Thursday, July 29, 2010

The art of selling art




Obviously if I was in my 20's and did the type of artwork I do, there would be a certain buzz.

The depth and breath of that buzz can only be determined by chance and serendipity.

The problem is that its taken 40 years to get to where I can create the type of flow/color combination that satisfies me....and even then I'm not totally satisfied.

When I think about how much artwork I've sold in my life it truly is staggering to know that less than 1% of that has been my own work.

I sell a piece here and there but I have friends that don't even bother to ask how much something is....even after they say how much they like a particular piece.

The fact that most of it is not framed might have something to do with it.

I suppose I could enter the 21st Century and put some "stuff" on E-Bay.....but Meg Whitman isn't getting any of my money.

The hypocrisy here is that if Meg wanted to buy a piece for a few grand....I would hand deliver it with a big yellow bow.

I think I'll just keep posting here until someone responds.

Art can be an extreme waiting game.......as is any occupation that is a result of personal creation.

Music, Art, Skateboarding, Script Writer, Fortune Teller, Presidential Advisor, Math Professor...etc.

We all just keep doing what we do until someone wants a piece of the action.

I have ten new pieces that I will be uploading over the next few days. Maybe one of those pieces will catch your eye.

The art of selling art is an odd art.

Michael Timothy McAlevey




Monday, July 26, 2010

Jerry second time around minus Linda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown

http://www.jerrybrown.org/

http://ag.ca.gov/ag/brown.php

IT'S TIME TO START PUSHING THE THROTTLE ON THE CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE

I'm thinking most democrats are not even remotely worried about Meg Whitman, but that's a huge mistake to make.

MONEY = SUCCESS ......WHEN IT COMES TO POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.
and
Meg
has
a
bunch

I think it's important to realize that political experience is needed at the present time in the governor's office. We elected an actor twice and now one of the brains behind E-Bay's success wants us to think she has the magic wand to fix things.

There a certain point where non-politicians should get involved but I don't think the highest offices in the land are a good place to start.

You might be saying that it worked for Ronald Reagan but that would only apply if you think he accomplished great things.

If you think RR did great things then you will be voting for any Republican that runs for anything at anytime....and the idea of Jerry Brown becoming Governor AGAIN probably just makes you want to vomit.

I, on the other hand, am aware of the disasters created by Ronald Reagan.
One disaster, and probably the most important, being that there were no homeless numbers before 1980 and those people who really needed help with mental problems always had someplace to go. Now they go into alley's and streets instead of treatment centers.

But of course criticizing "The Great Emancipator" is like criticizing Mickey Mouse so I'll stop for now.

He did tell good jokes and he got plenty of rest while in the White House so he had that going for him.

Meg Whitman does not have Ronald Reagan's sense of humor and she does not have Arnold's naivety so that leaves her in a strange bubble.

I don't think we can trust the present future of California to a person who failed to vote for the majority of her adult life.

That fact alone should be deeply considered
by anyone thinking of voting for her.

SHE DIDN'T VOTE FOR MOST OF HER ADULT LIFE
AND NOW SHE WANTS TO
BE
GOVERNOR.

Seriously goofy


Moonbeam Brown
easily makes more sense that E-Meg.

Michael Timothy McAlevey






Saturday, July 24, 2010

Like to follow serious with not so serious

For those of you who follow professional football I would simply like to express an early prediction.

This is not about a team.

This is about an individual player that most pundits and 24 NFL teams don't think will succeed in the NFL

I CALL A MAJOR TIME OUT TO THOSE OPINIONS AND PREDICT THAT THIS PLAYER WILL NOT ONLY BE A STAR BUT WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR AT LEAST TWO SUPER BOWL WINS.

His name is Timothy Richard Tebow and he was the 25th player drafted in the last draft session.

It is amazing how people, apparently in the know, can overlook certain tangents that make a great football player.

Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round which made him the 199th pick.
Brett Farve was drafted in the second round which made him the 33rd pick.
Drew Brees was the 32 pick.
Bart Starr was taken in the 17th round which made him the 200th pick
Johnny Unitas was the 109th pick and was taken in the 9th round

I predict that Tim Tebow will join that esteem list and end up as a great QB.

Of course I though McGovern would kick Nixon's ass

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Friday, July 23, 2010

Guest speaker for the day

This article was written by Christian M. Ellis

In the July 23, 2010 issue of The Week, there is an article titled "Congress: Why Democrats are running scared" which discusses how low President Obama's popularity is and why democrats are doomed to take a beating in the November elections. After reading the article, I spent most of the day wondering how on earth this could be the case and felt compelled to share my views on what is at stake this year. Great societies do not sustain their greatness through the acts of politicians; they sustain their greatness through the wisdom, courage, and values from the republic itself, the people. A little less than two years ago, our nation elected a man who brought hope, intelligence, courage, and integrity back to the white house. The rest of the world observed and responded with elation.

But this historic and extraordinary act of electing an African American to the most powerful position in the world is not enough.

We

must

do

more.

In our new millennium, the world is getting flatter, smaller, more complex, and more interconnected. Time is speeding up, old boundaries are breaking down, and the laws of cause and effect are ever more complicated. It is no longer productive to think in terms of good and bad, right and wrong, democratic and republican.

The dualistic view of the world is slowly being replaced with a more enlightened way of thinking about our society and our world.

Some people are awakening to a whole new level of consciousness about the interdependence of all things; but many people are still asleep, imprisoned by their own unconscious beliefs and way of life. Our greatest strength as a society is our freedom.

Our greatest weakness is our ignorance. More of us must awaken.

Imagine a citizen of the earth in the year 3000 reading a history book about the two main philosophies of our current American society.

One philosophy focuses on gun rights, anti-choice, prayer in schools, increasing oil drilling, building walls around the country, lowering taxes for the rich and dispelling climate change as a myth.

The other philosophy focuses on improving healthcare for children, improving education, pro-choice, conserving the environment, moving to renewable energy, fighting destructive climate change, increasing diversity, and supporting the vanishing middle class.

I wonder if our citizen of the future would be able to even comprehend the existence of this shocking duality.

The question for us today, in this era of transformation, is how can we allow the politicians, media outlets, and citizen groups that subscribe to the first philosophy continue to bury us in their ignorance, arrogance, and greed?

Recently, the state of Texas has started re-writing its school textbooks to reposition evolution as only a theory, replace the word "democratic" with "republican," eliminate the concept of the separation of church and state, and reduce the prominence of historical figures viewed as "liberal" like Thomas Jefferson. Because of the size of the state, Texas influences school textbook publishing companies to adopt their standards, which then affect the rest of the country. There are thousands more examples like this of the insidious and pervasive nature of ignorance and fear in our society. The only solution is an increased awareness, understanding, and consciousness about our world and how we must live in greater harmony with each other and our environment, and importantly, apply this greater awareness to developing longer-term, more enlightened solutions.

With greater consciousness comes empathy, compassion, cooperation, courage, and tolerance. But we cannot mistaken what this truly means. We can no longer tolerate the hate, fear, and lies that are fomented by people that call themselves patriots. We all know who these people are. They are the ones that assassinate doctors who perform legal abortions. They are the ones that suggest our President is a racist and not a citizen of our country. They are the ones that spread misinformation about global warming. They are the ones that torture people. They are the ones that wage wars to fill the coffers of corporations and kill our young men and women in the process. They are the ones that impose their self-serving morality on the rest of us. These people are not patriots; they are a danger to us and our children. They hate what America stands for: liberty, diversity, equality, and unity. We must stop their pathological deceptions and obstructionist shamefulness.

