I’ve always liked this photo of Willie Nelson (taken from the cover art from his Spirit record) and decided that one day I was going to do a drawing or painting of it. So I did!

The drawing is made up of thousands of chaotic (yet controlled) swirls and strokes on an 18″ x 24″ wooden panel – I love that I can attack the wood surface without my pencils tearing or poking through it like a canvas might. I blew through three new 2B graphite pencils and then went in and filled specific areas with colored pencil. The face is actually the color of the wood panel.

The attached photo does have a slight glare on the upper left side of the drawing, but otherwise gives you a pretty good representation of the piece. And, contrary to what my wife initially believed, Willie does NOT have his hair in an Afro – he’s wearing a cowboy hat. It’s just cropped so tight that it’s hard to tell. I’m not sure if I will ever be able to look at this drawing again without thinking that.

And by the way, I didn’t roll up a doobie and put on Snoop Dogg to help me channel into Willie’s country soul. I actually jazzed out with Louis Armstrong. Still in my jazz phase!

I have been blessed.

Blessed to have had the opportunity to share the past 40 plus years of my life with grandparents.

Here I am today, still very blessed, but with a few less grandparents to share my time with and make more memories. Both of my mom’s parents passed away last year, and now my Grandpa Neil. While they are no longer physically here with us, they have left behind many wonderful memories.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have known my grandmother Jeanette. She died from cancer shortly after
I was born and Grandpa Neil married Mildred when I was three years old, so I’ve never known any different. But everything I’d ever heard about Jeanette was that she was a wonderful person and I would have loved to have known her.

My experiences with Grandpa Neil and Mildred were much different than that of my mom’s parents. They all had farming in common, but their lifestyles and personalities were much different. Harold and Clyda were John Deere Green, a bit on the loud side, a bit outspoken and a little bit crazy. Neil and Mildred were International Red, a bit on the quiet side, not so outspoken, and a little bit more serious. Their differences seem to have trickled down into my parents personalities, as well as my own. Aside from my wavy Bright hair, I tend to take after my mom’s side of the family… a little loud, outspoken and crazy!

Grandpa Neil was a somewhat reserved guy, not too talkative in larger group settings, a bit of a nervous worrier – (he chewed one and a fourth of his fingers clean off – that was actually from a farming accident!) more of a listener and observer. He was a friendly guy with nothing bad to say about anyone (at least from my own experience).

If you asked him how he was doing these last few years, he’d typically reply, “moving slow.” And I would quickly respond, “But you’re STILL moving, right?” I always felt that he was doing pretty good for a farmer living at home in his nineties.

I had many good times as a kid with Grandpa Neil and exploring around on the farm.

Riding Uncle Art’s red metal tractor. Running around the yard with their big, beautiful dog – King. Shooting pool in the basement – making sure to put the protective cover back on when I was done. Playing with Aunt Sally’s Ken and Barbies – along with my brother, Curt and cousins Amanda and Mary. (I’m sure we helped decrease their value greatly!) Climbing on, and jumping to and from the large round hay bales that Grandpa had lined up outside of the barn. Easter eggs hunts in the yard with Aunts, Uncles and cousins. The Christmas Eve envelopes filled with a little bit of cash-o-la!

One (somewhat-funny) memory that I had as a kid, happened while staying with Neil and Mildred one summer day. It was June 11th, 1979 to be exact. John Wayne had died, and I had an accident. No, I didn’t break Mildred’s coffee pot, or run Grandpa’s International tractor into the side of the barn… I wet the bed.

It was funny because Mildred was completely convinced that my little “accident” had to have been directly associated to this great American actor’s death. In reality, it was probably from my incredibly weak bladder and all of the un-managed Coca Cola consumption that occurred earlier in the day at a street parade. Other than his name, I don’t think I even knew who John Wayne really was at the time.

Consequently, I didn’t have too many overnighters at Grandpa Neils. But when I did, I had to be pretty imaginative to keep myself entertained.

During the day, Mildred would watch her Soaps while Grandpa was off doing “farmer stuff.” This was not going to cut it for my young and restless hyper-active personality. It was off to the barn for a little mountain climbing adventure! Wee!!!

Have you ever slipped off of a hay bale? Stacked twelve or more hay bales high?

Well, like sands through the hourglass, I thought the days of my life were gonna be over. My lanky body shot off the top hay bale and I took a dive straight to the bottom of the barn. Obviously it didn’t kill me, but it left me with a sore leg, bruised rear-end and a new appreciation for watching Soaps with Mildred!

During a different visit, some of Grandpa’s cattle got out. We hoped in his pickup and went on a “fence check” – you know, driving along the fence line to find where the cattle made their escape. It was a new adventure for me and I loved it! I wanted to beat Grandpa and be the first to find where these beastly bovines broke out. After driving over the humpy, bumpy, grassy edges of the field for some time, Grandpa’s hand raised up off of the steering wheel, and he pointed to the downed wire fence. Drats! Farmer – 1, City kid – 0.

