My Latest Non-Chipping Project

When I'm not fussing with my casino chip collection, I spend some of my spare time painting. I've been painting and creating other mixed media projects for about 30 years now and just recently started a new project that takes place in cyberspace.

It's a sort of mosaic made up of small versions of images of paintings and photographs created by artists and photographers all over the globe. I started the project a few weeks ago and have been thoroughly enjoying putting it together.

I've posted on several public forums where artists gather and the project is accumulating a pretty diverse selection of work. More about the project, including how to submit work to be added is contained in the work's "Artist's Statement".

Chip of the Day: Big Meadow Club

From the Big Meadow Club, which was located at 205 Main Street in Lovelock, Nevada. Opened in 1953 and closed in 1960.

What a $39,345 Chip Looks Like

Another record-setting auction just closed on eBay. This one for a mustard-colored Frontier Las Vegas crest & seal roulette chip from table #5. I e-mailed the seller and asked permission to post her pictures here, but never received a response. So, if you want to see what a chip like this looks like, you'll have to visit the auction before the pictures are removed.
The story is that the chip was found in a box in the basement of an 82-year-old granny somewhere. If it were me writing the check for $39,345 I'd sure be asking some questions about what else was in the box with this beauty.

Here's that auction link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6232055491

That Collector Feeling

My wife, who doesn't collect anything, and who still doesn't quite "get it", made me read the following passage from a book by Susan Orlean called The Orchid Thief, which was later used as a basis for the movie Adaptation. The story revolves around people who grow and collect orchids. I think it accurately describes how collecting works for some of us:

...He looked at Laroche. "You collecting anything now, John?"

"Nah," Laroche said. "I don't want to collect anything for myself right now. I really have to watch myself, especially around plants. Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I'll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It's like I can't just have something--I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it." He shook his head and scuffed up some gravel. "You know, I'll see something, just anything, and I can't help but thinking to myself, Well, Jesus Christ, now that's interesting! Jesus, I'll bet you could find a lot of those."