Going back to the article in The Week, a former advisor of the previous administration, the most irresponsible and incompetent administration in our history, was quoted as saying that we must fight against our President and his party's big-government policies. I share with you this statement as one of profound and singular ignorance and outrageous deception. The previous administration deceived us to wage an unnecessary war, destroyed our global leadership and influence in the process, and threw us into catastrophic economic collapse, while doubling the national debt by $5 Trillion and bankrupting our country. How can we still listen to these individuals, and how can we allow them to continue to shape our destiny? I urge you to fight the unconscious people that are destroying our country and play an active role in preventing our President (and others who care about our country) from being punished at the voter's booth by the unconscionable legacy of the party that failed before him.

If this makes sense to you, please send it to ten other contacts and share the message. Spread the word that enough is enough.

Chris Ellis

is the author of the soon to be released book...

"The Enlightened Enterprise"

I'm pretty sure this article should be read a few times. The problem is the people who should read it ten times and memorize it......won't.

Michael Timothy McAlevey


No one sounds like Hoyt....no one!

Hoyt Axton - Five Hundred Miles

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Give me a little more Space






I highly suggest spending a few hours every week on the Hubble site.......

www.hubblesite.org

It can't possibly hurt your perspective.

The top one is a cartoon nebula found in the Lucasian Galaxy just outside of our Milky Way.

So many mysteries to contemplate.

Stop what you are doing right now and contemplate how truly large the Universe is.....

And then take a second and try to relate to the concept of ETERNITY..........and then once you feel that you can handle the concept.....now try to grasp the reality of
anything
ETERNAL

Good luck on that one.

IT MIGHT BE WHY THEY INVENTED EXCEDRIN

MICHAEL TIMOTHY MC ALEVEY




Sunday, July 18, 2010

Louis WhooooOosthuizen

It's always a good story when a small element dominates a large element...and this week in Scotland it happened in a very big way.

Lodewicus Theodorus Oosthuizen won The Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

THE OPEN used to be called The British Open but now The Open is a brand of it's own....and a 27 year old from South Africa owns the Claret Jug for one year.

There is no more historical place in golf than St. Andrews and this week we saw remarkable divergence with a 21 year old shooting a 63 on the first day and then an 80 the next day....only to end with someone whose name we didn't know last Thursday, winning the big prize.

Today is Sunday and we know who he is but we still aren't sure how to say his full name...

Thank God he answers to the name of

Louie.....Louie.....Louie.

And by the way, the first thing Louie said in his acceptance speech was a special Birthday greeting to Nelson Mandella who is 92 today.

It's been an amazing month and a half for South Africa.

And when a white golfer from South Africa wishes Nelson Mandella a Happy Birthday on worldwide television, with millions of people watching, I think the future does look brighter.

There's always a bigger story behind the game of golf.

LOUIE LOUIE!

NICE!

Michael Timothy McAlevey















Thursday, July 15, 2010

A story no one seems to know

I'm reading a novel by Steve Berry called "The Paris Vendetta." On page 122 I read about Executive Order #11110 signed in June of 1963 by John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

I'M PRETTY SURE YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT THIS ORDER....unless you are a well read conspiracy buff.....and I only know one of those and she doesn't read my "articles."

Executive Order 11110
http://resource.lawlinks.com/Content/Legal_Research/Executive_Orders/jfk%20years/1963/governmental/executive_order_11110.htm

AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

SECTION 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended --

(a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):

"(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933, as amended (31 U.S.C. 821 (b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption," and

(b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.

SEC. 2. The amendment made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 4, 1963.


OBVIOUSLY HIS ASSASSINATION ON NOVEMBER 22 OF 1963 WAS NOT A RESULT OF THIS ACTION.

HUMMMMmmmmm!!!!!

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALMOST ALL OF THE 6 TRILLION DOLLARS OF DEBT HAS BEEN ACCUMULATED SINCE 1963.

