I am starting a new series, ‘Authors I Love’, a companion to my ongoing series ‘Artists I Love’.
OLD AND NEW
I love reading big old books. The longer and older the better. Why? For one reason, it allows me to travel. I was explaining this idea to my wife today after I finished ‘Middlemarch’ written in the 1870s by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). She asked if it made me want to live in the Victorian era in Great Britain. I said, yes and no. Yes, because reading the book was like traveling to a different time. You know how when you go to a new place you see so many things that are familiar but not? There are buildings like at home, but different. Food like at home, but different. Humans like home, but different. The same is true of literature from the past. It is familiar but different. Then again, no. In Middlemarch the language is so rich and vocabulary so extensive that it is like going where they speak English in such an unfamiliar way that you feel like you are hearing it for the first time. Not old from a different era, but new, like a revelation of what could be.
Selected Works by George Eliot
MIDDLEMARCH
‘A Study of Provincial Life’ is the subtitle of the book. And indeed the story is about the goings on in the provincial town of Middlemarch in England in the early to mid 1800s, right in the heart of the Victorian era. The story starts and ends with Dorethea, an intelligent and unique woman who wants to do good in the world. Her only avenue for this it seems is to find a husband who is contributing to the betterment of the world in a big way and help him in that task. She does find this man and fully expects her marriage will lead to the future she envisions for herself. It does not go according to plan.
Eliot sculpture in her hometown of Nuneaton, UK. The town also has a hospital, hospice and school named after her.
Meanwhile, others in Middlemarch are trying to make their way in the world, either through marriage, if they are a woman, or in the church, business, politics, farming or other areas of commerce if they are a man. Much of the story revolves around women both pushing their way into areas that typically are the realm of men and demurring to the men and staying in the background. I said ‘both’ instead of ‘either’ because all the women do both. The tension of who they want to be and who they feel restrained to be is palpable in every chapter and drives much of the novel.
It is also about young people chaffing at the bit of tradition and ‘the way things are done’. Pushing up against that is the height of bad manners and a number of the younger characters suffer career and life setbacks because of their attempting to move forward in science, medicine, politics, society and religion.
Middlemarch book cover illustration
I love her crafting of words to create character, mood, environment and more. Here is an example –
“She was glowing from her morning toilette as only healthful youth can glow; there was gem-like brightness on her coiled hair and in her hazel eyes; there was warm red life in her lips; her throat had a breathing whiteness above the differing white of the fur which itself seemed to wind about her neck and cling down her blue-gray pelisse with a tenderness gathered from her own, a sentient commingled innocence which kept its loveliness against the crystalline purity of the outdoor snow.”
Middlemarch book cover illustration
And here is another, this one delving into the psyche of humanity.
“She sat tonight revolving, as she was wont, the scenes of the day, her lips often curling with amusement at the oddities to which her fancy added fresh drollery: people were so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fools’ caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else’s were transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lap they alone were rosy.”
You can find more quotes at the end of this post.
Here is a link to a more thorough and thoughtful appreciation than I can give. The Genius of Middlemarch
Hand cast of Eliot’s hand
Eliot, being one of the most famous writers of her era, had a death hand cast made instead of a death mask to honor and highlight her accomplishments as an author.
Here is a photo of her. She looks surprisingly like Oscar Wilde, don’t you think?
George Eliot
Oscar Wilde
SILAS MARNER
I have heard the name most of my life. I knew he was a victorian character but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you if he was created by Dickens or Dickensen or any other author. Once I got this book I knew of course. I bought it to read Middlemarch and it wasn’t planning on reading any of the other stories, at least not right away. But I was not ready to be done with Eliot and I have always wanted to know who Silas Marner was in literary history so now was my opportunity to find out.
