Eye of the Storm - March 2023

Desktop doodles, Zeppelins, Cowboy Wisdom, etc…

Mar 31, 2023

Hello there, I hope your March 2023 went well. Here in Texas, Spring is in full bloom. My family and I have enjoyed the beautiful weather immensely. Here are a few things I thought were interesting or caught my eye this month. Thanks for checking it out.

Desktop Doodles

About a year ago I started keeping a large heavy duty mat (19 x 26 inches) on my desk in which to jot stuff down and doodle around on. I started a new “desktop doodle” a few months ago on January 1st for the Spring semester and have been slowly chipping away at it. I also use it to loosely calendar the weeks and months but mostly just as a drop off spot for doodles, lists, stickers and stuff like that.

Savvy Sayin’s & Wisdom from the West

Recently I was gifted a small book full of wit and wisdom of the Old West called “Savvy Sayin's.” The author spent years collecting bits and pieces from the history of life on the range and compiled a punchy little book to pass them along.

Here are a few of the lines that caught my eye:

When you got nothin’ to lose - try anything.
Never trust a man who agrees with you. He’s probably wrong.
Sweat never drowned no one.
What you cain’t duck - welcome.
If you have to prove you’re right, you’re probably wrong.
You can’t tell how good a man or a watermelon is till you thump ‘em.
Be thankful for fools. Without them none of us would amount to much.
Don’t complain of getting old. The only alternative is worse.

Music of the Month: Led Zeppelin

As I mentioned before, I recently started selecting a band each month to spend time listening through all their albums. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting a better understanding of their overall music journey.

For the month of March 2023, I chose Led Zeppelin as my band to listen to. Throughout high school in the late 90’s I was a big Led Zeppelin fan. I was introduced to their music through skateboarding videos from some of my favorite brands like Plan B Skateboards and Zero Skateboards.

So, this month I made my way through Led Zeppelin’s 8 studio albums and a few of their compilations and live recordings. Here are a few of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs:

Over the Hills and Far Away
D’yer Mak’er
Fool in the Rain
All My Love
Kashmir

Whose music would you want to take a deeper dive into next month?

Spring Flowers

One subject matter that I would like to explore more would be flowers. Although I’ve created some variations over the years, I am just barely scratching the surface of this amazing subject matter.

I recently finished a few small (5ish x 8ish inch) flower paintings. Mostly just for fun and to experiment painting on cardboard, these little flowers have come to life and are quite charming. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“Earth laughs in flowers.”

Thanks as always for reading and following along. Have a great April and keep an eye out for anything that catches your eye. I’ll leave you with what I am trying to do here on the “Eye of the Storm” with the poet Mary Oliver’s instructions for living a life:

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

Take care,

John