"I'll be writing more in a week or two..."

"Hope you have a good time!"
As he took a long hard stare.
His grin sneered without the words
"You're already there!"
"Why are my looks misjudged so?"
"It's like I'm always doing wrong."
"Yeah, that's none of my damn business.
That's a place I don't belong."

Born On The Fourth Of July This and two other pages. However, the final edit -- and how final might that be? -- that was "born" this morning as I posted this. Even more proof I may be editing and revising right up to publication.

"Looking up I noticed I was late..."

Of all the places I have been to
Whatever brought me here?
That long ride in from Boston.
A burger and a beer.
The stories that unfolded
Were like the lyrics to a song.
If I write a book, its title
Is "A Place I Don't Belong."

Yup! Busy writing this book. Drawing and coloring the pictures. Like the one above. So busy it seems, I didn't hang the July show at the coffee house yet. It's the "sneak peek" show. Some ink drawings from "A Place I Don't Belong" will be on display for the month of July. Fortunately for me, Northfield Coffee & Books will be closed for the Fourth. Open again on Friday.

I'll be hanging it then. Come visit me!

"She's a Big Teaser..."

My FAB FOUR for FRIDAY FEATURING SNEAK PEEKS FROM MY UPCOMING GRAPHIC-NOVEL MAGAZINE, "A PLACE I DON'T BELONG":

1. "She acts as if it's understood..."

2. "But I saw you peep through your window..."

3. "I saw a film today, oh boy..."

4. "She was a working girl..."

1.Girl; 2.No Reply; 3.A Day In A Life; 4.Honey Pie

"One and one and one is three. Got to be good looking cos he's so hard to see..."

Artists can't count.
That's what online folks are saying about my 8 Days A Week sale. A sale that runs from June 16 to June 27 is not an eight day sale -- it's twelve! They're right. It's twelve for online shoppers. And there's no business hours except 24/7. But for folks who shop local, locally at Art & Soul in Northfield, MA, it's an eight-day sale.

Here Art & Soul's hours so you don't miss the last few days.
Hours Tue: 9:30 am - 12:00 pm; Wed: 9:30 am - 6:00 pm; Thu - Fri: 9:30 am - 4:00 pm; Sat: 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

For you online friends and customers: who's counting?

Speaking of counting... It's been 40 years since I looked like this high school photo. Some former classmates will soon take look at what those forty years have done. But as I wrote on the questionnaire, you'll have to buy me drink to hear that story.

You folks on my blog already know the story and have saved yourself the bar tab.

"Some day you'll look to see I've gone..."

Why so sad, Paul?
OK, I didn't play "I Saw Her Standing There" last night.

But we did play "A Place I Don't Belong" and this image will be in the "soon-to-be-published" graphic-novel magazine of the same title.

And yes, this image isn't in the McCARTNEY & MONROE show presently at Northfield Coffee & Books.

But it will be in the next one!

NORTHFIELD COFFEE & BOOKS,
105 Main St., Northfield. (413) 642-7119.
Hours: M-F 7am - 4pm , SAT 9am - 2pm.
more info: www.kevinslattery.com

"You Won't See ME..."

You won't find this Paul at the McCARTNEY & MONROE show as I just completed it this week as part of a commission portrait-caricature that included the other three Beatles and a "fan."

But you can see some of the other Paul drawings I've done (along with some Marilyn ones) at:

NORTHFIELD COFFEE & BOOKS,
105 Main St., Northfield. (413) 642-7119.
Hours: M-F 7am - 4pm , SAT 9am - 2pm. more info: www.kevinslattery.com

"Dear Sir or Madam, would you read my book..."

On Saturday I hung the McCARTNEY & MONROE show. As it reads in the Greenfield Recorder:"Northfield artist Kevin Slattery's monthly show promotes a cast of characters from his first self-published graphic-novel magazine, Ain't gonna hang no pixel. Now showing: McCARTNEY and MONROE..."

And in choosing what month each character gets featured, I often pick one where they celebrate a birthday or birthday-anniversary. Marilyn's 86th birthday-anniversary was Friday, June 1st. Paul McCartney celebrates his 70th birthday on Monday June 18th.

'Hope you can get to the show that displays various original and reproductions of the McCartney and Monroe portrait-caricatures I've done over the years up until the publication of Ain't gonna hang no pixel.

These two will also be included in my next publication due for release in the Fall.

NORTHFIELD COFFEE & BOOKS,
105 Main St., Northfield. (413) 642-7119.
Hours: M-F 7am - 4pm , SAT 9am - 2pm. more info: www.kevinslattery.com

"Yesterday, all my troubles..."

FIVE for FRIDAY

1. Saturday
Damn! POPEYE would be proud! The BEST EVER crop of spinach to come out of our garden.

2. Sunday
At some point when I was enjoying the company of my guests, the recipient of this "thank you" was enjoying his surprise -- according to sources who commissioned the piece.

3. Monday
It's 1965. Sally Draper went to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium. And I am done with my Netflix streaming of MAD MEN Seasons one through four. Life returns to normal for awhile. At least until Five and Six are made available.

4. Wednesday
I noticed many visits ago, at this print shop in Rockland, MA, a Fender Guitar calendar on the wall. It just so happened while I was on a press check today I saw that the Jazz Bass --my bass-- was the featured guitar for the month of May. How appropriate for "music night."

5. Friday
Today is Marilyn Monroe's birthday-anniversary. There will be a show at Northfield Coffee & Books featuring some of my Marilyn (along with my McCartney) art. But many, many miles from Massachusetts in New Mexico at the Liza Williams Gallery hangs another piece of Marilyn art. That famous Blonde with the King in "Red Truck."