A couple of years ago, my Uncle Art, son Caleb, Grandpa Neil and I hoped in his truck and wound up doing a fence-check together. Regardless of who spotted the break in the fence first, it was a nice, new memory that four generations of Bright boys got to share together. How cool was that?

As the years moved along in full swing with no sign of slowing, the amount of time we spent together became less. Our personal visitations dwindled down to just a couple times a year – Christmas Eves and Bright Family Reunions – neither of which Grandpa Neil was very talkative. So, I made it a point to call him every month or so, to keep us up-to-date with the things going on in our lives. Before the end of every call, he’d tell me three things: “Come and see us sometime,” “take care of that family,” and “tell everyone hello.” As short or long as the conversations were, we always had a good visit and enjoyed hearing each others voice.

My Grandpa Neil was a strong Christian and a role model for me in the growth of my own personal faith. It pleased him to know that my family shared in his beliefs. I prayed that his strong faith would give him the comfort and strength he needed in his last few days with us. Our shared faith is what comforted me during these last few weeks as his health was failing.

I will greatly miss the “moving slow,” wavy-haired, bib-overall-wearing farmer that I called Grandpa.

I have been blessed.

So what does this have to do with a well-hung bike?

Well, during the packing and moving process, I decided to snoop in some of the out buildings on the farm. To my excitement I discovered two old Schwinn bikes parked in my Grandpa’s tool shed. They were covered in dust and rust, and looked like they were from the 50′s or 60′s. (I have a couple co-workers that are bike-crazy, which has made me a little bit that way as well, so this was very exciting for me.) Retro bikes like these are the in-thing these days, and I immediately wanted to take them home and fix them up.

One of the bikes was my Aunt Jean’s and the other belonged to Mildred’s son, Claude. I figured I was out of luck at this point, but then Grandpa told me that Claude had already taken what he wanted from the farm and that I could have his bike. Awesome!!! Grandpa then told me to go ahead and take Jean’s bike as well and store it for her at my place. No problem.

Once I got the bikes home I took a closer look at what I had to work with, and then it hit me – this was going to be a lot of work! I knew I didn’t have the patience to steel-wool the rust off the fenders and every chrome-colored part of this bike.

So I spent a week thinking about what I wanted to do with this bike. Then this crazy idea popped into my crazy, little noggin. I’ll mount it on our living room wall! Yep, that’s what I’m gonna do.

It took a little bit to convince my wife, but I assured her that it would look pretty cool and be quite the conversation piece. So after nearly a day of trying to kill myself on a ladder, scratching the hell out of the wall, and then repainting it, I have an old Schwinn hanging in my living room – with holiday lights to boot.

I don’t know, I think it’s pretty cool!

Click on the photos for a bigger view. 

Well, in typical Randy fashion, I got really excited about my blog, set myself some high goals, became really creative (for a few weeks), then WHAM-O, I hit a BIG, blank canvas (a wall seemed too hard!)

I got in a FUNK!

Why did this happen? Well, probably because I’m easily distracted… by everything! The weather, world news, housework, job, church, music, dogs, kids, wife, life! You get the picture, right?

My wife, Paula, thinks I have a little bit of Attention Deficit Disorder. She may be right, but I’ve never been able to sit and listen to her reasoning for thinking this. HA! She’s actually very familiar with these creative patterns of mine, and it drives her crazy! Are all creative types just a little bit off?

For some STUPID, SILLY reason I will doubt myself in the middle of my projects. This really sucks, because I start off happy and then begin to question everything I’m doing. Why am I painting or drawing this? Who would buy this? Why am I spending my time doing this? Why do I ask myself these stupid questions? Uhh…

Instead of simply enjoying the creative process, I get all wishy-washy. Talk about a waste of time! Geesh!

I need to be CREATIVE FOR MYSELF! I don’t need to worry if some other artist has done something similar, or if this is going to be something someone might want to buy. None of these questions I put in my noggin even matter, because I’m supposed to be doing this for myself – not as a commissioned piece or a freelance job.

Okay, I feel much better now that I got that out of the way! Whew!

Regardless of this recent creative FUNK, I have been creating new artwork over the past few weeks, just not any too personal. I’ve designed a church-study logo that is now posted on my logos page. I put together a poster for a local benefit concert. I’m working on a steam-punk gun (converting a plastic nerf gun into a sci-fi, Victorian-age-looking invention – will post photos) and continue to keep a sketch book handy for any creative ideas that need to get out of my head and onto paper.

Staying focused, even through all of life’s distractions, is my biggest challenge and probably always will be. If I get myself into another funk, that’s okay, hopefully it will be temporary and I’ll find something to motivate me out of it. Sometimes you need a little break, right!?!

Word!

It”s a very small collection because I didn’t want to overwhelm (or bore) you with ALL the things I’ve done since 1990! And, while I would still rather sit down at the drawing table or in front of a canvas, it’s pretty cool to see what I can come up with on a computer. The undo command has to be one of my most appreciated and commonly used – would be great to have when a watercolor goes out of whack!

