Hey all,

I haven't been around for awhile and I wanted to fill everybody in on why. A couple of years back I noticed my eyesight getting a bit blurry. Like an idiot I shrugged it off as eye strain. Months down the road it became more and more noticable and I found myself struggling with my drawing, reading, Poser and such. Here we are today and I am essentially working with one eye. I went to have my eyes tested a couple of months back and I was told I have a full blown cataract in my left eye. If I close my right eye all I can see out of my left eye is blur, I can see color but no defined shapes and very, very little movement. I'm essentially blind in one.

I haven't drawn or done any artwork, with the exception of a few Poser images, in a little over two years. I have been drawing since I was five years old and I am pushing fifty-two now so almost all my life I have had a pencil in my hand. To lose the ability of drawing and the stifling of my creativity has been very frustrating. I have been depressed for quite awhile now. It's hard when you have so many ideas in your head and no outlet for those ideas. I was able to still work with Poser for a bit but even that became a struggle. As I'm typing this it is still fuzzy to see the words on the monitor so if I misspell some words at least you'll have an understanding.

Now for the big thing. I am going in for cataract surgery on May 22nd. The surgery is an in office visit and will take about thirty minutes to perform. After that I go in the next day and have the eye patch removed and have my sight evaluated. A week later I'll be going back for a follow up visit and again in a month. But I will be able to see again! I'm feeling very positive about this and am getting anxious to have it done and over with. I know that I'll have to have the other eye done soon also but at least I will be able to function again and get back doing what I love doing which is my artwork.

I'm not writing this for pity or sympathy, that is just not me. All of you here at PF have been very good and supportive of me over the years and I just wanted everyone to know what I'm dealing with at the moment and why I have been absent of late. Wish me luck everyone and thanks for the understanding.

Randy

Good Ol' Marv