Framing

Posted on by Thor

By Thomas Thorspecken

Stella P. Arbelaez Tascon and I both had art accepted into to Fusion Fest in Downtown Orlando. The theme for the art was Freedom, so I submitted Freedom from Want. My friend had 3 painting she needed to frame for Fusion Fest.

She worked framing several of her art pieces at a large art table she had repurposed herself. Repurposing, keeping things out of landfills is imperative to her. She works to prevent waste of ecological and human resources. It used to be an island in her kitchen but she put casters on it and reworked all the cabinetry so it became a solid artist work station. She painted it a deep blood red. T squares, rulers and a slot for assorted mats and boards were on the side. Framing and mating work is one of that hardest aspects of getting work ready for exhibition. I often have to rework the framing of a piece several times since something always goes wrong.

I volunteered to drop all of our art work since I live closer to downtown Orlando. My friend was in the final weeks of her masters program and had a long thesis to finish writing.

Isolation Chamber

Posted on by Thor

After testing positive for COVID–19, I went into 5 days of isolation. I decided I would test after those 5 days to see if the test would come up negative.

I was likely infected on Delta Flight 1652 from Detroit to Orlando. I suspect that flight since several unmasked passengers were coughing their lungs up the entire flight. I wore a kn-95 mask the entire trip but it must not have had a snug enough fit. I started showing symptoms of a cold 3 days after that flight. I spent Thanksgiving prone on the couch. I did an at home COVID test which came up negative. I was thankful that I only had a cold.

The next weekend I spent outside helping a friend with an art project. By the end of that weekend the cold had us both exhausted. I feel horrible that I infected my friend. When I got back to the studio I tested for COVID a second time since I have heard advice to re-test after 48 hours. That test came up positive. From that point I went into 5 days of lock down, to keep the virus from spreading any further.

After 5 days of lock down I tested again and the test came up positive for COVID-19. I will be self isolating for 5 more days and will test myself again at the end of the week. It is ironic that a Delta CEO decided to only allow for 5 days of isolation for pilots and air crew who have COVID. The CDC first recommended that people isolate for 10 days. Airline executives realized it was hard to keep planes in the air since pilots were constantly sick. Somehow his 5 day policy spread to everywhere in the country. Having the sick return to work is the only way to keep the gears of capitalism grinding forward. Health be damned, what matters is profits.

Today I have to figure out how to use Instacart or Door Dash since I am completely out of food. I had a series of Holiday themed location sketches planned for the week, but I will not go out in public while infected with COVID-19. I have to start packing up the studio, but that will have to wait until I test negative again.

The tests I have been using are the free ones that were distributed quietly by the government months ago. The first at home test that I used was from Wallgreens and cost me $20. I no longer trust that brand of test since it came up with a false positive. I have just one more government test and in 5 days I hope it comes up negative.

 

There is no Cure

Posted on by Thor

I am infected. I am on day 5 of self isolating after at at home test confirmed that I have COVID-19. I was infected on flight 1652 from Detroit to Orlando after screening COVID Dystopia at the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival.I know I was infected on that flight because passengers several seats behind me were coughing up their lings for the whole flight. My KN-95 mask failed, likely because my facial hair broke the seal.

A test done several days before came up negative, so I first thought I just had a cold. Thanks to that negative test I went on to infect a friend.

COVID hit like a wall of bricks taking me out for several days. I know COVID is not a cold, it is not the flu, it is a vascular disease that destroys brain grey matter, and attacked every organ in the body. My immunity is now lowered for all other infections. The initial infection isn’t what kills you it is the repeat infections that follow.

There is no cure for COVID. It weakens immunity from the inside out. The damage is never seen until it is too late.

Some people think that allowing snails to crawl on the face is a form of cure. It is not a cure. Snails should never go anywhere near your eyes nose or mouth. Skin salts, oils and soap residue are harmful to the nails. Snail secretions are not a cure for COVID or anything else. A far simpler preventive measure is to wear a well fitted N-95 mask.

Milton Damage

Posted on by Thor

Hurricane Milton caused some major damage in Florida.

An artist friend of mine, lives north west of Lake Apopka and I have been helping her constructing a large sculpture.

There are many tall pine trees in her back yard and Hurricane Milton knocked over a bunch of them. Luckily none of them hit her house, but one is leaning precariously against a shed and several other fell over taking out fencing.

