Thanksgiving is over and now we can once again look forward to Christmas and a new HS soccer season. I have been incredibly busy since Hurricane Ike devastated the area. My house still has plastic sealing up some of the walls and one side of the garage door doesn't work right. I should be thankful, many people do not even have homes in the area.
I wonder if the insurance company will ever get around to paying so that re-construction will begin?
I have been extremely busy with teaching Art and producing Art. I have a new hardback book due out this week. I should be receiving my copy on Wednesday, December 3rd. The book is a large hardback of my artwork called, HISER-Animism Art: the spirit of nature. 40 pages in full color-containing 82 pieces of my wildlife and surreal art. I hope it is as beautiful as what I saw a preview of--I am VERY Excited! If anyone wants a copy for a Christmas present I think they should cost around $40. This is a nice coffee-table hardback book of art. Most of the art in it was created within the last three years.
I recently did a bunch of sketchbook editions of art, drawing live animals at the San Antonio Zoo and I should be producing some finished pieces from those works. My large ink 'Greater Hornbill' is almost finished. I am set to get back into doing some more inks of native Texas birds. I am nearly complete on a color piece of a family of Whistling Ducks.
I began a surreal piece of mixed media yesterday featuring a nude silhouetted woman, five statues of praying men-two with red to yellow horns, a scary tree and an orb, a floating hillside of rock with winding stairs around it, and unknown hieroglyphical writings in specific areas-it is difficult to describe as you can tell-guess you'll have to wait until I finish and scan it. If anyone out there is interested email me in a week or so to remind me and I'll send out a preview of it.
Now to the other side of me: My writing. I have written 4 new short stories recently. I finished one two days ago called, The Ballerina and the Pig, which goes with my pencil illustration of the same name. The story is along the lines of an Alice in Wonderland story with a striped shrew, a tree climbing pig, a ballerina that plays cards, a boy that rides grizzly bears, a dead boy that is annoying and sarcastic, two girls from Massachusetts, and a Mandrill baboon that is a platoon leader of a flock of swallows.
One of the funniest stories of mine, written recently is The Carnival of the Goatman and the Last Minotaur. This story will be published in an upcoming issue of Bewildering Stories. Many of my stories are bewildering and that is why the Editor of that Mag loves them so much. Along with: The Blackbird of Death, Shrike, Texas Fire Ants, and The Shark in My Backyard, this will be my 5th story featured in Bewildering Stories. I wrote an enigmatic horror short story called The Creek but I haven't done anything with it yet.
Last week my students read my story, Mountain Blackberries, and once again I was amazed at how thought provoking and what unseen insights those teenagers can come up with after reading that story. For those of you unfamiliar with it: The story is in my book, Tropical Calypso, and it is a sweet love story with a critical conflict and then a reflection of what has gone on in the past. The students seem to really enjoy the story and their responses in writing are a joy and a surprise to read.
Our Art Club is doing great things and one of our new projects that i am excited about is the "art-fence." We gathered pieces of fences torn down by Hurricane Ike and the students are painting works of art on each piece of wood. We will then erect the "art-fence" inside one of our enclosed Atrium's at the High School to commemorate our experience with the hurricane and art club '08-09.
Soccer tryouts are Monday December 1st and my after school writing and art will slow down because of the coaching until Spring Break! I look forward to a fun and exciting soccer season and many wonderful, amazing, happenings with our Art Club at Clear Brook HS! Thanks to everyone for supporting my art and writing! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! Doug Hiser

