Sue Ann Niermeier

I attended the funeral of Sue Ann Niermeier today.

A Cabin in the Woods

The last day of the year. I sit in a cabin in the cool morning air and a fire is made to warm the small cabin. I talk to two men twenty years my elder. They teach me things of lost worlds that only live with the work of old men. At 53 I am becoming them in my own way and am and will pass what I can to younger generations.

Plus One

My friend Crystal couldn't find anyone to go to a Rock Concert with, so on a whim she asked me.

"Yes I'll go, sounds like fun."

She got in free because she knew the Drummer in the band and I was her Plus One.

Mermaid Monday; On Tuesday

Crystal St Romain

She is a Mermaid to me because she swims through the dangerous ocean of life. She is a friend and I even think of her as part of my extended family. She is the bravest person I know. I feel I can't tell you why I think she is so brave at the writing of this post.

If I had a daughter I would want her to be like Crystal. May the One Soul bind you to all the love in the universe Crystal and may happiness roll out before your feet.

The Best Insect Stories Ever Told

You might have notice a few changes to my blog but I've kept the name. I stole the name fair and square from the title of a painting by my favorite artist. Well maybe not so fair and square but I have her blessing now.

These two children books can be found at Project InSECT and I can't say enough about how great these books are.

I watched the painting of both insects the books are based on and Jessa even made a small mistake in one of the illustrations for book one when I distracted her with my never ending talking. She quickly fixed the small error but I felt a small part of that first book because I bugged the artist a little too much.

James her husband and the man that told her she should paint bugs wrote these two insect stories but in truth they wrote the books together by living a dream. Google, Yahoo or Bing, Project InSECT to learn more about these wonderful children's books.

The Above photos are the copyright of Project InSECT and used with permission.

Talking with Elvis

On thursday I meet Elvis and Elvis asked his daughter if I was seeing her. His daughter told me what she said to Elvis but I can't remember what she told me. Later after Elvis left we did a little bit of mind speak. We were very good at mind speak in 2008 but we kind of lost that and I can't explain it to whole life people anyway. It's kind of mind reading without the reading and please don't make it dirty in your mind because its as pure as a breeze in heaven.

The moment I meet Elvis I liked him and he had a good hand shake that any man of ninety would be proud of. Elvis, his daughter and I spoke of many things and I feel his life is a great epic. His daughter had told me in World War Two how Elvis had landed in a concentration camp at the end of the war.

His daughter tells me of the landing in a plane in the center of the concentration camp. How he was one of the first to see the horrors of that Nazi Hell from American. He opened the ovens and saw the human bones. Deep underground he found the room full of jars. Jars filled with human eyeballs.

His daughter tells me when she was a girl she thought her father was dead once. At that moment he was in Vietnam. He was the first to go in a tunnel and that tunnel had collapsed on him. He was buried alive and can't be in small places to this day.

I didn't talk to him about war or his famous first name. We talked about him being the driver of the President of the United States of America. During the Bay of Pigs and the Cuba Missile Crisis he was the driver of an Air Force car for John F Kennedy.

When you see a man of eighty or ninety have some respect for you may be in the presents of living history.

Gone to Hollywood

Amanda Harrison and Jerry J White III are two very talented people. Friday, June 18th I said goodbye to these two at a get together at Fric and Frac on 39th street in Westport.

Jerry worked on the last two movies I produced. One lost in editing by my own lack of skills as a editor and the other Walking the Graveyard close to being finished. I believe in Jerry as a director and hope to raise enough money to do a third project with him and Amanda.

I've wanted to work with Amanda on a movie for some time now but it wasn't to be with my limited funds. I have written a short movie to showcase her talents as an actress and hope to have a contract signed soon with Nidhi Sharma to make the second draft written by her the shooting script.

Before I wrap this story up let me explain that I haven't lost the footage of any movie of late. I just haven't finished the edit of one movie.

Now back to saying goodbye. I love talent and the heart of America will have a missing talent pool with these two great people missing. I know they will do great things in LA.

