I am working on a remote graphic design project for a California client, an ad agency. The print project is for an end client that I have done jobs for in the past, from about 1998 until moving here in Ohio in 2005.

The agency head called me today about another engaging project. He is going on vacation tonight until the 18th of the month and wants me to work up some print and TV ideas while he is out of touch - even though we will be in touch by phone during the two weeks.

The work is for a new electronic product, totally awesome and with a potential market in the multi-millions. I was stunned when he told me about the item, as I had the idea three years ago!

I can't tell you what the product is, but you would buy it.

I will be chained to this computer, with Photoshop, InDesign and Adobe Illustrator going full bore for the next ten or twelve days.

Work is good. Now I must go to Kroger and buy more coffee!

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I varnished my latest painting, titled "Todi, Italy." It isn't photographed yet because varnish takes a while to set and dry. I may give it a second coat.

The painting is shown in a photo on my web site when it was just underpainted. It is on my easel up in the studio in that picture.

https://www.jondude.com/currents.htm and click on the thumbnail photo captioned "On My Easel."

I have a ton of photos from Tuscany and Umbria, Italy showing some of the many "hill towns." Some of the towns are located on peaks that defy building! Todi is a famous tourist destination and has appeared in many TV commercials.

Some of these hill towns go all the way back to the Etruscans, before the Romans were Romans.

I am satisfied with the painting, but I am sure that my work on these will progress as I experiment with the next canvases. Every painting is an experiment.

I will take pics of it tomorrow, pending a dry varnish, and post it soon.

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Robert McNamara died. He visited our unit in Vietnam and pinned a few medals on some troops. At the time I was down in Tuy Hua lying in a hospital bed with a snake bite. Before Mac was Johnson's Secretary of Defense he was the CEO of General Motors or Ford, I can't recall which. He tried to micromanage the Vietnam War like he ran the corporation, but it doesn't work that way. In a war you must let the professional soldiers run the show.

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Peace and good night.