"Yesterday, all my troubles..."

A FEW for FRIDAY

1. Monday
In an attempt to organize the random verses I've been creating for "A Place I Don't Belong," I sat down with a note pad and wrote them in the linear order as I see them in this graphic-novel magazine's layout. Only just from memory.

I think that resulted in a completely new first verse.

Some of the other verses were complete as I could remember them word for word like any good song lyrics. Other entries only had the lines I could remember. Some verses only had a place holder. I know I created a verse for what happens at this point of the story, only I don't remember a word! I'll make an effort to track down those random envelope backs and scrap pieces of paper and fill them into this one 'master document' -- this lined note pad.

I'm sporadically trying to read two books while doing all this. A recipe for disaster in itself. One of these books is Stephen King's On Writing. I'm not very far into it. Not even to the "writing half" of it. One thing for sure, I don't expect to find anything as chaotic as the writing process I just described.

2. Tuesday
I finished my commission piece! Was rather pleased about the process and all even though it was quite a bit of a struggle to "get started." I don't know why that is.

I can't include the piece here, just yet. Gotta wait until the 'surprise' is given. It's a 'thank you card' to soldier who's just returned from Afghanistan. He's riding a magic carpet that he purchased while over there and commenting on how this advantage point is much better than a tree stand. This is making his 'targets' -- a deer and a turkey -- a bit nervous.

Bet you can't wait to see it?

3. Thursday
Maybe I get tired of hanging up monthly posters. Or missing "new poster due" deadlines.

"Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away..."

FIVE for FRIDAY

1. Monday
A week ago or so, I posted this "last spread." The copy was lorem ipsum FPO stuff, so I needed something to go there and I decided I would write more verses for this song as a book. On Monday, I wrote what I thought would be a great last verse. Then I changed. Now, it's a great last verse.

2. Tuesday
I once wrote a line for a song that went like this:
"Sometimes I think
In congested traffic
With cellphones and harmonicas
Life ain't so tragic."
I find I think A LOT in congested traffic. Tuesday was no exception. I thought up a new verse on my way back to work from a press check about "what happened to Billie the nightclub singer."

3. Wednesday
Along with a number of other tunes, Sonia, Jim -- our new drummer, Tony -- and I played a funky version of the original (three-verse) A Place I don't Belong

4. Thursday
I put on a shirt I hadn't worn since last Thursday. I found an envelope in the pocket. Some bit a junk mail. But there was something scribbled on the back. It was a verse I had written about "the red Cadillac parked outside the packy."

5. Friday
Today is Salvador Dali's 108th birthday-anniversary. I'm going to do my best to be surreal!

"Say the WORD and be like me!"

NOW, I'm truly in A Place I Don't Belong!
Or maybe it's not that bad.

After my decision to add more lyrics I found myself with this desire to create something more magazine-like. And that needed text.

See. Here's what I shared the other day. It's another verse. It's laid out like headline text on a magazine spread. It needs body text.

So, I added it. Here in prose. But later that day, I found myself writing more but this time in the rhymed meter of the original song. I'll need to decide if I'll mix them or just write it all in rhyme. If I go with the latter, Dylan truly would be proud. In doing so, I would have taken a three verse song and quadrupled it.

"As I write this letter..."

A Place I Don't Belong is my latest graphic-novel magazine project. You may already know this. It includes the same nine characters I used in my first project, "Ain't gonna hang no pixel." You may already know that, as well. In PIXEL, the story is about two people -- the artist and the girl who works at the frame shop. The included 'celebrities' -- Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson, Jack Kerouac, Paul McCartney, Marilyn Monroe, Edgar Allan Poe, Billie Holiday, Bette Davis and Alfred Hitchcock -- illustrate analogies like "I stood as still as Kerouac," or references like (Paul McCartney illustrating)"a Beatles' song" or 'themselves' as Bob Dylan does as the 'inspiration' behind the artist's decision to "stop painting with paint."

In PLACE, these nine characters play roles in my script. And my script is based on the lyrics of an original song with the same title.

You may already know that.

This song has three verses.

My problem has been in creating the "story" that isn't covered in these lyrics. I saw it as visual story-telling challenge. But that challenge has become quite daunting. On the way into work yesterday, I came up with a solution.

I think Bob Dylan would be proud!

MORE lyrics!

Yes, so I set out at lunchtime to create another verse (I think I will need at least three more in total). This verse takes Jack and Norma from the coffee shop to the nightclub where they hear Billie and her band. I think the verse came out quite nice. It inspired this quick spread design.

"Tell Me What YOU See?"

every picture tells a story -- don't it?

The STORY goes like this....
I suppose I could have unpacked the original art—the colored-pencil illustration of Bob Dylan, aptly titled: "A TRAIN TO CRY"—unpacked it from the box ready to be sent to the Santa Fe gallery (before the 'shipping cost' funds ran dry). I could have done that. And hung that picture like I hung the ink drawing of JACK KEROUAC and the batik painting of BILLIE HOLIDAY in the previous months. But I wanted to do something different this time. Hang something that might make the customers of the Northfield Coffee and Books shop pause and say "what's that?" It looks like a bulletin board from the artist's studio. It looks like a "process revealed." Some step-by-steps. Or at least a progression of what may have come first. You all viewed the "somewhat comical" step-by-step I posted in a previous blog. That's included. But so is a CD image of the album cover art for BLONDE ON BLONDE. And there's even a ticket to the 1997 Bob Dylan concert at Northampton's John M. Greene Hall (that had only to do with the inspiration not the actual art itself). There's the model train that posed for the original illustration. The cover and a page from my self-published magazine: "Ain't gonna hang no pixel." Yes, I wanted something different.

And that's my story...