A Dog's Life

"Nervous Dog," acrylic paint on canvas, one of the very first art works by Otto Von Miller.  Was it beginner's luck?

Click here to buy this artwork on Etsy.

Well, Thee Optimist has been away for a long time.  

Is he back?  We don't really know.  

What we do know is he lost interest in this (exceptionally funny, delightfully informative) blog several years ago, and anyway, no one really blogs anymore. 

Things are disturbing these days, and not particularly funny.  The president of the United States has gone senile, and his opponent is a convicted felon.  

The convicted felon is also probably senile.  

Who cares?

Thee Optimist does not.

Thee Optimist has taken up a new hobby in his old age, to replace concerning himself with politics or the state of the world in general.

"Politics," as Charles Bukowski famously said, "is like trying to screw a cat in the ass."

So what is Thee Optimist doing instead?  

He's painting.  And drawing.  In some cases, he's painting and drawing cats.

"Earless Joe Jackson," acrylic paint on canvas, by Otto Von Miller.

Otto Von Miller

Thee Optimist is making artworks under the alias / alter ego Otto Von Miller.  

Why is he doing this?

I mean, it seems rather silly, doesn't it?  It's a hobby, so why not sign your own name?

During his life, Thee Optimist has written numerous books under his own name.  He has written many other books under a couple of different pen names.  The pen names came later.  

In retrospect, he discovered that if he had it to do over, he would have started out with a pen name from the beginning, and might never have used his real name at all.  

He has numerous reasons for this, which he won't get into here.  Suffice to say that privacy is a very nice thing.  You only begin to grasp that when people start to invade yours.

Also, since Thee Optimist's novel writing career began as a hobby (or maybe a "passion"), there is reason to suspect that this new hobby may well become a form of paid employment at a later date.

Might as well start with an artist pen name right out of the gate, yes?

So here we are:  Otto Von Miller.

Anyway, Thee Optimist has this blog, which has been long neglected, but which also still gets a bit of traffic.  In case anyone is wondering whatever became of Thee (beloved, widely admired) Optimist, he's still around, and he spends his free time doing art.

When he has something he likes, he might post it here for your enjoyment, or ridicule, whichever the case may be.

Like this one:

"Wide Awake, Half Asleep," pencil on paper, by Otto Von Miller.

Words of Wisdom

"The way is not in the sky.  The way is in the heart."

- The Buddha