The Blue Hour

"Time to go"
ink, watercolor, acrylic. charcoal
April 20, 2013

It was so tempting! The lights in the sky beckoned. They danced and pointed the way. Bear ran his paws over the gunnels of his trusty bateau which bobbed in the reeds and sedges. It was a nice thought. But there were plenty of warm Summer nights ahead… maybe he'd take off some other time when he absolutely needed to view the blazing stars. He checked the painter and checked the knots, tramped out of the water, shook himself better and walked back to the house. Later. his eyes closed and all he could think about was… "dawn!"

Interregnum

12-27-12
mixed media

Clouds, like seals, swooped through the sodden sky, throwing careless sprays of water that were only tempered by the protective masses of leaves on the dark trees. Not that the bird minded the extra soaking, he was wet to the bone and it wasn't very cold anyway. So, once one got used to it, the rain, in its various manifestations, became a companion to his solitude. But this was an "in-between time" wasn't it? The sun would come out wouldn't it? His spirits had a weight on top of them as if they were shut into a box whose top is ajar but still won't come free. Waiting it out seemed better than to struggle. Indeed, by struggling he had opened the box and put himself inside!

Weary Souls

"A Weary Soul"
10-28-12 (finished 11-21-12)
mixed media, collage

Two solitary souls rest their tired feet at the base of a fir tree. They have been walking all day and now realize that they are on an island, surrounded by water …and they don't have a boat. The pillow-like moss softens the depressing realization that they are stranded. However, it's not too cold and all is calm. Sleep calls to the man and his four-legged companion. There is nothing to eat and they are too tired to even care. It will be a long night of sleeping and waiting and perhaps, all the catnaps (the dog's also) will amount to a good night's sleep.  Perhaps in their dreams a solution will present itself.

What Happened?

"Did anything happen? Did anything change?"
11-08-12

Post election wonderings. When Obama was first elected, there was great fanfare and euphoria among his supporters. There was fear too: would he be assassinated before January or be somehow cheated from assuming office? It was weird and scary. A tender time for all concerned.

This year's election was quite different. The change is slowly revealing itself in the post-election posturing of those who care to exercise power. But my feeling in the immediate aftermath was that very little seemed to have changed. So this doodle appears to be about this state of bemusement or befuddlement: what happened? Here we see Mrs. Owl and Mr. Tern joined by a stork shambling along kicking the Autumn leaves trying to take in the disparity between actual events and the current stalled situation. Did anything happen? Yes… but?

"Yes!" Mr Tern says! "Yes!"

detail

detail, Mrs. Owl

detail: stork and Mr. Tern

detail (frottage, watercolor)

Babes In The Woods

untitled painting, 11-05-12b
collage, mixed media

tree trunks and ducks are collaged

the scout…

detail of leaves

detail of tree trunks: collage, watercolor, ink, litho crayon & tusche

Often when I work in my sketchbook, a scene takes shape before any sort of narrative content is added. In this case, you can imagine, the forest was created first and the ducks were added last. I started out with these long rectangles of bond paper with ink blotted on them. Once glued down, I started adding the brown and other neutral tones that formed the indeterminate depths of the forested space. For a while, as the cheap sketchbook paper buckled, it was unclear whether the collage paper would be the tree trunks or the other way around. The buckled paper bulged out like 3-d trunk-like forms. I was tempted. I decided to go with my original idea and started drawing in the detail of the tree bark and the layers of vegetation and the leaf-littered ground plane. This set the atmosphere.  And then I knew why I had been drawing real ducks all summer!

One, two, three little white ducks, lost or adventurous carefully finding their way through the dangerous forest!
What will become of them? Will they meet other fowl or ferocious fanged foxes or aloof rabbits? Where are they going to?

I don't know. Do you??