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Showing posts from March, 2009

{poised}

The Illustration Friday theme this week is poise , which led me directly to Alexander McQueen's show at Paris Fashion Week. Pen and ink on paper. * * * * * *Sold* to the charming Caitlin, who seems to have the world within her grasp. * * * * * Now playing: Killer 7 (yes, I am that guy, that guy still working through his old PS2 titles, on his old PS2 system, fully aware that his gaming days will soon be so much dust). The Japanese are very, very weird. * * * * * Working late last night, pressing prints for Susan's upcoming show. * * * * * Just watched: Fast Times at Ridgemont High . I was on the couch, it was on the tv, both of us were just like, Duuude . And I had no memory of how much nudity was in this thing. For that, and other reasons (a certain 80's charm), it holds up remarkably well. With: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Nicholas Cage, Anthony Edwards ... * * * * * My sister Rachel

subtraction, by the numbers

The Illustration-Friday theme this week is subtract ; this is a photo of the back room of my dad's pool hall, where accounting was done with a deck of cards. * * * * * Painting on books -- hell, it's just like any painting, only varnished to protect it, and then you've got art to carry around and write in. Mysteriously. And if we're not here to make our co-workers jealous, to have just one more neat thing than they do, to make them twinge and twist in their seats, then what are we doing here? * * * * * Yesterday was my birthday. I awoke with a sore throat. My tongue felt clotted, my voice felt scraped away. I went downstairs to my dark, cold kitchen and started a fire in the stove. Standing there, in those shadows winking darkly, I became aware of what a lump I was, how little I was aware of, how little I was thinking, how I was becoming used to not thinking, to living in this city of the non-thinking, the unthinking, and how, while this allowed me to go about m

legends (myths, folk stories, fairy tales, lore)

{from Wikipedia: A bugbear, also called a "boogerbear", is a legendary creature comparable to the bogeyman, bogey, bugaboo, hobgoblin and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children. In medieval England, for instance, the Bugbear was a creepy and gigantic bear that lurked in the woods; children were warned not to stray too far from home or misbehave, for "the Bugbear will get you". } My own Bugbear is rather more badger-ish, and wears children's pajamas for skulking around the basement and in the trees behind the house. * * * * * Digging through, editing, discarding old photographs ... this one seemed vaguely on point (with the IF theme this week), something dreamed and shadowy. * * * * * the Ten Thousand Swallows to Heaven Campaign , mixed media on canvas, 8 x 8 inches, the string series continues. * * * * * Reading David Boring . Is David, in fact, boring? Not at all: he wanders

Studio 330 show

It looks like I have two out of three paintings sold from this ... surely we could complete the hat-trick? Of course it's always the middle child who suffers the most; below is the one remaining. * * * * * starting over (need more rain) ; mixed media on canvas, 20x16 inches.

{intricate}

"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things." – Jean Cocteau. My subject Krista always makes it intricate and complicated and dominated by line – with her movement, her hair, her mutinous stare, right back into the eye of things. Which is, of course, why she's so fun to draw . * * * * * Celebrity Venn diagram of the week. Join my group !

news, radio

For the next month or so I'll have work hanging at Studio 330 , a new yoga studio in downtown Kingston. Their space has a very chic but warm aura about it, with benign clean lines, and I love the way my paintings look against the gorgeous black walls. * * * * * C and I (and all of our Ban Righ Writer's Group) will be on the radio tonight (Thursday, March 5th) at 5 p.m local, on the Queen's campus radio station CFRC , for a program called Alternative Frequency . They'll be playing clips from our last public reading and snippets of interviews about our glorious lives (fame, poodles, ice cream) as writers. * * * * * It's warmer today but snow and then rain is coming. I feel like I can see the end of the thing but at the same time I don't want to raise my head too high, for fear of losing it. * * * * * For the second-last chapter of an illustrated story: BH.Partd.1-5 . Pen and ink. * * * * * And now, watch this .