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 Outsider artist and eBay entrepreneur, Andrew and his Bashkir bride Gulnara are living inspiration of what it really means to live the romantic life. We met Gulnara almost the first day we moved to Bashkortostan back in 1999. A few years later, Gulnara met Andrew on a matchmaking website. Soon they married, moved to LA and the rest is… well… romance!
The Proof is in the Romantic Features
I consider a life moving to the romantic when qualities of fullness and margin emerge. For Andrew, fullness meant finding his life mate in a Central Russian Republic and really making it happen. It took some time and a sea of paperwork, but they’re married and happy. They’ve been back to visit Gulnara’s home village and wrote about it in Andrew’s eBay store.
Andrew, an artist with an eclectic style, virtually swims in his own creativity and is at home there. Media is no problem for Andrew as he can create art with anything within arm’s length: a manila envelope, shoe box, toilet seat, someone else’s painting or a lamp.
He Can Sell Anything on eBay
If you want to know how to eBay, study Andrew. Visit Andrew’s eBay Store here. Romantic life isn’t easy. Andrew and Gulnara work hard to make eBay successful. If Andrew’s art is eclectic, his store is as well and it reflects his broad interest and creative bent. From belt buckles to a diesel engine — from old films to Andrew’s outsider art, if you keep watching, you’ll find something you’ll love.
What’s really attractive about Andrew’s eBay store is that it really reflects who he is. His warm, humorous conversational style on virtually any subject translates him in his eBay store to a veritable poet. He knows his stuff and writes about it with artistic flare that fosters fondness and loyalty in his buyers.
 And true to a romantic lifestyle, their lives aren’t all wrapped up in themselves. They lavishly give of themselves to church, family and community. In romance, there is always margin — whitespace in life to move around, be flexible and available to give, help, and create a fuller life for others. For years Gulnara and Andrew have been serving children’s work both in Russia and in their own community.
I think the most recent development really defines them. Several weeks ago, Andrew and Gulnara sublet their apartment in LA, loaded up their pickup and moved to Illinois to take care of his mother who is suffering from terminal cancer. It’s a remarkable heart and a remarkable life that can move in a moment without difficulty. Art and eBay continue — now from the Illinois office.
Yours along TheRomanticWay!
Rod
 I am not a professional photographer. I’m an amateur. I like to think that my photography isn’t lacking skill, however, in the usual way we use the word amateur. My photography is as Atkinson used the term in Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, amateur in the sense of being a “enthusiastic pursuer of an objective”. It’s an art, a passion, a window on my world.
My obsession with images started as a kid with an antique Ansco box camera. I tried pinhole photography discovering that I was more intrigued with the whole process of capturing images than I was with the final images themselves. With film the outcome is always a surprise, and I learned quickly not to be disappointed with what I got, but to say, “Now, that’s interesting!”
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. Diane Arbus
Once I had some money, I bought a nice Pentax and a couple lenses. It expanded me, gave me some options in my shooting. Then some years later, that Pentax was accidentally lost and I began working with a $3 garage sale Yashika — totally manual. My father-in-law gave me that camera and shortly after I enrolled in a darkroom class at a nearby art institute. The combination of the basic camera and the vague assignments of the photo class gave me permission to experiment, break bounds and go wild with ideas. It revolutionized my art.
When we left for Russia, my friend, Tom, gave me a little digital camera. It only had room on it for a few pictures and those just a few KB in size, but it introduced me to a concept that my photos were now more than just prints in an album. They had unlimited possibilities. It wasn’t until a few years later that I got my first serious Nikon digital. I’ve been going crazy ever since.
No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want. Ken Rockwell
I learned two things in those next years. First, I don’t “take pictures”. I “make pictures”. Some cultures of the world believe that the camera has the power to actually remove something from a person in order to make an image. Certainly the idea of “taking” is involved in their thinking. Art is art and art is painted, sculpted, sketched, written, composed and photographic images are “made”, not taken.
Almost all of the images on The Romantic Way are mine. I’ve borrowed a few for specific purposes to illustrate an idea or emotion for which I have no image, but most you see are mine, and most are digital using either of the two Nikons I own.
Few things incite me to violence more than an admirer of my photographs who casually says, “Wow, your pictures are really nice. You must have a really good camera.” Death. Dismemberment.
I’m an amateur. It’s an art I love, and it helps me see my world from another perspective. It also helps me express how I see my world in countless ways.
I’m an amateur. Enjoy the pix!
Yours along TheRomanticWay!
Rod
 For those of you artistic, creative and writerly types, I’ve found something that really gets my creative fluids gushing. Holly and I recently watched the film Chocolat with Johnny Depp a few nights ago. It’s like the thousandth time, but it never gets old. Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp and Judi Dench are absolute genius. While watching the “behind the scenes” extra, I noticed what a profound influence the French village had on the artistic aspect of the film. The same was true of the film Benny and Joon also with Johnny Depp as they filmed in Spokane, Washington.
So, “Why?”, I thought, shouldn’t we writers also write on location?
It makes perfect sense. While it’s true that images aren’t captured on celluloid or videotape, but they are captured. They’re captured in a far more profound way, processed, and published in probably the most profound medium ever thought of — writing. It’s a medium that can transfer images like none other. And it makes sense that writers should at least sometimes write on location.
