Somber Bear on Bike – Inspired by being Stranded..
Well, I just arrived back from Arizona Fine Art Expo, about 4 weeks later than planned. I left January 3rd, expecting to be back the last week of March, but it was a longer trip than normal. Soon into the show, everyone realized we probably started a week early in the tourist season in Scottsdale. So, after consulting the artists, show management decided to extend the show one week. No problem, already setup and space on the Ranch next door paid up.
So you can imagine, being away from my little boy an extra week, I was really ready to get back home at the end of the show. Broke down on Monday and got up at ~4:40am on Tuesday, helped my friend John take another load to his storage, loaded-out to my trailer, then left the show about 1:40p on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to get down the road far enough to drive the rest of the way on Wednesday.
About an hour in, my ‘crazy’ GPS was telling me I-10 was shut down and I needed to re-route back up North of Phoenix. Silly GPS I thought, It will clear and I’ll be on my way. Well, in 6-7 hours I listened to an entire audio book but only moved a couple of miles. 🙁 Finally got back on the Interstate and started driving around 8:30 pm. I recognized I was tired but my trailer was packed and all the hotels were full cause of the shut-down. So pulled over for Diesel and DEF – always so careful to take care and do proper maintenance on my baby.. Less than a quarter mile down the road, it became apparent, in my exhaustion, I had made a mistake. So I spent the night in about 40 degrees alongside of I-10 and a group gathered around me through the night. The motor-home behind me got roadside assistance in the morning, but I had to be towed 90-miles back to Tuscon. Had enough clarity, despite lack of sleep, to pay to have my trailer towed back to Loves. Then I was stranded in Tuscon for 16 days waiting for the fuel system to be replaced.
I picked up my truck last Thursday night and made it to Abilene in time for my Dad’s memorial on Sat & Mon then back to Austin, about 4 weeks later than initially planed. So In addition to repair costs, lodging etc. I’m also behind on work etc. since my Wacom Mobil Studio Pro tablet burned up on me a few days before Expo ended, have only had my cell phone to work on.
Thanks to the friends and family who ‘had my back’ and helped me get back home! 🙂
Thanks for supporting my artwork this Season 🙂
As I prepare for the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar and Arizona Fine Art Expo, I am reminded how fortunate I am to be able to share my work and have it accepted into your homes and businesses.
Last call for special gift orders from my online shops:
Note: this page is currently evolving. Still in Draft form – I’m am editing and adding so check back for updates! Also, this happened 44 years ago so I’m doing my best to report accurately – Please comment if you have anything to add or what the TRS-80 or my artwork means to you!
Fall of 1978 – Crockett Jr High: I am sitting at a desk with a handful of other students selected to be part of a special ‘home-room’. Little did I know, we were about to be plugged into a revolution that had slowly been forming in the 70’s and had exploded the year before. We were briefed I guess then moved to a room with a Black & Gray TV & keyboard with a cassette player plugged in. Of course I had played ‘Pong’ on our Television Set at home with my sister and was familiar with a calculator, but this was something much more. You turned it on and after a few seconds was a peculiar ‘Ready >_’ prompt instead of a video. ‘Ready’ to receive a command, ‘Ready’ to just start typing in a ‘program’ of commands – ‘Ready’ to become part of the ‘Personal Computer Revolution!’
TRS-80 Photo-shoot with Example Program Running
Perspective: For those a bit younger, I grew up in a time before most people had access to or even ‘seen’ a computer, much less hold one in your hand. Sure we saw big mainframes & ‘minis’ on TV and hobbyist could order a kit and solder wires and connections together hoping to end up with a box that they could program by flipping switches and such. Calculators were prevalent and included chips but only worked with numbers – not ‘logic’..
Brief History: The Tandy Radio Shack (TRS) Z80 processor based (-80) computer was introduced in 1977 about the same time as the Commodore PET & Apple ][ – forming the ‘1977 Trinity’. These were the the first successful systems consumers could purchase, bring home & use without having the technological skills to build. Although Texas based, they did snag a Silicon Valley ‘Home-brew’ guy to design and build the first units in Fort Worth 😉 – There is a lot of fascinating (to a geek) lore out there, so I’ll just leave the history here (see references below).
