A mate of mine here in Bali had his birthday the other night. His wife organised a surprise party for him at a local Italian restaurant. She did a fabulous job, the food was amazing, the company fantastic and the beers just slipped down. Great work!!

So armed with a small gift I looked around for a card. Then I thought that thought this would be more fun than going to the local Periplus bookstore and I made this image to print one from.

Normally my images build themselves but this was a little more problematic. I wanted it to hold an essence of who he is. So I made a list and checked it thrice. Gosh this is almost like work, hehe!

He lives in Bali so I dove into the treasure trove and came up with a background from an image of Bali in the past. He heralds from farmland in the US, so I used an aerial photo to add texture to the old image. I was trying to diffuse the Bali image. It was too strong and I wanted to create a pattern that was subtler and wouldn't detract from the main icon. For that I had an epiphany. You see He builds, modifies and sells the coolest motorbikes on the island, BINGO!

The Russian M-70 with it's crazy machine gun mounted sidecar would have to be one of the wildest modifications that I have seen. Talk about too big. I played with some horses to create a funky camo for it and to soften the whole war thing and you know what, it works.

I had fun, hope you do to.

Happy Birthday Mate