Be Proud, Little Lamp

"Draw what you see," goes the "creative" wisdom. This lamp is on a cabinet top in my digital studio. I've had it, and two others just like it, for a long, long time and they continue to serve me well. They are a bit faded and dusty, but they work fine. I have no reason to replace them or throw them out. 

But then you see this little lamp in a famous IKEA commercial, which just breaks my heart. A young lady removes the lamp from her table and replaces it with a slick, glamorous, modern-looking IKEA light. And on a dark, rainy night, she goes outside with the now-discarded old lamp and tosses it onto a bag of trash. You see the Little Lamp in the rain, as it wilts with sadness, thrown out into uselessness, cold, wet, and alone. I just want to cry when I see this, which is the intention of the ad people. 

And next, someone shows up, a shadowy man in a raincoat. You think he is maybe going to save Little Lamp. But no...he stares at the viewer and says in a gruff Swedish accent something like this: "Vot you feel sorry for a lamp Dumskull?" Returning us to a reality where a lamp is only a lamp and ordinary objects have no souls.

This won't happen here! My lamps will illuminate as long as there are bulbs for them and they still work. I keep my enlightenment with me. I am not giving out the YouTube address for this. Here we are in my digital studio. Be proud, little lamp! Keep on shining!

Sepia brown tech pen on sketchbook page, 4 1/2" x 5", April 6, 2019.

Down with Saddam 2003

For some reason, I think my mother's illness and old age, I needed to go up to my old Massachusetts home. This was 16 years ago in April, and the Iraqi War was raging. Night after night we were shown scenes of bombings and battles and flaring lights and, by day, the Iraqi's looting and destroying their country. We Americans watched as a mob of Iraqi's (with our help) pulled down the bronze statue of the tyrant Saddam Hussein. They would welcome us with open arms and dances of joy, said our leaders. The Iraqi's kept on looting and vandalizing, and the officials said they were just "letting off some steam." Saddam himself was on the run and we would find him and bring him to justice. There was justice in the world in those days, and we were thrilled as the jets flew and the fires burned.

The TV with the statue removal is in the rear, the endlessly blatting flickering TV that was on all the time and which I couldn't turn away from. "Goodbye Saddam" it says. In front is a large round table which was in the center of the living room and was completely covered with dusty knick-knacks. No house cleaning had gone on for years and there was at least one mouse in the house, actually a lot more than one.

Black tech pen on sketchbook page, 7 1/2" x 4 1/2", April 9, 2003.

Owl Witch

This little character portrait is somewhat inspired by the Harry Potter mythos. If humans can transform into animals, why not into owls? The owls must do more than deliver magical mail. She would be an "Animagus," able to transform into any living creature, or even a combination of human and other. She has wings and wand together as a magic user. This is also inspired by the many real owls which inhabit my neighborhood, and who I hear hooting and calling almost every night.

Black tech pen on sketchbook page, 4 1/2" x 2 1/2", April 4, 2019.

Spring Geometrikon

Here's a bit of experimental Photoshoppage, thankfully fresh off the pixels rather than from a dusty previous year. The curved lines were done with templates. I didn't bother with layering, what you see is what I put there. The colors are all Photoshop with added texture. The colors are meant to evoke Spring as it is the season for an avalanche of pink flower petals. 

Marker drawing colored in Photoshop, 4 1/2" x 1 3/4", April 3, 2019.

Another Life Model View

Here's another art school sketch of the model you saw a few postings ago. She really does have a left leg but it is hidden behind her as she is posing against a wall. I wish I could do life drawing again, even though it is kind of scary when you are there and wondering if your drawing will suck. My mother spent the last 30 years of her artistic life making chalk and pencil drawings of life models of all shapes and sizes, mostly women but a few males too. I was not as interested in it as my mother was, I prefer to draw buildings. They don't move when you draw them. The controversy about whether you can learn figure drawing from photographs never ends. I have countless books of figure photographs and studies and still haven't done enough figure drawing.

Pencil on sketchbook page, 3" x 7 1/2", 1972.

Dental Cityscape 1998

I did this drawing under unusual circumstances. I was undergoing dental work at the time. The dentist did his job and then had to wait for some important ingredient to solidify. While this was happening I asked for my glasses and sketchbook, and looked out to our view in the upper floors of an office high-rise. I drew this view of the heavily built-up cityscape while the dentist and his assistants looked on, expressing amazement. Well it was no big deal, I don't draw with my mouth after all. I still work with the same dentist after more than twenty years and he would remember this.

Black tech pen on sketchbook page, 8" x 4", December 21, 1998. Click for a larger view.

The Feast of Fools 1998

I've designed dozens of commemorative T-shirts in my career and this was one of the most elaborate. It was for a New Age/Pagan convention called "Ecumenicon," which I attended most years as a "token Christian" and sometime esotericist. I did the shirt for many consecutive years before Ecumenicon faded out. The T-shirt, stored among my other convention garb, is still bright - it was printed on a tie-dye pattern Kelly Green. Ecumenicon was themed on various holidays and times of year, whether or not they matched the shirt or not. This time, it matched the shirt: Ecumenicon was held in March around St. Patrick's day. And we included April Fools' Day, too. 

I loaded the design with symbolism: The figure is from the Tarot's "Fool" card, the Tarot being another theme for Ecumenicon. He is about to walk blithely off the cliff. In the sky at the top are angels playing basketball ("March Madness," you know.) and a smiley sun. In the center, sheep turn away from following the Fool off the cliff in a moment of wisdom. Under the cliff are drunken leprechauns and a Ferengi with a pot of gold. The "Ecumenicon" typeface was part of CorelDraw's excellent store of decorative type.

Ink on illustration board, 8 1/2" x 11", spring 1998.