Why am I starving? – I have put 5k LESS in the bank in the first quarter of this year thsn in 2012. At that rate the likelyhood that I loose my house and end up on the programs you pos

t funny memes about and complain about is very high. Funny memes and post about the president that I  didn’t vote for doesn’t fix a damn thing, the people that post them do instead.

That low price wall art you bought at Lowes and Walmart was produced in China. That ass fattening burger you ate at McDonalds was comprised of beef most likely from another country, not some farmer in the USA.  That fake Coach purse you bought in the gift shop in Gatlinburg is not only manufactured in another country but the store is probably Indian owned and worked and most of the revenue sent back to India. Many of the great buys you got at Wamart to save a couple bucks was produced in another country. So in the long run you aren’t really saving any bucks.

We are making ourselves a third world country by causing an environment where we are only concerned about the price and not the welfare of our own countrymen.

If you spent the time you take posting funny memes about the government on finding out where you can spend your money to actually help this country insteadmof tear it down, then thats a start for us to get it back. “We the people” is also the one bitching about the ones that “we” elected. Like it or not, we have the power tomchange our country, but not by posting funny memes and making jokes about the administration.

The people of this country are the ones who can turn it around… Not Owebama. Stop bitching about something that can’t be changed and do something that can. Put that time, effort and financial rescources into what will make a difference. Because bitching about whats wrong with America will not make a damn bit of difference.

Many products we can no longer do anything about because our greed has sent the production to other countries and we no longer make stuff here… Just look at our own farming industry we use to have.  We dont even hardly makes shoes or clothes here. So what does that tell you about the direction of a country when our food and clothing are imported. Even our American cars don’t use steel made here.

This country will continue to fall until the people do something about it, not the President. He is a mere puppet on a string, and the ones pulling his strings are not American companies.

WOW… I have looked back through my so very infrequent blog postings, and realized that some years I made New Years Resolutions. This in fact will NOT be about resolutions of the future but of what I have missed posting. At least in the Automotive Section and for some reason I feel a European section on the horizon.

As ArtOfAutos.com has migrated the web gallery and store in with my other works and are found on the web at www.gallery5.biz and several hundred pieces can be viewed in Gallery5 at 458 Parkway (light #3) in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

One of my favorite new works that has been adopted as a 20×30 and a 12×18 is “Smoked Tudor” – A 1937 Ford Tudor in a flat black metallic finish. There was also a collection of 6 vintage Fiats and assorted others from the FIAT 500 show in Sorrento, Italy that I managed to run across during a visit there.

A new Ford image “Crown of Chrome“, and the new “Draggin Bellies“, an alternate companion to “Rocky Top” which has almost sold its entire edition. 14 12×18′s of the 18 that would ever be printed and 4 of 6 of a larger size that would ever be printed. Definitely that has been the crown jewel of the collection so far. The newest piece “Skull Shift’n” features an awesome looking skull of a shifter.

Currently there are 44 works in ArtOfAutos.com with more older works being cleaned up and added to the shop frequently.

When I first started posting about New Works I had just finished, it was a pretty easy task since I was only making one or sometimes two new pieces every other week or so. But over the last few weeks, that output level has increased dramatically. In fact I have had some spurts where I created a new piece every day for three to four days in a row.

This all came about after a stretch of several months early this year where my art production went dormant. Even on a cruise to the French West Indies, I had to force myself to even take snapshots, I was in a real funk and really hate that I missed on many great sites there.

I eventually began to shake it off, but it was slow and arduous it seemed, as I managed to produce "St Kitts", a harbor scene from the island. Processed in HDR, this work began the boost into my motivation to produce and to even wipe the dust of my cameras for that matter.

A few weeks later I managed to create "Royal Enfield", another HDR image of a Royal Enfield motorcycle I spotted on St Barths Island. I also posted a listing for it on Craigs List and was discoverd by a blogger for Royal Enfield’s. He wrote an article about it in his blog and even one of the readers went online an purchased a print. That began to really motivate my production gears, and after the sale of another print and then a print of "Hog Tank", I was getting back into the swing of things.

Now as I look back over even just the last month I couldn’t name off every new piece I have done. I went through 60 DVD’s of RAW camera files and began digging and also through 55 CD’s of digitized film images. As a result so far I have 3 new Civil War scenes, done over in HDR of course. 2 Corvette works, "Copper Coupe" and "Blue Velvet". I finally finished the "Humpback of Tennessee" and after Chrysler began to follow me on Twitter, I produced "Town Car". Along with a few more that can be found in my Art of Autos Gallery .

