XX MAN

In my travels today I found this graffitigraphic-art. It was near restaurant called Baby Barnabys that I ate dinner based on a recommendation from friends, Jeffery & Stephen. They have a nice home in Houston.

I visited Texas Art Supply and met a wonderful woman named Yvette, who helped education me about some of the areas of Houston and where the artists' have their lofts and studios, and where they show their work. I am sure that I will see her again in my visits.

Dinner at Baby Barnaby's was great, there I met Cuba, a wonderful woman who turned me on the the food they served (try the dip they make to go with the award winning french fries!). Another place I will be going back to when I return, and will make it a regular spot when I eventually live there.

Tomorrow will be the end of my first week back in the corporate. Then I will be traveling for work - Dallas, Toronto and Houston will be the port of calls the next few months.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Digital Frontier Point

Worked on postcards for the upcoming show at Partners In Art Gallery


Took some pictures around houston, merged these together.

SPLAT !

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Over the Rainbow in One Year

This is my 352 post... that means I have blogged for an entire year! WOW. I wonder how many pieces of art I have posted during this time?

I created this image using pictures of the building that I work in.

It was a very busy day, lots of meetings, lots of new people to meet. I met the VP of Marketing today during which he walked me through the plans for 2006. They are using a modivational theme of the Wizard of Oz (a sign).... then when facilities came and said they had my desk ready this cardboard cutout was sitting next to my desk (another sign!)... who knew that when I created the Emerald City image from the Houston Skyline (a subconscious sign) that marching down the Yellow Brick road was in my future!


Jim shared an email today that he got about an art show opportunity this month in Houston.

Got a nice email from Aunt Tiny & Uncle Don (I wonder if they read the blog..hmm)

Armando is celebrating his birthday today.

Ran into another previous AT&T peer in the halls today.

Well I am done blogging for today, need to rest because of a 7am meeting tomorrow...going to spend part of the evening exploring.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

My First Day

I started my first day in the corporate world in 18 months. It was a good day. Spent time getting passwords, laptops, ids, meeting new people, finding the restroom, presentations and up to speed.

This is a view of the building I work in from my hotel room. The buildings are all connected by tunnels so you never have to leave the air conditioning if you did not want too.

I spent the evening calling and talking with friends and family. Jack recommended that I try a place called Katz's -- it was great, almost like a Jewish Deli --- I had the Hot Pastrami! It was great. I chatted with my waiter, he pointed me towards various coffee shops, and place that artist hang out...now I need time to explore.


On the way back to the Hotel so I could write my blog I stopped at Borders and got Modern Luxury Houston, and some artist magazines to read.

So many things ---

Today was the beginning of my new excellent adventure.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Houston

I made the drive to Houston today. It was about a 4 hour drive. I created this image when I got back to the hotel and had some time on my hands. I ate a nice dinner, got a call from Karen, watched 4400, organized for tomorrow, read 11 emails from my new boss with presentations to get me up to speed quickly. I am amazed how this picture reminds me of the Emerald City...for those of you who know I am a big kid and a big oz fan.
I saw this cloud from the window of my hotel. It reminds me of Aladdin's lamp. Maybe you see something different in the cloud. Maybe these are all signs of dreams that can come true.

Off to sleep - a busy day tomorrow - back to the corporate world!

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Pride

A busy day errands, breakfast with Warren & Patrick, then seeing my art at the Dallas Contemporary member show (see inset). Then to the movies with Patrick - The Peaceful Warrior - a great movie with lots a good messages in it. One message I even wrote on my hand - "You can live a lifetime without being aware." So afterwards I spent time being very aware.



Printed off a picture for Laura and delivered it, talked with Steve who had a allergic reaction to some mesquito repellant, talked with Tim, talked with Jim, then met PH, Tim, Shannon, Andy, Darnell, Patrick, Ron, Rich, Keith, Larry, Armando, Cliff and Brian for a drink. Met a couple visiting from Houston - gave them my card.
It is pride in Houston and other parts of the country. I took this picture to remember that.

Also captured the moment when PH was doing his hair in the reflection of the window (which is very reflective and like a see through two way mirror) without him know till someone told him I had captured him all on the digital camera!
Primping Princess PH.

