Today has been an interesting day. I’ve embarked on some new blog projects with a friend (not yet to be named). Some of these projects are potentially big deals and could be pretty good investments of time and energy, but most of all they promise to be fun.
So I spent some time today on putting together a business card for my wife. I erased the phone number for presentation here, but I am pretty pleased with the outcome.
My wife, Rebecca is also an artist. Actually, she is usually better than me (in my opinion). She has recently embarked on producing pet portraits.
So I am proud to announce Climb Tree Art
By the way, this portrait above is our puppy Dugal sleeping. He’s a little red cocker spaniel pup. Still under a year old. 
You can get a portrait of your pet for $50 at www.climbtree.com (spread the news).
Affiliate marketing opportunity may be coming soon on Climb Tree Art as well. Probably around $2 per signup.
When I think of artists, the word “patience” doesn’t usually come to mind. Many I know are impulsive, impatient people. I know this because I would put myself in that category.
Ivan Albright spent 10 years between 1931 and 1941 on this painting. It measures 8 foot tall and more impressively, it’s incredibly detailed.
Albright doesn’t strike the average observer with the air of a master artist that would paint grotesque, detailed works of this caliber. He looks more like the average old guy on the street (maybe at the library, or passing out candy during a parade). A nice old gentleman if you will.
It’s funny that these images dealing with death, and grappling with the human nature came from this seemingly “grandpa figure”.
I have a new painting I am working on though I am going to wait until it is finished to show it off. It’s a mix of abstract with symbolic imagery entitled “The Pressure is Rising”.
The initial reaction is that it is completely different from anything I’ve done before, but in reality it’s the next step to where I want my work to move toward.
I take a lot of time in between paintings to decide if the next one is going to fulfill a purpose for me. It’s a strange process that involves defining certain goals for myself and then accomplishing them.
In other art news around the Lehman home, Becca did an oil painting in a recent painting class and it turned out wonderful. Eventually we may team up for some future projects.
Here’s her new painting. I thought it turned out wonderful.
I am fortunate to have these mounds here in my hometown in Newark, OH. There have been debates and articles about these mounds since I can remember. I’ve played on them as a kid (before they put up the “keep off the mounds” signs) and most of the time I just drive by them without giving them a second glance now. They are here, but I rarely visit them anymore. I decided to remedy that today.
The Newark Earthworks is a series of mounds built by the Hopewell Indians about 2000 years ago. It’s strange t
o walk around something that was being built about the time that Jesus walked on the Earth, but it gives me a significant feeling of connection to something so historic when I walk there. There are a lot of conjecture as to the reasoning behind the mounds. It had something to do with the alignment of the moon and stars is all I know, but why these were built in geometric shapes is another debate. This is our Stonehenge.
Wikipedia even had a section on Earthworks as art, but it’s pretty small. The entire content of that article is listed here below.
Earthworks is a form of art created in nature that uses natural materials such as stones, leaves, or soil.
The most well-known example is probably the enormous four-mile-long human figure in northern South Australia known as Marree Man which is both the largest example and also unique because it was created with apparently no witnesses whatsoever to the, presumably extensive, creative activity involved, and no artist or artists have ever come forward to claim it or been identified!
Paths have now been made throughout the park. It is maintained by the Ohio Historical Society. Another section of the mounds is now part of Moundbuilders Golf Course. By many this is seen as the trampling on of Native American culture. The fact that it is a park and a golf course now though now ensure that the mounds will exist for many more years to come.
Under the Wikipedia entry for Newark, OH history we also have another section of information regarding these particular mounds.
During the prehistoric period, Newark was an important center of cultural activity. From 100 BC to 500 AD the Newark area was transformed by the Hopewell culture. They built many earthen mounds, creating the single, largest earthwork complex in the Ohio River Valley. The earthworks covered several square miles. Observatory Mound, Observatory Circle, and the interconnected Octagon span nearly 3,000 feet in length. The Octagon alone is large enough to contain four Roman Colesiums. The Great Pyramid fits inside Observatory Circle precisely. The even larger 1180-foot-wide Newark Great Circle is the largestcircular earthwork in the Americas, at least in construction effort. The 8 feet high walls surround a 5 feet deep moat, except at the entrance where the dimensions are even greater and more impressive. Archaeogeodesy and archaeoastronomy research has demonstrated advanced scientific understandings by the prehistoric cultures in the area by analyzing the placements, alignments, dimensions, and site-to-site interrelationships of the earthworks.
The land that the earthworks sit on is currently leased to Moundbuilders Country Club and are in use as a golf course.
I managed to actually capture the snow that was falling today on camera while I walked around the mounds when I took the picture of the “keep off” sign. It’s the first real snowfall of the season here in central Ohio, and rather cold.
In the summer this is a great place for a picnic and to take the kids to play. Wide open fields surrounded by gentle mounds makes for a great summer day. There is often a prevailing feeling of peace and serenity in these wide open spaces that lasts long after your visit.
I was not able to catch the museum open today but I will probably call in the future to inquire more about these. I thought this table-like map outside of the museum was kinda cool though as it showed me the proportions of the artwork itself. To do all of this without the aid of large machinery or even the hand tools we have at our disposal today is really phenomenal. The work entailed in building the mounds must have taken decades to complete. A feat that the Hopewell culture accomplishedmagnificently in that it has 
survived 2000 years of neglect and abuse.
Granted, I am not a so-called expert on this ancient civilization, but I can recognize the passion and work ethic of this people who would go to such extraordinary lengths to create something that would last the test of time in this way.