On a photo safari to Knoxville one day I managed to at least capture the "Sun Sphere" and followed up with several other new works that have made their way into the Black Bear Art Gallery.
The nice thing about all this for those that currently have some of my works in their collections, is that due to the large number of new works, the next walk in gallery I have will most likely be of those. Most all older works that have not reached retirement (typically 10-15 on canvas and an assorted mix on fine art paper) will be close to retirement since the only way they would be printed most likely is by online order.

If you are one of those that have been to one of my galleries previously and you have a print, especially one on canvas, it could be a one of a kind in the end. There are a couple pieces that will see the the full run of the edition, due to their overwhelming popularity such as "Cabin Fever" and "Curve of Many Colors". But don’t wait too long because "Cabin Fever" is at print number 8 or 9 on canvas already, and as long as I keep my personal 22×28 canvas of it above the fireplace, it wont matter to me if it goesto retirement.

You can now keep up with new stuff and gallery news by following me on twitter @dr_sid, Facebook, Google+, RedGage and probably more.

I have always thought that Guadeloupe was pronounced with a “loop ay” sound at the end, but down here they actually just say the last part “loop”. Actually if you were to ask me before this cruise where on the globe that Guadeloupe even was at, I would have been at a loss for an answer.

You will notice in todays photo snippits that I did not post a breakfast pic since right at breakfast time for me this morning (about 8AM) a sudden rain blew threw and I ate inside the Veranda Restaurant instead of outside. But it did blow by quickly and I was on the deck of the boat enjoying the slow cruise into the harbor for a noon arrival.

This island was the most indigenous as far as shopping goes, than all the ones before. The shops were filled with a lot of tie-died stuff and crafts made by the residents. And most of them didn’t even take U.S. dollars, but of course credit cards were ok. Since we got there right at noon, the place was pretty well closed up till 2:30 or 3, as for they take lunch break from noon to 3… yes the whole island does except for a few eateries. So I scouted the area and then bought a 24 hour WiFi pass and surfed the web a little and updated Facebook. So if you were around you spotted my update from the street cafe where I had some pizza with a few of the staff from the ship.

When the shops opened I took camera in tow and captured a sampling of images from the island. I have been capturing on average between 150 to 300 images a day since on board the ship. A lot of those are just stock images for future media I will produce for my client Fine Food & Wine Cruise.com. Most of the images have just been snapshot material, since there are lots of cars and other people in the way it is difficult to visualize and stage out some basis for art pieces. But I am sure that within a month or so, you will see several Caribbean works in my online gallery blackbearartgallery.com

Tonight was the second of the two dinners prepared by celebrity chef Jason Wilson. I t was another five course meal filled with stuff I could barely even pronounce as I read over the menu. And tomorrow is a beach Bar B Que on Pigeon Island before heading back to Barbados tomorrow night to bring this lifetime adventure to a close. I am very thankful to a couple of special friends that made this possible to help me get here and take care of my kitties. And to the many friends that suggested I still go on the cruise no matter what seemed to take the wind out of my sails. It was only fitting I guess that I sail the Caribbean on a big ship with giant sails.

I have learned several things about myself and life and other people over this last week. There is even a blogger from Seattle on the cruise, Linda Nicholson from her blog SaltySeattle.com But i did hear her tell some others that she was not blogging daily and was saving it till the end. I guess maybe I beat her to the punch… but No, I really didn’t. Her blog will be more about the cruise and the food and probably not her own spiritual retreat.

If you are wondering if today was another power day…. well if you read yesterdays blog, and I told you that I bought a shirt today as well, then you know the answer to that.

Breakfast overlooking St. Barthelemy started off yet another banner day. And using my favorite quote “today is the first day of the rest of your life” as the catalyst for todays agenda. A ride on the tender over to the pier, and I was in what seemed like a small town in France. Of course I was in the French West Indies, so I guess it would be rather “frenchy”. Very narrow one way streets lined with designer name shops and sidewalk bistros gave me plenty to walk through. I toured many many blocks of shops and then came across the angelican church where I went in to have a chat with God about letting go and accepting certain recent misfortunes of life.