Heart Broken

Yesterday my son called me with a plan. A mission to see one of the last space shuttles to lift off for space with three generations of Vollraths going to view the end of that program.

The above photo you see my Grandson Denver and Austin a friend of the family. Really Austin is part of our family, not by blood but by love. Austin is moving away and I will miss him as much as I miss my Grandson.

I just finished the second draft of a script called Heart Broken. The story is about a time I was heart broken in love and my heart stopped longer than I thought possible. It is based on my 2008 story "I was a Heart Broken Zombie" that appears in this blog.

I've been heart broken because of grandson. Half a heart filled with joy because of my grand daughter and half a heart filled with sadness because I miss my grandson.

Now I plan to journey to fill in the space between a broken heart.

Painting Exchange

Thank You JOAN COOK!

I received a painting today from England and as soon as my movie is shot I will return the favor.

I hope to have photos up soon of this wonderful gift and the creation of my gift to Joan.

No Pa Pa, Superman!

I begin to write this in the final seconds of my first day of my 51 year of life in this very magical life.

I live in the Golden Age of me. I live in a time of healing. My broken mind heals and for the first time in my life I have focus. For the last few days I can't smell anything. I have lost my sense of smell. This might seem like a bad thing but I know it means my mind is rewiring and my sense of smell will return.

I live in a time when my Grandchildren are the sweetest dreams of mine every to spin into reality.
Their wonderful imaginations are in full bloom.

Last week I was with my Grand Daughter and she came into her parents living room wearing a cape made out of a yellow pillow cover. My Daughter-in-Law looked at Cordelia and said;

"Tell Grandpa who you are?"

"I'm Superman Pa Pa!"

I looked at my little Grand Daughter with a smile upon my face.

"You mean Super Girl, don't you?"

"No Pa Pa, Superman!"

She stood there with clenched fists on her hips, legs apart and her chin held high in classic Superman pose. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the chair I was sitting on.

Cordelia looked a little hurt that I laughed so hard. I put my right hand on her shoulder and looked into her blue eyes.

"Grandpa will get you a Superman costume just like the one he got for your cousin Denver."

A big smile came on her face and she gave me a loving hug.

I remembered I once put a gender role on my Grandson on a family trip to the Kansas City Zoo and my son Mark got after me. For a moment I tried to do the same to my Grand daughter.
They are too young for such nonsense and I love both my little Super Grandchildren.

Heaven's a Joke

"Heaven's a Joke" was my first attempt at a one act play and my second short movie script.

Renamed "Two Jews and a Pagan" for comic effect, this script will be cast tonight at the 7:30 PM meeting of the Kansas City Coalition of Independent Filmmakers. First the actors will read the script later this month in a public setting and then it will be filmed for the second time.

I won't be directing this movie but my good friend Maia Brown will do a fine job as both an actor and director.

Thinking without Words

Writing is becoming very hard of late because as a earlier post stated I'm rewiring my brain.

This post is about trying to fix my brain with imaginary balls of colored energy but I also want to write about thinking without words. I believe the two things are related.

I've gone over five days without a twitch in my face or left arm. This is a miracle to me as at one time I didn't believe I could go a day without having a big seizure after my car wreck.

The car wreck happened in 1975 but as late as 2002 I would have times when I couldn't remember my name or anything else. I would be thinking in pure emotion. Strange and confusing to say the least these few minutes of my life opened a doorway to heal my own mind.

Without the distraction of words you can focus all of your creative energy into a force of nature.
In this wordless realm I threw balls of colored energy at my broken mind and fixed a part of it I didn't think could be fixed.

The woman I'm dating now and I, Half Speak to each other. I don't know what this is or how it works. It's weird in the extreme and goes to the top of my personal X-files list. If Patty and I didn't Half Speak to each other I wouldn't have found a way to fix the part of my mind that caused me the most pain.

Half Speaking isn't finishing the other person's sentence. Half Speaking in not finishing the other person's sentence and knowing what is meant. Soon you have a conversation full of half sentences that don't make any sense to anyone listening to you and your partner in Half Speaking. Why do these half conversations make any sense to Patty and I? I don't know.