Most of these designs were created on a Mac-daddy, utilizing Quark Xpress (a thing of the past for me now) and the Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Incredibly cool software for the design world!

One of them is fifteen-year-old Muyoboke Evarist. Muyoboke lives with his family in the region of Uganda, Africa, and has been corresponding with us through letters and photos since May, 2005. The other child is nine-year-old Saira Abigail Alvarado Peña, (whew – that’s a mouthful!) and she is quite the little sweetie! Saira lives with her family in El Salvador (Central America) and has been sharing her letters and drawings with us since August of 2008.

So what’s with all this cross-continental letter writing, and where am I going with this blog post?

Well, it’s about another one of my passions – sponsoring a child in poverty. I’m telling you, it’s one of the greatest things you can do! In fact, you should do it right now. No, really, I’ll even help you get started!

My family began sponsoring Muyoboke and Saira after learning about this awesome organization called Compassion. Compassion exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. Today, Compassion helps more than 1.2 million children in 26 countries. AWESOME!

Aside from the letters and photos that we have been exchanging over the years, our sponsorship through Compassion has provided Muyoboke and Saira with an education in a safe learning environment, regular and healthier food options, and a place to learn and share the WORD of God. It is through this program and our sponsorship that these children are given a little of what they need – LOVE and HOPE!

Want to change the life of a child living in poverty? (please say YES!) Then I beg you to visit www.compassion.com and consider becoming a sponsor today!

Today, I created a new book covers page that you’ll have to check out. It features 18 different book covers that I designed while working for iUniverse, a self-publishing book company. This should’ve been my dream job, but with the inner-office politics and my (God forbid) wacky, creative nature, we could only work together for so long. It’s okay, I’m over it. Waaaaaaaaaah!

I did the cover artwork for the book shown on the left, Slamma Lamma Ding Dong. It’s a book of slam poetry by Nebraska authors, one of which I worked with at iUniverse. Pretty cool, I think!

Anyway, the page shows what I feel are my better cover designs – ’cause why would I show my crappy ones!?! Give it a look!

In celebration of Halloween, I asked my mom to search through some photo albums to find a blast from the past polaroid of my brother Curt and I dressed as the dynamic duo. As sure as you can say Saundra Kaye, (my mom’s name) she found it! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Back in 1976 (as noted on the back – good job, mom) my brother and I transformed ourselves into the world’s greatest crime-fighting team ever! I’m the shorter, sexy-legged side-kick, Robin, and Curt is the tall, freakish-looking fellow in the blue tights! Just kidding – he was a pretty good super hero sibling! Just look at that puffed-out chest – the bat is almost flying off his shirt!

Our Bat mobile was a speckled green, three-speed, banana-seat Schwinn with tassels shooting out of the hand grips and an orange safety flag fluttering in the back. I’m sure we clothespinned baseball cards in the spokes to make it sound like one bad-ass (sorry, I’m feeling a little punchy today) super hero, crime fighting machine!

Halloween was definitely one of my favorite holidays as a kid. Christmas was right up there with the gifts and all, but turning myself into a super hero, rock star, movie actor, or cartoon character (and going out in public without much ridicule) was the bomb! Not to mention the candy!!!

Because our dad was such a tight-ass, (pardon my French, still feeling punchy) we had to make our own costumes, which made for some very interesting outfits. Fortunately our mom was a very creative person and we managed to come up with some good stuff! I’m still looking for the photo of me as Gene Simmons of KISS – wigged-out hair, ring-chained necklace, tongue hanging out and all! It would have totally rocked Detroit City! Will post when found.

Being an illustrator and a marginal story-teller, I felt like this was something I should do for my kids – as well as myself. However, the way it’s been going I might have grandchildren before any of these picture books are completed and/or published! It’s a goal that I’m going to continue to work toward… mush, mush, onward!

I wrote my first children’s story book, Katelyn’s Moon, for my then three-year-old daughter, Katelyn. A nice little rhyming story about Katelyn McKenzie, her quest to reach the moon she so loves, and the various critters she meets along the way. This book turned into a poster after I couldn’t (for the life of me) manage to gain the patience needed for all of the illustrating involved. It’s a great little story that I will have to re-visit and finish the right way – as a book!

My second story is The Zebra in Caleb’s Sandbox, which I wrote for my son, Caleb (notice a pattern with my titles?) when he was six years old. Well guess what, he’s now sixteen! But the cool thing about Caleb’s book is that the writing is finished and I have several final sketches ready to go into final mode.

My good friend, Melissa (aka MoMo), who is an EXCELLENT writer and creative motivator, was VERY nice in offering to help edit my story (in exchange for several cans of Diet Pepsi and an occasional lunch) and has been great at encouraging me to stay focused on this project. My wife and kids have been nudging me along as well!

Tessa Gets Into Trouble is my third story, rightly named for my youngest daughter, Tessa. This idea is entirely in the early stages of writing and the only sketches for it are in my noggin. It’s sure to be a silly tale about childhood mischief at its best!