Painting Greyhounds

Final touches need to be done yet, which could mean a lot or it could be a little. Find out when the final painting is revealed in just a couple of days. To be announced! See how it is done on my Painting Blog - From Start-to-Finish here http://www.danwaltz.com/bloggreyhounds.html

Old Abandoned Shack Painting

Old Abandoned Shack Painting by Dan Waltz

Watercolor painting: 16" x 20" image size

See how it was done step by step: Click Here

Prints are available on my website.  Click Here

Interview with Gregg Braden 2 on Fractal Time

Interview with Gregg Braden 2 on Fractal Time

Squirrel Painting Demo in Progress

My Squirrel Painting Demo is going well

and will be coming to completion in just a few days.

Make sure you check it out when you get a chance.

http://www.danwaltz.com/blogsquirrelpaintingdemo.html

Wasting Time

Wasting Time

by Dan Waltz

A large yellow school bus comes to an abrupt stop, flashers on and a stop sign attached to a long arm swings out blocking on coming traffic. The door opens and a six-year-old boy jumps off the bottom step of the bus, barely clearing a mud puddle and runs up the walk to his house. He crashes through the front door exited to be home, and skips up to his father.

"Hey dad, what are you doing?" He asks.

"Why I'm doing what I usually do son. I'm playing video games." Hi thumbs busily working small toggles on the game remote. Sounds of gunfire blare from the flat screen television hanging on the wall.

"That's really cool dad and you’re really good. When I grow up I want to be just like you." The dad smiles proud and plays on with know interruption.

The child then walks into the other room and notices his mom curled up on the couch watching TV. "Hi mom, what are you doing?" He asks.

"I'm watching TV son, just like I do everyday when I get home from work."

"That's cool mom. I want to be just like you when I grow up."

A few hours go by and the father finally gets up from playing his video games. He approaches the boy’s mother. "What's for dinner Hun? I'm starved."

His wife just glares back at him and refuses to be pulled away from her TV program. "Can't you see I'm watching my show? How rude.”

"Don't you mean your shows? You've been watching TV since you've got home. How can I not interrupt?"

"And what have you been doing? Looking through the want ads for a better job?” She says somewhat sarcastically. “No you've been playing those ridiculous video games for hours. You fix dinner!" She snaps back. Head turned towards the set.

The child watches on as dad angrily breaks away and turns towards the kitchen, only to return to his video games with a half eaten bag of potato chips and an ice-cold beer.

"I'm hungry too mom." The little boy says after witnessing that very uncomfortable spat.

"Oh alright. As soon as this is over I will make you something. Okay?"

What choice does the child have anyway? After all, the boy is barely tall enough to reach the kitchen counter. The boy turns and joins his father and steals a few chips for himself.

Almost an hour later the mom interrupts the guys, now playing video games together. "Dinners ready." She announced and returns to the TV in the other room while she quickly flips through a stack of unpaid bills she got in the mail. She shrugs her shoulders and tosses them aside. The bills can wait. Half of them are probably late anyway what’s a couple more days going to hurt.

About a half hour later the boys tear themselves away from the game that they were playing and enter the kitchen to find cold macaroni and cheese on the stove. They scoop some onto their plates, lightly microwave the noodles, grab a couple of drinks, another beer for him and a juice box for the boy and rush back the video game that they left on pause.

Several hours later the typical evening winds down and they call it a day. The father sent the boy to bed around 10pm because he has to get up early for school the next day. The mom comes to bed after the 11:00 o'clock news and the father follows shortly after.  Before they knew it the alarm goes off again and again. After the fourth time of hitting snooze, the mom gets up and drags her son out of bed. “Time for school little man.” She says. The boy plays sick and wants to stay home. He doesn’t like school. Forehead feels fine; he’s going to school. She lies back down until the snooze alarm rings one more time. Both mom and dad drag themselves out of bed this time.

The dad passes by the boy’s room and notices the boy still in bed. “Get your butt out of bed boy, you’re going to be late.” He bellows running his fingers through his bed head, hair sticking on end. He grabs a baseball cap, pulls on some jeans and a t-shirt with some rock band printed on it.

The mom rushes to get her son ready before he misses the bus. No time for breakfast once again. She pushes him out the door. Off to school he goes. The mom and dad leave shortly after to go to their jobs that hardly pays their bills and that neither one of them enjoys. Another morning successfully orchestrated with the parents being fashionably late to their jobs once again.

This is a typical day in the US of A as this scenario repeats itself five out of the seven days of the week. The only changes are on Saturday and Sunday when the family have even more time to waste in front of what is known as the "idiot-box."

By the time an average person in today’s world reaches the age of sixty, he or she would have sat in front of the television (the idiot box) playing video games and/or watching your favorite sitcoms, sports, soaps, news or reality shows for fifteen straight years with no breaks. Doing the math with the average life span of seventy years means that the average person would have wasted almost 1/4 of his or her life.

