fathers day

am just back from san jose. steve is doing poorly. very poorly. i will go back in two weeks ~ either to help martha or to bury steve. what a difficult time.

wifeys dear friend died of a brain tumor in san jose last night. what kind of coincidence is that? poor thing, wifey is beside herself.

cant get ahold of billy ~ hes in cedar rapids (iowa) where the flooding is twelve feet high... he has a house full of art... and his family is there.

i finished the feng shui book. its decent. i will upload some slight corrections sometime soon. i will have a class on feng shui on saturday but the time/place/event confirmation came too late to do a newsletter... and nobody is signed up for it yet... so it might be a sparse summer solstice...

the body of water film had more problems than ever. and since i was gone last week i wont see any changes until wednesday night. this has been going on long enough. elizabeth has been making slow but steady progress on the body of water book and will be finished with the inserts soon. but she will go to indiana or illinois or some godawful "i" place for a month and i will get even less work out of her!!! something needs to be completed soon.

i am beginning to translate poetry into chinese. i will try to meet this week with a translator to check my work. really, its amazing what lengths will i go to to not write my cookbook.

but i had a wonderful fathers day with my daughter. we had breakfast with my mother and mary then went to look for rabbits, fairies, and ducks. every crowd has a silver lining.

what a world, what a world! this week:

i flew home from san jose in that terrible storm and it has been a whirlwind ever since. today, the roof is being taken off my house -- try working under that! construction will go on all this week. and patrick arrives for ten days on saturday (to see his artwork, go to gracewoodstudio.com). and after five years, i am no longer teaching at the blessings center so meditation class will be held at my house. with other projects ongoing, its gonna be quite the scene! after patrick leaves, the ceilings in two rooms will be removed. consider the furniture, art, equipment, and general junk that needs to be moved... and still be able to work.

the letterpress printer is only just now going to start his portion of the body of water project -- two months late!

the film for the body of water project is coming along well. jessica is just a godsend. and i have made an even shorter film myself as a companion... its almost done...

thursday night, elizabeth and i will go to a cocktail party on the queen mary for a new star trek exhibit. it should be fun -- there is already a lot of buzz in the media about it.

friday bob and i will be in del mar for the antiques show then dinner with wifey. it will be nice to get away from everything for the day.

saturday morning is family day at the cemetary. cousins from all over will convene for brunch in whittier then champagne and chocolates graveside at rose hills. it is a nice time, the kids play and we all reminisce. sunday was the four year anniversary of daddy dying... the anniversary for my cousins dad is this week. my brother and grandmother and their grandmother are all buried there so it will be quite a party! im sorry my daughter wont make it -- she has a tea party she cant seem to miss...

saturday night i will go to see patrick and carolyn perform at the brewery -- touch monkey studio on the road!

and we are back to sunday -- always my busy day...

last saturday i was on the radio interviewed by the zany mystic (bbsradio.com) -- we always have a great conversation and my students congratulated me immediately after.

this coming week is art week in la with various shows and openings...

and i still have to find time to work. if you think this is busy, wait til february!

to see all my work or hear the radio interview (blogs tab): http://royanthonyshabla.com

art art art

body of water, the handmade book i am currently working on, has been taking up more and more of my time. there are so many aspects to it (letterpress printing, filmmaking, handmade paper, painting) all needing to be coordinated and juggled. i am teaching myself to paint with water colors to do an original cover for each letterpress booklet. it is more difficult than other media. the handmade paper is coming from a couple sources and has been quite a negotiation. special cudos to seth at dick blicks in berkeley. the printer and bookbinder has been silent and tardy... i may need to fly up to berkeley to get things moving. the film editor has been great, doing a better job than i expected... we still need to coordinate the soundtrack... and print artwork on the dvds. and the portfolios for it all have to be made by hand... and the copies are beginning to sell.

until galleRoy.com is available, go to royanthonyshabla.com for info on my art: http://royanthonyshabla.com

body of water

the body of water project is taking more time, energy, and money than expected. it is becoming very labor intensive but should be quite beautiful. seth, a great kid at dick blicks art supply in berkeley has been helping with paper problems, above and beyond the call of duty. jessica, the film productionist in hollywood, has been great and wonderful and creative. richard, the printer, hasnt been in contact... might have to send him an email... and i am painting painting painting...

until galleRoy.com is available, go to royanthonyshabla.com for information about my art: http://royanthonyshabla.com

work?

i ordered t-shirts this morning (if you havent ordered my peace shirts or other t-shirts, go to the website and get busy! http://royanthonyshabla.com right now there is a special: order three and get one free, they make great gifts) and i mailed packages at the post office and talked on the phone and sent emails... what an exciting life i lead! last night i finished the last touches (i think) on a button painting and am waiting for it to dry so i can put a hanger on it and hang it. actually im not waiting for it to dry, its drying and im doing the other things that make up my exciting life. i made a small booklet of the text for the body of water film, students in meditation class got a copy (maybe that made them sick???!!!) and others went into the mail. now thats its out, maybe i will proof/edit it! or maybe ill just have a nap, the details of life are exhausting.

give em a hand

before surgery on her hand, big jeanne was told it would take six weeks for her to recover. six months later, the doctors are saying it could take a year or more. obviously the doctors dont have a clue (have you seen michael moores sicko yet?)... but the bottom line is this: i am hard-pressed to get any work out of big jeanne! so after spending the day at kinkos to get peace posters made, they still arent hung because i need another body (with working hands) to help. (if you want to see what the posters look like hung, go to the website and click on photographs ~ what have you done today to save the world?) i did work on my button painting only burning my fingers a few times. and i had a good breakthrough on the text for body of water (film). so my hands have been busy while others remain idle. tomorrow is the big planet party, of course i havent heard a peep from al gore!