My son, Jacob, turned three last month. I’ve been meaning to paint a new portrait of him to kick off year three of his life. A month later –no sign of progress on my part. It’s not lack of inspiration, nor time, its simply because a lot of little things. First there was the hair. I totally didn’t want to paint the mohawk! As much as I love it, I’m aiming for something more propper. After he got a decent hair style… he got sick. BUMMER! Once again, we got over that, now I’m just waiting to get him dressedup and take a nice photo somewhere. Odds are I’ll be done within a week. Finally. I can’t wait.

A few weeks ago a cousin of mine graduated from UTPA and I found out she was going to have a surprise part –which was a surprise to me too. I wanted to paint something for her but I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do. I recently transitioned into using oil paints exclusively over acrylics and being short on time which anticipating a long drying time was totally messing with my nerves. At some point I got really annoyed with myself, got on my cousin’s myspace page, found a picture I liked and below are the results.

She loved it; everyone at the party loved it –despite the fact that they couldn’t touch it. A week later the thank you card she sent me says she hung it up for all to see. Woo!

While I’m not a big fan of old sayings or clichés –mostly due to the fact that my brother keeps on reminding me not to use them, I must say, time does in-fact seem to fly by.

Today we celebrated my son Jacob’s birthday and I couldn’t be happier about it. From the minute he was born ever second has been a true blessing.

Through all the problems which were mostly medical for a long time; such as the gastroschisis, and being allergic to milk, and having asthma, and the allergies, and the crazy foreskin (don’t ask — got fixed,) its just been great seeing him get past it all and finally get to a point where I can actually call the little fella’ healthy and strong. He’s a full time monster at this point and he loves to “practice” running, he loves to play his guitar and jams out to just about anything, while having a soft spot for Sublime, Elvis, and others his mommy made him fall in love with.

My baby is 3 now and doesn’t like being called my baby. I suppose I knew it would happen, after all its normal –and for me, bitter-sweet.

I meant to paint something for my mother for mothers day –that didn’t happen. Something came up, and then another, followed by another. It just didn’t happen. Sometime in August I really was overcome with guilt and randomly energized in the middle of the night. I grabbed a canvas, I grabbed my paint, and within a few hours the painting was completed. That same morning I hung it on her wall with signs saying “don’t touch me, I’m wet,” “I’m not kidding,” “back off, seriously,” and some other things… When she saw it, she just loved it, and I felt so much less guilty. I won’t be late next year.

My best friend and her brand-spankin-new baby are finally out of the hospital. After a long night in labor she “popped” out sizing in at 7 1/2 lbs and 19 inches tall. I’ll be posting pictures of the new born soon and maybe some new artwork if she stops looking soooooo much like her dad. I’m only joking. But yes, Baby Kaylin from the sonogram is home.

I’ve decided to work on more sonogram paintings; I’m grabbing more of my own from my pregnancy and a few family members’. I really enjoyed doing the last one which I feel turned out GREAT. The image on here doesn’t quite capture it but by-golly I liked it!

In other news, the prices on the order page are down. I’ll be updating them at some point during the next week and a half. Despite the crazy inflation… yes, they will be going LOWER. What more could you ask for? You can now get a better deal for less than before! ArtisticLeeMe.com will be the most affordable place to get your custom artwork, so y’all should come back soon and see whats up, you can also fill out the form and get a reply in less than 24 hours.

- Lee