Joe Fortes New York,, Volume Three

Working at getting, another New York Book together,,never mind the Drawing that have to get done,, the script is another story all together,, who to thank, and in what order,, want to talk about ,the fact that ive only been doing drawings in NY for 15 years,, and thats 15 years on a really limited time schedule. The work i did before i became a full time artist that actually made me some kind of living,, the fruit store , the books and records that we sold,, all of that of great importance to me,, especially what my Mom and Dad did for a living,, which was the food store, fruit and vegetables specifically want to tie that into vol 3 of the New York book.The Importance of the people I Thank in these books ,and really get it across how very much that without them it woulsd not be possable to do the work, not just that , that part of writing it is lip service ,, but a real sincere thank you for being there for me.So when i sit down to do this writing i become over whelmed with how much you could write about each of these subjects and really not say to the extent of what you want to any degree at all. but let me try,, in my simple attempt to do that.

New York, 2010

Got into the city,, last Monday, and as usual it was the keep your head up situation of NYC, energy abounds even though it is a bit slow.This is the 1st time i have celebrated my birthday in NY, and it was a beauty,, party at the Plaza with Michael Fredo playing with the band,, and enjoyed seeing all the good folks ,, Shannon and Joe Fredo as well as Benny, Eric,Cory, and the rest . Thursday nigh found us all At the party at ,Covet,, usual suspects and what a great bar,, brand new and done up beautifully, nephew Jim and his Lady, Jeannine came into the City on Friday and we had a great time at Cuba,, great food great music and great people,, did the walk around ,, wound up at Wicked Willys,, for a night cap and spent Saturday,, hanging out,, Jim shooting a lot of pics.Now work wise was a productive week as well,, have two drawings on the go business was slow but ok,, met a bunch of new people , the four ladies from saskatoon,, want you all to check out the web site, www.joefortesworld.com see you all next week.

Two Weeks On The Road

Sunday, May2nd,Randolph n.j., been here for five days,, getting a bit done with ,"The Boss",on the web site, thats, http://www.joefortesworld.com/ thank God i,ll be off to New York tomorrow, not that i didn,t have a great time with Debbie and David,, Great host and hostess, great food,, just so happy to have it all settled for what had to be done.I,m thinking that we should have the web site totally together by the end of 2012,, i thought we could do it by the end of 2011,, but i was dreaming and realize that i have no idea what it takes to do that, anyway,, its been a great 2 weeks,, with time with, brother butch and karen, wendy and john, jannine and nephew jim,, and the over to ron and suzi q,s, and then a couple days with david and lise and kayleigh,,, and then on to mary anne.s and larry,s and jenna and andy and michael,, and then debbie and daves ,jonathan and adams,, so i,m off into the Big Apple,, to celebrate My 67th Birthday,, will be at the plaza on wed. nite if michael fredo,s playing, jim and jennine will be in the city on thursday and friday,, but the big reason for this time in the city is to get some things together with my printer leni,, really need to get that all together so i can get some drawing done.Also hope to sell out of the second printing of the new york books

Six Days Till Monday

Sitting,, in D.C.,Maryanne and Larry home , spent a couple days at Lise ,Kayleigh and Davids home in Daytona. Taking life very slow making sure i have an idea to where and what it is i want to do with the next twenty years of my life if i,m so lucky to have that pleasure, missing Laura playing hockey,, missing Steve just being Steve and making a life for himself,, missing the Boys Growing into men,, Tyler actually working James becoming a teenager ,,and Noah,,just missing the connection,, and The Biggs,,just to see her,, more often, but,the work,, what to do about the work,, David Steinberg doing the web site, loving that and needing time to do it,, new york drawings needing to be finished,, the books,, four new key west books to have published by the end of 2011,, as well one more new york book,, and thens there ,,,My Life,, maybe i should think a little more about having some more about that,, but,, what is that other than my kids,, or my work,,,thats why its time to think about what the next twenty years or twenty days or hours,, and what it is that needs to really be done ,, or should anything be done other than,,, being.

What is it About Tuesdays

A week sails by,, may as well be a lifetime, sitting at my nephew Jims home in Clearwater,, left Key West on Saturday after picking up a couple great sandwiches from the Cuban Coffee Queen which is a great little spot that my True Friend ,Paul Menta owns with another trully great friend and person Eric,, how come i,m so Fortune ate,, must be someone looking out for me,,trip up was rainy day hard rain,, refreshing,van cleaning, thoughts, were many as i drove the eight hours,stopped and had dinner with Brother Butch and Karen as well John and Wendy Taylor from Cambridge prepared by the woman,,, mmm good, Last night ,, monday,, we went out the 7 of us for a great italian dinner,,, What Else,, and i sit here on this beautiful morning making contact with the people i,ll be spending the next 2 months with in new york . What is Life,,a breath,, a good morning to you,, a thought of your children,, another two thought of each of your children in seperate times,,what is life a good morning to you from that some one you love or even more so from that person you hardly know,,what is life,look at life,,, your life or just life
the breath you take ,so for sure that the next one is coming, the food you eat ,, so like its so expected that there is another meal coming and on and on we just take for granted that there will be another day,,, take a moments or seven every day to stop for 5 seconds or 5 minutes to thank for that life ,, that could end at any of those days or minutes or seconds,,thank for the mother the father the family the friends the health,, thank for the life.

Touching Base

April,2010, Daughter Tina has just left after spending a week with me in Key West,, Made Me realize even more how much i need my family in my life at this point. I,ll be leaving Key West on the 19th has been two months and it has been very different here,, much cooler than the usual winter and of course the financial situation that we are involved in has not been good for business,, all in all its been a great season for socializing, but not for business. Key West has also depleated my energy to draw or paint with the unacceptance that it has for not only artist but people in general,, parking and code violations are out of control,, going to be difficult to want to draw here in the future,then theres the friends that i have here which makes it almost impossable to ever leave, and you all know who i am talking about. So, i,m off to Clearwater to have a couple days with my nephew and my Brother, and then over to Daytona and spend a few days with my Great Niece and her family going to hang a dozen or so paintings in there new home, from there i,m heading to D.C. and hang out there for a few days,, maybe a day in Philly then up to Dave and Debbies home in New Jersey to get some of the web site business sorted out ,, and then I,ll be in New York for six to eight weeks

Realization

What does it take in a lifetime to really realize the importance of life and what is important in your life? I don,t think you can ever thank your Family, parents, siblings, children,, and grandchildren for what it is they give you just by being, your friends, teachers, influences of music ,art takes 60 years no matter how you have loved and apprieciated, all of these experiences of your life to really take a look and see a whole other demension of what it is and realize that its even more than that. Going to New York this year after all ive done there and how much ive become a part of the feeling, the people,, i was blown away by how much greater the feeling of my love of what it is and how great it is the structures the ancientness of it the food how unbelievable it all is. Then off to Key West and on the way,, the visiting of the Friends along the way,what they have meant in my life,, and again like my children and grand children no words or not any amount of words or even the amount of realization of what that value in your life is can ever be expressed. Key West,,, Garden of Eden. people ,Family ,, yes Extended Family like again, you can not imagine,,, names ,Will Linda,, Mark Jude, Eric Paul,, my brother, Mark and on and on thousands of names and people who have been so wonderful and helpful in me being able to do what i do....to be continued