All the war orphans in the refugee camps in Warsaw from the Ukrainian War present a heart-wrenching crisis. Many war orphans have lost their parents and extended family members. Yet, I realized if there were a foundation that could sponsor their tuition costs at a boarding school, they would be able to get an education and be taken care of by the school staff at whatever boarding school.
These camps have limited resources for medical and educational services for the orphans…
Some special planning would need to be made for the holidays, yet the foundation could help these orphans in their darkest hour and create a brighter future for these poor children who have no one else to care for them. The best strategy for funding this project would be to acquire several million dollars and invest in rental properties or other investment real estate projects that can generate monthly revenue to cover tuition costs and the cost of supporting a small staff. The staff would organize the particulars for the kids with the schools and other logistics, such as summer camps and healthcare.
These children have lost everything and need our help…
The program could even provide a small Christmas or winter holiday present each year until they reach college age. At that point, college scholarships and other aid could be provided, along with partnering with other foundations to help facilitate obtaining higher education.
So many people have lost their homes and apartments from Kyiv to Eastern Ukraine
I was so happy that Volo and Vladimir agreed to a ceasefire for the Easter holiday. I pray this is a sign my idea for an independent Crimean Republic with part of Eastern Ukraine that is a Russian protectorate has been considered. I emailed a video of the idea with a map to the Russian Federation Embassy in Washington last week. I also want to thank our Texan Secretary of State – Marco Rubio – for all his work in the “Struggle for Eastern Europe.”
After traveling around Vermont and Cape Cod, I returned to New York City and signed a lease on an apartment in Queens. I also found that Xi Jinping, Waylon Jennings and my son Roman all have the same birthday – June 15th, the zodiac of Gemini. So, Roman and I have started learning Chinese. Chinese is very similar to Kanji in Japanese; for example, the Kanji and Hanzi for water are both 水. This 水 symbol is also on the dials on the Japanese Submarines in one of my favorite Burt Lancaster movies, Run Silent Run Deep.
I have been talking to several card store owners in New York City about selling my deck of cards. Instead of calling the deck “The American Game” – I may switch the name to “Emblem Cards”. I was sad to leave Capitaland, yet I needed some space from my family. My New York family members have all been so disruptive to my graphic design work and my car mechanic/Art Conservation practice that a few hours of space as become preferable. I pray will be good for all of us. I have missed living in NYC, yet the city has changed a lot from when I lived here in 2010 and 2011. I liked living near my mother, yet Upstate New York makes one yearn for the city. I lasted about a year in Schenectady.
I have been missing my pet bunny rabbit, Mugs Bunny. Easter was always our special day. Yet, I found a famous rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons in Manhattan, which took some of the pain away from our seperation. Stay tuned to the blog for more Queens and New York City updates. Ciao!
I have finally completed my first of the Presidential Portrait series. After about six weeks of working on a painting, I begin to worry that I have over-done it and thus ruined the painting. I had a drawing teacher at Pratt who used to tell us to stop at 96% and leave a touch for the viewer to fill in with their imagination. If someone works a piece of art even past the threshold of 101%, it destroys that remarkable quality.
detail of the cherries – hands and an object are a common way to add a personal vibe to a portrait
It is so nice to have so many resources to study to try to learn about a person who you are trying to paint in a way that captures more than just a physical description of the person. It is essential to capture the “essence” of a person, and I thought the story of young Washington admitting he cropped down the cherry tree to his father would be interesting. The cherries also have a sexual reference that speaks to our nation’s birth in blood and war through Washington’s deeds.
My uncle, John Szal, was a captain in the Marine Corps. and he asks me not to join the Marines. I thought joining the Army would be a perfect solution as a loophole to get around this. I can enlist at a higher rank with ASE tests and hopefully work on vehicles and/or helicopters. However, several things might disqualify me or limit my options in the military from my past. Also, in the Army, you do not get to pick what you do and are obliged to follow your orders, so I could do graphic design again.
He who lives by the pen shall die by the pen – no force of arms can resist my ink…
Capitaland has a policy of letting people leave for military service. Yet, I do not expect them to have a job waiting for me in four years, so I will be leaving Capitaland. I will miss my new manager, Brian Hansbury, and his dog Bandit (my favorite part of Capitaland). I will no longer be around to receive any commission from someone purchasing a car, so no more pressure on anyone to buy a vehicle to help me.
After several stressful weeks dealing with my court cases in Texas, I have been able to smooth things over with my lawyer, Miles Brissette. I wrote some things about Miles when I was frustrated with the court, yet he is an excellent lawyer and I would recommend him to anyone.
I ordered a new batch of my cards, which will be for sale again on my website on the Ides of March (3/15). I have been busy with my GMC training, so I have not yet been able to finish my George Washington portrait. I plan to finish by next week so I can start working on John Adams’ portrait earnestly.