The three computers whose makers Byte magazine referred to as the “1977 Trinity”
Research and Preparation: I began this Quest about 3 months ago. While I remember the introduction in Junior High, I wanted to dive deeper and gain a broader understanding of this piece of our history and create something that connected with others as well. I researched online, read stories of others and how the TRS-80 affected their careers and lives, and ultimately ended up collecting 3 TRS-80 units including one I meticulously cleaned and brought back 100% to life to program and display the working code on the screen for an intense photo shoot in a blacked-out garage with 100+ temps – remember, these units had no cooling fan 😉 Initially I planned on using a model 1006G with the split keypad, but later went with the earlier 1001 without the keypad and cooler looking NEC RAM chips. I also used the TRS logo plate from it, but switched the cool looking white ceramic chip from the first unit I got. I collected one tape recorder to shoot and one just for the DIN cables!
About the Work: So a lot of us recognize the cases of our vintage computers and while they may be presented very ‘artistically’, I am coming from it on what is inside (of the case and hopefully our hearts;). Also the vantage point of a ‘programmer’ which was my career up through 2001. After all, this is where all the magic happened in the view of this old ‘techie’ – from the mind, through the keyboard forming the software that runs as bits through the circuitry, chips and ultimately output to the screen.
Zilog Z80-CPU : Choose the Mostek White Ceramic Chip & Overlaid Zilog Logo
In this work, I have highlighted some things that stand out to me and I suspect others. Starting with the Zilog Z-80 chip* as the brain of the system and the beauty of the board layout and supporting integrated chips. Leading to the connection of the ROM board where the basic interpreter is stored – remember initially no Disk Operating System or DOS!. Of course the keyboard which provided the physical ‘touch’ to the machine whether programmer of end user. And still prominent in the background is the cassette tape recorder (original CTR-41). While this may have been interesting to us back then that this analog device was repurposed to store digital programs and data initially, now it just stands out in my mind as something unique as we soon began to think of ‘disk drives’ (and much later solid state & the cloud) as primary storage. Although not initially offered as part of the original Model 1, I did add in a subtle rendering of a small 5 1/4″ external drive 😉 And of the course the ‘DIN’ connector! Power supply, display and tape drive all connected to the back of the keyboard (which included the logic board and CPU.
I wanted to explore the experience of the early users/developers on this machine and obtained the ‘Getting Started with TRS-80 Basic’ manual. I remember typing in and running some of the examples and identified one that did some alphanumeric or text based computing which is one important thing I feel these early PCs brought to the masses which really differentiated them from calculators. I modified the program to fit on one display screen and ran several tests to make sure it actually ran properly. It prompts for 15 text phrases and sorts them alphabetically. Not something your calculator could do 😉
Radio Shack TRS-80 Nameplate off the Original Keyboard
The nameplate got prominence rather than a subtle appearance based on the whole dynamic compared to the others in the trio: Radio Shack was already a household name (remember the CB Radio craze?) and had a ready-made distribution channel where you could at least walk in play with the computer – and at least order if you couldn’t walk out with one 😉 I loved Radio Shack! Again for you younger ones, past-tense as this was a very different place back in the 70’s & 80’s where you could actually buy transistors and stuff.
Shooting the Logic Board in My Studio
Subtle Details: Quirky things popped up while reading and I chuckled as I seem to remember them – especially with the cassette loading and saving programs. For example why did I turn the volume to 6 and bring it out from the shadows? Well, there was often some adjustment to get everything to work right and ‘6’ was the recommended ‘starting point’ 😉 And it gave me more interesting detail from the shadows..
Cassette Volume at 6
The edges including the monitor, power light, key ends etc are painted for a more abstract look and provide more visual interest and flow. Note how the code kinda morphs from the screen onto the logic board with shadow below. Whimsically the Basic manual sits atop the ribbon cable connector symbolizing this is where the ROM Basic is ‘coming from’.
Sample Sorting Program Running on the TRS-80Output phrases Sorted Alphabetically
Getting Started w TRS-80 Basic Manual Integrated atop ROM Cable Connector & Floating Code w Shadow
Technical editing notes: * The working board had a black plastic Zilog chip, but I liked the look of the white ceramic Mostek chip, so I shot the board with Zilog chip, pulled them, put the ceramic chip in the working board and shot again. Then I cut out the Zilog chip and overlaid the logo on the Mostek Chip. A bit of cleanup and highlighting gave a nice effect.
So here is a Whimsical Digital Collage featuring an original TRS-80 Logic Board surrounded by Flowing Basic Code, Zilog Z80 Processor, the Keyboard, Monitor, Cassette Drive, 5 1/4 Drive, Nameplate, Basic Manual, & Power Light. Foreground & Background Edges are painted transitioning into more detailed photographic rendering with hand embellishment.
