Happy May everybody! Spring is in full swing, and already here in Carmichael you can feel the summer heat just around the corner.  But for a few more days, at least, we get to enjoy double-digit highs, cool breezy nights, and the bright green of new leaves.  Hopefully the little veggie seeds we planted last week will have a chance to germinate and sprout before they get fried by Sactown’s sizzling summer sunshine.

This month I tried a little something different with the calendar background.  No scanning, drawing, or collage—just some Photoshop painting over a photo I’m fond of.  The picture comes from a gas station on the corner of Watt and Auburn in Sacramento.

Download in various sizes here:

2560×1600, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×800.

Mac users see below for further instructions.

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I went to Europe after high school.  Me and my buddy did the “go backpacking across Europe” thing.  It was fun, but I found it incredibly stressful.  I was always worried about catching the next train or booking the next hostel or not getting robbed.  In retrospect, I wish I’d slowed down a bit and gone with the flow, but I wasn’t to learn that technique for about six years.

We started and finished in a Belgian town called Ghent.  My Dad’s friend’s brother-in-law lived there with his beautiful Belgian wife and their two little boys.  It was a great place to start our trip, and after five weeks of traipsing around Germany, Italy, and Greece, we were real happy to get back.  The Mrs. cooked up some fine food, and the Mr. happily indulged our taste for smokes and drinks.  On one of our last nights there, just two days away from flying home to the good ol’ USA, my companion and I set out on foot for the neighborhood bar.

We’d been to the bar once at the very beginning of our trip, and we felt sort of like returning conquerors as we sidled up to the bar and ordered a pair of beers.  The bartender remembered us, and since it was early and the bar nearly empty, we got to chatting.  We told him of our adventures, how we’d loved Greece and stayed in a room with a view of the Acropolis, and how we’d fallen in love with a little beach town on one of the islands.  We smoked a cigarette with each beer, and soon we’d had four or five.  We asked our close friend and bartender Kim if he had anything special behind the bar, and indeed he did.
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Friday my show came down at Red Dot Gallery in Sacramento.  My brother and my cousin were there in the big blue Audi to load up all the work that didn’t sell, and now it sits in a neat little row in the dining room.  This month-long show was a fantastic experience, and one that I won’t soon forget.

On opening night I was surprised by former teachers, former colleagues, old friends and friends’ folks.  My family and my lady were there the whole night through, happily standing around and looking at the art they’d already seen, smiling and chatting with everybody that filtered through.  Gallery director Michael was holding it down too, of course, swiping credit cards on his iPhone and sticking little red dots on some tags.

Two days later was Second Saturday, and a small contingent of bay-area friends made the trip to Sacramento.  Again there were surprise visits, and again I stood around and smiled and schmoozed with a much larger and much more unknown group of art aficionados.  I especially enjoyed listening to one particular gentleman break down every single one of my pieces to his slightly overwhelmed female companion, who I think was glad there were only 29 pieces in the show.

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Spring is really here, ladies and gentlemen. It’s been a wet and wild month of March in Sacramento, but today the sun is shining and the grass is as green as it gets. This month’s calendar features a veritable symbol of spring: the daffodil. And while these particular flowers ain’t yellow, the rest of the colors will hopefully bring some cheer to your desktop.

Download in various sizes here: 2560 x 1600, 1920 x 1200, 1680 x 1050, 1440 x 900, and 1280 x 800.

If you’re in search of a fresh background for your iPad or iPhone, check out Paper Leaf’s April Wallpaper, available in those additional formats.

A special thanks to James M. Harris for his lovely “Bellerose” font.