When confronted with the title of this blog post, some people might think “oooh, that’s the Italian word for ‘beautiful’! Wayne is finally becoming multicultural!”

Others might sound it out and think of an Austin Powers movie or two.

Get in mah bellah!

But after last night, I can say that when *I* hear “Bellah,” I will be thinking of Mickie Bellah Art. 

A few months ago, our family attended the Austin Psychic Fair.  We first saw Mickie’s art there at her booth and were fascinated by the Astrology Birth Chart Paintings.  However, what intrigued my wife even more was that Mickie hosted art classes where up to 4 students at a time could learn her techniques and just play around with making custom art. Mickie supplies the space, the canvases, the paint, supplies, prep and cleanup.  As a student, you just show up in clothes that can get a little dirty and start creating.

My wife and daughter went to 2 consecutive classes a month or two ago and really loved the experience.  They both strongly suggested I attend.  Clearly they see a budding artist within me.  Either that, or they hated it and wanted me to suffer along with them.  Fortunately, I can say that I’ve ruled out the latter.

Being someone who rarely passes up an opportunity for some easy blog fodder, I signed up. I also invited my mom along because A) she lives within walking distance to Mickie, B) they have the same massage therapist, C) they had the same hairstylist, and D) my mom is a great, wonderful and creative person to be around.

Mickie’s really great with enthusiasm, encouragement, tips and making sure you feel “open” enough to just be artful.  Always available with answers if you ask, she doesn’t proactively direct your actions, techniques, methods or even style.  We mixed our paints for a while.   I ended up watching Mickie do one, and watched two of the other students start on theirs before I decided to splash my first blobs of paint on my canvas and get to work.

WHALLART #1
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Not sure what i see in there.  You really need to enlarge it to see more, and of course there’s lots more detail in person.  I’m thinking maybe it was Dr Suess inspired (see the white Whosizit leaning out from the right?)

I went, undeterred, to create my second masterpiece:

WHALLART #2
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Now that I was getting the hang of it, I knocked out a few more:

WHALLART #3
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WHALLART #4
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WHALLART #5
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Other than looking like I had sniffed in a bunch of paints and sneezed them out, what do you see in them?

I finished out the session with this last piece:

WHALLART #6
click to embiggify

This concludes the first of two sessions – my mom and I go back again next month to do another six or so pieces.  Now that we have a little experience, I expect to make some art work that will be made available for sale.  I’m sure the prices will be reasonable; it’s not like I’m expecting to pay off the house with the income.  Maybe I can pay off a car or a timeshare or two, though.  You never know what people will pay for!

I’m pretty happy right now.  You might think I got a new toy or something (and there are some toys out there that would qualify) but mainly I just got my old and busted toy fixed.

As some of you know, I depend on my Blackberry 8700c – it’s my phone, my PDA, my email, calendar, tasks, contacts, SMS, picture browser, web browser, etc.  I’ve had it for a while – another friend of mine was able to snag one for me FREE at the RIM Launching event in San Francisco – Thanx guys!

Not only do I depend on the absolutely cool unit, I love it as well.  I love having one device on my belt (well, other than my SwissTool), having everything together, and having access to everything all the time – not to mention updating info/contacts and having immediate access to corporate and personal email.

However, recently I’ve had horrible cell phone reception.  The blackberry data service (EDGE in uppercaps vs edge in lowercase) worked fine, and I could always send/receive phone calls, but while I’m talking to someone I had horrible volume problems and every 2nd or 3rd word was interrupted/dropped or otherwise lost, so I did a lot of “what?” in most of my conversations.  And I don’t mean the type of “what?” I would say when I hear someone saying “I’m going to crawl through the phone and pull your nose hairs until I get the info I want, Mr. Hall”  I mean instead of that sentence I would hear something like “I’m (burble) to cr(burble) through (burble) own and pull (burble) airs until I get (burble) all”

I attribute the bad cell stuff to the incessent dropping that the unit has suffered under my hands.  I’m guessing the internal antenna has become dislodged or something so that the signal strength isn’t so good.  Also, the “water damage” indicator underneat the battery cover (small square that’s either red or white) says RED, meaning, it’s seen it’s share of moisture and the phone is no longer covered by insurance.  I don’t know how much I believe that sticker, but still, the manufacturer has to protect their interests too, I guess.

So now for the happy-happy-joy-joy part — I GOT A REPLACEMENT PHONE!  YAY!

And ooooh, the new one is chrome instead of dark grey.  Kind of looks better methinks.  Plus, the CPU seems faster, but that might be because I haven’t loaded it down with all my data.  Also seems lighter, but maybe it’ll get heavier when I load more email on it.

Here’s how it happened – another coworker needed a blackberry, so we ordered a new 8700c.  However, the person does NOT need a phone plan with it – just the blackberry.  And since my blackberry works fine as a blackberry but not-so-fine as a phone, this awesome person agreed to swap devices with me so I could have a WORKING PHONE.

THANK YOU BLACKBERRY GODS!

(plus, this person has promised me her McDonald’s Monopoly codes.  How much better could this person get?)

Before I get on with the post, I should make an announcement.  I’ve noticed some bloggers out there who do custom artwork to enhance the uniqueness of their site.  I’ve decided to join in the fun.  Now, I have to warn you a little – my artwork is so elegant and so precise, and the maturity of my technique, hue selection and presentation is so professional that you may not believe it is derived from my own hand and mind.  I assure you; it is.  I did not download images off teh internets and claim it as my own.  But the stuff you see here might be so good that you might think I downloaded or paid an actual artist to create it.

I shall call these new creations “whallart”.  The art of whall.  Like, art you might find hanging on the whall.  As in, a whall virtually covered with art.  Any blog post I have that has whallart will be tagged with the category “whallart“.  You hereby grant you the right to print it out and hang it on your whall.

Now on with the post.

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I’ve pestered my “in-person” friends about this a couple of times, and have only received one valid response so far, and I’m still not so sure about it anyway.  You know how you can ask any kid “Hey kid.  What sound does a cow make?”  And after they scratch their head a little bit and wonder why you’re covered in peanut butter, they shrug it off and answer “moooo” ?  YAY!  They know what sound a cow makes!  Same goes with any common onomatopoeia, right?  Everyone knows what sounds certain animals make, like dogs, cats, sheep, roosters, frogs, ducks, donkeys, horses, snakes, etc.But what about the bunny?

 

I think someone who figures this out should get a Nobel prize.