Months Of Silence

Sometimes You just don,t want to share your thought to words,, then the urge to write gets in You and it must be done to have ,, a peace within yourself, I,m thinking that I feel so empty when i try to put my life to words,, like so little happening,, yet,, i,m totally caught up in having something going on 24/7, art exhibit in July,, trip down to NyNy,, 20 some paintings done,, organizing,, the whole situation for 2 months in nyny and then theres the constant contact with trying to have a slight insight into my children and grandchildrens lives which i know is way less than i want it to be,, just can,t stand not seeing them,, yet a greater desire to complete this Art Vision i have with what ive done,, and then the crazy part of that world is that i can,t stop doing the Art to add to the vision. The other part of my life is the people i interact with on a daily, weekly, Monthly, Yearly bases,, i,m just never having enough time to go for a drink or dinner with them and then when i do it seems to be way to short a visit,,, Bottom Line,, Have to be Happy for all we have in life,,, and Thank God for all the Blessings

Life in Changes

A song from the past, but a time in a life, when theres a question of maybe changing directions, 25 years in the food business, what a time that was so rewarding in the satisfaction of feeding people with that quality of product, the workers we had, the customers, not that it wasn,t trying and that there wasn,t really any money made but ever thankful that it was a part of my life, Then the past 25 years in the art world, a couple thousand drawing and paintings later,as well 5 books i,m feeling totally satisfied with the result of this part of my life, I have a number of painting that I would still like to do, as well a couple of series of watercolours of nyny and then theres the part of having all the work put into books, but theres this thought starting in my mind of changing direction into something that has more meaning, something that I respect in others yet have never had the courage to get involved in myself, I believe that its because its such a series matter and I really don,t know if I have it in me to be able to do it,, helping others in the 3rd world situations, A totally major decision because I do believe that if you do take that onyou must be totally dedicated and totally follow through on the direction one would take in this life change.I will finish with what I must with the art work and then make a decision on this thought.

Beginings and Changes

Funny how we think of what to do with our lives,, and how that thought changes from age to age or month to month,New York, Key West, Cambridge Ontario, how different my life changes in each of these locations, and how different your thoughts change about what life is, maybe its the changes in latitudes that does it,, naw,, thats not it at all, its the people you need to deal with on each level,, naw,, people be people as Will Hoppey says, just your head space,, then again it sometimes has to do with your health like when your hung over or something like that,maybe its just the way it is as Van Morrison says, it just "Is",should i stay or should i go,, you know, that song,i wonder if it would be different if i had money, would i live different, eat different hang out with other folk,, naw,, i don,t think that has any bearing at all on what happens in my life,, maybe just maybe,, everything that happens and everything you think ,say or do is exactly what you have to,, your entire life,, like i,m saying just maybe been hanging out in lame bridge,, opps sorry Cambridge for a month now , set up a little exhibit at "The Groove Kitchen", in Preston,, been kool, running into a few old friends I havn,t seen for like 30 to 60 years, but also difficult in many ways, changes from New York and Key West, thought of how people see me and my art work,, New York, definately see me more as an artist and respects that much more than Key West,, but Key West does see me as an Artist,, but has no Respect for the artist,,well a few do.. but just a few,, the mayor of New York,, is one of a few people I know that neither knows artists or respects them and what art means to mankind,, now Cambridge or maybe even Canada,, forget about it,, they snicker or even laugh at the artist , but what do i know i just have these thought that seem to change as i move from place to place and these thought may change from age to age,, man,,, i need something to do

Volume Three,, Of New York

What is there to write of the work,not much that could be understood,, if you didn,t know the past history of the artist and the influences of the people in ones life. Take for instance the importance of the work with the colour of fruit and vegetables, but also the state of mind one enters into when buying food to feed to others, now what has that to do with the drawing or the painting you ask,, well if you have to ask that ,, you really will never know the results of the artists work, and what is it that the mother , father ,, the brothers or sisters and friends had to do with the work an artist presents on his canvas, again if you don,t see that all of these aspects of ones life has to do with what one does in art, you really never will understand art or the artist. While doing the art the same things apply,, the living conditions, the people that is what allows the work to be done,, and without favourable conditions ,, it doesn,t get done, and those conditions can be ones of hardship and difficulties as easily ones of pure love and joy,, but they are what create the work.

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