Tangles

Such is life eh?

Finishing Things

In graduate school, I had a sculpture professor who made it clear to me that I needed to finish things. Somehow from there on I started a habit of trying to bring drawings to some sort of conclusion. I draw every day and it has become a discipline: finish something (anything!) each day.

I started a new sketchbook last weekend – but I'm still finishing paintings in the old one. Here are a few of those paintings: This painting with the storks on top of the house started out as a nice Crystal City drawing. It was very colorful but that was all. I did collage a big dark cloud above the building but still it sat there unfinished. So at some point, I added rain and then it got darker and darker. I'd had this thought that some birds would be a nice touch. So they flew in yesterday and I'm calling it "finished" – but it probably isn't. Or is it?

06-06-11a | mixed media

I just like this one below too much not to show it. I thought I'd add details to the orange area embracing the ocean in the top section of the painting. But I don't think it would make the painting any better. I guess it's a bit of a "Nocturne" --just a moody suggestive piece. I like the forest just below the palace. I reminds me of the magical gardens that the prince explores as he follows the Twelve Dancing Princesses as they go to their midnight rendezvous.

06-06-11b | mixed media

05-23-11a

Really folks, it's a doodle. The snake's car is powered by some nuclear rock in the back of his contraption. I draw a lot of these, often as I watch a baseball game on television. It's just the right amount of distraction to produce good flow and I try not to get too attached to the results. Later on I tighten things up, add some watercolor or charcoal and call it a wrap. It's just one of the things I do.

Snakes

Snakes can be very calligraphic as I discovered the other night while I watched a baseball game. I used a fat black crayon on the back of some old postcards. I hope you're not a herpetophobiac! :-)

Sunday Doodles

Oh, he's just sleepy…

For better or worse, I go to church on the weekends with my family. Been doing it for years and years. It's a good place and there are a lot of good people there trying to live life in good ways. And I'm no better than them so I pay attention to what's going on. I listen to the sermon and sing a few hymns too. It's nice to hang out with people of all ages as we all navigate this interesting phenomenon called Life.

Unlike most of them however, the only way I can make that hour my own and truly pleasurable is with a pencil in my hand. I doodle all over my program while I'm supposed to be praying or paying attention to someone else praying. Hi God! It's me: that total screw-up with the pencil in his hand. Thank you for another day to contemplate your beautiful Creation

another fox

the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out

 

Savor your boredom

Fox and frog on church steps

a tiny sweet dragon