I then ventured up to the top of a hill that has some sort of light house looking structure and two vintage canons of Fort Gustavia. What an awesome view from up there, and a strong breeze felt very nice in the heat of the day. I even took off my shirt for the walk back down into tow. You may be thinking whats the big deal about taking off a shirt… well remember this is French country, and the only overweight people are American tourist because we are such gluttons when it comes to food. I also noticed that almost every french woman smoked and the locals did not have the typical french accents that sounds like they slur and stumble on words. They rattled that sentences right off to each other quickly, in fact a conversation between to frenchmen sounded to me like they were arguing, but I doubt they were.

I stopped at one of the bistros by the harbor and had lunch with some other guest on the cruise that were from Seattle. My cheese burger was 22 euros, and thats just an indication of how expensive it is here. The bigger boats that wish to dock overnight pay 13.80 euros per foot per day port fees. The shops were mostly all high end boutique style stores and the whole district was very very clean and well kept.

A few more blocks of walking and I then had another breakout moment…. You have heard the saying “been there, done that, bought the shirt”… well I actually went in a shop and bought a St Barths T-Shirt, something I have never done was to buy a souvenir shirt. I got back to the ship in time to nap off some of the intense sun and then attend the Bar B Q dinner on the pool decks. As I sat at a table by myself noticing the many other tables filled with couples, I spotted the headliner singer Jane Curry, from the UK standing nearby and I asked if she wanted to join me for dinner. Again, for those that know me, that is certainly probably not what you would expect. We had an interesting continuation of a conversation from the night before and it was very fun for me. Since I have been pretty quiet and to myself most of the week, the opportunity to open up and let out some conversation was quite welcome, and having a conversation with a stunning young woman from the UK was most enjoyable.

Then the tip of the ice burg for the day appears… I dont drink wine and I am a picky eater, yet I am on a Fine Food and Wine Cruise, so I mentioned that I had thought before the cruise started that I might at least taste some wine. Ms Curry suggested I try sveral different selctions, and then Stacy Lill from the DeLille Cellars winery told me that drinking wine was like bungee jumping. Well… I love bingee jumping, so at that point I was “all in”. I tried a Chapellet Chardonnay which I could get down but it seemed a little acidic to me. My next glass was a DeLille Doyenne Roussanne, which was much more palatable to me. I asked some of the other guest just how they could guzzle this stuff all day and not be falling over their feet by evening. The answer was “water”. And so I had had two glasses of wine…. thats two more than I have ever had in my life, so I felt that was enough and gave the water thing a try for the rest of the night.

A couple of spins of Roulette and a few songs by the band “Four” that was playing was about all I needed to round off a breakout day…

So here it is a few hours after wine and no headache (thats a good sign, since I spent the first three days of the retreat with a very aggravating sinus type headache) I shall post the days select pics to facebook and retire to the comforts of my Stateroom that my cabin Steward Raul has readied for me to retire. I am sure I will find a nice chocolate on my pillow and the covers turned slightly for me to slide in for a good nights rest while we sail further south to Les Saintes, Guadeloupe.

There is a saying the “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”, some sort of metaphor for when you get not so good stuff, turn it into good stuff. Well, I ask? When Life Gives You Shit, what do you turn that into…. No matter what it is some kind of foul waste… and before you try an tell me, I do know the one thing some smarties are thinking of. Put it out on the compost pile and some day it will be fertilizer for flowers or food. Da Hell with that idea!

I guess there are also those that like the tuff guy approach and say “just suck it up” or “pull your boot straps up and go on”. Have you ever been on the receiving end of those kind of comments? Not very comforting are they?

I guess most of my peeps think I should be living the high life right now, cruising the Caribbean on a giant sailing ship. The truth is I went on this trip to regroup and loose the world for a bit. You could say… I am on a spiritual retreat. Of course the term retreat means : move back or withdraw, esp. so as to remove oneself from a difficult or uncomfortable.

So in the process of removing myself there is of course some bits of being uncomfortable and not so happy with the reasons of retreat. I can’t think of any battle general that was ok with retreating. So I am not really ok, with having to retreat, but I just have to suck it up and make a chocolate milkshake out of it.

So today as I drove around the Island of St Martin, i had to find some way to realize that old saying I recently heard… “the pain of staying the same. is greater than the pain of change”. Thus I must also then remember “if I want 2011 to be different than 2010, then I will have to do something different for it to happen “.