Cheetah Observation

After Hurricane IKE...
Thanks to that powerful force that planned our lives from the time when we were only singular particles in space to the time when those particles became swimming trilobites and then eventually walking, talking, contradictory beings of immense good, undeniable pleasure, maddening pain and despicable evil. Most of us in Galveston County survived the attack of the gargantuan whirling Tasmanian Devil known as Hurricane Ike.
We had six feet of water downstairs, ruined stuff, (A few pieces of art, power tools, golf clubs...etc.) and tree devastation...AND no power for almost two weeks. That's when I read a bunch of books and created quite a few pieces of art.---WELL-after the many days of endless cleaning up and making our house liveable again.
BUT I have had enough of the hurricane and this blog isn't about that terrible negative force that we survived. This blog is about observations.
I was thinking about cheetahs the other day. I thought about people in the same way. We have slow running people, fast running people, and some medium running people. So I thought---I have never seen a slow cheetah. That's when I knew that all cheetahs are FAST. That maybe all cheetahs are just that, cheetahs..Maybe all people aren't really all the same species.
All cheetahs chase smaller animals and kill them and then eat them. All cheetahs do the same things. All people do not. Some people kill other people, most people do not. All people are different, most are crazy. I think that when people started mixing the different kinds of people that odd things started to go wrong.
I was thinking that it's too late now because, as people we used to be many different species, but now everybody is too mixed and interbred. Sort of like mixing cheetahs and lions or cheetahs and tigers...some of them would be slow and some would be strong and some would have spots and some would have stripes.
That's when the big idea really illuminated in front of my eyes---We have many different species of people---that's why we have thousands of languages---Cheetahs all have the same language but if a cheetah and a tiger got together and had a Chee-Ger would it have the non-retractable claws of a cheetah or retractible claws like a tiger and it wouldn't understand the low growls of a cheetah or the mighty roar of the tiger.
Since everyone wants ALL people to be ONE SPECIES now---the best way to make that happen is to get rid of all the DIFFERENT languages and PICK just ONE--so that we can understand everybody. People ar emore like dogs than cheetahs. The pure bred dogs have all the problems, health and deformity...but Mutts, like all people are mixed, a melting pot of dog breeds like the melting pot of people on the planet. They say mutts are the smartest dogs and make the best companions. So if we aren't cheetahs we are mutts and as mutts we should be smarter. That means:--this is the lesson I learned from my observations of cheetahs---Education is the most important aspect of civilization and for the best to come out of the human race to survive and save our planet from pure devastation by crazy people.
The more educated the more we climb away from violent nature and from our lowest evils within us, lust, greed, jealousy, theft, etc.
Education and higher intelligence is more important than religion, politics, money, sex, and whatever else you could name, even Cheetahs know that if they aren't FAST they don't eat...they die.

FALL HISER-ART-ESCAPE NEWS

I waved goodbye to the long hot summer last monday when school resumed. This weekend we had to endure the uncertainty of possibly being struck by Hurricane Gustav. A wild first week of starting school, dodging hurricanes and playing soccer is over and now I can get settled in to teaching Art and getting ready for my upcoming book signing and reading events.

The first week of school was interesting and I see that there will be challenges in some of my classes. I am very excited about my Advanced Art class this year---So far they have shown immense promise and exploding imaginations--now we have to keep that positive attitude and creative energy going forward all year long to produce many works of amazing art!

This fall I will be promoting my books in many areas and places, with a new publicist and new ideas. The Word Wrangler Book Festival in Giddings, Texas is September 11, 12 and I will be speaking at the Giddings school on Thursday and then at a"meet the author" dinner that evening. Friday is the Book Festival where I will be reading and signing books.

I have recently published a small paperback book of my Art called SPECULATIVE APPARITIONS. It is 8.5 x 8.5, twenty pages and features fifty pieces of my art, some obscure and rarely seen. It is a Collector's Edition and available for $20.00.

Soon I will have, in my hand, the FIRST printing of my FIRST CHILDREN'S BOOK, HOW THE OCTOPUS SAVED THE WORLD. The book has 22 pages of full watercolor paintings telling the story of an Octopus and of how he saves the entire world. The book is for very young children-similar to Dr. Suess books.

One other book that I will have soon is a hardback edition of a portfolio collection of my ART. I personally chose my favorite high quality pieces to be included in this collection. This book will feature over seventy pieces of my Art created in the last few years (the really good stuff). I don't know how much it will cost yet but I will be advertising on my webpage, Art-Escape.com, as soon as I find out.

One last bit of Information: Keep an eye out for different species of birds this week. Hurricane Gustav has changed the course of many species migration patterns and they will be passing through our area.

