All I can say is WOW with the craftsmanship and quality of these handmade books by Rich Troncone.  Man, I love this guy is all I can say.  I wanted a book that I could use as a journal and write in it with my fountain pen.  I've used Moleskines in the past, but the problem is that my fountain pen bleeds through the pages of a moleskine so I reached out to my friend Rich and he created these masterpieces for me.  Check out his website:  http://www.richtroncone.com

Much love to Rich Troncone, glad to call him a friend.

  My family and I went today to the New York Historical Society to check out the Norman Rockwell exhibit, which is currently open until September 2018.  The exhibition was spectacular and showed a wide variety of Rockwell's work. I've been a big fan of Rockwell for a number of years and it's always cool to see his work in person. It's hard to get a sense of how the paintings look in person, but they are very thickly painted!  I've seen his work in person before, but it's always surprising to see how different they look in person vs. in a photo.

  While we were at the New York Historical Society, they also had an exhibit of historical footwear, which was really cool.  And they had a collection of Tiffany lamps as part of their permanent collection.  It was really really cool.  I tried to capture it in a video below.  ⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

  They also had an awesome part of the exhibit where you could choose  and change the colors of a Tiffany lampshade.  So I designed my own shade!

  I love illustrations just as much as I love traditional painting.  My illustrations are really influenced by the watercolor manga of Hayao Miyazaki, who's also one of my favorite artists.  This illustration is about my pet hamster, named Bougie, who I imagined having his own hotel called "Casa De Bougie".  It's fun to draw these little illustrations because it makes me flex a different creative muscle.  I also love having my drawings show a narrative because I love writing stories also.
 If anyone is wondering about the shower part of the illustration: Bougie goes under his water bottle and rubs his head on the spout when he's cleaning himself, so it's like he's taking a little shower.  Hamsters are also nocturnal, which explains the first panel of the illustration.  They also love broccoli!

  I recently re-read this wonderful book that I wanted to share with everyone.  It's called the Book of Five Rings, or The Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.  The book was written around 1645 by the famous swordsman and philosopher, Musashi.
  I had read it once before when I was in college and was excited to re-read it at this stage in my life.  It's really easy to find and the copy I got is illustrated, which is cool, but not necessary.  The beauty of this book is that the ideas don't only apply to being a swordsman; the book is really about larger philosophical ideas.  I read it from an artistic point of view and learned a ton.  Musashi was also interested in all the arts and even did some painting and calligraphy.
  The final part of the whole book has the biggest impact on me.  It's a list of around 21 precepts translated as "The Path Walked Alone" that Musashi lays out in a bullet point type format.  It's a beautiful list and acts as a simple guide to living well.
 I encourage everyone to read this book at some point and share it with as many people as possible.

Anyone interested in more information can check out:
 http://www.musashi-miyamoto.com