Stuart Sheldon
5 Years in the Faraway
Five years is a hefty chunk in a life. Moving to Costa Rica with our kids in 2018 was the luckiest thing I’ve ever done.
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Stuart Sheldon
- Aug 4, 2022
- 6 min
Calm and Kind
It’s been well over a year since my last blog post … and what a year. Make that 4 years! That’s how long we’ve lived in Costa Rica. We...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Mar 24, 2021
- 4 min
Follow The Bubbles
Follow the Bubbles 3, Acrylic on our Costa Rica architectural plans, 31.5x23.5" 2000 “On the third day, my room became a cell, which...
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Stuart Sheldon
- May 27, 2020
- 4 min
Time to Swan Dive!
Our dads laughed in college together and later, Ron Rothberg and I giggled side-by-side in diapers. We haven't stopped laughing since....
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Stuart Sheldon
- Dec 11, 2019
- 5 min
It’s Such a Perfect Day*
Behold the Perfect Moment / Perfect Family / Perfect Life* In this recent photo, a gorgeous family camps on a faraway beach in paradise,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jun 11, 2019
- 4 min
What I Learned in My Bucket List Year in Costa Rica … by Leo Tolstoy
“We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Mar 12, 2019
- 4 min
Where You From? Where You Been? Where You Going?
Standing shoulder to shoulder as our kids sprinted down field last year, I casually mentioned to a fellow Miami soccer/surfer dad that we...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Feb 5, 2019
- 4 min
Didn’t Know What I Didn’t Know
“A distressingly large portion of the world doesn’t do you any good whatsoever. In fact, it does you bad. Casts static between your ears,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 27, 2018
- 3 min
King of The Jungle
“Dust everywhere… and out of that emerged this beautiful boy with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen, holding his hand out to help me to my...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 1, 2018
- 3 min
A Hole Is To Dig
We’ve been in the faraway jungle nearly three months, and one enormous benefit I’ve noticed is how much less decision-making I face each...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Oct 11, 2018
- 3 min
Two Months in the Jungle
Moments after the car honked and we kissed the kids goodbye for another school day, backpacks on their shoulders, I heard excited voices...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Sep 12, 2018
- 2 min
We Left America
More precisely, as reminded by our local friends, we left the United States. We still live in America, Central America. Playa Grande,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- May 29, 2018
- 2 min
I Love Libraries – Museum of Contemporary Art Miami Exhibition Opens THIS THUR, May 31
The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library. Albert Einstein I just spent a...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Mar 7, 2018
- 3 min
Like, Really Smart
A friend called me excitedly last year out of the blue. “I have an idea for one of your spiral paintings. What if you did all of Trump’s...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Dec 6, 2017
- 2 min
We’re All Pink Inside
A few months into dating my wife-to-be, we hit a rough patch and I thought I’d blown it. Utterly devastated, I wrote her a poem titled,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Oct 25, 2017
- 3 min
The American Dream in Postage Stamps
To know my immigrant story, watch Fiddler On The Roof. My ancestors, peasants in Poland, died in Auschwitz and arrived thru Ellis Island...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Sep 20, 2017
- 2 min
Dystopia the Beautiful – My 1st London Exhibition Opens Sep 28 – Oct 13
Burnt, Acrylic, American flag and inkjet book cover on canvas, 35″ x 19″ 2017. AVAILABLE. “I’m jus’ pain covered with skin.” John...
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Stuart Sheldon
- May 31, 2017
- 3 min
Artist March June 14th
We each have a song inside. We just need a bit of courage to sing it. I co-founded the Worldwide Artist March because, in our so-called...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Mar 8, 2017
- 2 min
Go Find Yourself, Go Fund Yourself
My father before the Best Books Ever Written piece he inspired – Thank You Dad, acrylic, book covers, paper, oil crayon on canvas,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Feb 21, 2017
- 3 min
Friday Night Lights
In the Emmy-winning series, Friday Night Lights, actress Connie Britton slays as a smart woman in a dumb town. In Dillon, TX, where high...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Dec 14, 2016
- 3 min
Anger Issues?
“What are anger issues, Daddy?” My ever-perceptive 6-yr-old asked me this on the ride to school a few days ago, having somehow heard the...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 24, 2016
- 2 min
SCOPE, Art Miami & Superfine – New Paintings and more!
“Stuart Sheldon created one of the billboards, an American flag posing spiralized questions about freedom. To him, it’s about urging...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 6, 2016
- 3 min
The Silent Power of Art in Politics
Yesterday a reporter asked me why I thought art was important in politics. “Politics is people talking to us and at us. It’s words. The...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jun 9, 2016
- 4 min
I Am The Greatest!
“I Ain’t Got No Quarrel With The VietCong… No VietCong Ever Called Me Nigger” — Muhammad Ali, 1966. Political courage blazed in Ali at...
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Stuart Sheldon
- May 25, 2016
- 3 min
The Other F Word
Late one morning, long before children, I sat on the edge of a New Orleans hotel bed and exhaled audibly. Inside my skull, a spicy Jazz...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Apr 27, 2016
- 2 min
The Little Prince and the Big Boss
“Prince was no taller than me, yet he was larger than life. He had his own style,” my 5’2″ wife told our boys on the drive to school last...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Mar 30, 2016
- 3 min
Do We Ruin Our Kids By Giving Them a Better Life?