Thank you for reading about my rendering of the Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 microcomputer system introduced in 1977. I hope you connect with this artwork featuring one of the first Personal Computers to be available to the average person and consider supporting this endeavor by purchasing a print, coaster or larger hand-embellished one of a kind piece. This is my second tech-themed work – see ‘Hello World’. Who knows, this might be the start of a new trilogy of works to come…
Please share with anyone you know who might be into retro or vintage computers and technology.
Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution eBook by David & Theresa Welsh While I came into the scene as an 8th grader, this couple discovered and embraced the TRS-80 & culture as adults and authored the popular Lazy Writer software. This was a great read to get in touch with the history and be a part of the Revolution & kept me up many nights reading on the Kindle app on my iPhone…
Ira Goldklang’s TRS-80 Revived Site OMG, this site almost had me making cables and wanting to troubleshoot TRS-80s instead of working on my art – probably why I held-out on a ‘working’ unit
And special thanks to cyberbiff from eBay who “rescued” the system [I primarily used] from a pile (literally) of random electronics at a hamfest a number of years back intending to restore it, but never got to it. He helped me get it back running and now it’s immortalized!
The McNeill pumping station is a turn-of-the-century (the LAST century, that is) water works that was the last known steam-powered municipal water treatment plant in operation in the United States when it’s steam engines were finally retired in 1980.
Photographic-based with extensive hand-editing. Upon visiting, you may see a ‘cleaner’ background and more of the electrical conversion equi9pment – I left one small piece 😉
Here is the ‘stylized’ boiler including a hint of the stars shining through to recall a missing roof due to fire in the past. Note the detailed accents and ‘artistic license’ used to create a dramatic image to bring interest into a space.
Really cool reconnaissance plane born in the 60’s about the same time as me 😉 Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird leaked fuel on the ground cause it had to ‘get up to speed’ for the metal pieces to expand and fit together – built for flight, not sitting in the hanger. Artistic license – yes I thought the air inlet needed some cool red glow – that where a lot of the magic happens here with the ultrasonic flight and this is my art, so get over it 😉 Yeh, that blackbird/raven is flying pretty high in the background too 😉
SR-71 Blackbird – Horizons, Ceramic Tile
Cow as Pilot of SR-71 Blackbird
I had been wanting to do something with this and while in Arizona for the Arizona Fine Art Expo (AFAE), I used it for a ‘challenge’ piece I called ‘SR-71 Bovine’ featuring a cow as pilot. So I decided to go ahead and finish out just the plane version to add to my collection. And for all you Air Force Farmers out there, both versions are available 🙂
Recently I saw an old rotary pencil sharpener and memories of the old models mounted on the cabinets in elementary school blossomed in my mind. Backed by volumes of SRA binders and later the portable unit window with birds flying around in the the trees as we did social studies. Getting up from the desk, walking over to the sturdy USA made machine, hand-cranking and hearing the grinding pencil, then returning with a perfectly sharpened writing instrument was a very satisfying break 🙂
My little boy JC just started pre-school this Fall and one of my favorite musicians to work to, Tycho, creates music that also brings me back to the days of gazing to the sky & clouds in wonder (one track is actually entitled ‘PBS’). I walk JC to school and pick him up every day – and looking out the window right now I can see the old school building and portable units.
My Collection of Rotary Mechanical Pencil Sharpeners
I started out with an attractive Boston unit, then realized the ribbed container Berol units actually reminded me of what we used in the classroom. This was the incarnation of the ASPCO (American Pencil Sharpener Company) I was familiar with. I began looking at the older units and acquired some from the early 1900s.
So, here is my collection – looking forward to some neat fine art pieces and at least a cool coaster set! 😉
# 4 in the series… Big Boy No. 4014 touring the Union Pacific system throughout 2019 to commemorate the transcontinental railroad’s 150th anniversary. See more at: Union Pacific Steam
# 3 in the series… Big Boy No. 4014 touring the Union Pacific system throughout 2019 to commemorate the transcontinental railroad’s 150th anniversary. See more at: Union Pacific Steam
Union Pacific Big Boy #4014 getting quick maintenance in Luling Texas
Big Boy No. 4014 touring the Union Pacific system throughout 2019 to commemorate the transcontinental railroad’s 150th anniversary. See more at: Union Pacific Steam
Got this shot as a sea of people were rushing in to the marked off area after the train stopped. I do a lot of roughnecks in the oilfield, so I guess getting the guy working just came natural..