Dangerous Bicycle riding

Each morning this summer I would wake up and ride my bicycle to the gym to work out and then ride it on the return trip back home--ten mile round trip.
I ride the Feeder road on I-45 from the Dickinson Bayou to the gym at the new HEB shopping center at 646. The feeder road ride to the gym is fairly safe BUT coming home can be dangerous!
The area right in front of the Amoco Fed Credit Union all the way to Kroger has been a dangerous place for bicycles. I keep imagining in my mind that any day I am going to get plowed from behind by some angry motorist and my body will be tossed like a broken G.I. Joe toy soldier fifty yards away into the trees.
It seems to me that so many people in cars disregard the people riding their bikes. Bicycle riders frequent the I-45 feeder roads and each feeder road has TWO lanes. It is the people driving the cars 20 MILES an HOUR over the SPEED Limit and refuse to change into the open lane next to the bike rider.
You do not know how many times car's mirrors have barely missed my handle bar by less than a foot. They do it on purpose. Some people think bikes should not be on the road at all.
If there are 2 lanes WHY is it so HARD to get in the lane AWAY from the bicycle rider? These people fly by me in the same lane and barely miss me. The adrenalin rush that goes through me is sick! The other day I shook my fist at some guy in a toyota corolla as he flew by me and then turned into Whataburger. I caught up to him as he was getting out of his car.
I started hollering at him and he thought it was funny and just laughed and smiled and even "WAVED" at me! What a jerk!
The other vehicles that drive about 70 miles an hour right through there are big dump trucks. I wish the Dickinson police would set up a speed trap right in front of Heartbreakers! They could write tickets all morning.
Police? HAH! yesterday I'm riding in the evening through Dickinson. There is no traffic on the roads in any direction. I turn across the road into a parking lot and "WHOOP" I hear a police car cut his siren on for a second and so I turned around. The police car is behind me in the parking lot with his lights on. There are no cars anywhere in sight. It is almost dusk and the cop says to me," Why didn't you signal your turn?"
How many kids riding bikes signal turns? How many other people who don't have cars in the poor parts of town ride their kids bikes to the store, ever signal? This Sheriff Dept guy had one BIG EGO problem if he was so bored he had to stop me on a bicycle and interrogate me about using turn signals. At least I didn't get a ticket.
I think bike riders need paintball guns and when car drivers treat them as if they don't belong on the road and intimidate them with their cars the riders should be able to blast their cars with PAINT!
Tell everybody out there--be careful of the bike riders. They are getting in shape AND saving gas!
I hope nobody finds me lying in a ditch with a broken body just because some guy in a car decided I wasn't allowed on the feeder road.

SO you want to go to Italy?

Italy sounds glamorous doesn't it? Rome, Florence, Venice...even the cities sound exotic and beautiful, and beautiful they are, to look at. The architechture is amazing, the history is interesting, the people are pretty dang rude, not all of them but a majority that we came in contact with. I guess they get tired of tourists. I also was not expecting it to be so scorching hot and humid. The heat I can take for a few hours but in that country they barely believe in Air Conditioners. It is sweltering in the ristorantes, in the stores, everywhere, even in the lobby of the hotels. The Italian idea of A/C is about 85 degrees.
Okay, so you adapt and walk 8 miles a day sightseeing in soaking wet clothes and you get used to sweating but when you sweat you get thirsty...I would think, "How about a coca cola? WELL...their drinks are smaller cans and smaller bottles and they cost about $5.00 instead of fifty cents or a dollar."
SO plan on bringing extra clothes because you will sweat through most of them and plan on bringing double the money you thought you would need. A McDonalds happy meal is about $12.00.
Once you realize it is going to cost you so much to eat and drink you think you would adapt...well once again they have signs saying,"DO not eat or drink sitting down on the curb or ground , (and there are no becnhes but there are plenty of empty seats of the sidewalk cafes BUT you can't sit there unless you pay to sit down."
Oh yeah, i almost forgot you have to pay to use the toilet---if you can find one anywhere, you might walk 4 miles before you find the toilette and then when you find it it is closed for the night at 8 pm."
There cars and scooters don't have to stop at red lights either, but hey, that's kinda cool. They dodge each other-now i could drive like that, i already do. Italy has zillions of scooters and they don't have any trucks. They have those SMart cars and other cars that are even smaller.
Now here is a funny observation, "So you want some ice in your drink-wine or cola or tea-well, you have to ask for ice and when they bring you some----IT IS ONLY ONE CUBE!" Ha!
Ice is like a precious gem over there, I think.
Another funny observation is about the Pizza. They invented pizza but WE invented those round bladed pizza cutters! When you order a pizza it is not cut up for you and they hand you a dull knife and fork to cut it. They don't have pizza cutters. I think somebody should open a pizza cutter shop and sell all kinds of them-you could make a lot of money.
The Italian rudeness, I encountered in each city, but the best example is this: Gayln and I were searching for a boat taxi place in Venice and having no luck finding it. It was frustrating and we had walked the entire waterfront twice. I told her i would go in the next big nice hotel and ask for directions. I entered the massive hotel Metropole and asked the man behind the front desk, "Can you tell me how to find the Servizio Boat place?"
He made a face and said, "Let me see..Servizio...hmm...oh, Are you a guest of the hotel?"
I replied, "No, not this hotel."
He folded his arms and said, "I do not know."
And that was that. Since we were staying at a different hotel he all of a sudden didn't know where it was. We later found it about a block away from that hotel.
We discovered alot of things and were amazed with the art and the history. We also found out why alot of people from Europe want to live in America. It was the only place where we were ready to come home early. Learning about Europe was good and it made me appreciate the U. S. even more. We have REAL A/C and full size cars and trucks, big cool drinks for less money, we're friendly, and we have PIZZA CUTTERS!