She's a Walker

Yesterday my little Queen of Dreams was 11 months old and she began to show off her walking skills. Having a grand daughter is the most wonderful thing in the world, only to be equaled by having a grand son (I'm not leaving you out Denver).

The day started out with seeing my friends and my favorite artists James and Jessa of Project Insect fame. I helped them unload some of their large paintings and just hung out for a while at Powell Gardens, Festival of Butterflies near my hometown of Kingsville.

I then headed up to see my Son and Grand Daughter in Independence Mo. I wasn't at my son's house more than ten minutes when Cordelia began standing on her own and walking everywhere in the house. I had seen her stand and take a few steps but this was my little sweetheart crossing into her toddler stage. When her mother came home she began to really show off.

After she walked to her mother several times she even walked to her grandfather. I hadn't seen Cordelia in weeks because of my bout with the flu and was afraid Cordelia wouldn't remember me but she couldn't have been sweeter to her grandfather. Letting me carry her around in the store when her parents and I went shopping, giving me hugs and playing a world class game of peek a boo.

Later after we got back to the house her grandmother Rosie came over and I meet Patty Maimer a friend of Rosie. Both Patty and I have a love for history, museums and quirky small town road trips so I got her phone number.

As close to a perfect day as I've had in a long time.

Random Photos and a Letter

The last photo of my father with his mother before her death. My cousin Martha Ann stands behind them.

Photo of Artworld in Kansas City Missouri. I loved selling art supplies there.

Snake and his girlfriend Lona McGee. Lona was the first friend I knew that was born in another country.


Letter from my Ex explaining the random nature of these photos.

The Voice

Dave Gould drove from Omaha Nebraska to Kansas City Missouri so he could help his friends James and Jessa with Project InSECT during a Art Fair on the weekend of the 8th-10th in February 2008. My legs began to cramp up behind the T-Shirt table and Dave offered to relieve me. I stood up to leave and someone said;

"You're not going to let him take over are you?"

I thought it was a joke because Dave is a Biker with long hair and a leather jacket.
I turned to face a well dressed mean wealthy man with hate in his eyes.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to judge someone by their looks. Dave has a good heart and that is all that matters."

I said as the man with a cold heart left without another word.

"Thanks Robert."

"You know Dave you have a great voice and I think you would be perfect in a movie I'm working on."

Dave and I became friends and I feel pity for the man with a cold heart.

Grandfather's First Date

I was going to spend the today with my best friend but she came came down with the flu.
Here is a post that is my favorite story about Sylvia's and Robert's friendship.

I recently became a grandfather and meet my granddaughter the day after her birth.
My heart melted as I held her in my arms. That evening I went to a Reception for a group of sculptures and asked my best friend Sylvia to come with me.

When I told a fellow artist that I had just become a grandfather, a couple that overheard the conversation congratulated Sylvia on becoming a grandmother.
Sylvia isn't a grandmother and has children that are younger than mine.

She didn't correct the couple and thanked them.

This is the first time I've had a woman pretend to be the grandmother of my grandchild.

Alan and Shannon

These two people were a positive influence in my life at a time I was very depressed.
Shinning creative souls in a bleak period on my artistic journey.
Without Alan's help I would have never finished my first dinosaur puzzle and Shannon introduced me to the world of fabric art.

Photo Copyright Alan and Shannon 2002

Confessions of a Computer Illiterate

I'm a computer illiterate with very few computer skills and getting this blog to a hundred posts by the end of August was a goal. My computer was hit by lighting this summer and I lost my scanner.
My good friend Jeff came to my rescue with a scanner he had. Thanks Jeff!
I would also like to thank Kevin for selling me this computer at a friendship price.

Austin's Silver Circle

Austin uses a spray can for the first time as he puts a silver circle on the Inflatable Id.
After he finishes the circle he goes on to try his hand at graffiti on Eli Pupovac's Graffiti Cubes.
Austin's mom took these photos.

The Goff Family

The Goff family showed up a day early to the Holden Art Farm's Garden party and helped move my art inside the inflatable. Thanks, you saved a very tired artist from getting rained on.