longest post ever

the floodthe drive

and the best art i saw at first friday...

and friends! who can believe all these kids were out and about!





followed by the craziest week of birthdays yet...

let's start with angela's
kualoa ranch for ziggy marley surf roots whatever. as anyone who knows me knows, i am so ridiculously burned out on reggae. but going to these shows is too much fun, especially because i got to catch up with many friends!


the gentleman standing up in the above photo was going around tackling people and sloshing around his pepsi bottle of tobacco spit. charmed i'm sure.

here it is, let's call this the juxtaposition that is my life.

we kept the celebration going with an indoor pool party, a hot tub, and the ocean in hawaii kai
oh you know just john travolta's old house.
wha...???

this is where i go now in the best of my dreams

yes those are cinammon rolls and yes that's bacon too. and no i've never had such an amazing day of indulgence and relaxation.


oh right except for the fact that christen, angela, and i were running the honolulu marathon...

or not.

more like...
only picture a few more comfy chairs, a table with perrier and fresh fruit, and a bunch of mad runners who wanted to kick us where the sun don't shine...yes the morning was good, and the afternoon was even better. picture nothing but hot tubbing, ocean floating, indoor pool swimming, and olive tree eating.

and this is only the beginning of the birthday extravaganzas...

i'm so ashamed that i don't have more pictures from amanda's 25th birthday barbeque! but here she is at the end of a fun fun night with her new puppy ollie and her sweet husband corey and a baskin robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake...so great!



the next morning after yoga and starbucks, catching some of the triple crown surf contest on my way to millilani for errands. its a tough life kid.




and the next day, a beautiful drive to pick out a christmas tree on alissa's 30th birthday!






followed by a little dinner at haleiwa joe's, a little sashamon, and some hippies crashing our party (don't worry, we know them)



so. i hear they don't call it dirty thirty for nothing...party favors included of course glass moustaches...





lou swearing he's only intoxicated by the scent of my hair

what a crazy fun night, and then...

emily and her amazing photographs!
erin and her beautiful jewelry!



nerd alert!


and the best christmas lights i have ever seen...the bunny in a santa suit on the upper right whose rear end was moving from side to side (?) umm. happy holidays?



i wish every morning i woke up to the ocean in mokuleia with a cold. ok well not with a cold but you know what i mean.

An Exercise in Melodrama...

what a crazy crazy week.

espresso shots and too much rain, really...
i live in a flood zone so these things do make me worry sometimes
even though worrying never got anybody anywhere.


oh and


seriously. i will miss this painting.

a long drive soothed me...

loads of errands all day long, but kinda fun ones. and loads of town for me these days too! it's nice to get a break from the north shore. a break from my home and from art.
i was a rampant consumer today.
it was great!
and now here i am typing between power outages, gusts of wind, and silly dark accidents like spilling candle wax on my cell phone...

needless to say, that's enough for today.

well good morning to you too, door

how bizarre...perhaps one door falls apart before another one opens...

i'm not even going to lie to you. this weekend was horrible. i'll spare the details but i feel like a child pretending to be a grown-up. isn't it awful when things from so long ago that you forgot about resurface and are pulled out of context and you can see how someone might feel the way they feel but that was never your intention. or when something you are proud of is suddenly seen as some sort of shameless self-promotion. it was horrible and hard, and i've had a hard time shaking it off.


but today was great.

yep it wasn't bad at all.


betsy's the sweetheart who started my day.
your email and support,
incredible.
will you take a break from berkeley already and come back to the islands?

and then

i sold my buddha (an homage to frida kahlo)
this painting is very hard to let go of. my friend has been asking me about it since august!
!
i didn't mean to ever seem evasive...
i'm usually not this attached to things.
this was such a hard painting to paint, but i needed to do it.
and the cool thing is
he needs to have it! i needed to make it and he needs to have it. there is something thrilling about a transaction where both people know they just got what they needed. trading value for value.
and being able to tell the story.

you rock my world scott!
thanks for taking the time out to catch up with me.

last week, one of my old friends sent me this picture from when he visited...
how creepy!
i mean i know i'm just chillin out, eatin some cereal, but it stopped me in my tracks when i saw this photo. that was from around the same time the painting was completed.

it really made me realize how far i've come, how much art has helped me to change my environment and reality. how much art helps us to process experiences and then make change.
and how glad i am that i rearranged the living room.



ahh friends. thank you for all of these amazing friends.
here and everywhere.


everything's gonna be ok.