A Writer’s Date — Writing on Location
On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we packed a wonderful lunch of roast chicken sandwiches with humus, fresh leaf lettuce and generous slices of Vidalia onion. We drove up the river about 40 minutes and found a pristine spot packed with historical legend, wildlife and sunshine.
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
There, with fresh pens and notebooks with plenty of potential, we wrote until our souls were satisfied. We kept the talking to a minimum so as not to interrupt the help of the muse or to hand over the binoculars to gaze at a hawk or passing canoe.
I don’t really know what Holly’s writing about. She hasn’t said, but since that day, she’s been writing every free moment. Writing on location was a good idea for her.
And writing on location was a good idea for me as well. I hadn’t realized what was holding up my current project until we “went on location” and the exact creative input that I needed was all around me. It was nearly overwhelming.
Writing on location is sure medicine for blocked writers and artists as well as help for aspiring writers needing a little kick start. Here are a few tips:
- Choose a place where you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere you’re looking for. Be aware that some environments might be more distracting than helpful. Try it, but be take note of what works for you. Maybe you’ll need to try something different.
- Writing partners are great, but don’t talk about writing. Write.
- Choose cautiously between a laptop computer and a notebook and pen. The notebook is even more portable allowing you subtle adjustments in your on location choices.
- Allow plenty of time. In fact, the best situation is when you allow yourself an open-ended writing time. Then you can write till you’re finished. A luxury to be sure, but really nice if you can swing it.
Enjoy your next on-location writer’s date. Post a comment to tell me about it!
Yours along TheRomanticWay!
Rod
Not only is whole roast chicken cheap, but it’s incredibly versatile and you really can’t mess it up. It’s always good and those tender slices of white meat in a sandwich on whole-grain bread with mustard, lettuce and a slice of nice tomato the next day are amazing. Dig into it and try your hand and whole roast chicken.
 Select a fresh five-pound chicken at your grocery store. If they’re on sale, you can buy a couple and freeze one, but I like to buy it, take it home and prepare it right away.
Wash the inside of the chicken pulling out all the disgusting stuff. Rinse again and pat it dry inside and out with paper toweling.
Here’s the fun part. Stuff the inside cavity and neck with vegetables, fruits or herbs or any combination that suites you. Then stuff herbs, fruit, butter or garlic under the skin along the breast. Finally, rub spices, herbs, mustard and salt into the skin with a little olive oil.
A Couple of my Roast Chicken Preps
- Stuff the cavity with a small quartered onion, a chunked stalk of celery, and a half lemon and a few sprigs of thyme. Then stuff a few additional sprigs of thyme, a couple of slices of lemon and a little butter under the skin. Finally, rub all over with a mixture of a couple tablespoons of dijon mustard, salt and pepper.
- Another great one is to chunk a fresh stalk of rhubarb and a couple of unpealed orange quarters and stuff them in the cavity. Then chop some more rhubarb and thin slices of orange and stuff it under the skin. Finally, rub the skin all over with salt and pepper.
- Make up some of your own! You really can’t go wrong!
Finally, jam a wire poultry roasting stand into the cavity of the bird. Always use a poultry stand whenever you can. The meat comes out much more moist, the skin is crisp and your bird isn’t sitting in its own grease.
Stand it in a roasting pan and place it uncovered on the lowest rack of your oven at about 400F. Check it after about twenty minutes and if the skin is nice and brown, take it out and place a tent of foil over the bird, reduce the heat to 375F. and continue roasting for another hour. Check the temperature by inserting an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast. When the temperature reaches at least 165F. your bird is done.
When your whole roast chicken has finished roasting, remove from the oven and let it rest for 5-10 minutes and then carve it up any way you like using a meat fork and carving knife. They’re a little awkward to handle, but be bold and don’t worry about how you cut it up.
Serve it up with rice pilaf or roasted potatoes along with a fresh green salad with sunflower seeds and orange bits and a nice vinagrette dressing. Generous hunks of whole grain bread are a nice touch.
Enjoy!
Yours along TheRomanticWay!
Rod
Here is Mom’s Rhubarb Pie recipe and the easiest and best you’ll find. Rhubarb is the garden’s first gift of springtime and a ruby sweet and sour delight. Remember, if it’s easy, it’s romantic. Roll out your favorite pie crust and in an hour, you’ll have Mom’s Rhubarb Pie.
 Pick your rhubarb for pie fresh from the garden or get it at the early farmer’s market. Look for the reddest and smaller stalks avoiding older stalks of rhubarb. Get them young, and they’ll be tender.
Mom’s Rhubarb Pie Recipe
4 c. Cut Rhubarb for a 10-inch or a little less for a 9-inch pie
1 c. Sugar
1 tsp. Grated orange peel
3 Tbsp. Flour
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 Two-crust pastry recipe for a 10-inch pie
2 Tbsp. Butter
Roll out your favorite pie crust!
Wash and cut the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. Combine the first five ingredients. Fill the pie crust and dot the top with butter. Adjust the top crust to the pie. Vent the top with a sharp knife and sprinkle the crust with sugar.
 Protect the pie edges with strips of foil if you like and remove for the last ten minutes of baking. Place pie in preheated 400F oven and bake for ten minutes. Then reduce temperature and bake another thirty minutes at 350F.
Cool pie and serve with cream, ice cream or as is. Enjoy!
Yours along TheRomanticWay!
Rod & Holly
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