I finally found the time to come back to 'Teh Internets,' and thought I'd do so with my take on a creative challenge offered up by Our Creative Corner. This month, the challenge is "Hit the Books," and calls for us to be inspired by old book pages.


 

I had remnant of an old book page left over from another project, one that I liked but really didn't know what to do with at the time. Lately, I've been feeling kind of self-censored because I didn't want to offend or frighten people with some of my visual ideas, and I want to get out of that habit. The expectations of others are the bars used to build my cage, or something like that.

This piece came from covering up an older art journal piece that I really hated because I did it to look like all the pretty and happy visual journals I see out there. You know, the beautiful stuff about happiness and butterflies (which, I LOVE butterflies, don't get me wrong), and not at all scary or dark or weird.

We know I'm all about the weird.

At any rate...

I pieced together this one, and had the thought of redacting most of the words on the page remnant. I left the part about likes and dislikes because it definitely applies to me.

To finish it off, I added the "why are you censoring yourself?" label, but really didn't feel that finished it. Anyone who knows me knows that I have the vocabulary of a well-educated sailor, and my two favorite colorful words aren't acceptable in proper company. And when it comes to my art, I'm making the effort to stop censoring myself and stop feeling certain ways about things just because those feelings or expressions might make someone else uncomfortable. So I added the colorful phrase to remind myself to cut that shit out, and make art how I mean to make art.




or How Vulture Saved the World.

Part 3 of a three part series of paintings. I started with the biggest, and most important, aspect of the story and will work backwards. Fox and Possum are being sketched out now; I'll post progress of those in the next few weeks.





Close ups of the nebula behind Vulture:






This is how today feels.
Forgive the haphazard formatting, I'm running out of time.
And yes, I wrote this today to procrastinate writing the main story.



ME
OK, Story, it's just you and me now! Let's get working.


LITTER BOX
Hey, clean me!


DOG

Can you feed me? I can see the bottom of my food bowl. You know how sad that makes me. Oh, oh, oh! I have to poop.


BIRD OUTSIDE

I'm making a racket and trying to eat your plants. I dare you to stop me.

DISHES IN THE SINK
(crying)

We're filthy! We're drowning! Wash us!



UNFINISHED EXPERIMENTAL HYPERDRIVE UNIT
While you're at it, could you finish building me? I seem to be missing my null quantum field generator.



ME

Oh... well, I guess I can take care of you guys first. I mean, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes, right? I'll be right back, Story. Stay write there. (giggles)
See what I did there? I love you!
(exits)



STORY

What the fuck, guys? I mean really... WHAT. THE. FUCK? She and I hardly ever get to spend time together anymore. With the kid and the husband and now all of you?



LITTER BOX
(maniacal laugh)

Back off, bitch. She's ours now!



STORY
Yes, I know. She can't ever stop at just washing one dish -- she has to reorganize her entire cupboard. And after she's done emptying the litter box, she has to scrub out the dog's food bowls. And it just keeps piling up, you guys all throwing different things at her that YOU want done, and she never comes back to me. Or when she does, there's 10 minutes left on the clock before the kid wakes up from his nap, or the husband wanders in and wants to be fed. I swear, he's worse than the dog. So she'll just sit there making lists and listening to music, and there's this awkward silence between us.



DOG
Oooooo, you mentioned me! I love you! Have you tried asking her to play fetch? That is so much fun. Oh, wow, maybe she'll play fetch with me when she comes back!



STORY
No. Bad dog.



LITTER BOX

Relax, Story. As soon as she's done scraping off the most disgusting things an animal can do to a plastic box full of sand and clay, I'm sure she'll be ready for your papery embrace.



STORY

You're so full of shit.



UNFINISHED EXPERIMENTAL HYPERDRIVE UNIT

See? You don't need her to be funny. You can almost write yourself.



STORY
You guys are all a bunch of asshats.

During the month of February, I participated in Sketchuary, where we all did daily sketches for 28 days. I did an entire series of crows illustrating the old nursery rhyme 'One for sorrow, two for mirth...'.

More to follow!

Two for Mirth

My first Zen Doodle art class at Hobby Lobby was this afternoon, and it was so much fun. I had a great student, Amanda, who picked up the patterns and tangles very quickly, so much so that we were able to learn more than just the basic four patterns I had planned for, and she completed her first tangle:


I think she did a pretty awesome tangle. Great job, Amanda! Hope to see you soon at the next class.