Commuting

Not all elves live at the North Pole…

Struggle!

"Attack!"
05-29-13
watercolor, crayon, colored pencil

When I drew as a young boy, I would make pictures of battle scenes. There were tanks, planes, warships, cannons, guns and helmeted soldiers. Later, flying saucers and aliens would be the bad guys. On paper, the outcome was always certain. But given a new sheet of paper, the struggle began anew… complete with sound effects!
I suppose it's a "boy" thing. We were so innocent of the real Cold War dangers and the nuclear chess games going on in the 1960s. I remember JFK's funeral on TV; it was all a dream because it happened in childhood.

Sometimes I feel as if I'm still dreaming, still deluded by my own sense of uniqueness and an elemental innocence.
I think that if reincarnation were "real" (it is in a way, as I see it) Innocence would have slowly leached out of human experience because there would be an accumulated knowledge of the costs of all forms of violence.
But boys continue to play with guns or dream of being heroes and of dying on the battlefield. And, I presume, girls worked out their own struggles by more subtle, but no less destructive and innocent means.
Why is life a struggle? I guess that's the question I leave you with.
…
Have a peaceful and fun day. Love the ones you're with in body and spirit. Smell the roses, they're everywhere!

Smart Stuff

"Stay in Your Lane!"
05-17-13
mixed media

Life is getting more complicated! Fortunately, technologies are here to make life and transportation easier to manage. We have SmartStreets™ and SmartCars™. Just punch in the coordinates and the grid does all the work. Now you can do all those forbidden distracting things (e.g. texting, watching videos, feeding your children, reading a book, shaving and putting on eyeliner…) while the computers do all the worrying. Yay!

car 1

car 2

the sky

Dragons & DNA

"Hellraiser"
April 13, 2013
ink, charcoal, crayon, digital

"Harvesting DNA"
April 13, 2013
charcoal, colored pencil, chalk, ink

Two dark pictures today. We all know that Hell is completely imaginary (and Heaven too for that matter). You will not find them on any reliable map (although this is sort of interesting). But, if Hell were a real place it would be habitat for the glorious creation that covers the entire Earth already. And I think that the denizens of Hell are mad as Hell and tired of the bad rap they get. And they may have a bone to pick with those who walk on two legs under the sun.

The second picture started out as this little cellular grid doodle a few weeks ago in another sketchbook. I revisited it this morning while the paint was drying on my little dragon painting (above). The cellular grid metastasized into a gooey DNA farm complete with the farmer hard at work bringing in the crops.

This is how I work: I doodle and work abstractly with crayons and ink and whatever is closest at hand. Inevitably, a space is created and it's usually some sort of landscape. In the absence of further personal intention or meaning, I add some sort of machine and one of the Pointy People and then I can say that I have redeemed a patch of worthless abstraction with the human presence. And maybe that's life in a nutshell. It could be …on certain days for sure.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Today, I'm off to Egypt. I'll tickle Ramesses II and cuddle the ferocious Sekhmet (I'll bring kitty treats) and contemplate the union of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. Later my party will visit Harlem and maybe Windsor Castle. Ahhhh… the life of a museum guide for me!

The Bear

04-04-13
colored pencil, ink

The bear is contained within an abstraction, a cage that contains and does not contain what the bear really is (even the bear doesn't know --and this is the point). Are the elves archers? Are they doctors? The arrogance of a surgically precise Eros! They might strike the abstraction --and miss Life. How will the bear escape this confinement? With rage or a lumbering boredom ("I've had enough of this!)?

Is the bear immune to Eros' darts? …And really, no: The bear IS Eros. And we the archers and our arrows, like gnats, swarm in parallel before the large animal who inexplicably dances before us unaware, lost in the pleasure of his divinity. And hopefully we are enchanted too despite our swarming and because of our dancing!

Bon dimanche et bonne journée!

A Smoky Sortie

These intrepid birds are facing a very dangerous situation. To cope, they have built a peculiar device for lowering one brave soul into the maw of the erupting volcano. Did he volunteer? I think he did actually. "All for One and One for All!" …I wonder what they are hoping to find out?

Here's a salute then to our adventurous days and silly sallys! Into the unknown: morning by morning, hour by hour… making progress in some strange way.

"…For thee and myself no quiet find"

12-17-12b

detail

detail

detail

detail

Contraptions

Dictionary

contraption |kənˈtrap sh ən|noun:   a machine or device that appears strange or unnecessarily complicated, and often badly made or unsafe.

ORIGIN: early 19th cent.; perhaps from contrive (on the pattern of pairs such as conceive, conception), by association with trap 1.

Thesaurus

contraption noun "he's driving around the yard in another one of his wild contraptions" device, gadget, apparatus, machine, appliance, mechanism, invention, contrivance; informal gizmo, widget, doohickey.

Maybe Not a Good Idea

05-31-12
mixed media (pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, ink)

Here's a weird doodle from this morning's studio minutes - from my subconscious (take it away you armchair psychoanalysts): What's this primate doing? Is he just following his nature? Why does he persist in picking at scabs or messing with pimples? Is this an allegory about Temptation? Or is it about essentially curious human nature? Or is it all and only, always, about Sex? And why such an ornate and intricate machine? It's sole purpose seems to be for picking at sensitive and already irritated points of flesh!

Oy! Back to paying work!

A Picture is Worth… ?

"Nature morte"
© Rob Dunlavey 08-02-11 mixed media

This is a picture in search of a story. The birds are not such sympathetic characters and so finding a story is proving hard to come by.

• Are the birds just hanging out on this convenient perch or are they having a little discussion?
• What is the contraption? I'm reminded of a propeller or worse, a medieval Catherine Wheel.
• Does the vehicle move or has it rusted in place; a monument to some old useless idea?
• And that green bottle: are these magpies and the bottle their silly useless treasure?
• Maybe the birds are contemplating what to do with the bottle. It might make a good terrarium to begin the re-population of this blighted landscape.

Anyone out there care to suggest anything?

They look good-natured enough

the intact green wine bottle

Reference

Read a little more here.

This drawing was done last September. I like it. The actual size is 11 x 17 inches.