This really saddens me. He’s always been a great inspiration.
“Doing books, doing pictures.. and it’s the only true happiness I’ve ever enjoyed in my life. It’s sublime to just go into another room and make pictures, it’s magic time, where all your weaknesses of character and all blemishes of personality and whatever else torments you fades away… You’re doing the one thing you want to do and you do it well and you know you do it well. And you’re happy. The whole promise is to do the work. Sitting down at the drawing table, turning on the radio. And I think what a transcendent life this is that I’m doing everything that I want to do and at that moment I feel like I’m a lucky man. I’m trying very hard to concentrate on what is here. What I can see, what I can smell, what I can feel, making that the important business of life.”
I made acquaintance last night with a nice couple that just moved in next door. They asked if I had any cats, noting the food dish on my deck, and I had to admit that it was there originally for my other neighbor’s cat, who sometimes visits, but had become, instead, the squirrels’ (and birds’ and other seed-eating creatures’) bowl. They’ll surely understand now when they look over from their porch why there are always one or two squirrels chilling out on my deck like it’s their own.
One of the reasons I like to keep this blog is because I can go back and look at what I was doing, making or being inspired by last week or even four years ago.. I came across Alison Teal (Alison’s Adventures) after admiring surf photography by Sarah Lee — she does a lot of photography and cinematography for Alison, an adventurer, filmmaker and surfer who was home-schooled until her teenage years and raised by adventure photography/ yogi/ dancing parents around the world. She’s out there living it up – check out the video. Watching her stuff kind of reminds me to keep living and doing.. It’s really easy to sit in front of the computer and think about what could be, should be, might have been, isn’t, etc… I try not to even use the words ‘could’, ‘should’ or ‘would’.. Just do it. Easier said than done, but definitely doable. (Sidenote: I wanted to learn to surf when I was a teenager. Kinda funny for a Kansas girl, but I used to visit the beach every so often and can remember crying on more than one occasion when I had to leave. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been to an ocean. Looking forward to a trip to San Diego in November.)
In other weekend events, I bought some new running shoes — barefoot style Merrells. I swear by them. I used to run a lot but my left knee was giving out on me and so I quit. But when I got a pair of Merrells last year, I tried them out and kept going and haven’t had any knee pain at all (and now I’m ready for a new pair). Reason being, so I’ve heard, that the barefoot styled shoes reduce heel to ground impact which your knees absorb and create a more natural stride where the impact is on the ball of your foot. If you’ve ever run barefoot — without any shoes — you know what I mean.
I also spent some time with family in Kansas City, raced remote control cars, ate some awesome Mexican food, watched Ghostbusters at my brother’s house, and took a look at some kayaks and small boats over the weekend. I have a few paddling friends and I’ve always wanted to get out on the water so I’m thinking about getting into it.. Gonna give it a try-before-I-buy with my neighbor who canoes frequently on the river.
And now I’m sipping on some “Dirty Hippy Coffee”, locally roasted beans mixed with chai spice by company Home Brewed, and getting ready to go back to my artwork! Til next time..
I found Relics of The Incredible String Band today, a compilation record from 1971, in the newly available used vinyl section of my local record store, Love Garden Sounds. It features a really interesting paper cutting by illustrator Jacqueline Chwast on the front. Coincidentally, I have a children’s book that she illustrated as well. (I’ve collected quite a few children’s books that have illustration work that I enjoy over the years from various thrift stores.)
That’s my grandfather on the far left. This is probably around 1925.
I’ll have some new paper cuttings to share next week. This week I’m trying to get all other art fair items checked off my list (I have, what feels like, an eternal to-do list.. don’t we all, I suppose). I squeezed in 30 minutes of reading time earlier — I’m reading, as I’ve mentioned before, Pioneer Women: Stories from the Kansas Frontier, and that sort of inspired me to take a look back at all these old pictures that I have. It’s kind of amazing to look at the development that has occurred over the last 150 years in this area (but also see land that is still seemingly undeveloped, thankfully).. especially when every day seems to fly by ..and my to-do list is barely scratched. I digress. Til next time…
I’ve always been drawn to these psychedelic liquid light shows after seeing the work that Bill Ham did during concerts in the 60s. The visuals are basically the projected results of mixtures of oil, water and pigment. I’ve been thinking about trying out something like this to use as a backdrop, or maybe as some element within, for some experimental silhouette animation.