When I heard these statistics in a book I was reading, I felt they were staggering and couldn't possibly be true. After researching it myself I found them to be quite accurate.

We all share more than this in common though, we all make excuses day after day and say more often than not that “we don’t have time to do the things we like doing.” Weather it's work related, hobby related or something else.  We always say "we don't have time," or "Sure if there were more hours in the day." We've heard them all and we've all said them, me included.

I know the first thing your going to say is "Dan, I like watching TV and I enjoy playing video games." All I have to say to that is this; I hope you have a job that you really enjoy, that supports you and your family well. I hope you have reached all your goals and have used up all of your potential. I hope you are happy and proud of the legacy you’ll be leaving behind. If this is the case, this story isn’t about you.

I used TV for this essay simply because the ratings and the numbers were readily available and are pretty accurate for the average person living in the US. Myself, I don't watch much TV and I'm sure that this doesn't apply to everyone, so please don’t be upset. This may not be about you either, only you can decide that. But we all have our crutches, we all do things that are pretty meaningless and are simply a waste of time. We all can probably manage our time a little better, enjoy life a little more and find the time to do things that we really love doing.

“Lets stop with the excuses already.” Life is short, sometimes shorter than we realize and at times cut off short unexpectedly. We all need to make time to do the things we enjoy and pick jobs that we enjoy doing. There’s time for everything.

If this story does apply to you, think of what you could accomplish in fifteen years time?

“Not enough time” is a pretty lame excuse not to do what you want to do in life.

Lets get motivated, be an example to our youth and as always…

"Follow your dreams!"

It’s time for me to run. I have more stories to write, more paintings to paint, and many more books I would like to read…

P.S.  Need even more time? By getting yourself up out of bed one hour earlier each day will give you fifteen extra full days a year, to spend however your like. It’s like giving your self a two-week vacation, or an extra fifteen days to accomplish something special.

Cover quote: 

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”~ Robert Browning

This story is a work of fictional literature, any resemblance or similarities to places, or real persons, living or dead, purely coincidental.

•••

©. 2011 Copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this book/story may be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any manner without written consent from the publisher.

D.W. Publishing 226 McFarland Street Grand Blanc, MI 48439 www.dwpublishing.com_or_www.danwaltz.com email:_dan@danwaltz.com

E-BOOK: Digital Edition

Groundhog Day!

I hope everyone has a HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

We've had a couple of very cold weeks here.

Lets hope he doesn't see his shadow.

Common Spring!

Squirrel Painting Demo!

In the previous post, title "Inspiration"  you'll see a photo that I took of a squirrel looking in on me while I worked on my computer in my living room. It inspired me to lay out my next painting (layout above).  This is a combination of several pics that I took into photoshop to come up with the layout for my next watercolor painting. It turned out a bit more complicated than I like for demos, but I'm going to try it anyway. You'll be able to see it step by step right here on my blog when I get started.

The Painting Demo has started! Keep up with the progress by clicking here  Squirrel Painting Demo

Inspiration

Finding inspiration for a painting can be difficult at times, but I feel thats mostly caused by the mood that you're in. Sometimes you just don't feel like being inspired, or your mind is somewhere else at the time and you miss out on great opportunities. Sometimes you think that you have to go to a special place to get inspired, maybe travel the world, go to another state, or town. Maybe you don't need to go that far at all and all you really need is an open mind and look out in your own backyard.

Then there are times when inspiration comes looking for you.

This cute little guy was looking in my window at me as I worked on my computer yesterday.

"Paint me, paint me!"

I might just do that.

Twitter Background Images

My thoughts on Twitter Background images can be found on my old blog. The link is posted below...

Twitter Background Images - Standard -vrs- Widescreen formats

Make a difference.

I watched a short special on horseshoe crabs this morning. If you're walking along the beach and see one lying on it's back. Be kind and reach down and flip it over. If you don't it will die. It goes to show that "One very small effort on your part can make a huge difference on the lives of others."

Will Smith

One of my favorite actors, Will Smith, has something to share with you that I felt was were sharing. Enjoy, and as always "Follow Your Dreams!"

Prize Winner!

The Art of Dan Waltz Congratulations goes out to Lorna Wojczynski Pierce. She is the first winner of my first Facebook Fan Page prize giveaway. Lorna thank you for your interest and support. Winning Prize is a signed Winter Chickadee Art Print. Thanks to everyone who joined. Next drawing will be made when I have 201 Fans on my page.  All you have to do is join the fan page to be eligible to win. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Art-of-Dan-Waltz/283167838664  See official rules on this blog.

Painting Demo's

My painting demonstrations are located on my old blog and can be accessed through the links below....Enjoy!

Storytime Painting from start to finish demo.

Pileated Woodpecker Painting from start to finish.