From Wikipedia

Edward Flaherty, a professor of economics at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, wrote an essay entitled Debunking the Federal Reserve Conspiracy Theories,[3] in which he argues that Executive Order 11110 is quite infamous among conspiracy theorists, such as Jim Marrs, who believe President Kennedy was killed by the men who have control over the Federal Reserve Board, based on arguments that can be contradicted using CRS Report for Congress, No. 96-672 E.[4]

THE PROBLEM WITH CONSPIRACY THEORIES IS THAT EVERYBODY THAT IS INVOLVED SIMPLY TELLS ANYBODY THAT ASKS....

"OH THOSE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY."

AND THAT VIRTUALLY ENDS THE QUESTIONS............unless the person asking is.....

CRAZY

is

that

crazy

or

what?


And regarding Mel Gibson......are those tapes really him?

Mel Gibson and Conspiracy theories.......hummmm, that sounds familiar.....oh yeah I loved that movie.

If you haven't seen it.....check it out......

CONSPIRACY

And then go and read up on 11110.


Michael Timothy McAlevey






Monday, July 12, 2010

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

The above quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I often wonder if in his extensive writing that he stopped to actually enhance a quote or they simply poured out like water from a broken dam.

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist"

I'm fairly certain that RWE was the only literary giant who used the word WHOSO......but notwithstanding I really like that quote.

"Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis"

I think I've found this to be true when it comes to dealing with a certain type of citizen.

"Every artist was first an amateur"

I'm confident in the reality of this quote by the mere fact that I continue to display amateurish behavior with every piece I do.

"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it"

And nothing matters more than just doing whatever it is....that you do well. Whether or not is is beneficial to mankind can only be determined by others

I sincerely don't have time to critic my own work
or I truly would get nothing done...
MTM.

I think everybody should spend a small portion of their annual reading allocation and browse through Ralph Waldo Emerson.

And when you need real clear common sense reminders..... Abe Lincoln quotes fill that bill to the top of the hill.

EMERSON and LINCOLN....
.now that's a great movie....does anyone have Spielberg's cell phone?

Michael Timothy McAlevey



Saturday, July 10, 2010

Cleveland still has Rock & Roll

LeBron James left Cleveland to play in Miami.

Why on earth would anyone want to move away from Cleveland?

Cleveland has the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Cleveland has.......
and Cleveland has......
and Cleveland has......
and Cleveland has......

THE BROWNS and THE INDIANS

Both very impressive names that must have taken years to figure out.

So now everybody seems to think that Mr. James and Mr. Wade and Mr. Bosh will dominate the NBA for the next five years.

First you have to win one before you win 5
and Kobi already has five so
end of conversation.

I am a bit concerned that Derek Fisher is flying to Miami to meet with Pat Riley.

I sincerely hope it's just a bargaining trip for his negotiations with the Lakers.

He is 36 but he's the level headed locker room JG (junior guru) that learned from Master Jackson. He's also one of the best interviews in the history of the NBA.

In fact I might even go so far as to say that he will be a high ranking NBA executive after he finishes running around in shorts.

I think the lost of Derek Fisher would be tremendous but even worst would be if he joined the party in Miami.

The Lakers have signed Steve Blake and I have no idea if that's good or bad because last year he played for the Clippers.

I guess I really don't pay attention to those guys because I have no idea who he is and he played in the same arena as Kobi and the boys.

I realize the Lakers want to cut some cost and that the luxury tax is way out of hand....(23 million plus) but letting Derek go for a couple of million dollars doesn't make sense.....especially when Jordan Farmar is hitting the highway.

The question right now seems to be.......WILL PAT RILEY take over as coach.

I predict that if Miami has 10 losses after 30 games that he will be back......maybe even 8 losses.

I do feel sorry for Cleveland. In our nation's present economic situation
it doesn't help a smaller metro area when their King abdicates.

But they still have the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and they have.....
and they have.....
and they have.....
and they have.....

ouch!

MIchael Timothy McAlevey