A great dinner with Brian at Texas Land & Cattle and now home to blog, pack and reflect about the trip to Houston.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

The Butterfly Within

Today I saw a moth sitting on the ceiling of the hallway. I wondered what they must be thinking. Of course I saw it as an opportunity for art. I created this image to create and add the color that I visualized as part of the essense of this moth.

Today I spent time getting ready for my new job. A new outfit, a daytimer, and a meeting with my new boss. While at lunch a VP's executive assistant called and set up a morning appointment with me later next week. It was a breakfast meeting at 7am --- wow that really brings back the memories of corporate life.

I had a nice lunch with Jim - can not get any better then Cheddar Fries! Had a nice dinner with Armando, and we talked about his career as a budding realtor. Now I am blogging, packing, and reading up on my new job.

So like a moth to a flame
a new attraction I must try
A phoenix rises to be tamed
to become the butterfly
and find it's fame.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Digital Horizon

Today was a day of reflection.

I am so blessed with so much love in my life by such good friends, family and people I have yet to know well.

Thank you for all the kind well wishes. Yes, I will miss things, but I will not let that stop the momentum. I saw a great movie today with a great friend about an architect. Many parts of the passion of this artist and their process stuck with me. One part that struck me was the quote from the therapist who said "Many people come to me to have help with their relationships, making their lives better, giving up bad habits, but when an artist comes to me they want help to know how to change the world." The feedback he recieved by being different, by always listening and working with his inner voice and passion - reminded me of some of the voices that have entered my psychi - I am glad that I can try and block them out and listen to my inner voices. I am glad that I have such support from my friends and family --- just so you know --- I am listening.

you know,
Billy

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

I GOT THE JOB !

This is the view from Jim and Glenn's new condo on Turtle Creek. Armando and I got treated after the weekly meeting at Starbucks to see the place while under it's construction phase. A great view from 14 stories up. Learned that Armando is actually afraid of heights. Jim was at coffee talk, but we missed regulars Karen and Burt. I shared the news that "I GOT A JOB!". Yes, you are reading it here - I am entering the corporate world once again. I will be a Manager - e Channel Sales and Marketing for Direct Energy. I start work on Monday in Houston, TX and yes at some point I will be relocating there. In addition I will be going to Toronto, Canada monthly to work with the web development team based there.

Now before you all start wondering - yes, I will continue to create art, show art and sell art. Also I will continue working on the projects I started with Jim Frederick - Art Patrol and P.A.C.E. and plan to keep active with all my art friends.

It will be hard to leave the great support base of friends that I have here in Dallas. But the one thing I do know is that I have always had a great base of friends where ever I have lived. First grew up in Western New York, then moved to New York City, then Hoboken, NJ, then Flanders, NJ, then Morristown, NJ, then Dallas, TX and soon to be Houston, TX --- I think they say somewhere that most people move at least eight times -- well that means I still have plenty of adventure ahead of me. I am grateful for the love and support of my Dallas friends and know that we will continue to support each other.

Well lots of new things to write about - dressing corporately again, meetings, my first 40 hour work week in 18 months, new people, new places, new responsibilities.... can only lead to new art!

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Hugs

It is hard when your friends are not feeling their best. What can you give someone when they feel ill. I hope that giving them the space they need to get well, I hope that giving them a ear to complain to, I hope that sending them a message that makes them laugh or smile and for maybe one minute forget how poor they feel, I hope of this is enough.


Old friend take a look at our life,
see the rainbows passing by,
gather your strength and lets fly.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

dear karen - you are missed.

Experiencing Technical Problems

This is just a note to let my readers know that my internet access is not working. I am at my friend Warren's home adding this note. They expect to come to check out what is wrong with the connection sometime on Tuesday. Then I will begin blogging again - until then I will continue to create and take pics.

Peace

Space

Saved for saturday

Blank

Not sure what to say today.
So I think I will have a silent moment and reflect.

I am grateful for the friends and family in my life.

Love,
Me

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

dots

A little fun.

A day of self thought, goal setting, friendship.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Flaming Iris

One of the best places to loose yourself when you are an artist and your emotions are playing with your heart and your mind is in your work. So I lost a few hours today experimenting, playing, painting and creating. This is one of the pieces I liked.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Step by Step

I was reminded of the Laurel & Hardy movie when they did the "Niagara Falls" bit --- oh Niagara Falls, step by step, inch by inch....

