For my friend Marie

You can only imagine the indescribable pain of losing your parent, and then it happens.
Losing the last of the pair is even more difficult.

My thoughts and prayers go with you and your family Marie.....may you find peace in knowing Olive and George are together again. Say hi to Betty & Randy for me George! (smiles) love, bj

I'm just a Jelly Fish!

Next....

Read about: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm

Well at least this happened in NORTHERN CALIFORNIA........WOW! What's Next?

Ring of Fire 2

We're safe here in the OC, but it sure was a little scary. Foothill Ranch and Trabuco Canyon is under control but unfortunately has moved east into the Cleveland National Forest. I hear sirens as I write this now, but according to the news, all is okay. These are my own images from last night.......

RING of FIRE

LA TIMES Update
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ocfire23oct23,0,4784075.story?coll=la-home-center
We're on fire here in the OC - LA and San Diego.........keeping watch and pray and hope evacuations don't happen tonight (and arsonists are caught)



At the coast an amazing swell ensues........

Halloween's coming......

I'll let you know what I am going to be, but for now dwell on this.

Been INSANELY working and not able to share my thoughts.

I'll write more soon.

bj

Just For my Compadre Sandra

thought you'd love this!

And.......

I miss Warren




......or what I thought we had.

Hope you're happy because you'll never meet anyone
like me ever again in your lifetime.

Beginning to Wonder

If all these hours and hard work amount to anything really. Is meeting and or exceeding people's expectations going to make me sad when I reach the age of my Father when he passed.....89 years....and just be sad that I fulfilled someone elses expectations and not my own, my deepest? Or is fulfilling theirs is what makes me fulfilled. I'm confused, tired and need a meanigful change.

A Day in the Life in the OC

Newport with Santa Catalina in the distance.....26 miles to be exact.

The Lake with Saddleback Mountains featured, they are ever changing yet seem unchanged after all these years.


I never realized how accustomed I was to having the Mountains "on my left" so to speak, until I came home a few years ago.

Last winter......yeah even a bit of snow on Saddleback!

I thought I would introduce you to the community I live in. Rancho Santa Margarita, California. (Where Santa drinks Margaritas on his Ranch....HA!) The lake is in walking distance from my house and Augey loves checking it all out. It's all man made but for southern California living, it's still pretty nice. Mind you it's not like living in Laguna Canyon or right at the beach, it has a small town feel but still close enough to all things OC. Here is a nerdy link about demographics (that aren't necessarily correct) but it's still a wonderful place to live! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Santa_Margarita,_California

Been incredibly consumed with work projects for nearly a week now so I haven't written much. Created a fun product trailer in i-movie in a ridiculous day and a half, when I can, I will post. (Confidentiality-as the product doesn't launch for a few months) My friend Liz kindly lent her voiceover to add the storybook feel (it's a line of Fairy characters-old world-storybook charm) so her "mock British" ala Tazmania was quite convincing for the piece. It was nice to make something move and have a life instead of a reticent print piece. I had a great director, Joni, our product development guru. We were exhausted but I got an interesting fortune this week when we had Chinese: "Daydreams are wonderful but accomplishments much more satisfying." Sums it up for me!

Marie is doing great on the Dancing with the Stars show, and she'll be dancing the Rumba tomorrow night! The website's live, marieosmond.com, although not exactly how I really want some of it to work/look due to programer and time, but! we're getting much more traffic due to the show and much more press. Speaking of, I need to go finish up some product box mock ups for the show in Dallas. So my fun for now is over!

I hope this finds all well for you!

I Just Have Two Words...

ESCAPE MEDIOCRITY

"501's"

We're LIVE!

marieosmond.com

thank god!

Sunday's

This is one of the last drawings I did before my dad passed away....I'm so happy I have these.

Missing you.........

Rainy Days and Homeless

Drove up to Santa Monica with some friends to do this TV show/audience participation.

ONLY in LA right?, they were filming for a new show. Why would anyone do such an inane activity on their Saturday you are thinking? WHY NOT! I've been working so much I jumped at the chance of leaving the OC for the land of LA. We had a lot of fun, even in the down pour of rain. (This is our very first rain ALL YEAR!) Met Drew Lachey and the "ordinary" people watching was just quite entertaining! If you look close enough you can see the spray from the incoming set.......beautiful offshore winds!

Interesting thing about taking a photograph - sometimes you don't realize things that were present in the shot until you see them on your screen. As in this frame with the rainbow, the address number that appears on the building is also the area code. Simple, yes, but quite interesting to me nonetheless.

Also,
It was hard to believe that just mere yards from this beautiful colorful sight, were a group of homeless folks. With that in mind and in comparison to my photograph, they seemed to appear almost in black and white.

Obviously by this I mean their lack of a home and shelter leaves them dirt ridden and almost colorless. Which, never having to live like that seems almost impossible.

With the vast array of colors found in LA, and dare I say it - bling, this landscape that poverty or whatever circumstances has placed these people in - it's no wonder they are so easily overlooked and dismissed.

Just leaves me with a whole lot of questions about this life.

Showers will be blissful...

At least fo a while.

Working from home tonight.

Working on website updates tonight. Love the immediacy of web vs. print.

We must go LIVE on Friday!

Show begins in 6 days.......
http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancingwiththestars/index

VOTE for Marie!

Process & Meaning

The process of creating the work is where the meaning resides.
Not the end result. - me

A night time rumination.....

'whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it's time to pause and reflect.'
- mark twain

Saturday Morning thought......

"Wealth, you know, isn't what a man has, but what he is..." -from Middle Passage

Don't let the memory fade of 911.......

Everyone has a double!

I am at home today with a summer head cold/sore throat....no complaints I like the break in the schedule. It was bound to happen with my schedule the way it's been going. Augey is happy to have me here in our little home, and as I fight not to work and battle the terrible "GUILTS," I found this image on my hard drive of what could quite possibly be Augey's double as a puppy! Down to the black eye!! Having got him from the pound when he was about 4 months old, I missed this stage of puppyhood........now I feel like I knew him when - then!!

Making a cup of tea and catch some TV, which sounds oh so bad but I'll embrace the pause in my hectic schedule.

Of Course! Lewis and Clark......

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Elliot

.....And of course Ken Burns' "Lewis and Clark" is on the "moving picture box" as I write this tonight. I cannot help but relate this reference not only to you Leslie but also to my friends Tia and Bruce and the journey they have been on.........their own trek across North America. I wonder what art awaits in the making for you two? (Although your catalog of images are art in their own right)

Saul

And then there was Saul Steinberg........

ART...the real thing

I spend my days at my computer, creating design. Yet all the while my mind takes me to the place where I can be sculpting or drawing instead of massaging a darn keyboard. Conflicted because I must work, I think of my heroes and those that could make art, real art for their living. Thinking of you Leslie.......I always think of you.

Dog Beach with Augey......and so many others!

Labor Day Weekend

There was a 4.7 earthquake near here and Augey barked and barked, seems you just roll with them anymore. My mind went to Florida living and being prepared. So I'll be getting my propane tank refilled in the AM and I already have enough water etc. on hand like a good girl.

Since I have started bodyboarding again, I find that I think about the beach an awful lot! I think it's much better than being overly focused on work and taking things much much too seriously!

Here are the conditions: http://www.surfline.com/reports/report.cfm?id=4876

Doesn't look like I am missing much, but always good to get wet!

Off to hang my new plantation blinds!

A day in the OC

Here I am finally joining the bandwagon of bloggers........I'll do my best to keep you interested in the goings and comings of me and the OC.