Hey, here’s a surprise:
I will actually post some DRAWINGS today. Yow! What a shocker.
Here are some sketches of doctors in a clinic not too far from here, created from emailed photos sent by their sneaky staff.

These were surprise gifts, picked up by a terrific young lady who drove some distance with her whole family so the drawings could be framed in time. We should all be lucky enough to work with people like her.

Here is that same pencil layout from a few days ago. Now I can show you the final as well:

Diane and Dennis Chronicles

Friday I was getting ready to leave for my party way up north of Dayton when I noticed Diane seemed unhappy. Lots to do, but I had to stop and check this out. She is always so upbeat and easily amused. I asked what was the matter.
“Oh… it’s just that… I might have to go to the bathroom,” she said. Oh.
Okay, it was concern for my daughter, who was on her way over to be on hand if Diane needed help. Sure.
I did what I could to reassure her, crouched in front of her wheelchair, that all would be fine. Not much comfort, I know. Not much I could say to address such a personal issue.
Disabled people face such awful challenges, dealing with the ongoing daily train wreck of major impairment, which is peppered with an endless stream of minor humiliations as well. The rest of us seldom realize how good we have it.
There was not much else I could do, so I had to leave her there and dash out to the car and race off toward I-75 North. I had three hours to draw caricatures at a party, and just enough time to get there.
Until … I took a wrong turn. Whoa! When did they cut off this access?? I ended up in East Dayton, lost — after living here since the seventies, now, what an idiot I can be — trying to find the interstate. Yow. And… hey, I was OUT of gasoline! Wonderful.
A couple of bad guesses and I was getting in deeper, zooming down streets I had NEVER been on before, hoping to find some way back to civilization and, God willing, my party. Which is how we pay our bills. Diane can not work. This is our whole income.
Again, yow!
Hey, what was that street?? Super, I made a bat-turn and another connection and zoomed up onto Interstate 75 and – a traffic jam. Aaaaaaaaakkkkkk!!
Calm down, calm down, now. This will work out.
Deep breaths, drive forward twenty feet, stop. Deep breaths.
Traffic slowly began moving, then picked up speed and with a bit of luck I nipped out into the other lane at last and finally got moving pretty well. Flying past Vandalia, I thought about Diane and called up. My daughter was there and things were going fine, of course, two terrific girls both way too concerned about each other. Sure. They were going to do just great. Of course, of course.
I glanced up at my Distance to Empty readout and realized I was next to walking, running on fumes and determination. So, after hanging up I lucked out on finding a convenient exit with a fueling station, got a bit of gasoline and roared on up to Piqua.
I even made it on time!
There are times when I can draw much better that others, and times when I am not that happy with what I can produce. That night was a bit of a mixed bag. At first I thought the resemblances and execution were pretty lame on some of the drawings — but as time went on the control and fluidity of line seemed to kick in. There were lots of rave reviews, which always feels terrific of course.
And a roving pack of delightful little kids. They were hilarious and goofy and found my quick-sketching to be fascinating.
“How do you DO that???,” one little boy kept asking. Cute, cute.
Another one behind me kept yelling every few minutes, “I’m LIKING it!!” Fun kids.
The party could not have gone better, everyone was happy, including me.
Afterward I got home in record time and was happy to see that my daughter and Diane had enjoyed a fine evening together. Nice.
There is not much point to this little post, just a quick peek into our lives here. I hope it’s been interesting. Thank you for reading!

Friday already.
Friday?
Big deal: it’s DECEMBER already!! Whoa, what a fast, fast year.
Lordy. Are we really getting older that quickly? We are all gonna wake up dead pretty soon. How awful. I, for one, am going to be really, really mad when that happens. I have way too much to do, far too much on my list to check out any time soon.
You too, right?
Sure you do. Anyone investing their time reading blogs is curious and intelligent and that is a formula for an adventurous, interesting life. The other end of humanity baffles me. How can anyone be bored when there is SO much to do???

You are ambitious, too, aren’t you? I bet.
Again, the Dull Normals, who seem so sad and resentful of life, confuse me no end. Why take that attitude? Where is the payoff? How does it help you get what you want? Weird. But, having said that, I have come to believe that a LOT of people just do not know they can control their own feelings. Not as in repressing what you feel, but by deciding what you wish to feel, as in deciding to feel upbeat and happy.
It was late in life coming to me, so maybe for others as well.
Hey, in the meantime this is supposed to be about ART, isn’t it?? What am I yammering on about here? Enough of my wisdom for now; forgive me if this has been boring.

What am I doing lately?
Lots in the studio here.
I am designing a character for another Dennis Porter in video production. Our character is a seedy little guy so I have named him … Denny, of course.
And some drawings for a website that sends out greetings by phone. That one is full color, lots of little drawings. Fun.
One drawing for a previous client, a super lady, a sketch of her and three friends. They all vacation together and she will give copies (we provide those, too) to everyone.
Several Christmas gifts in the works.
I am trying to think of something I can post here. Everything is in production, so they are not done.
Will share all these as they are completed and released by our clients.
The one item that was delivered recently has not been released for the blog; will share some of those six drawings later as well.
In the meantime I have to scamper up to Piqua to draw a few hours tonight. I am lucky to have such a super day for driving. Chilly but beautiful.
Diane will be fine while I am gone since my fabulous, beautiful daughter will stop over to be on hand if needed. Man we are lucky to have such super family and friends. And we are grateful, God knows.
I will write more soon. And some DRAWINGS next time!
Best,
Dennis

BUSINESS, AND WHAT REALLY MATTERS…

So… how’s Business??

