Well folks...unfortunatly the Kansas project did not work out...what a bummer.  There was no work!
So off we go- making our way back to square one and to re group.
So for now we are working at the Famous Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo and I am polishing up the Airstream (it needed it)

We are currently experiencing...

 Network difuculties!  Please stand by.

Spill Way is open!

 After last nights very heavy rains- the spill way is up and pouring water like crazy.









Meanwhile we get some surprise visitors in their '69 Airstream just across the street from us.  They are from Chicasha Oklahoma.









Meanwhile the cats are busy soaking up some sun after several days of cloud covering.

RANDEE

This is Randee.  The last of six wonderful red tabbies I raised from kittens.  Theor mother 'Molly', was a tiny kitten herself when we found her in an alley years ago and raised her to have five boys. She later got carried away by an owl as best as we can figure.
But O stuck with the kids and they all had pretty full lives. But there were things that happened along the way that I had to loose them.  Randee is the only one left.
He talks a lot and almost aacts like a dog as he will follow you around.  They (him and Stewart) love the forest atmosphere here at the lake.

 Extra! Extra - Read all about it.
 -Here's one of a few interviews we did with the area papers here in SE Kansas.
I have been written about many times, and I like the photos they take - more than the stories they write.  And I will take a photo of the paper and then slide it under my mattress.
When I was a kid, I would draw pencil pictures for my mother. And she would take them and put them under her mattress.

 Guess Thats where I got that habit from.
...Meanwhile we purchased a Hummingbird feeder to place by Angels window here in the Airstream.

Cool little birds.  One of my critter buddies says they are aggressive with each other and eventually  we will see a show everyday they come to visit.

Last night I stepped out into the twighlight and set up my tripod to take a few evening shots of  the new homestead here at Big Hill Lake.
-Still trying to get used to being here instead of the out skirts of some farm town in Oklahoma.


Angel loves to fish and even though we have not caught very much, there is always hope that he will get the 'Big One'.







Next is 'Old Faithful' The truck that delivered us here.  I named her Gabbie after finding a baby bead bracelette that now hangs on the rear veiw mirror with that name on it.





Lastly is a quaint sunset from the other day.
There is  so much to see here, and I hope this healing atmosphere will add years of life to Angels earth account.
Over and Out,
Billy

 After we got noticed by Mainstreet and Shelly Hargrove...in and around the year 1999 , we won a lot of press attention.  The trouble with the press, is you never knew exactly what they were going to write about you. Or how good the write up would be.
The business I had created took off soaring to an incredible start.
I remember telling Angel, my assistant that we had indeed created a monster with this business.
By now I was realizing there was something wrong about him..(Angel) ...too many off the wall episodes happening with him.  Outside of my thinking that people were conscerned as well as myself.
It did not take long to decide to stop trying to keep up

 with the business, and trying to watch my back with Angel's stunts.  Like him disappearing right in the middle of a project only to show up several days later broke.
So I told him let's shut down the business and go find out whats going on with you.
So we ended up in Amarillo working for the Big Texan Steak Ranch for what seemed like five years but was only three I figure.
Meanwhile we make an experimental trip to California as a last ditch effort to get something going different and maybe get some sophisticated help for Angel, which never happened.  Instead his California relatives were a little too wild to be around, and California was loaded.

 Loaded with a lot of dark things and everything was just flat out too different for me to handle.  So we left and came back to Amarillo, and this is when I checked Angel in to MHMR services where they discovered he was a Type 2 diabetic, and borderline Schitzophrenic (sp).  So now he was disabled and we had to deal with it.

 These days after Angel has been on corrective medicines and me giiving him his insulin shots everyday, he is more grounded than ever.
He had a stroke about three years ago and seems to be doing ok now, save for his legs give out quickly.  I myself have continued to do my work and adjusting to everything going on without giving up.

Life goes on I guess, and everything that goes with it just has to happen like it has to.  All we can all do - is to do the best we know how everyday.









I will not retire from my work as an artist, but we have managed to turn our luck into a good working retirement for both of us.
The money has never been that good, but money is not the greatest thing there is either.  Living and living in a life that has a good meaning to it is more important.

About those write ups in the past.  Nothing has changed...they still screw up the information everytime.  Recently I was quoted as painting a mural on a roof.  A roof??
Oh well.
Well stay tuned all as I will be going back into the archives to tell the stories that go along with this mural life we have lived..Over and out,  Billy

The power of an airbrush

 Airbrushing is so rewarding. The tool can go so many places and preform so many great tasks-you would think it would be a staple in the home.  This job required a brick wall in Graham Texas.  The brick was already painted just red (no mortar showing). And this old building had old windows and a door that had been bricked over.  So I challenged Mainstreet (the folks who commissioned me for this) -that I could restore those missing features as you can see.

Starting out we totally whited out the old wall and canceled the orange/red paint that was already there.
Then, I did some out lining of the old windows and door. Then proceeded filling in the new brick look.  This time we varigated the brick color to break it up (artist slang)...then took the airbrush and filled in the grey concrete mortar between the bricks.

 Oddly enough, you felt like you were looking at an ordinary brick wall in the completed project.
But it was fun to see the old
features of the building being 'brought back into action'-so to speak.







Well thats all for now folks.  But I will tell you this folks...back in the day when these buildings were first built.  There was no great selection of colored paints like we have today.  Sherwin Williams did not exist then.

Only a hardware store or lumberyard offered basic colors like red,white,green,blue.  Weird but true.
Over and out, Billy