My friend and I both had work accepted at FusionFest over the Thanksgiving weekend. She volunteered to paint on location during FusionFest. I thought I had a cold after going to the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival to promote COVID Dystopia. I actually was infected with COVID-19 for the first time when flying back to Orlando on Delta flight 1652. I tested myself the first night back and now know that the first test was a false negative. I proceeded to help with My friiend’s project thinking I just had a cold. I didn’t feel healthy enough to go to Fusion Fest.

Later in the day I sketched this tree which had been uprooted by Milton. The ripped open root ball reminded me of how my insides felt. COVID is an airborne vascular disease that affects the heart, arteries and fuses brain cells killing off grey matter. It effects just about every organ in the body. The “cold” had knocked me on my ass. The sun started to set as I worked on the sketch, so I rushed to finish before it got too cold out. The ripped open root ball reminds me of the unseen damage being done to my inner vascular system.

Restaurant Demo

Posted on by Thor

This was a quick demo done for one of my online students. My goal is to convince students that carrying a sketchbook or iPad to a restaurant or any venue is preferable to scrolling through a phone.

The people are drawn a bit sloppier that what I might usually do when sketching on location.

Brush strikes were put down quickly to encourage the student to loosen up.

Having caught COVID, despite being masked, on flight 1652 between Detroit and Orlando, I am isolating myself in my studio. I have been sleeping on the couch, and I might do a self portrait of my couch sick bed today.

Middletown New York

Posted on by Thor

I have been house hunting for quite some time. My goal has been to find a place at the end of a bus or train line out of NYC.

This place in Middletown, New York was super appealing. The interior was intricately decorated with matching creamy colors. Rugs furniture and the walls all matched.

The place is honestly bigger than what I need as a single guy, and it would be intimidating to try and find just the right antiques to fit the decor. The house left the marked and it is just as well. I need a place that is a bit more utilitarian. The first thing I look for is northern facing windows for the studio. The yearly taxes for this home were also insane. I think it was in the ballpark of over $7,000 each year for the property taxes. Yikes!

My hope is to find a place with history and a working fireplace.

H5N1 killing California Cattle

Posted on by Thor

The H5N1 virus has been infecting America chickens. Over 90 million chickens have been killed because of the infection. There is some concern that the virus might be in eggs sold at the supermarket. Cooking eggs at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit should kill the virus. It is best not to make runny eggs.  Chicken dropping are added to cattle feed and that might be how the virus spread to cows.

In Tulare, County California, cow carcasses are piling up on the roadsides. Farmers and veterinarians are surprised by the high mortality rates from H5N1 infections. Overt 600 cow herds have been infected. There are now 31 confirmed human cases in California. The virus has been found in raw milk which is still being sold cross America.

Since a 1970 outbreak in Hongcong, there have been 970 Human cases of H5N1. Of those cases 470 people died. That is a case fatality rate of about 48%. COVID -19 had a mortality rate of about 0.8% which resulted in well over a million Americans dying. More than 100 million birds have died due to the virus since 2022. It is hard to imagine the human devastation if the numbers are right and it starts spreading between people.

H5N1 has being detected in wastewater across America. It has been detected in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Tests being done on Ferrets are not promising. Ferrets closely resemble humans in the way they react to influenza infections. The virus has causing very severe disease in the lab animals. Media has been reporting mild cases in humans so far, except the teen in Canada who is in intensive care. One of the symptoms is conjunctivitis, or bloody eyes.

COVID -19 had a mortality rate of about 0.8% which resulted in well over a million seven hundred thousand Americans dying. more than 100 million birds have died due to the virus since 2022.

There have been over 55 confirmed cases of H5N1 in humans. Many work in the dairy industry, but there are some cases that are a mystery. A child in Canada is in critical condition and the cause of infection a complete mystery. The virus infecting this child has shown an ability for its binding receptors to infect humans. That fact alone is concerning. The possibility that H5N1 is airborne is a very real possibility.  If the virus starts to spread from human to human the outbreak will ignite.

My biggest concern is that the incoming administration will make all the same mistakes it made with the COVID-19 pandemic. The easiest action for any politician to take in a public health emergency is to deny, deflect and minimize the outcome. The stakes are much higher if H5N1 becomes a pandemic. People have decided that any form of mitigation is an infringement on the or personal freedom. They yearn  to be infected and to infect others.

Student Demo

Posted on by Thor

I always try to encourage my online students to sketch and paint everyday objects. Youngest students are often engrossed in sketching video game characters. My hope is to help them realize that those characters are made possible thanks to direct observations from life. In one class I ask the students to simply sketch and paint what is on or next to the desk they are seated at.  I sketch and paint along with then so they get to see my process in blocking in a composition. In this case I just painted the cup of water I had on my desk. I kind of took a few sips of water changing the water level in the cup.