After a year of lousy treatment on probation, I have decided to return to Texas to take the charges from the case with Timothy Szal to trial. I will take a bus to Texas at the end of the month. It is clear now that I need to clear up these criminal charges in Texas if I want to get a decent job or decent treatment anywhere. I have taken a leave of absence from Adirondack Tire until this matter is resolved. Larry O’Shea, Sean O’Shea and Eric Steele have been unbelievably supportive during this difficult time.
I was blessed to start a new job at the corporate headquarters of Adirondack Tire a few weeks ago. I am so happy to get to work on cars and do graphic design, combining two of my unique skill sets. I worked at Warren Tire for almost a year and never met the owner. I worked at Adirondack Tire for one day and met the owner plus his son.
I only have my son Roman visit during the summers, so seeing Sean and Larry together makes working for them a pleasure. It is so nice to see the owner preparing his son for his future role in a direct fashion. I gave everyone at corporate unique decks of the American Game for Christmas.
Roman and I (Summer 2024) at the MOMA in NYC
However, I have gazed at the cards on the wall for a few weeks now and have decided to make some minor changes. The Los Angeles card that might evoke a connection with the Los Angeles Chargers is changing completely. A few other cards will have minor edits, and I will update the master portfolio page. If you would like to exchange your deck for the updated version, please email me at mattszal@gmail.com, and I will gladly send you an additional deck for no extra charge. Thanks to everyone who has supported my work and family by purchasing a deck. God Bless you. I used the cards to do a reading for my cousin Ryan on Christmas Eve. We discussed the upcoming book that I am writing to accompany the deck.
My cousin Ryan (the famous architect) and I
This book shall be in the fashion of The Pictorial Keyto the Tarot by Waite.
This is one of the tentative new versions of the LA card #2
All sales of “The American Game” cards are on hold until the new redesign is finished and the new designs have arrived from the printers. We apologies for any inconvenience.
I have changed the cards several times, and I am on 5 different redesigns for the entire deck. The deck was officially released on Thanksgiving, which is when all pre-sale orders shipped. Thank you so much to everyone for supporting my artwork and designs; if you have any thoughts or comments on the designs, please email me at mattszal@gmail.com.
In light of Judge William P. “Bill” Brandt’s military service, I have removed the last press release about him in honor of Armistice Day. One of the officers I was close with and who I designed things for in the Department of the Army (with U. of S. Carolina back in 2017-18) emailed me that Judge Brandt served in the United States Air Force for several decades.
During his distinguished military career, including active and reserve service, he has served in numerous flying, staff and command positions all over the globe–including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
https://www.judgebillbrandt.com/about
World War One is my favorite conflict to study in history, along with the Napoleonic Wars, the English Civil Wars, plus the civil war between Sulla and Marius in ancient Rome. We get Veterans Day from the original Armistice Day, which is the anniversary of the eleventh month and the eleventh day that the armistice was signed to end the First World War. I would also like to thank my uncle John Szal (Captain in the Marines) and my old roommate Wes Ellett, who went to TCU on the G.I. Bill after serving in Iraq, for their service today.
This is a Flying Dutchess character concept I made based on an English Admiral that uses the Tarrant County District Attorney as a reference – Phil Sorrells.
In other news, I am working on the 4th different version of my “American Game Deck” of cards, which will be available for sale on my website starting Thanksgiving. Each card has a different NFL team, a different zodiac sign, element sign or special major card, which all equal 52 playing cards like a traditional deck for playing poker or spades. The NFL teams only have the city name and team colors since their logos are copyrighted. I have selected +500-year-old emblems mostly from Claude Paradin’s Devises heroïques, first published in 1551. I have redesigned the emblems to coordinate a theme idea and color palette to represent each of the 32 teams. So you could shuffle the deck in strange ways to help you pick your predictions for some sports gambling at West Gate in Las Vegas, then play go-fish with your friends while you watch the games.
I want to elevate American culture to an almost metaphysical place and have this deck hold a space similar to the traditional Rider Waite Tarot Deck. These timeless emblems from centuries ago still have a familiarity yet an elusive quality that makes each one feel eternal. See the “Atlanta Card” for an example. It has the official CMYK red of the team with an emblem featuring a falcon-like bird (Atlanta Falcons). Some teams are doubles, such as New York and Los Angeles. Yet, with color and imagery, I attempted to make each design fairly easy to distinguish. The teams are the number cards and the four elements (32 teams + 4 elements = 36) – Earth, Wind, Fire & Water.
The royal cards are the 12 zodiac signs and four unique cards from special emblems, which I thought would increase the mystique of the deck as a whole composition. Some cards have emblems with related imagery, like Capricorn, which has an actual sea goat on which the sign is based. Other cards are more subtle references, such as Taurus, which features an emblem with a “Dexter Dei” (hand of God) with a sword and a trowel, which makes a shape similar to the horns of a bull.
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