from 1985 film
The full title of the book, ‘Silas Marner – The Weaver of Raveloe’, tells you who he is, at least professionally. Like Middlemarch this book shows a slice of provincial life, but with the focus on one particular character. Marner is a solitary man living along on the edge of town. He weaves linen that he then sells through various stores or directly to some of the wealthier women. He is seen as an eccentric man with whom good society would not entertain a relationship. They would however buy his product as he is a meticulous weaver who does excellent work.
book illustration
He saves his gold coins religiously and obsessively counts them at night. Through a series of horrible circumstances he has those coins stolen from him. He, nor anyone else, knows who stole the coins. Meanwhile through another series of horrible circumstances he becomes the caretaker of a baby who is not yet able to walk.
book illustration
This conjunction of loss and gain is at the heart of the story and at the heart of Marner’s transformation within himself and within the community. There are good and bad people throughout but in all cases the personalities are complex and subtle, rich characters who are not cliche cut-outs of virtue or vice.
book cover illustration
The story is ultimately uplifting and inspiring but it is never cloying or pandering. It’s a great place to start reading to get an appreciation for Eliot’s work.
from 1916 film
Once again she has some astute quotes that show her insight into human nature.
“A dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters a desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic.”
“The yoke a man creates for himself by wrongdoing will breed hate in the kindliest nature.”
Brother Jacob
I thought this was probably about a monk but it wasn’t. It is a short story about a greedy man, David Faux, who steals from his family and sets off overseas to seek his fame and fortune as a confectioner. He leaves behind a brother who is an ‘idiot’ (Eliot’s term, not mine). I think now he would be seen as neurodivergent, perhaps with Down Syndrome. The story then fast forwards many years and David reappears under another name in a nearby village where he runs a successful confectionary shop. His bright future in marriage and business is dependent on it never being found out his real name and place in the world. Suffice it to say this does not go according to plan.
One of the best plot devices Eliot uses is the man who has it all planned vs the messiness and unpredictability of real life. While she allows it to happen to most everyone in all her stories, it is especially satisfying when it is combined with the underlying moral failures of a character.
The Lifted Veil
This amazing short story is a departure for Eliot in that it is about the supernatural. The protagonist finds he is able to hear peoples’ inner thoughts. Everyone that is but his brother’s fiance, on whom he has a crush. His mind has to imagine what she is thinking and because he is completely enamored of her he creates a deep and rich inner thought life for her. That drives him into even deeper love.
The story is about what happens when he no longer has to see her from a distance and suddenly is able to hear her thoughts as well. Are his hopeful conjectures of her deep inner life proven true or are they dashed? It’s worth reading to find out.
More Middlemarch Quotes
“No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.”
“But this vague conviction of indeterminable guilt…had for the general mind all the superior power of mystery over fact. Everybody liked better to conjecture how the thing was, than simply to know it; for conjecture soon became more confident than knowledge, and had a more liberal allowance for the incompatible.”
“A man vows, and yet will not cast away the means of breaking his vow. Is it that he distinctly means to break it? Not at all; but the desires which tend to break it are at work in him dimly, and make their way into his imagination, and relax his muscles in the very moments when he is telling himself over again the reasons for his vow.”
“Fear is stronger than the calculations of probabilities.”
“If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think it’s emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new.”
“But even while we are talking and meditation about the earth’s orbit and the solar system, what we feel and adjust our movements to is the stable earth and the changing day.”
“For the egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.”
“Men outlive their love, but they don’t outlive the consequences of their recklessness.”
“Few things hold the perceptions more thoroughly captive than anxiety about what we have got to say.”
“I have always been thinking of the different ways in which Christianity is taught, and whenever I find one way that makes it a wider blessing than any other, I cling to that as the truest – I mean that which takes in the most good of all kinds, and brings in the most people as sharers in it. It is surely better to pardon too much than to condemn too much.”
“There is nothing more thoroughly rotten than making people believe that society can be cured by a political hocus-pocus.”
“Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.”
“The truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.”
“Philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.”
