not having written any sort of a blog before, i am not quite sure just how to begin this one. it has taken me a while to work up the courage to do it as a matter of fact, unaccustomed as i am with writing to an imaginary audience, but so be it– opening up my own website has afforded me many new experiences that i have had to fit into my world view, taken through the small-town aperture that is cozumel. some of this has taken a vast amount of getting used to. whatever the case, i have decided several things i plan to use as my parameters for writing this little bloggage. first, i am not going to be any more politically correct with what i write than i have to be– i shall employ only the filmiest of filtration to what i have to say. i do not hold that i need to use capital letters for this, as in “real life” i rarely do. i do not need to indent paragraphs, or indeed to use any formal breaking up of my ideas than that which i wish to do. i shall attempt to write this as freely as i wish, and i hope that if there are actually readers out there that you will give me a little leeway to say what it is that i wish to say without too much criticism. i’m not a god nor an icon, but just a simple artist trying to deal with the tremors of modern life. instead i shall use this forum as a sortuv freeform diary, albeit not always in a daily sense, speaking about what matters come to mind while i am writing. feel free to respond. most of yesterday i wasted to a certain extent– i have been trying to produce my “dolphin” design for jewellery production. this involves creating a carved wax (it could be of many different materials, but the one i choose at this time is wax) in the exact shape of the object one wishes to cast. i really try to avoid making my pieces in a typical manner– that is to say, i am seeking a little different vision of a dolphin than that which you are apt to see out there. i have little interest in producing something that has been done before endless times and is readily available to everyone already. however, the piece i ended up with looked far more to me like a penguin or some sort of odd bird than it did a dolphin, and so i am going to scrap it and cut another piece of wax and see if i can come closer to what i wish to do that. of course, i could always make a penguin out of it– insert chuckle here– but i think it will end up in the bin below my bench. there are times when i need to cut a piece several times to arrive at what i am aiming for– check out the juvenile drumfish pendant for instance, very difficult wax. or the trunkfish pendant. i cut this one perhaps four times, always with an eye to realism, but it never had what it needed to be. finally i made something that is more a trunk-fishness than any realistic depiction, but it really worked. this dolphin wax may require my taking a little time off from it though, as i see myself doing a bunch of diving in the next couple of weeks. i have perhaps one day off here, tomorrow, and i would dearly love to get out into my studio and working on my sculpture that sits placidly waiting in the carport. i have been ignoring it of late, as i have been toiling to put this website together, the learning curve quite steep for someone like myself, unfluent in matters computer. such simple things as copy and paste i had to fumble through an incredible number of times before i realised the simple step that made it possible. this piece of stone i bought way back in ’92, when i was still living and working near vail colorado. i have created so much in between, sculptures, paintings, drawings, photos and jewellery, but this has remained, albatross-like, around my neck. one would think it a heavy millstone indeed, but for myself it has lightened considerably since i quit worrying about when i shall finally finish it– the piece moves, it moves ahead, and it continues, and that is all i need to say about it. i can feel free to take on other projects, but this one remains and continues to enchant me, 18 years into the future. well, enough for one day– time to do something else. thanks for listening rance