Inspiration from the easel: Pirates!

Long John Silver 5 x7" $150

The movie, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, inspires me to paint characters from the movie. Also my favorite thing is collecting Playmobil pirate sets for making movies of my own.

This pirate is Long John Silver, inspired from the old Disney Treasure Island.  It's available for sale for $150 framed.  I have about 8 other pirates so come and get 'em, mates!

Or...you'll walk the plank!

Last Tuesday, Tobias and I went to the "Pirates' Dinner Adventure" in Buena Park, California. I had a meal of tossed salad, chicken with spanish rice and broccoli, and filling from apple cobbler.

Music time

Last week, I worked on the song, "The Colors Of My Mind" with the help of Marc Zimmerman.  He is a local musician with a recording studio in his home.  He is developing his own computer software for language development to be released in September called Language Express.  He also has 9 year old twins on the autism spectrum.

I wrote my song with Vanessa Contopulos three years ago. I first recorded a rough draft song, and three years later I re-recorded it with Marc.  I like this one better because it more music sounds like the bass, cello and strings.  This single will be available for sale soon thru my website--and for your listening pleasure while browsing.

Thank you Marc! I look forward to working with you on future projects.

Joel Anderson and Marc Zimmerman and his studio

Joel singing into the microphone

Happy Fathers' Day

My dad is a good person who loves his family. He takes us out to eat, or does stuff with us, and goes to church with us.  Probably his favorite thing to do is dogsledding.  We go with him.

This video I made has my song, "The Lonely Musher" and shows my dad dogsledding. Foresthill is a race in Northern California. My is dad is wearing #10.  His husky team is Kiera and Rameses.  It's exciting watching the races.  I'm proud of my dad.

This Father's Day we will be training our two new huskies, Kyjo and Taser.  Kyjo is named after me and my friend Kyle.

Commissioning Dogs

German shepherd puppy 10 x 10" $150

Two people we met at Love Letters want to commission me to paint their dogs-- a pit bull and a schnauzer.  I will be in touch with them soon.

I painted this from a picture I used on computer of a german shepherd.  That's my favorite breed of a dog, even though we don't have one. We do have 4 huskies, an Australian shepherd and a sheltie.  My dad is recreational musher.  He does races in Northern California.  Huskies have pointy ears just like a german shepherd. So dogs are my good friends.

I love New York, do you?

Statue of Liberty 8" x 24" $350

 I participated in Love Letters, a Broadway show by A. R. Gurney at the Normal Heights Community Center in San Diego last Saturday.  My work was exhibited in the lobby as people entered.  "The Statue of Liberty," "Brooklyn Bridge" and my new crab were on display. I also sold greeting cards, necklaces, photo clips.  The necklaces were the bestsellers and a few are still available for $10.

Brooklyn Bridge 24 x8" $350

Karen Searcy-Bair, Director of the Crimson Center, and her husband, Stephen Bair, invited me to do this since it was their two-person show.  The creative evening was a fundraiser for scholarships to their speech and language pathology center.

Necklace $10

Lucky winner received my new necklace

The Big Apple

Debbie Hosseini announced that she wants to include me in an art show in New York City!  The Soho Gallery of Digital Arts will highlight several artists from her book, Art of Autism opening July 7th.

The show benefits Reach for the Stars Learning Center which is "dedicated to the education of children with autism spectrum disorders utilizing every possible tool to further their development."

I think I will send them my "Big Apple," since that is the nickname for New York, and "Vanessa," because she was named after my music teacher.  She helped me play music on the guitar and piano.  We wrote songs together, one which I will post soon when I get it recorded.

Inspiration from the Easel: In Toto Color

I was inspired to paint Toto from The Wizard of Oz in many different colors. A play at the Mission Theater inspired me to do this.  It was for The Art of the Dog show at the Fallbrook Art Center in September of 2006.

This piece is still available for sale for $350 if you need a gift for a dog lover.