Getting Started

So....this is a long time overdue. I've been thinking about doing this for quite some time but never really quite got around to it. So here we go...

...first off, this will be (or at least is intended to be) an exercise in getting me to actually write on a regular basis, post some of my artwork out there for general consumption and criticism and share things I come across that I think are pretty damn cool, or at least worth pointing out.

To start, and this is pretty damn cool, I got married. Now I realize that the picture is almost a year old as is the news, but, hey! at least it's out there now. As of October 3rd, 2005, Rebecca Michel Ivey (and I'm confident that she'll be pretty miffed at me for putting her full name out there...if you don't want to piss her off, make sure you address her as Becca; anything else you're on your own...) became Rebecca Michel Geneseo on a volcanic sand beach where the river meets the ocean on Papagayo Bay, Costa Rica.

For those of you who don't know the story, Becca & I dated in high school and fell in love when her family moved to Mass from Texas. Unfortunately, as many young loves are wont to do, we ended badly and spent the next ten years of our lives with no contact whatsoever...

...and the story picks up in March of 2002, when shortly after my mother passed away after a long battle with cancer (I'm sure there will be more on this to follow) I got a phone call: I was home after the funeral for my brother's birthday and was out the door to drive out to Amherst, MA, when the phone rang. I picked up against better judgement as neither my father nor brother looked to be about to pick it up. The voice on the other end, was one that I had thought about many times in the intervening years but didn't think I'd ever hear again. I wasn't positive at first, but when Becca told me who it was, I dropped the phone on the floor of the kitchen like I was in high school again.

We talked for a couple of hours and I found that I had an unusual feeling between my stomach and throat that I hadn't felt in a long time in addition to finding that talking to her was like no time at all had passed. I hung up feeling better than I had in a long time and seriously considered skipping the I-90 exit to head out West and instead drive North to Portland where I'd learned Becca was now living; I felt like I needed to see her RIGHT NOW! But, the little voices of Reason and Impulse had matured over the years and the balance of power had shifted and I told myself it couldn't possibly be the "L"-word after ten years and a phone call, so I turned off and headed out to the Pioneer Valley to visit some friends and try to clear my head after the funeral and everything that goes along with it. By the way, I was wrong. This is a lesson I took to heart: when in doubt, don't follow the advice of Reason; it tends to take much longer to get to the same place.

We started talking on the phone periodically and then making the trip from Boston to Portland or vice versa to visit and then it turned into dating and, well, the rest as they say is history...

...well, I was going to include a picture of our friends Josh & Kate, but as I am new at this, I can't seem to figure out how to include more than one picture per post--I'll have to work on that...

Anyhow, this whole story is give you an idea of how important Becca is to me. Not only is she the love of my life, she's also my biggest fan, the best thing ever happened to my artwork and the biggest fire under my hind-end to get some of my work, be it written, drawn, painted, photographed or some combination of the lot. I figured this would be a good start.

So, welcome to Rocket Fuel Sushi, hope you find something worth coming back for...