“Her blindness to whatever did not lie in her own pure purpose carried her safely by the side of precipices where vision would have been perilous with fear.”
“When gratitude has become a matter of reasoning there are many ways of escaping from its bonds.”
“Solomon’s Proverbs, I think, have omitted to say, that as the sore palate findeth grit, so an uneasy consciousness heareth innuendoes.”
“Selfish people always think their own discomfort of more importance than anything else in the world.”
“There is no religion to hinder a man from believing the best of a young fellow, when you don’t know worse. It seems to me it would be a poor sort of religion to put a spoke in his wheel by refusing to say you don’t believe such harm of him as you’ve got no good reason to believe.”
“We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinnertime; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, “Oh, nothing!” Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts – not to hurt others.”
I saw a quote from Einstein the other day. Now, I don’t necessarily believe he actually said it, since a gazillion quotes are said to be from him that aren’t, but it doesn’t really matter. The quote is this: “Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury…to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.”
I disagree with it for a few reasons. One is nothing is ever ‘best for everyone’.
Form
Two, beauty (or form if you will) matters. It’s not immaterial or without merit to have something be pleasing or interesting to the senses. A great illustration of this is seen in this interaction from the movie, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ where a young woman is given a lesson in how her purely functional, non-luxurious sweater actually has its roots in choices made at the top end of fashion luxury. Take a look.
Form and Function
The quote I chose allows for both form (beauty) and function (usefulness) to have it’s place in our lives. If we focus on those two things, both equally valid, we can actually live a good life.
Quote by William Morris, 1834 – 1896, English writer, designer and artist. A founding participant in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement.
I am republishing this from 14 years ago today. The quote is still true. I feel like I have progressed some since then. Not completely but I feel I am a more trustworthy person than I was in 2009. Why do I think that? Because I have tried to practiced it. That is the only way anyone gets better at anything. If you don’t practice it repeatedly, you’ll never become it.
Original text – I am basically preaching to myself this week. This isn’t because I am not a trusting person, I am. More than most probably. I assume the best of intentions, I assume people will do what they say they are going to do. It doesn’t always happen, but I would rather get burned once in a while and be a trusting person than always be safe but have to trust no one.
Why I do need to hear this stuff about trust is because I am always needing to work on being a more trustworthy person. I think I am better than some, not as good as others. But I am not as trustworthy as I would always like to be. It’s a process of doing the right thing, the good thing, the promised thing, again and again and again. It takes patience and discipline, knowing boundaries and constantly remembering what I have promised.
I suppose most of us struggle with it, at least I hope I am not alone with it, am I?
I recently finished a sketchbook. It’s a weird thing to finish a sketchbook. I always feel like a relationship is ending. The feel, paper, size, look are all unique. How it takes ink, how I hold it, how it fits as I go somewhere is different with each sketchbook. Some allow me to draw inconspicuously while others are too big to hide. Some say ‘hippie natural’ while others say ‘serious conformist artist’.
But most importantly, what I draw in it is different based on all those things. Some lend themselves to drawing live while others tend to move me to draw purely imaginative images. It isn’t exclusive, I draw live and imaginatively in every sketchbook but there is an inclination depending on the book.
Here are some from a sketchbook that lent itself to a lot of imaginative drawing. I chose recent paintings that include polka dots or other type of recurring pattern on the clothing. I often do this so as to give definition to a form or to define a something as in front of or behind something else. They also include a lot of people holding microphones. That is because I often start the drawing in church, lightly memorizing the person on stage during the singing, then drawing a version of that person once the sermon starts.
Enjoy and let me know what you think. Do you have a favorite?
This summer I went to visit my daughter Rebekah and her family in Virginia. I was particularly excited to spend time with my 10 year old granddaughter, Vivian. The first day we went museum hopping in Washington, DC. We spent time seeing selections from the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art and The National Archives. Vivian was a trooper, walking over 9 1/2 miles that day with nary a peep. Bribing her with Boba Tea at the end helped.
