J.B. Sommerset

It's all too often that I try and switch up my drawing styles; I like variety.  Below is a more recent doodle I did on my google tablet. I find drawing on a tablet to be easier than drawing on paper. There are never any eraser marks, I can layer it, I can select specific parts and delete them, I can paint without the mess, and so on.  However, it's for the same reason I find that real skill comes from pen and ink on paper. It's more a challenge to create on paper. Also, there is a tactile sensation that can not be replicated by any kind of device. Especially the feel of good paper as the pen glides across it.  It's been hard recently, as a musician, writer, or artist. We are all being replaced by A.I. generated slop and soon we will have to rely on our small communities who still appreciate "man-made". And those communities are growing fewer and further between. I am generally very careful with my art, in fact I make sure that most of mine are water marked. An...

So, I do a lot of art, it's sometime that takes me away from the current state of affairs. Me, being an introvert (for the most part), need to recharge. Art is a perfect way to do that, so I do mandalas to relieve stress from time to time. I am starting to amass quite a portfolio of these things. So, I decided to start posting them here. These are my original works, any if I get enough feedback, I might start selling them. So email me if you think that would be a good idea. I hope you enjoy them.  "Crosshatch Mandala- (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Last week, a crazy man, I will not mention his name, was giving a speech at a Utah college campus. He has been known for a lot of hate speech, ignorant rants, bigotry and values consistent with an angry little German man with a odd mustache. He felt that woman should do what their told, have babies, stay in the kitchen, and never vote or question the authority of the white gentile. Children should be seen, never heard. Slavery might be a good thing and he believed that people of color and diversity were a blight upon the earth, he also believed that gun deaths were a necessary price to pay so that we could  have guns. He spread those ideologies everywhere he went. Not just online, but in person, in front of crowds, and for sponsor money.  The right, with all their "godly" values, idolized this man. By now you might have guessed who I am talking about.  The problem is, the man who shot him was also crazy. One crazy man shot another. The world is now down two crazy men. One...

"Up in the woods" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 Sometimes I like to do "stream of consciousness" exercises. I often write these down, and over the years I have amassed quite collection of notebooks full of disconnected pages with no direction or format. Some share themes, others share forms, but there is very little that would connect them, other than the days of my life. The pages of my story. I find that it is easier to access a place that holds that stream of consciousness if I am alone, and the world is quite- like when I am in the woods. There are plenty of stories here in the woods. Each tree has a tale to tell, a lifetime of knowledge trapped in the rings of it's growth. From it's birth to the time it falls, most of the time, up here, that's a good while after it's death. Most of the trees in this area don't ever get logged because the slopes they grow on are too steep. So they stand long after they have expired, at least until the wind takes th...

It's no secret that Uncle Sam is having a hard time smiling right now. To all you people in the U.S. of A., have a fourth of July. I hope it's happy, and I hope it gets better.

  "A Fine Day" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset Sometimes I just have those days, ones that are nearly perfect. Ones that make me appreciate time a little more, it's not like they should last forever. They should last long enough to make it important, knowing that they are fleeting. Sometimes, the voice in my head functions clearer on days like this. Sometimes, it lets me hear what is deeper inside me. Here is your quote of the week. "Enlightenment is not a shift in what you know, it is not a change in your belief system or an enlargement of the way you understand the world. Although those things can accompany it, it is not dependent on them. Enlightenment is the absolute acceptance and tolerance of where you are in the world, in this moment, here and now." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Sundowner" (c) 2024 J.B. Sommerset Sometimes nature speaks in ways I can't ignore. It can paint the world better than I could. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by things I, as a writer, don't have the words to describe. A paint so ethereal it has no phonetic meaning. I am reminded in those times how small and stupid I really am, although I think I am clever at times, I am but a stupid little spec among the bristles of an artist that has been mastering the craft for millions of years. If you haven't gathered, this weeks quote is about nature. "Nature has no evils, no malice, no bad intentions. Those things are projections of mankind's own sickness. Nature has no need for those things, and in many cases it does not tolerate them ruining it's painting. It shines in spite of us." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Spring Morning" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset For some reason, this one didn't get published last Friday, like it was supposed to, most likely some sort of user error. This weeks quote is one I came up with while sitting in the line at the D.M.V. years ago, it's still applicable today, especially at the D.M.V. "I have an incredible imagination, sometimes it's a gift. It lets me see impossible things, go to far off worlds and have unreal adventures. However, one thing it really struggles with is how insanely mediocre the inside of some people's minds are..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"The view from our House" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset This week's quote is more for me than it is for you, unless you too are running on fumes and the belief you have in yourself.  I have a tendency to get too many irons in the fire at the same time. The problem with a having to split the focus is that it's very hard to finish all the "stuffs" a person needs to do. Lately is seems that all of the projects I have been juggling are important, too important to put off. I am reminded of the little engine that could. Except I am also low on gas, and have bad wheel bearings.  This homesteading thing requires a lot of energy. So I decided to send the drone up above the trees and look out at the horizon. Beautiful! I took a photo of it for all of you.  It's a good reminder of why I work so hard at so many things. I am lucky to be able to live where I do, despite all the hardships. This week's quote if from the rough rider himself- Teddy Roosevelt. I hope it mean...

