Ooh, this has a very brocade-woven-tactile feel to it; yet the light is alive and moving, and the colours are rich and resplendent. You've done well here. It's always a spot of joy to see your uploads, Mark!

marvellous work

Lovely textured piece Mark a lov ely image my friend!! Take care and dont go worrying much about commenting its lovely to see your work and hear from you anytime take care and keep finding peace wherever you go my fiend!!

Stellar rendering of a seemingly mosaic patchworked quilt of various colors and shapes, hanging most colorfully over what definitely looks like a pier/quay, Mark, embellished in its entirety by a concrete-like effect, or what is referred to in filter terminology as "noise." And, oddly enough, it was years before I discovered that Joan Miro was a man and not a woman. Plus, I'm rather amused, or bemused, to read that Shroom_Magic3D above referred to you as "my fiend." How one missing or added letter, whether intended or not, can change the whole gist of a message. One thing you are not, my friend, is a fiend, unless it has to do with pouring your heart and soul into your work and general interests, like a man possessed.

Mark, this lovely and thoughtful dedication to your friends served to brighten my evening. I very much enjoyed reading the responses so far and got a kick out of how Harry picked up on the funny mistake that Bob made. Good luck on selling off the remainder of your Father's property and closing out this chapter in your life. I'll keep you in my prayers during what has to be a bit of a stressful time.

I see the dance in life..be they colors, textures, words of loved ones, toys and pairing of thoughts emotions. You all expand me (xpress love-light-gratitude of now).

This is marvelous! I like what Denise said about it being like a woven brocade ... that's how I think about that weekend ... as a tapestry of events and conversation and sights and sounds. And food. Oh my yes. :) Can I thank you again, at this late date, for your hospitality in showing us around your neighborhood? Some of my richest images came from that section of the city, with its architectural details and decades of history. I could walk a million miles in Chicago, I'm sure, and never tire of the details. :)

This is a wonderful reminder of those days in Chicago. When Tara mentioned walking in your neighborhood, it reminded me of how my camera strap broke and i walked into the greatest camera shop in the world. I still have that strap on my camera and it's one of my favorite mementos of any trip I've ever taken. I think i wore out my flip flops walking in your city; it IS truly a walking paradise!!

A glorious explosion of a wall hanging! It is a feast of colour and texture, marvellous.

Stunning work! Very original treatment.

Oh I just love what you did with that signal buoy! Okay, maybe it's a lighthouse, but it has no "light" and it's not a house, but you know how Chicagoans are and there are dozens upon dozens of people who just call that thingie a lighthouse and go on twiddling their thumbs...um, I mean, touch-screens. But yeah, I love what you did with it. I think it's the ochers/earthtones in contrast to that deliciously crazy-quilt sky: it has that giddy feeling that art has when an observer overhears the artist saying: "Oh yeah, i was really feeling that fire hydrant" or "The sky just kept going, and so I decided, what they frak...just go with it." You know when you hear artist commentary like that, you gain some insight into a period of excitement for the artist. It looks like you had fun with that sky, and yeah, it does just go. It's got so much in it, so many wonderful relationships, and I love the texture the whole piece has. It's an image: it's visual, but it looks strokable. At times I think of it as having a kind of fabric-like texture, but when I look at it again it's a bit more vaporous: like the waft of a dream...but then on another deep look, it holds all kinds of different textures and qualities. I happen to think it's brilliant, and I love the way that the mass of this image seems to shift. The landscape below is solid, the sky above is airy...and yet they switch places and the whole thing gains a kind of delicious fluidity. And yeah...this needs to be seen on full zoom. I had something of a Stanley Kubrick moment: a bit like the final 20 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, only with a coherent narrative (sans the corpulent Kubrickian self-indulgent ego.) I like this. Immensely. I should point out that I love the Japanese bottom this has. Well, the whole thing is a delicious meld of influences, Miro being prominent among them, but there's a kind of Japanese-print quality to the lower portion of this image, and the upper reaches recall something Slavic (kind of like those shirts and vests and even felt boots worn by Russian guys strutting around like...well...like guys in felt boots, strutting, and totally conscious of all of those colors contained in one vest! Needless to say, I thought that was quite marvelous. This is absolutely fantastic! I'm glad you posted it. Ah...and I remember that visit too: was it really that long ago? It feels like just yesterday! We should have more of 'em!

It's hard to believe it was 5 years ago that you all got together in Chicago. I remember what a grand time you had together and wished I could have been there. A very delightful artwork, like a tapestry of happy memories. And I do wish you the best in dealing with your dad's estate, which I know can be very stressful. So good to see you found some time to create this lovely piece.

Fabulous image and composition, Mark. Very nice feeling of a surreal Miro. Somehow, it hits between Picasso and Dali, regarding the style. I do not know about the event 5 years ago in Chicago. But it must have been great and interesting. Happy 5 year marker on that event. Sorry to hear you still drown in paper work. Hope there is a little time for yoga, too, to get the stress out of your body and mind.

Great manipulations and fabulous result. Wonderfully done !!!