Octopus and Alcohol. By R.Norman

  About a year ago I was a raging alcoholic and wasted a lot of my running in circles and going to the bottle shop. Yet somehow I did manage to make some really remarkable stuff like this Octopus coffee table. (Up for sale too $1800.) Well, come the 21^st of January I’ll have been sober for one year. About the only thing that gets me going these days is a big fish or project like this.  

   The whole thing is made out of wood. I even carved out the legs. I remember painting this while drinking cheap whisky and trying to focus on what bump I was painting. Wow it’s a wonder I got it done at all. Actually I finish the last half when I was going thru withdraws. Oh I wasn’t as bad as they show in the movies. Ya I had the shakes and couldn’t sleep and a few other issues. What got me to through it and gave me the motivation to stick with it was Todd.

   Todd was one of my first drinking buddies when I moved to town. I fell right into a bunch of locals that liked to party in the bars as much as in the woods & river as I did. Made me feel excepted and at home. Oh sure there was a bit of hazing but that’s to be expected with my kind of people. We use to go down to the lake all summer. We had a permanent camp set up with our very own rope swing unlike any other around. We had some great times back then. Todd camped in the back of his truck and I kept a tent on the other side of the bay with the other tents. I remember leaving notes back and forth and making beer runs on Sunday all the way up to Missouri.  Priorities ya know.  Todd helped me fit in just fine.

  Todd died of liver failure almost year ago now. I happened fast. Fast enough to scare the shit out of me. One minute he was saying “see ya Tuesday”.  The next “I’m going to be sick for a while” then to “They are giving me six months know”. Two days after his six month pink slip he slipped into a comma and then Todd was gone.

   I was lucky to get hang out with Todd again. His beautiful redheaded bartending side kick Lisa got me coming back into town. Oh man did I try to get her attention. For about six months I just kept popping into Chelsea’s trying my hardest. “Help a brother out” I would say to Todd. “Good luck with that” was his standard reply. I figured at least I got to catch up with Todd and the gang while checking out Lisa. HA! It’s been the better part of two years that Lisa and I have been dating. How do like them apples? Well I do. The six months finally paid off. Well she just broke down and took pity on me really.

  We miss our friend. Todd was Lisa’s best friend. When you see that it can happen to you, what it does to others around you, when it’s sickness says “six months and I’ll be dead” it gives you the mental boost to defeat that sickness. In a way Todd losing his life gave me a new one.  I finish the Octopus table when I was in a tough place. It gave my life purpose and reward. I used it to get my mind off things and back on art. It represented all the unfinished things in my life because of my dependence on alcohol.  When it was done and the praise came in I knew I could keep going in this new direction. I knew it was time to be an artist again.

The Todd.

Poster contest.

Every year Eureka Springs Arkansas has a contest for the May arts festival poster. I thought I'd share a preview of my submission. This is the first time I've decided to participate. http://www.mayfestivalofthearts.com/

Rainbow rescue. By R. Norman

A week or so ago I ran down to the White River for a quickie. I had maybe forty five minutes of daylight left. This is typical for me to arrive late but when it comes to trout fishing its perfect timing. Ya see this is when the yahoo tourist types call it quits and the river inhabitants get a little relief from the folding chair factory fish slayers. AKA  the Baitanators. These poor souls come in from all over for some River Runs Though It trout fishing yet settle for sitting in a chair and drinking buttwiper  beer all day. Thats just fine because it means more river for us trout bums to fish. Their target is a trout raise in a concrete tank. Its fins rounded, scared and their color is pail and monotone. Heck when ya cut these sad creatures open their flesh is white not your salmon orange color as the wild ones. It’s caused by the food there’re fed at the factory.  Cutting open these newly freed fish is the main goal of the Baitanators and full stinger whatever it is and any size. Limit or over. Rarely do we see any law enforcement actually handing out tickets and so there’s little deterrent to stay within the law. So unfortunately few fish are ever measured or even properly identified for that matter. I once had a guy swear up down, cause he’s was from Minnesota ya know, that “That fish is a brown trout”. Furthermore it was one of the biggest ones he had ever seen. It was a walleye. Not even that big at twenty inches. So ya get the drift why myself a bunch of regulars get a bit pissy over how our river and favorite pastime is abuse by the in & outs. Oh and the trash it's predictable to be bad on the weekends.  

  So mind ya that we do have those who give a darn and play by the rules and even help shape them. Ya see a lot of our guest on the river that like to use this thing called Power Bait. It’s meant to smell and look kind of like fish eggs. One particular kind pushed on our uninformed guest is a killer. It does not break down in a trout and ads buoyancy and so often leading to a high mortality rate. Ya can’t blame the locals at the store a whole hell of a lot for selling this stuff because it works and works great on the factory raised trout.  Even I’ve been known to break down with the kids and switch to it just so they can at least land a few. Here’s the thing with bait. Ya got to get off your ass and pay attention. Set the hook on the bite not the swallow. You have to keep your casting weight just right too. To heavy and you won’t know that ya got a ten inch rainbow choking on your fake chartreuse eggs.   

  The locals depend too much on the weekenders spending hefty coinage to outlaw this sure thing. So we all got together and said “Hey let’s just get rid of the barbs”. That made a lot of scents. If a weekender manages to deep throat a wee one the hook will be an easy retrieval. Or if you break one off or get hung up your lost hook and bait stands a good chance of working it’s self out. Cool huh?  Wrong if they use standard straight shaft bait hooks.

  So in the photos you can see the proof of this. The tout was a victim of a broken line and too heavy a weight placed in a one line rig. The angler did it all legal but did two things wrong. I was amazed that the line was the right size for a bait rig, about 4-6 lbs. Now see that weight! Boy you use one that big on that line you stand a chance of it getting hung up. The trick is to use one on a separate thinner line that will break off before the main line dose. Use a ring to attach the extra line not a three way swivel as they tend to get hung up too. I prefer using some non lead split shots that would just slide of the rig if stuck. This way I don’t have to tie up a new line every hang up. Also note that size again and imagine how far that baby can cast. True it will get ya out there but you then have to drag it all that way back increasing your chances of getting hung up. So use one of the two rigs I suggested and get out there and catch some fish not snags. OK how about that hook? Straight and too long and it was a bitch to get it out of the little guy’s stomach. You want to use a fully curved hook that will slip right out by rotating it. This hook by the way was pulled out to its tounge.

This shot was taken right after I hooked him. Got'em right in the mouth! Notice the clean and turned over rocks under him. This is where he was bouncing off the bottom for who knows how long. The weight is stuck in the rocks about three feet ahead of him. The current was pretty strong right here and he was just swinging back and forth and up and down on that line. 

The lure here is the one I used to rescue him. The rest is the rig and bait.Note the rust on the weight. Thats good. It's steal not lead. 

Hooked all the way down to the stomach. See the bottom jaw?  This is a spawning male. 

  I was able to retrieve the Bow using my floating Rapala. First cast! It took a bit getting that sinker to come loose but she finally gave way. The barbless and legal rig was removed and the trout was released. Then out of know where a immense Bald Eagle swooped down and plucked it right out next to me! No, but that would be something to see and I have. Just not right next to me. 

Cedar cabinet.

Here's todays work. Below you can see here it in the process of being built. The two trees I'm holding up are what will become the corners of the cabinet.