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, so-so, y’know?
Most of us are less than thrilled with our sales this year. Revenue for most of the business owners I know is down down down, baby. Ah, well.
It is bouncing back, thank God (literally). But slow. Man, it is slow.
This is likely the worst December for bookings we have had. Worse than after 9/11, when our national economy also took a big hit.
After last year – when I suddenly had major surgery and a three month recuperation with ten thousand bucks out of pocket, followed by the Bush-Cheney Disaster Duo’s economic meltdown, when we lost even more – we just do not have the reserves to get us through the winter slowdown. It looks grim.

Also, the big opportunity I had at the shopping mall did NOT work out. Sad: the shoppers were there, but nowhere near the little art gallery I was drawing within. Total washout. Frustrating. So forget that, and thanks for the chance, guys.

Meantime we just had a terrific Thanksgiving last week.
First Diane and I loaded up the van and drove to see my mom and aunt Elve and three of my cousins. It was a lovely trip, but not without complications.
First we borrowed a nice five-foot folding ramp to get Diane’s wheelchair around. About four hours into the trip I realized I had left the stupid ramp … here. In our garage.

There was some raging and cursing at that point.
She finally got me calmed down, though.
“It will be fine,” she said with a smile. “No big thing.”
Sure it was; a BIG problem. But what a great attitude. Anyway, at my aunt’s house she had her turkey dinner in our van and the rest of us sat in Elve’s kitchen. Good stuff, too, but I could not leave Diane out there long, so we thanked her and zoomed on down to my cousin’s house in Knoxville.
There we got Diane into a patio chair and the guys and I carried her up the steps, then carried her power chair up as well, got her back into it and had a nice visit.
It had been many years since Mike, Tom and Sandy and I had all had a chance to spend time together and it was absolutely wonderful. I was an only child, but in my heart they are my brothers and sister.
It was also terrific to visit with my aunt and my mother.
The next day we came back home, another six hour drive, and then on Thursday we had a house full here for an odd, interesting Thanksgiving meal of pizza and hors d’oeuvre. (I had to look that up; how embarrassing.) Our two daughters, their guys and our two teenybopper grandchildren. Lots of bad jokes and loud talk and laughing.

There is nothing quite like family.

You love them and wish you could see them more often. But real life gets in the way … and then one day they are gone forever. And you miss them for the rest of your life.

Chronicles: Diane and Dennis

SOME EXCITEMENT awaited us recently, coming as a surprise. The day started out with expectation, since I had stumbled into a business outlet, potentially lucrative in a minor but lasting fashion. That was an invitation to draw caricatures on speculation at a thriving area mall.
I have been trying to get into that mall for years, but it is just far too expensive for a small time operation like mine. So when Diane and our grandson and I wandered into an art gallery last week and the owner invited me to draw there, it was a small dream come true. And just in time for the holiday shopping season. Yow!
In years past, I made a living in a similar deal in a different mall. Nice setup, pay a percentage of sales, all done.
So I was getting my signs and other promo material together when Diane asked me to help her in the bathroom. Sure, kid. I have to help her stand, then assist by helping get her feet across the carpet a yard or so to the wheelchair, something I do maybe six times a day. No problem.
But … this time her legs buckled at the wrong moment. I could not support her enough to reach the chair and she collapsed to the bathroom floor. Oh, man! In that small space I could not get enough leverage to lift her so after a bit we gave up.
“Call 911,” she said. “To hell with it.”
And she was right. The guys were there in four minutes, two strong young men who asked all the right questions, then lifted and carried her out to the wheelchair. No problem.
Great job, and thank you, Kettering Fire Department.
Whew! Okay, well that was over and they left. For once she agreed to rest a bit. As she slept I worked on pencil layouts for one of the studio items here, scanned them and emailed over to the client for input.
Here is one of those:

Not very clear here is the University of Cincinnati jersey on this young dad, and a button supporting the Bengals.

As that project evolves I will show you the final, likely next week. These are surprise gifts so I have to be a bit cagey right now.
When Diane woke up and felt stronger we jumped in the van. She zoomed her chair up the ramp and secured it behind the wheel to drive. I got in the passenger seat and we went out to mail the latest item for a company up near Cleveland. They order new drawings of their new employees and I do up Wacky Sketches like this one for Sally, who likes Civil War reenacting:

Silly, maybe, but fun. I hope she likes it. The little joke here — very little — is this weapon is a water pistol. Ho ho.
Back home, we checked for email responses to our request for advice from some of our clients at churches and service organizations. Nothing yet. That project is for a speaking tour we are working on starting, using celebrity caricatures to get attention and maybe contributions toward research on Multiple Sclerosis. Here is one of the celebrity items:

I do talks pretty often to professional groups, for fun and to promote our little art business so we think the talks will work nicely. But how to get started?? Maybe church groups would like a presentation like that? Fun, upbeat, educational, and for a good cause.
No input yet, so we hope to have more for you on that effort soon.
Okay, I will wrap up and zoom out to the mall for our big Retail effort at the art gallery! More tomorrow.