"In The Mist" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 This week has been a long one, there is so much to do in tax season, so much to do with the businesses. Now that we have an orange butthole's friends running the show, that might get even more complicated. Who knows, at this point some of us are just watching the crapper burn down. Anyway, here's a quote for all of you out there in the interwebs- it seems we are all lost... "Let's face it, if you have no where to be, lost isn't so bad..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

A 2025 Promise, J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 Following up on the last quote of the week, here another one about being alone. In todays modern world, where we are all connected every minute of every day, the value of being alone is overshadowed by an artificial type of connection. That being said, even today, even as connected as we are, a person can still be utterly alone. So here's a quote about it... "The thing about being lonely is this; it's worse when you have to go through it alone." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"A January Evening" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 This week I let my inner isolationist take the wheel for the quote. This one is from one of my old works, but I think it is more relevant today than it ever was when the world wasn't such a weird place. Hope you get some insight from this quote. "An axe, a saw, and a dog are much more a friend to the wise man than most of the persons of this world." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"January Mist" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 There are some explosive things that are happening this year. So far we haven't blown up the world... yet. We'll most likely get to that. But in the meantime, while we are still here, it's important to remember- we are still alive. So, here's a quote about being alive.  "Life is what you are doing when you're not dead, those who choose to do nothing are most likely already dead." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Snow again" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 There is an old Marxist saying that goes, "Religion is the opiate of the people." I agree in part with that quote, but there is more to that, it's summed up, sort of, in the rest of his writing. I have chosen to shorten that and add it here. So here you are, the quote of the week.  "Power is the opiate of the rich, much like religion is the opiate of the people..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Adolf Drump" J.B. Sommerset (2024) Wow, that election really through me off my game, I gotta make up for this somehow. Here's a quote I thought would be fitting for the times. This one isn't mine, but it needs to be said anyway: "The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice". F. Montesquieu Cheers! Here's to getting back on track.

"The End of the Horizon", J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Hello again! And welcome back. This week has been physically challenging for me, I finished a retaining wall, and it was just me doing it. So my back kind of hurts, but I have this stone wall out front now, and that's kind of cool. With all that struggle, I still fill accomplished because every time I look out that window, I am going to see that wall. Hooray! I can't say that for most of the jobs I have worked through out my life. That's why this week the quote is about crap jobs we all worked at one time or another. Here you go, served up cold, just the way we like it. "The most grievous injury a person can suffer on the job is the loss of the self, the soul, and forgetting purpose." J.B. Sommerset  Cheers!

"The Way Down", J.B. Sommerset (C) 2024 This should have been posted on Friday, I was, however, indisposed. So I am posting it now. One of the things about living on a mountain, and it being the fall, is that you have to get prepared for winter. This year, I have been chopping a lot of fire wood, and winterizing the house. We did alright last winter, but it was a mild winter in comparison to the one before it. This morning is the first morning since Friday that I have been able to sit down to update. So here it is, your quote of the week, it all about autumn: "Fall is the reminder that all things end, even suffering, and also that there is reprieve in the ending of things."  J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"The Little Blue Flower" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 I am not sure if I have posted this one before, but this is an election year and all kinds of talking-head lip-service is occupying our time. So things get a bit jumbled. This one is about bureaucracy. I hate bureaucracy more than most things. Most of it is unnecessary, and what isn't gets buried by the rest. So, here it is, your quote of the week: "Bureaucracy is an always will be the hammer the privileged use to keep the poor and impoverished subservient to their agendas..."  J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Little Yellow Flower", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Folks, I am not one for drama, but sometimes people just start things because they can't live without the rush of endorphins that accompanies rumor spreading, bickering, gossiping, complaining, etc. I, in fact can't stand this kind of behavior. Some events recently led me to coin a new quote. So here it is, this is my reply to people who complain that they don't like the way people see them when they behave in certain ways: "You can't show up to the party with a big 'Shit-stirring stick' and expect that people think you are a baker..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

                                                      "Moe Mushrooms", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Living way up here in the mountains I have to admit a few things. One of the hardest and most obnoxious is that nature does some hard lessons on all of us mountain folk- and also that there is nothing we can do to change that. For instance, forest fires, I dread July and August every year now, because everything is on fire for two to three months. But, and this is a hard understand, there isn't much I can do about it. So this weeks quote is an admission to it: "Mankind's power over nature is and always will be an illusion as far as nature is concerned. There is no amount of action that will stop the rain from falling, and no amount of begging that will save us from the flood. In essence, we are and always will be at it's merci. We have no power to cha...