Musicians

Copied from a photo in an old book from 1972.
Ink, Prismacolor, and acrylic in Moleskine, 2010.
I love hippies!

It hits on color combinations that I like. I am interested in exploring monochrome figures further. I am getting very accustomed to the cream color of the Moleskine being in the background!

Cranach the Elder: Original Gangsta, 1508

Prismacolor, ink, acrylic, collage in Moleskine, 2010

The detail from Lucas Cranach the Elder's original painting, The Martyrdom of St. Katherine, that the central figure comes from can be seen below.
It is with great ease that I can draw and paint grotesques. It is much easier to render something hideous than it is to create something beautiful. One reason why I like Cranach's paintings so much is that the old master was also adept at painting horrendously ugly creatures, and it tells me that I am not so far off base.
Some art historians believe that this was actually Cranach's self portrait as St. Katherine's executioner. Sneaking my own face into drawings I've made is also something I enjoy doing.
The works of the old masters can provide interesting subject matter for new compositions. I was never much a fan of doing straightforward 'master studies', I am more interested in only paying attention to details that intrigue me. I do put some effort into being thorough and honest about my sources, however.

Doodles From the Noodle

On the left is an imaginary home I designed for me and Jeanne. On the right is a self-portrait with cartoon eels where my head should be. From my fingers dangle the four yellow talismans that once in a dream foretold my doom. Sometimes I don't know where I'm going when I have a brushpen in my hand.

We are preparing for our wedding which is in less than 90 days! We are painting murals for the nursery in the school where we work and we are not getting paid a dime for it. I am inadequately prepared to teach my first classes when school starts up again one month from now. There's a lot on my plate. Yet I am still finding the time to exercise, make playlists, read fantasy novels, and go for twilight bike rides around Old Metairie.
I hear crickets outside my window. The moon is a fingernail sliver in the sky. Cats are sleeping on top of my car. Nighttime in the summer is a fragrant and muggy affair that most people ignore within the confines of their air-conditioned palaces. I like to glimpse inside of them while passing, usually to see nothing more than the glow of their TV sets.
The nights of suburbia inform my dreams. I ride upon zephyr wheels, inexhaustible, down amber-lit tree-shrouded avenues. The occasional quaint architecture stirs the imagination. In my nocturnal paradise, I am surrounded by funny old buildings with elaborate gardens. To glide down an empty street is a favorite pastime.

A Dessert So Sweet, it Made Cake Taste Like Straw!

Images from last night's somnambulist slide show.

systema magicum universi

Prismacolor and graphite- two kinds of media that never look the same after they are scanned. Nonetheless, here we have a random stranger transformed by the alchemy of drawing. Is drawing a kind of magic? Our ancestors in the caves at Altamira seemed to think so. Drawing is my systema magicum universi.
I don't pretend to know rationally how this system works, I just have faith that it does. Even failed attempts at art enrich my reality. Looking at any drawing I have made evokes the thought process that went behind it. It almost becomes an exercise In mapping my consciousness as it solves creative problems.
Drawings conjure up the dichotomy of light and dark, of form and void, of all there is and of all there could be. Stare at any pattern long enough, or at any image with a high enough contrast, and then close your eyes. What do you see? It is as if your optic nerve has taken a picture, as if the negative is burned into your memory. The image is transformed into mental energy, and mental energy becomes thought.
Pick up a pencil and do it yourself. Make a new reality. You have the power.