I’m behind on my artwork. I have an idea, but it’s turning out to be complicated …even the preliminary sketch is labor intensive.
This is just to let you know I’m still here.
A lot going on in my life, right now. Including a new day job. That’s six, count ’em, six jobs this year. I’m going to have trouble keeping track of W-2’s at tax time.
The new job is great! As the manager says, it’s like a family among employees there. Everyone is similar…..I counted five bottles of Coca-Cola in use on the desk.
So, I’m pretty happy….let’s go for a walk down memory lane.
Does anyone really miss winter?
Getting to allergy time again, get out your hankies!
Wishing you a great day, relaxing in a comfortable chair.
Although, I’m most fond of cats, as everyone knows, I also love crows.
Oops, sorry, my mistake, that’s not a crow.
Anyway, while I was browsing through Facebook, a suggestion for a group came up. It was about loving crows and their ilk.
Oh, no, that’s not a crow, either. I could redo it as a crow….but nah.
The group has a lot of crow art in it, as you might imagine. While I was posting my various crow pictures…….
I realize I’ve done only crows during the dark time of the year, autumn and winter. It’s summer now, I still see crows around, I don’t hear them, though. They’re also still beautiful. So, why have I not done a summer crow?
Here’s one last crow. It’s a notecard, and based in fall. I figure it would be good for a Halloween greeting.
I used to have a little poem of personal meaning I’d use when I was a teenager, first heading into New York City. It was:
One of the more fond memories of Danbury, is the state fair that came around every fall. That is, until 1981. Now the fairgrounds is a shopping mall. Still, there is still, a lot of good subject matter here.
Why this fuss about Danbury?
I’m part of a pop-up that just popped up on Friday nights in downtown Danbury. My first night was very slow, knowledge of the event wasn’t widespread.
Obviously, I need to work a bit more on the presentation.
HOWEVER………
It’s exposure.
I’m taking the advice of someone I’ve mentioned before. More or less, is that if you want to make a splash at a show, you should have one big statement piece, and the rest small accent pieces. I have the accent pieces…..but the statement?
I thought of it many times. I think what is best is to do an enlarged version of one of my more successful works.
My first thought was Floral Overload…
But I’ll be damned if I do all that work again. I was about rip the hair from my scalp, by the end of doing this.
So, I kept considering pieces, and considering pieces until I became utterly confused.
I called on a couple of a couple of friends. I’d like to say we had a viewing of my work with cocktails and hors d’oevres. Alas, I thought of that too late. It’s a nice thought, though.
All of us decided views of Danbury would be more inviting to come into the Pop-Up and Party Space. So, we considered a few.
My only request was no cats. I didn’t think it would be as interesting to people. Naturally, when you eliminate cats, that disqualifies about three quarters of my portfolio.
Oh yes, and no N:YC pictures.
We settled on this:
So, those of you in Connecticut and nearby New York State, the show is Danbury, on Main Street in an empty storefront, I think it’s spelled Mereiki. It’s on Friday evenings, going through August.
Oh, yes, ……the featured image of my last post was so big that it was impossible to see. So, shrunk down to size:
What, might you ask, has the above man strolling down an urban street, have to do with green? Nothing, except, while I was drawing him, my day’s priorities took the sudden turn around. Sometimes, when that happens, that’s a bad sign. This time it is good.
How about this?
So, why, may you ask, and ask you may….what have these got to do with anything? I was contemplating doing a large drawing of the man in the street…..or one of this tree, cloud, jet trail composition. That’s when I got an email.
I had applied to be in a Pop Up show this month. Never heard back about it. I had pretty much given up on it, and was moving on.
The email was an invitation to join the pop-up next Friday, as in tomorrow. So, I set about quickly getting things together. I’m to be selling notecards and holiday cards.
I realized that almost all of the cards are winter themed. Damn! It’s June. I was figuring on selling them in coming winter. But this pop-up is too exciting.
So, quickly, I tried to get together as many sunny cards as possible. In fact, I redid the cloud, jet trail, tree composition as a notecard:
Then in taking the tape off of it, I managed to tear the paper on the card. Drat!
So, I did this:
And then……
And if I sell anything, that means a little more green in my life.
Boomers will remember an old movie titled “Soylent Green “. Long story short, in a dystopian world, people are given something to eat, called Soylent Green. As it turns out, its made of recycled human remains. Thus, the cry “Soylent Green is People!” Very creepy movie.
So, I have come to the conclusion, in my work, bicycles stand for people, and people’s personalities.
Remember this picture from not too long ago?
It’s a little girl’s bike, that was cute as hell. Children’s bikes are adorable to me. That is, if children aren’t riding them around in the aisles of huge discount stores.
As a friend of mine put it “When you fall, you break something “.
Not the child’s fault, of course, but thoughtless parents.
I also wrote recently about how I look forward to January, and the end of the holidays. So, here’s the latest. “January Thaw”
The week between Christmas and New Years is a little surreal to me. It’s a regular week, but it’s not, it’s time in limbo. Real, but out of the ordinary, like files in the Cloud.
There have been better holiday weeks, than this in 2020. It’s been a rough year, for everyone. People are looking forward to the future, but quite honestly, I think people are looking quite longingly at the past.
So, this is a post about Winter Past
January 2nd
This is my favorite picture of winter. It’s the quiet time after Christmas, New Years, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Fesitvus, has passed. Even Greedfest,as a good friend used to call it.
I’m thinking of the past in New York City, the City that Never Sleeps, as it sleeps in winter.
We all have memories, both good and bad to look back on. I have faith, that as time passes, we will add to our good memories, even during these rough times.
I’m really enjoying doing these little drawings. For now, at least. Less in the way of time, expense and aggravation. Did I mention aggravation? Yes,I guess I did.
Carousel
What keeps going around in my mind..
Are any of these worthy of the time and effort of large versions?
So far, I am going to keep going and stash these away as an animal saves food for the winter.
Grey Rainbow
Yes,winter is coming! Will the dull colors it always does. This time, im prepared!
So,it’s kind of like this…and I am sure that all of you go through this, no matter what you do….
Finding something that you discarded as totally, totally awful, then deciding it’s not so bad.
As is the case with this.
See,I hated the damn thing so much that I didn’t delicately trim it.
Looking back on it,I realize I like it. It accomplishes what I intended it to do…looking at the dawn, blurry eyed, with a half drunk cup of very strong coffee in my hand.
Okay now, back to the present.
Since, as you recall, I had no patience, jumped the shark, or both, in terms of ideas for full size winter drawings.
So,the natural thing is to do little winter drawings for holiday cards. I did so many that I photographed them in groups.
Then,I jumped the shark on that project. As you may have noticed, I love the term “jump the shark “.
So,the cards are the ones on hold for now.
I have a fresh batch of paper, an idea, and I am ready to hit the road.
Speaking of second looks, here’s one that I declared was my “worst of the year “,I forgot how long ago.
Of course it goes the other way, too. Some pieces that I was sure were masterpieces, on second look, stink like moldy salami.
