The Last Supper

Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. ~ Matthew 26:20-23

The Last Supper 

I have just realized some very odd occurences between Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper and my YouDraw drawing of The Last Supper.

Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned to paint The Last Supper in 1495. Da Vinci wanted to experiment with a new style he had invented - tempera (egg yolk and vinegar) plus oil painting on dry plaster. That way he could use more colors and redo portions if necessary. The painting took him four years to complete - 1495 to 1498. His patrons were furious at the delay but Leonardo refused to go any faster.

Unfortunately, Leonardo's style experiment was a disaster. The paint almost immediately began falling off the plaster, the humidity was causing the paint to separate from the plaster on which it had been painted. Over the years, the piece has been vandalized and nearly fell apart completely.



600 years later - 1495 to 2005, I have made The Last Supper a permanent piece. It took Leonardo Da Vinci 4 years to complete The Last Supper, it took me 4 hours - 5:30PM to 9:30PM. Da Vinci experimented with a new style and I have as well by making this intensely detailed piece on a minuscule drawing pad. His piece suffered vandalism and so has mine with some comments by unscrupulous people. Fortunate for me these comments will eventually be removed by the very hard working and kind YouDraw Volunteers.

A cold in the summer

This morning I woke up with a cold. You know the tight clenched up feeling in the back of your throat? Now I learn that it comes with a cough too. I definitely didn't order this. I hate being sick especially in the summer. I know that you get colds year long but I seriously can't remember the last time I was sick in the warm months. I perservered the sickness in my kayak classes today. The classes were really fun. I had a great group of young kids and that really makes teaching great. I brought a whistle because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to yell at all, heck I couldn't even yell if I wasn't sick but it really did help to get their attention. It is so funny to watch people being introduced to kayaking. I remember when I first started and I was just like them but it still gave me a few chuckles as they were flailing about and tipping over. Those kids just thought I was the greatest because I could roll my kayak back up. The looks on their faces just made my day and I almost lost sense of being sick, but now that I have settled in at home and write this blog entry, it creeps back and attacks my throat again. COUGH COUGH! Excuse me I think I should COUGH go.

Down by the River

I went kayaking today and had a blast. The river is practically flooding, it's so powerful. Never once think for a moment that you can control Mother Nature because she will definitely put you back in your place. Kayaking has made me appreciate nature so much and has allowed me to see parts of the world that truely go unnoticed by everyone else living on it. Tomorrow I'm teaching about six sessions of middle school aged kids some basic kayak techniques. I've done this in the past and have had lots of fun with it.

Here's a couple of recent YouDraw pictures I have completed. Vote for my pictures and leave a comment, I'd appreciate it very much!

What Color Are You?

I took this "color" test the other day to find out which HTML color I am...unfortunately that color was pale blue, not exactly my favorite, but the personality analysis was somewhat correct. Take the quiz yourself and see if you're pleased with the results. Post your color to my comments.

you are lightcyan #E0FFFF

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

I'm nearly finished with Marc's Black Crowe poster. I'm trying to finish it for his birthday which is in a week. Work that still needs to be done is mainly the stage and then a few highlights/shadow work all over.

The linoleum

It's madcap mayhem at my house. We're in the process of ripping out our carpet, painting the walls, and scrapping linoleum off. Let me personally say on the web that removing linoleum is the worst possible thing ever conceived by mankind. Scrapping, hammering and chiseling take forever and give you the worst blisters. There really is no way to remove this crap! It just seems like I'm slamming into a brick wall each time I try to remove a section. It wears you down too. The other day, as I was working, I noticed an area that resembled a face. Maybe it was the light because I couldn't always find it again but then it would appear again. After a couple of days I noticed it all the time. It looked like a head with a broken neck with two huge eyes that looked at me at a gawky angle. I kept looking over at it. I threw my chisel at it and stomped on it, but it remained. Staring.... I swear I just stared back, maybe hours. The more I looked at it the more it resembled a face. Finally it got to me. I couldn't handle that thing looking at me! In a fit of rage I took a razor blade and scored the entire floor making sure that that hideous face get the blunt of it. I don't think the face even cared let alone that floor! In fact I made more and more hideous faces. Lines crisscrossed here and there plunging off of others commiting suicide at their end. But their eyes still remained. More of them now, laughing staring. My parents thought it was funny. They came in to see that the floor was completely scarred and just laughed at me. They couldn't see the faces. Mom the faces were there! They thought I was funny I think I'm crazy anyway they put me on another task. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Steve Held now Google Top 40

I've finally made the Top 40 on Google, 39 to be exact. Try it for yourself, search for Steve Held on Google.com After a while there I thought I'd never make that list, but I did and it is exciting~!.

 
I also came across a great site while surfing google. I hope you have the Time to check it out.

Where have I been?

I haven't updated in a while and well haven't really had the time. I didn't get my cartoon window painting job this year because the Events Complex had a lawsuit last year and their budget has been significantly cut. My mom tried to get me to apply for a 'real' job but I just couldn't picture myself as a McDonald's whathaveyou. So I held out like Stonewall Jackson until something came along that I might actually like.

Now I wake up every morning at 6am and drive to Rock Springs where I am digging basement window wells and helping to remodel a friend's house. You're probably saying wouldn't McDonalds be better? It may be easier to work there but I hold higher standards and I will never work in a fast food joint or Wal-Mart type store....EVER!

I don't have to give up painting all together either. On the side of his house he has a mural of Wyoming made of sandstone that juts out. It needs to be painted and so I get to have fun doing that. It has everything from Old Faithful, to the Tetons.

I've also been busy over at YouDraw.com Check out some of my recent artwork!