I lost touch with people who used to skate and they moved on with their lives. When I got home from LA, I pulled my old board out and started skating again. Wow! The first week I was really sore and out of breathe. But I've been starting up doing it again and have been really excited from watching some old videos that I used to watch when I was younger of skaters like Rodney Mullen, Eric Koston Josh Kalis and my favorite skater, Steve Olson. I also got back in to trying to design skateboard decks again, checking out some local skateparks, and trying to relearn my old catalog of flat land tricks that I used to be able to do. Hopefully by the end of the month, I will be able to drop in and ride the half pipe again.

I have been so depressed lately. This past week hasn't been too good for me. My last grandmother on my father's side died last Saturday night on Halloween and our Chihuahua, Pepper, died this past Wednesday. On top of it, I got a terrible head cold the end of last week into the weekend. Luckily, I was able to see a doctor today and get some medicine. 

The one thing that really has made me upset was my art show opening that I planned this past Saturday. I spent a considerable amount of time the past month getting work framed, making an inventory, printing and distributing postcards and just mentally preparing for it. It wasn't really intended to be a large show. Just a small show displaying my work in a small city around an hour away. My main concern wasn't really to have a ton of people there just some of my relatives and close friends that live near me. I also made a facebook invite and there were about 5 or 6 people that confirmed that they were definitely coming, one of which was one of my best friends. For the opening, of the 150 facebook invites and 20 postcards sent, 5 people came. None of the people who confirmed on facebook that they were definitely coming showed up. It kind of annoys me when people say on facebook that they are "DEFINITELY COMING" and don't show up or even bother to tell you why. They should have at least said "maybe they will come" upon the invite.

I'm just trying to find motivation to draw and create art again. I'm very happy about my Steve Silverado book that is available to purchase on Amazon. One of my friend's told me he bought one the other day on Amazon. That made me feel good. 

I received 12 copies in the mail and it is now ready for purchase on www.createspace.com.

https://www.createspace.com/47…

It will be available for purchase on Amazon in 6 to 8 weeks.