day three: permission to copy

Today I got permission to copy my Kingsbury portrait from Doug and to post a link to his web gallery on my blog.  Doug Kingsbury What a relief, yesterday I read several pages about copyrights on the web and from those I determined that I needed to ask him. It looks like everything is subject to use by permission. I wonder how the blogs I read get those permissions. Many of the stories they quote have links to news papers or news services.  I have some articles I want to link in this blog about art shows and historical subjects that are on the Internet but I have to tread carefully. I am looking forward to discussing this with other bloggers in detail, maybe I am over reacting to the warnings. In the mean time I am saving the goods until I am clear about what I am allowed to do here.

I also heard from Doug in Florence that Scott Brooks, another Washington, DC artist, has arrived there and they had a nice meal together at Doug and Bob's swapped house. It seems they think I need to have a blog, apparently it was a topic of discussion. I got started setting up my blog this week because I told Dan Vera I didn't think my computer connection was going to let me set one up and when I went to double check my access to my surprise  I got right into this Blogger site, no problems. Now, I am wondering what all these people think I should be writing about?  

I don't have much experience writing other than my journals which I do every morning, some letters and emails. I have been a "pen pal" for many years. It began in French class in the seventh grade when I sent away for a name of a French pen pal. I could write to her in French and in return she wrote to me in English, giving us both a chance to practice our studies.  My French pen pal was Silvie and I remember her sending me a extra big post card of a "chateau" from her home town. This was in response to my comments telling her things I liked: castles and knights in armor. She had never heard the term castle in her English class but figured the old stone fortress they called a chateau was close and informed me they didn't have anyone living in them wearing armor anymore. I was bitten hard by the long distance pen pal writing bug. 

Now I have almost daily correspondence with my Dutch pen pal who has been a great friend over the past 4 or 5 years, Cor Windhouwer. I met Cor when he wrote to me about aquirring  a set of my folding book prints he found on my web site. Pictured at the top of this post.   I was happy to sell him a set and in our correspondence about the books he expressed interest in my life as an artist and I jumped at the chance to have him as a pen pal and friend. We are two of a kind when it comes to enjoying our long distance friends. One of the reasons I hesitated to start a blog was because I didn't want to take anything away from this part of my life. It will be interesting to see how blog writing impacts my other writing and story telling.

I determined yesterday that my partner Keith Stanley and I have the influenza this weekend. We both had vaccinations but as we learned on the news this year the vaccination is only good against about 40% of the bugs that showed up on our shores. In the coming weeks, I expect to be spending a lot of time at home resting to recover. Tonight with my new understanding of copyright I need to write to Cor Windhouwer and Scott Brooks and Keith Stanley and Dan Vera all mentioned in this post for permission to link their web pages in my blog.