Illustrated here by continuing to manipulate the image.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Abstract Falls

I created this based on my visits to Niagara Falls. I am originally from Western NY, and I will be having a show there this coming August. It is exciting to return to my hometown and have a show. Trying to abstract a landmark like Niagara Falls can be very difficult. How to you abstract it, yet contain it's awe. I used three different software programs, I also used a photo of the falls that I took and a photo of a painting I did. I intermixed them, layered them, and used some earth tones - somewhat as a rememberance to when I was a kid and we lived in Niagara Falls. It was very polluted then - we had Love Canal, we had many factories blowing god knows what into the atmosphere. But even with all that it was home.

Today was a day of "Owning It". If you own it, then you can control it - it can not control you. So I worked hard on some of the things that needed to be done. I will continue that trend this week, we schedules, goals, and checklists.

At one point I had a call from my friend, Jim - he is busy getting ready for his show this coming weekend. He had hoped to be farther in some paintings then he is. He was not sure, but he was conflicted with how some of the paintings were not turning out like the first few he did. I was reminded how I felt the other day when I was working on a piece - I was really intune with my inner voice, I knew every step and I took them. Then I was reminded of when I was painting in public - we only had 30 mins, I felt rushed, I had lots of unused paint - so I just started slapping it around trying to make something, but in the end it was just that a painting of the rushed emotion that was on the canvas, not the thoughtful layers, shapes, and forms of the previous work. So there is something to be said about trying to rush the artistic process, you might just loose some intriquing qualities along the way.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Sacred Heart

http://qmanrem.blogspot.com/2006/06/sacred-heart.html

My friend Robert wrote a poem called "Sacred Heart" based on my blog art that I posted http://whimblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/new-apple.html

It is touching to know that my visual art can inspire such beautiful words.

I will hold sacred heart close to my heart.

Sunday Swirl

Sleeping till noon.
Breakfast at Denny's with Patrick and Warren.
Prairie Home Companion with Patrick, Burt and Warren gets shut out because they sell out! Burt wants to know why the Penquin joke is funny? Guess you will need to see the movie to understand.
An afternoon nap in the 100 degree heat.
Chinese Food with Armando.
Phone calls from Michael and Mom & Dad.
Watching the Tonys! WOW
Doing the blog and setting goals for the next week.

Created this image today using picture it and adobe photoshop. It symbolized the warm swirl that my mind is swimming in. It is a target. It is complex and layered, bright and dark, a tunnel, an abstract - what do you see?

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Good Times

Tonight was the MetroBall a fundraiser in which I donated a piece of art for their raffle. The event was a lot of fun, flag dancers, dancing, drink specials, friends. I won a raffle for a gift card to a local coffee shop. It was fun to let loose.


Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Art Patrol at Night

Tonight was the 2nd Night of Salsa Fridays in Addison. This is a view of what viewers saw (minus the artists) when they came up to watch us paint.

A beautiful warm breeze blew the pink crape paper streamers that were set up for the previous nights "Girls Night Out" party at the Urban Blossom.



It was a interesting night with a man with a Hummer who parked in the handicap spot got a ticket, then was arrested because of a warrant out for his arrest. He did come back later to get his flowers.

Next week I will be painting with another artist, Silva Thornton. Jim will be having his opening of his 2nd Annual "Father, Sons" Show at his studio. I will get to see it on Saturday.



Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Focus

Was a fly on the wall today.

What a great view.

to see Close.









Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

P.S. Love Chuck Close's Work

Forging Ahead

I keep forging ahead.
I applied for 3 jobs today.
I worked on 3 different pieces of art today.
I worked on the website for www.artpatrol.net .
I visited with good friends.

Sometimes it can be hard to see what the future holds for you. But the future is really just a creation of all that you do in preparation for it.

It is hard to believe that this time last year I started my blog. It has been a year of blogging, and although I have not made a blog everyday of the year I made it over 330 times. Looking back their is a mass of information, thoughts, hopes, dreams, art, rants, raves, friends, live experiences that are contained in this blog. So it just means to me that with doing the best that you can everyday that you can create something of value. I am reminded that the author of the Harry Potter books was on her last pennies when she wrote the first book, some pieces on the backs of napkins. I am reminded that if you keep moving in positive directions that opportunities will open up and somehow you survive. So each day I strive to move in a positive direction, to work on my goals, to create something of value and release it into the world.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

My Studio

Clutter.
Organized.
Clorgutanized.