Where did the Horny toad go?

I just decided, in between eating a bowl of my homeade spagetti and meatballs and, working all morning with a colleague on my NEW book-(this one is a book of many of my fine arts pieces, mostly images from the last decade or so), and after riding my bike to the gym-almost getting hit by many rude drivers as usual-now, that today I will blog my earlier article from the Galveston Daily Newspaper about our vanishing wildlife here in southern Texas. Besides the article in the newspaper was cut-up and reduced in size-censoring, I guess you could call it. I don't think they liked my mention of Walmarts every five miles. Maybe some people need to read this again anyway. So here it is-feel free to comment.



It wasn’t that long ago when horned lizards crawled all over the Texas Gulf Coast. I miss them. My kids don’t miss them because they never knew they even existed. The only horned lizard they know about is the mascot of Texas Christian University.
I’m not that old and I have seen the Houston-Galveston area, without remorse, drive many species into extinction and cripple the environment. The wildlife abundant fields and forests of my youth are gone, replaced by subdivisions, strip malls, and a Wal-Mart every five miles. Why didn’t we save any of the natural habitats? Why didn’t we care that the last Red Wolf is gone forever. I saw them alive once when I was a kid and last week I saw one again, mounted by a taxidermist in the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The small pockets of woods around Galveston County are home to the last remaining creatures, the ones that were adaptable enough to live near people: raccoons, opossums, squirrels, cottontail rabbits. The reptiles didn’t fare as well. Snakes and turtles that were everywhere in the ‘60’s and 70’s are a rare find now. Even the species and number of birds in the area has declined.
Is there some other reason besides greed, that for each subdivision that is built, the land has to be scraped down to the barest soil, removing all vegetation, cutting down every bastion of foliage, every last standing old tree? Each time that happens we lose more plants, more animals, more of the cycle of the very heart of the earth. It is like taking a rough jagged edge of a rusty razor blade and scraping over the skin on our arms, again and again, until all hair and flesh are removed and replacing it with an artificial covering. We are reshaping our County’s surface, replacing trees and root systems, blackberries and Indian Paintbrushes, cattails and ribbon snakes, box turtles and leopard frogs, Pileated woodpeckers and scissor-tailed flycatchers, armadillos and white tailed deer, velvet ants and even love bugs, with new species that moved in from somewhere else. The new species are clinging and adapting to our area like a virus clings to the hope that no antibiotic can stop their growth and replication.
Mediterranean geckos, monk parakeets, and fire ants have replaced our native species which in turn upset the delicate balance of our ecosystem on the Texas Gulf Coast. I am not a biologist or a zoologist, not even a botanist. I do not study ecology or natural habitats. I am only an artist and an author. I am only a writer of fiction books like The Honeybee Girl, Tropical Calypso and many others. I am only an art teacher, drawing and painting, remembering the things Galveston County has destroyed. If I were a wealthy man I would use the finances to save as much wilderness left in our area to bring back the things we have lost.
I don’t know what to do about saving what little remains, and it is very little, I only know that I miss the Red Wolf and the Horned Lizard, and my children never got to hear the wolves howling or hold a Horny Toad and feel it swell with air as it inflates its body for protection. I remember seeing a bobcat resting in an old tree and that memory burns within my soul, forever painted unlike the dozens of bobcats I have seen in zoos. Encountering wild animals native to the environment is the purest joy and will never be the same as watching them rest on concrete in an enclosed cage. The human imagination wants to look into the woods and fields and “know” that our native animals still thrive there, unseen but alive. We know when we look at the small patches of trees that remain in Galveston County that there are no Red Wolves hiding in the shadows, digging dens for their pups. Those last remaining pockets of trees and foliage hold no mystery any more and their days are numbered when those trees too will be scraped from the earth and replaced by concrete and prefab walls and man-made lakes with spewing fountains of dyed blue water.
I still live in Galveston County, because this is where my family is and this is where I teach school, but when I look around at the daily destruction of the last remaining woods and wild places I want to move away from this barren place of concrete and traffic lights. It is a sad thing to watch the flesh of our home being scraped away and all we now can see are patches of the skeletal bones protruding from a once prosperous surface. Someday when I retire I think I will have to run away from this place that once was a paradise and retreat to someplace where wolves still howl and bobcats recline on the limbs of ancient trees, and deer stroll through thick woods far enough away from the sounds of cars rushing by on vast rivers of concrete.