This is their website: www.hennagarden.com

He said that he was from Sweden, and I told him he was the first person from that part of the world to buy from me.

He told me to GOOGLE his name when I got home, so I did.

I’ll admit that I had no idea who he was– but Henning Mankell

is one of the best selling authors in the world. His latest book is The Trouble Man, and San Francisco was a stop on his U.S. book tour.

Mankell’s best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most iconic creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander.

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Loren, one of my childhood friends, introduced me to the wonderful world of comic books.

It was our ritual to go up a very steep hill on our street to buy comics at the Rexall Drug Store. Believe it or not, but I would ride standing on the back of Loren’s chair, and he would push us— UPHILL— using only his arms! This cat was strong! The distance had to be 1/8 a mile!

Loren was the first comic book fanatic I met. He kept his books in plastic, and it was a long process to earn his trust to even TOUCH one of his prized possessions. If you opened his books without extreme care, he’d punch you in the chest!

I collected comic books feverishly until I was 18, when the prices just got too high, and the stories didn’t interest me as much…… But I still have them, wrapped in plastic, and surrounded by armed guards…..

I’m very sorry to have heard that Wyntress Smith of Vallejo has passed away.

I met her in person only once, at the Art & Soul Festival in Oakland, CA, when she purchased the original of “Peep Door”. That was either 2005 or 2006. Since then we’ve exchanged emails. She was always interested in what kind of work I was doing.

“Peep Door” was a personal breakthrough for me as an Artist. It’s on my business cards, the opening of my website, the cover of my book, and I have a magnetic image of it on my Suburban.

Thank you, Wyntress, for believing in my Art— and I’m very, very sad for the loss her family must feel. This is her online obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesheraldonline/obituary.aspx?n=wyntress-faye-smith&pid=145380400

     At a Guild show you talk to people from all over the world. Oftentimes those people are from the same country who happen to visit America but they don’t know each other.

I had a show at Union Square, San Francisco over the weekend with my comrades in the Artist Guild. That’s a normal thing. But something was in the air in England.

The Cottee Family (pictured on the left) bought “Sneaky III”. They live in Tip Tree, Essex, a village in England.

The Wilce Family from Woodford Green, Essex, England, took “Before The Show” home.

A flight from San Francisco to England is about 10 hrs (5370 miles)…….The two cities above are about 45 miles apart.

One of the most exciting things about being an Artist is having someone from another country interested in your work. It can happen often being in the Guild because of the locations we show at, but it never gets old to me.

His focus is Family and Life on a farm.

Beautiful work.

Click his painting Blue Moon to see his website….

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It sold for $106.5 Million.

The auction took place on Tuesday May 4th, and you can click on the picture for more details about that.

And you thought there was a recession….

“Walking Man” a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, sold for $104.3 million in Feb 2010.  (Click the photo for an article about it.)

The 1960s sculpture only held the title for a couple of months before a newly auctioned piece broke the record to become the highest seller of all time…..

The first piece here, called “Sneaky III” is a different direction for me in subject matter as well as color. The action is subtle yet strong, with an adventurous boy tugging on his shirt.

“Before The Show“ is the first I’ve done showing my daughter in a ballet theme. I plan to do more like this…

These paintings may also be the last of my 40 series. I turn 41 on April 30.

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Click the pic for a full article on Art from that part of the world….