The first four shown here are from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called ‘BRAVO!” which highlighted people in the entertainment industry over the decades. I was particularly taken by these paintings of women and their stories of overcoming strong obstacles to achieve their goals. The fifth, ‘Amarilla’, was elsewhere in the museum but I really liked it so I included it.
50 years ago I graduated from High School. Do you know what that means? No, not that I am old, which I am not (I know this to be true because everyone tells me I look so young I could be celebrating my 49th, not my 50th…)
It means I recently attended my 50th High School Reunion (Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut.) I moved there at the beginning of Jr. High and moved away after High School, living in the town for only 6 of my 68 years. But what a 6 year span it was. My identity was forged in those years and I left with the vision and intention to become a practicing artist, which I did. So did many others in my class. We had a strong art department in our school and many of us went on to have vocations and avocations in the arts. Many others didn’t go into art immediately but had their talent and practice come out later in life. Either way, there was and is a lot of creative activity.
The result of that was the planning committee including an art exhibition and opening as part of the weekend. There are a lot of fantastic pieces so if you are near Darien, Connecticut go check the show out at the Darien Public Library. It’s up until mid-September, 2023. I sent in a suite of 9 napkin drawings as my contribution. Here they are. They are for sale at $200.00 a piece, framed. They are approximately 6″ x 6″ so they fit perfect in small areas. Contact me at marty@martycoleman.com if you are interested.
Click on any image to see a slide show of them all.
I recently ran the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas and took the opportunity while there to visit one of my favorite museums, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. I’ve been a number of times before while visiting my niece who attends TCU nearby but this time I made sure to take pictures of some of my favorite pieces in the collection.
The Carter is one of 3 museums in the same location. The others are the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Kimbell Art Museum, both of which are incredible in their own right, both architecturally and because of the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions.
No offense to Fort Worth’s more attention-getting cousin, but Dallas doesn’t have anything on Fort Worth when it comes to museums. Don’t get me wrong, I love the DMA, but these three museums are really special.
Chimney and Water Tower, Charles Demuth
Two Herons 1948-50, William Lester, Oil on Masonite
Finally, after many years of not being able to get out and draw live i’ve started to sketch in person again. These are from the winter of 2022-2023 in various locales; in a waiting room, at a pharmacy, at a coffee shop, in church and on a train. Sometimes I talk to the person, sometimes I don’t. It all depends on the circumstances and proximity.
These are done with a Copic brand pen and Copic brand color markers.
‘A lion roars when they want, not when they are told’
Kara Goucher
A few days ago I saw a post by Kara Goucher the former professional runner and now TV analyst. She was talking about her mantra as she was growing up, which was,
“Be patient little lion, there will be plenty of time to roar.”
She went on to describe how much it helped her through many setbacks, how it was her mantra of patience as things in her running career and her personal life didn’t always go as expected. It served her well and she eventually became an olympian, world champion and elite competitor for decades. In addition she’s been a fierce advocate for a clean sport in running, with rigorous drug protocols to prevent cheating. She goes on to encourage others in her essay that if they are in a season requiring patience to remember there will be a time for them to roar. She’s someone to admire.
What Is a Roar, Anyway?
Her quote made me think about lions and when they roar so I came up with this companion quote to hers.
“A Lion roars when they want, not when they are told.”
Kara did all sorts of things when she was supposed to. She followed training plans that laid out what she was supposed to do and when. She planned specific races on specific dates where she wanted to accomplish specific things. So didn’t she roar when she was told, either by her coach, program, schedule, race? No, because that wasn’t the roar. That was the hunting for food, the protection of territory, the building of her fitness and stamina. It was all the things lions (and people) do quietly without attention and without glory in pursuit of a goal.
The Roar Moment
The roar happened when she wanted something and she chose that moment to go after it. She chose that time to express the roar that was inside her all along. The roar that she had been practicing and honing for months and years. She chose it to let it out and show the world she was the lion she had trained to be.