I created these pieces using what was around me. Lately that is my possessions. It is magazines, paints, canvases, papers, collections, inspirations, laundry. It was interesting to see that I have a world of inspirational abstracts to work from - mini little paintings that becuase of the digital work I could quickly work to mesh them together to create something larger than then it's parts.

The first piece is abstract in its piece parts, the colors, the shapes...the 2nd piece takes them to a more spiritual, transendant place. Layers of shapes, lines taking you around the space of the image, the contrasts of light and dark, the interesting images that are formed as you look deeper into the whole.

Believe in your art
Believe in your message
Believe in your presence
Believe in your self

Sometimes it is important to reveal your fears to your friends. To laugh, to carry on, and then get back to work. Thanks Jim, Pat, Armando, Mike, and Chuck Close - I am back to work.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Common Sense

http://www.goodasyou.org/dayton.mov

Organization

I spent most of the day organizing today. It is one of the principles that they discuss in the book "The Success Principles" --- you need to have things organized in a way that you can allow yourself to FOCUS, and only focus on the things that are important to do at that moment that day. As I finish my day, I did make great strides in my organization, now I will continue that with getting even more specific. I had a great visit with Jack in the afternoon. I had emails and phone conversations with Jim and Patrick, and some emails from Tommy, Jim, and spam. Back to my artistic base. The art piece here was something that created using parts of itself. For me it was a way of possible showing how an abstract piece of art can lend itself to the patterns of fabric that may reside in it's own environment.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

sunday

fewar say

New Apple

My G4 Mac is now up and running, thanks to my wonderful friend and tech support - Andrew. In exchange for his help I gave him my games of SIMS and an old laptop that did not work (at least to me!).

I had breakfast and saw a movie with Patrick this afternoon.

Other than that it has been a great day, a quiet day.

Created this abstract today. I think I may try and paint it in acrylic.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Art Patrol

Art Patrol painted at The Urban Blossom tonight. It was the first Friday Evening of the Salsa Free Fridays in Addison. A different Salsa band plays each Friday evening the month of June. And Art Patrol will be there in front of Urban Blossom, under the lights painting and interacting with customers. You can see Jim painting on his paintings, and my dragonfly painting which I started tonight. It was a great night, good weather, great music, and lots of people. We plan to do this every Friday night this month. Next month in July --- they will be doing Jazz!

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved

Jumping

I captured this image today while driving home. I young man attempting either to flee or commit suicide was hanging off the bridge retainer wall over 75 near Fitzhugh. 5 or 6 police officers had the man's hand then grabbed his feet hopefully pulling him to safety. I say hopefully because I had heard from some other people asking about the suicide like the guy had died. I hope not.

Anyways I had my camera and took shots while driving slowly bye the police barricade.

It made me realize that no matter how desperate things seem, there is always someone else out there feeling even worst. So just keep moving in a positive direction and everything will work out.

What a few days. Yesterday was busy doing digital art for my submission to the Dallas Contemporary members show. I submitted a smaller version of "Fine Art" on canvas.

After which I got a referral regarding an Ecommerce Marketing job that sounds perfect for me. It uses all my skills. Now we will just have to see if all the pieces are in place to get hired for that position.

I taught my last class for the Healing through Images of God and Ourselves. It was a small class, but I enjoyed getting to know my student and we did a collaboration piece. We each worked on a piece then traded and we got to take home one of the pieces. I am working on a possible course for the Fall, we will see if we get that picked up. It has been an amazing journey to teach from my heart about art and spirit, and I have made wonderful new friends, found new things out about myself and my talents. Below is the piece that I got in the collaboration exchange.

So while inside I am jumping for joy for all the positive things happening, I keep remembering that man on the bridge today. I am wondering why, what drove him to this drastic place, is he homeless, is he on drugs, he is just desperate. I hope that he was saved, given a 2nd chance that that he too can realize that those men that risked their lives to save him for a purpose. He just needs to find that positive purpose.

Copyright 2006 William H Miller All Rights Reserved