The Mask...

Classe' gave me a mask one day that he made of paper mache'. He told me to paint it. So one sleepless night, after a long shift followed by some unwinding east-side, I made this painting of that mask.

SOLD...

I drew this waaay back in 1978. I sold it too. In fact, it was the very first drawing I ever sold. (Ok, a classmate offered me $10 to draw Jerry Garcia - but he was too cute to take his money).

The guy that bought this later informed me he was taking it back to Chicago, making prints of it and selling them. I was flattered and then confused.

Alright, I'll be honest... I've been confused about most things ever since.

Me, Classe' and Linda...

...OH MY!..!!

All three of us worked on this one night - but of course, it was Classe' who pulled it all together. He's a driven genius when painting, so exciting to watch. I recall there was no running water so beer was used to clean brushes.

He gave it to Linda and I hadn't seen it in over 20 years. I simply love it.

Headin' Home...

Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home. - James Joyce



I often ponder the meaning of home. Growing up, I moved 16 times before I was 15. As an adult, I've stayed in this same general area, yet moved 19 more times - (each time the rent went up!). So my idea of 'home' was never a box with a door on it. My idea of home has always been centered on my family.

As a child, my friends changed as easily as addresses. I never knew how to keep friends longer than a year, but as an adult I’ve been fortunate to have friends who don’t let go. They remain close even when I let time slip between us. My family’s love is unconditional and now I’ve found that with my friends as well.

Home is still built upon my family but now includes my friends. My valued family of friends.

An Independent Nature...

This 4th of July celebration was spent well outside my city limits. I ventured west to my brother's house and enjoyed a real neighborhood celebration. It was an amazingly different experience for me. It was Urban Americana at it's surreal best.

The neighbors all had the BBQ set up with lawn chairs in place for their little neighborhood fireworks display. Cute kids ran about like fireflies. Each man of the household pulled from their own bounty of fireworks as they took turns one-upping each other with lighting the next round. Not even a slow steady rain would slow them down. It took a brave old toad hopping through their battlefield to provoke a time-out. The rain continued, but it was my brother, the one who hangs with the Mensa crowd, who got under a big black umbrella as he lit one of the ‘big ones’. My brother is not a quitter. He played his best game. I believe he won the game with this move, sadly no one noticed due to all the smoke and rain.

As I left a few hours later, I paused to take in the quiet clean air, however it was thick with the most intense sounds from the neighboring nature. Frogs, crickets and birds, all boldly celebrating independence.



(My little American sparrow drawn as vectored lineart in Illustrator - 2009)

Possums...

...made with using an old wool sweater, some scrap fleece, yarn, thread and lovingly stuffed with bamboo fiber-fill. Shown here from two angles; it's a stuffed possum I made for my youngest nephew.

'Possum' was his nickname before his birth. Thankfully now, he's too cute to keep that name.

Most Resourceful Art...

Another week has passed with no time to create any thing new as there’s been some paying work around, cluttering up my world. With all that clutter about, I just fell in love with this piece of art made from someone cleaning up the area's trash. It was recently posted on the Wooster Collective (http://www.woostercollective.com).

The resourceful artist, Jim Darling, was perhaps a Bower bird in a former life.

The male Bower birds gather all sorts of found objects into collections that decorate their unusual nests. Many fancy bits of bright or shiny litter add something special to the mix...



Andy Goldworthy is the most famous of former-life Bower birds...


I don't know that he's ever worked with litter, however he's cleverly resourceful with just some icicles and spit...

And of course he is the master of building cairns...


There's a mysterious cairn builder here in town. As I drive west to the county on Hwy 44 each week, I've been watching a growing group of cairns perched on a bluff. The location's too precarious a spot to stop and snap a photo, but it does look a lot like this group found in Canada.


Now, if "we" can just be as "Darling-ly" creative with our local litter.