“I’m bored,” my seven-year-old barked at me, as I flipped eggs one sunny Saturday. I stomped in from the kitchen and pointed the spatula....
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Stuart Sheldon
- Feb 23, 2016
- 2 min
How to Face Yourself
My cheeky 6yr-old made goofy expressions in the mirror, raising his eyebrows and, finally, grimacing slightly. “Daddy, you know what I...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jan 21, 2016
- 2 min
Fancy Nasty Forever!
If you made it to the epic Fancy Nasty finale bonfire last Saturday night, hosted by The New Tropic, lucky YOU. If not … next time (we’re...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jan 12, 2016
- 3 min
Let’s Dance!
“So, what do you do,” an attractive woman asked me at a party in Colorado years ago. “I’m a filmmaker,” I said, taking a swig of Fat...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Dec 17, 2015
- 4 min
Follow the Turkey Vultures To Paradise
World-renownded street artist, t_w_o_o_n_e (Hiroyasu Tsuri) didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life as high school ended in 2003....
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 4, 2015
- 1 min
Fancy Nasty – Art Basel 2015
Are You More Fancy Or More Nasty? You’re not fooling anybody. We all know you’re BOTH! Let’s celebrate the light and the dark in each of...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Oct 7, 2015
- 3 min
Buzzing From the Stoke
At a religious service last month, invited to pray silently, I shut my eyes, inhaled deeply and began my routine gamut of wishes:...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Sep 24, 2015
- 2 min
Share Everything
Since I was a boy, I’ve dreamt all my friends would buy houses in cool places, and we’d ultimately just share one big,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Sep 2, 2015
- 2 min
I’m ON FIRE!
BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN – The Sea Always Wins, acrylic, book covers, paper on canvas, 66×56″ 2015, Stuart Sheldon When I was a young...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jul 22, 2015
- 3 min
My 5-yr-old Just Watched Hard-Core Porn. Now What?
THE HORROR! Last month, poolside at the home of good friends, our host gave his sons, same age as ours, permission to have some screen...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jun 18, 2015
- 4 min
My Kid’s NOT a Winner So Stop with the Trophies
My little brother strode the stage in his cap and gown, gave his med school dean an emphatic handshake and transitioned from Mister to...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Apr 16, 2015
- 4 min
A Hungry Man is an Angry Man
image by mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl THIS IS MY BRAIN ON POVERTY. Day 1 My 7-yo buried his face in a couch cushion, frustrated he could not...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Apr 9, 2015
- 2 min
The Tyranny of a Blank Canvas
To Begin, Begin. Wordsworth Few things intimidate us like a blank slate waiting for what one of my writing heroes,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Apr 2, 2015
- 2 min
Please Sir, May I Have Some More?
“Daddy, I’m starving,” my 7-yo lamented, being, to use his own word, “marshmallow-dramatic.” “What’d you eat for lunch?” I asked,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Mar 12, 2015
- 2 min
Bad Daddy!
“Did you play tennis today in gym class?” I asked my 7-yo, as we walked into the house after school. “No Daddy. You forgot to pack my...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Feb 24, 2015
- 3 min
You Are Mistaken, And That’s OK
“Even monkeys fall from trees.” Chris Bradford, The Ring of Earth. No way, I thought to myself the moment my brush, wet with polymer...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Feb 4, 2015
- 3 min
You Suck, Daddy! Harsh Words From a Five-Year-Old
“You suck!” my 5-yo barked into my face, looking me dead in the eye. The words hit me like broken glass. My neck and stomach clenched,...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Jan 5, 2015
- 3 min
Paint A School, Save The World
This amazing wall by Melbourne artist Adnate typifies the dreary public middle school’s transformation. Photo by Sean R. Sullivan “Our...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 20, 2014
- 3 min
Ready. Aim. Activate!
The first step in The Best Books Ever Written, my largest work ever. See it at Art Basel! I just finished my first book (for the fifth...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Nov 13, 2014
- 2 min
No Is the New Yes
Best Books Ever Written – new piece installed yesterday for Art Basel. Last week, I pulled up to the pickup area to grab my boys after...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Oct 20, 2014
- 3 min
How To Get Into My Pants
Eight Years in the Studio, Work Pants, Acylic and paper on cardboard, Old window, 2014, Stuart Sheldon We all wear uniforms that hold our...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Oct 8, 2014
- 2 min
Be Amazed
“Everyone has two lives. The second one begins when you realize you have only one.” Steven Sotloff. She Gets It. I wish everyone...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Sep 25, 2014
- 3 min
My Dinner With James Taylor
I once sat next to James Taylor for dinner at the home of a close friend who was dating Taylor’s daughter. Taylor is one of my musical...
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Stuart Sheldon
- Sep 11, 2014
- 3 min
Seeing Grover Norquist Naked
I have longed for years to punch Grover Norquist in his bullying, doughy, self-righteous face. HOWEVER, even though...
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