This was created at the golden hour of sunset, which accounts for the orange glow on the illuminated wood. Indoor light was a bit cooler but the desk lamp gave my other mug a warm glow as well. Convincing students that the detail and values inside of objects is as important if not more important that the outline of the object is the greatest  challenge.  It takes time for students to see and start finding ways to recreate the values and textures needed to make everyday objected believable.

I am integrating digital into my everyday sketches more often now. Doing traditional watercolors in sketchbooks feels good when I finished the sketchbook and file it away on the bookshelf, but digital gives richer colors without any worry of making a mess. My heart may be analog, but the work continues to shift towards the digital. What I fear about digital is finding work getting lost on old hard drives or the work shared online may one day just disappear. I prefer a paper trail with art and finance.

Flight out of Pittsburgh

Posted on by Thor

Flying out of Pittsburgh there was a layover in Detroit. I knew I was heading home when I saw Mickey Mouse on someone’s luggage. One other person was masked in the waiting area. He was Japanese where there is no stigma against masking. I charged my iPhone so I would have juice to order a Lyft once I landed.

The flight to Orlando was the most crowded flight I took. I was glad that I was in an exit row and because of that I had plenty of leg room to stretch out and relax. My hope was to hunker down and sleep. I tried to sleep but really didn’t succeed. Two rows behind me, several people were coughing up their lungs. The risk of exposure rises on longer flights.

After getting back to the studio, the next morning my throat was scratchy and I started coughing. Of course my first thought was COVID, so I tested myself. Thankfully the pink Binax test came back negative. What I assumed was a cold however, knocked me on my butt for several days. I am still snuggled up on the couch under a blanket. I was experiencing shivers. I haven’t been sick for over 4 years. I forgot what it was like to be out of commission.

The days after the flight out of Pittsburgh, I felt like crap. I used an at home test kit and it came up negative, so I chalked it up to a bad cold. However after several days of hard work outside, with a friend. I returned to the studio and decided to test one more time just to be sure. That test came up positive for COVID-19. It was a strong solid red line. I was infected on Delta Flight 1652 flying back into Orlando fro Detroit. I  have to wonder how many others are spreading the virus around Orlando after that flight.

In the time I thought I had a cold, I managed to infect a friend which I feel horrible about. I now know I need to up my masking game when I travel by plane. The problem is that I have facial hair which breaks the seal of the mask. There are also small travel sized HEPA filters which I could pack in my travel bag and run during the flight. Though I take basic precautions, I now know they are not enough. When battling something as small an airborne virus, more precautions are needed. I need to buy new N-95 masks and I will have to shave my beard any time I travel. I may even decide to get goggles when I board a plane. More likely I will stop promoting my animated short film COVID Dystopia in person. Packing into a sardine can in the sky isn’t smart.

Since I am so sick, I decided to not go to FusionFest to sketch.  I still feel it is important to keep others safe, so I am social isolating at my  friend’s house. I was helping this friend with a huge outdoor sculpture, Since the first test came back negative, I continued to help. My friend however caught what I have, which is, as it turns out, COVID-19. I want to keep others safe but with my first infection I managed to fail horribly. I am social isolating in my studio now and will test myself again in 5 days.

So, is is safe to fly during an ongoing pandemic? F*ck NO. I managed to evade COVID for 5 years and now I have to up my game to evade it for the next 5 years.

We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.

Pittsburgh Shorts Script Competition

Posted on by Thor

After watching the first block of films there was a script reading competition in the building right next to the Harris Theater. The woman handling tickets and concessions was the only other person wearing a KN-95 mask. I gave her one of my COVID themed buttons figuring she might wear it someday as people become aware of the lasting damage being done by the virus. Probably thanks to her there was a small HEPA air filter in the lobby area outside the theater.

Actors were still rehearsing the scripts as the audience gathered in the lobby. There were groups of 4 or 5 actors to read each of the scripts. The part of the narrator often involved the most reading.

The script which won the competition had a champion boxing coach and a young woman. She was reluctant to hit the boxing bag hard but which his encouragement she bean weaving and hitting harder. The emotional core of this short was that she had an untold back story. That back story must have involved physical abuse because she started hitting the bag with every ounce of energy she had. Someone from her past deserved a beating.

The guy seated in front of me in the blue hoodie shot video footage of the reading of his girlfriend’s script reading. After the script readings everyone returned to the Harris Theater for the awards ceremony.