Peregrine Falcon Painting from start to finish.

Chipmunk Painting from start to finish.

Thanks for looking!

Prize Giveaways!

*THE ART OF DAN WALTZ FACEBOOK FAN PAGE PRIZE GIVEAWAYS!

RULES:

I first want to thank everyone for joining my Facebook FAN Page. The response has been awesome and I really appreciate all your comments, questions and posts.

Now I want to make things FUN! I want to have a PRIZE GIVEAWAY!

Here’s how it works:

Your name will be automatically entered into a drawing when you become a Fan of my Facebook FAN Page and remain in the drawing for any future prize giveaways. Every time I reach another 100 fans on my page I will give a prize away. I will continue this drawing for every 100 FANS up to 1000 Fans. Prizes will either be one of my signed art prints, signed books, or one of my many other products that I have (Sorry, my choice).  After I reach 1000 fans I will then give a prize away after each additional 1000 fans, up to the 5000th FAN. I will then give away a grand prize of one original painting (Again, sorry my choice). Now you don't have to be the 4000th, 100th, 300th, 2000th or even the 5000th fan to win. You just have to be a FAN of my work and join my Facebook FAN Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Art-of-Dan-Waltz/283167838664).

BONUS! If you are a Fan on both, my Facebook FAN Page and my BLOG (http://danwaltz.blogspot.com/ )  there may also be a bonus gift given so make sure you sign up there too, just in case.

*All are eligible and everyone will have equal chance of winning and yes you can win more than one time.  Who knows, there may even be some prizes in between.

Now, the more FANS, the more PRIZES, and the faster the FANS come, the faster the PRIZES will come.  So you all know what you need to do. You need to tell everyone you know about me. Send them to my website (http://www.danwaltz.com/ ), and send them to my Facebook FAN page ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Art-of-Dan-Waltz/283167838664 ). If they like what they see they may become a FAN on my Facebook FAN Page and that would be that much closer to another prize giveaway.  Lets get this ball rolling.   First prize will be given away once I reach 100 fans, which is getting very close.

Thanks again and good luck!

* Sorry, shipping of prizes to Continental US addresses only. If you live outside the Continental US and you are a prizewinner you will be given the option to accept or decline the prize. If you accept the prize you will be responsible for all shipping and handling charges. All prizes are final and not exchangeable or returnable for cash value. Rules are subject to change without notice.

Crush It! Book Review

Crush it! by Gary Vaynerchuk

(Audio Version)

Gary brings to you an unbelievable amount of positive energy that you can't help but to get involved and get in gear, or simply get out of the business. He tells it like it is with no sugar coating. When you're done listening you'll want to listen again and again. There's a lot of information, good information, and sometimes you may feel the same information you can read in other books, but this is brought to you in a way that you will want to take action and not just say it was a good read. There's a lot of extras in the audio version that you won't want to miss. It's very personable and it makes you feel he's talking to you in the same room. This book is for everyone who wants more out of life, and not just for business owners who's trying to get ahead.

Thanks Gary for sharing your experiences.

American Idol

Well, what did you think? American Idol on again for another season.  Simons's last season for what I hear. And, what's this I hear that Ellen Degeneres  taking Paula's place?  As much as I like Ellen, I didn't know she had any signing ability.  I wonder what qualifies her to be a judge.  Maybe she sings in the shower and I just don't know.  It should be interesting. I enjoy Idol and look forward to each season.  I always enjoy watching people, especially young people "follow their dreams." What's stopping you from following yours?

50 Authors

I signed up for a co-operative story project here on Facebook. 50 Facebook authors are collaborating on a story. Each of us is to write about 30 words to create one short story. I'll have to practice writing shorter sentences. I'm author number 43.

AVATAR

AVATAR by James Cameron

Have you seen Avatar yet? Well if you haven't you are really missing out. You don't have to be a big fantasy or science fiction buff to enjoy this movie. I watched it for the second time at the Imax today. It was just as good as the first and if I get a chance I will go see it again. It's simply an awesome film. Great story line & great effects which are two things that usually don't go together in todays movies. This maybe a strange way to look at it but it kind of reminds me of a cowboy and indian movie set in the future, instead of the wild, wild west. Don't worry you don't have to be a cowboy & indian fan either. There really is nothing else like it. Go see it, you won't regret it.

GFAC Members Art Show

My Perigrine Falcon Painting on exhibit now through the first week or February at the GFAC Members art show. Downtown Flint.

Deja BOO

One year ago this evening was the last time I worked on a story that I set aside for one reason or another. I guess I'll pick up where I left off 1 year 2 hours and 20 minutes later. Ironically the story is called Deja BOO.

Pileated Woodpecker

A jolly large Bird with a red cap visited the feeder on Christmas day; a male Pileated Woodpecker. Looks like it could be one of Santa's little helpers.