Roaring doesn’t guarantee success. A lion can roar and still not catch their prey. What the roar does is signal the world you are ready to fight for what you want. Whether it’s a race, a career jump, a big relationship move or something else. Your roar is your statement that you want something and you are going to go for it.
Are you ready to roar? Find your moment, the moment of your choosing, and roar away little lion!
These are available for purchase as NFTs (nonfungible tokens) or as prints. Message me on instagram or FB (thenapkindad) or email me @ marty@martycoleman.com
Annie finished reading her daily scripture and was contemplating its meaning when the phone rang. She decided, based on her morning study, that she was not going to answer the phone. The phone call was from the National Academy of Poodle Excellence and they were going to offer her a job as Executive Vice President. This wasn’t the first time she hadn’t answered a call from this number so they eventually gave up on her. They offered the job to Sid, a poodle in Oklahoma, who took it and eventually reached world-wide fame as the CEO of NAPE. Annie meanwhile continued her studies and was never the wiser because she didn’t watch the news.
Here are 10 drawings I’ve done over the Winter and Spring of 2021. Let me know your favorites!
‘The Tik Tok Dancer’
Ink on Paper
2021
She practiced her TikTok dance in the mirror in the room with her favorite dog and painting on a Sunday instead of going to Temple.
‘The Sunbathers’
Ink on Paper
2021
“I Like to Sleep in the Sun.” “Me Too.”
‘The Overdramatic Musician’
Ink on Paper
2021
The story is told of the time when the melodramatic musician overreacted to the famous painting of Mt. Vesuvius and burst an embolism and died right at that spot and made it even more famous!
‘Spiraling’
Ink on Paper
2021
‘American Allegiance’
Ink on Paper
2021
‘The Whiner’
Ink on Paper
2021
“Whoa (yes, I know it’s spelled wrong) is me why me who am i why cant i when will this how will i ever what will how will i be?”
“OMG, why did I get such a whiner for a mom? Damn, that means I am going to be the grown up from day one. UGH!”
This idea caught me by surprise. I had never really thought about how the contemplation of eternity or the afterlife is a form of leisure. I think it is a pretty broad definition of the word leisure though since there are people who are employed and working hard to think on these things. Nonetheless, it isn’t the primary creative purview of people laboring to survive at an existential level. It’s for those who have the time to contemplate it, right?
Interesting secondary thoughts
is this true of all aspects of religion, not just the afterlife?
I sometimes think ahead and scan my line drawings before painting them. I thought I would show some of them to you side by side. The drawings were all done live at the scene. Painting was done afterwards in my studio. Five of these were done in coffee houses, one was done on an airplane.
There is a slider you can control, going from just line to fully painted. What do you think?
The Conversation, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2014
Anna and Meera, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2015
The Knitters, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2018
Megan, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2015
Catherine, Before and After, ink and acrylic paint, 2013
Britni the Filmmaker, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Fair Fellow Coffee, undated
Men at Starbucks, Before and After, Ink and Acrylic Paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, undated
The woman had rarely been out of the house for the last 12 months. The last time was picking up her daughter from the day care center the day it closed down. Since then she’d had groceries and meals delivered or her partner had gone shopping. She had worked remotely and had done all her exercising either on her own or via zoom.
She had gotten into the habit of staying in her sweats all day, not wearing a bra, makeup or doing anything with her hair. She told herself she liked it like that because it was so much easier.
But when it was time for their vaccine appointment she put on a bra and makeup and even colored her hair her favorite color. She put on her best tank top (it was hot that day) and her old skinny jeans and tried out a new pair of hoop earrings she had got for her birthday but had no reason to wear over the year. It made her unexpectedly happy to do all this.
They waited in the car line for about 20 minutes then it was their turn. She was so excited she forgot to put her mask on but no one said anything about it. She made sure to be on the passenger side with her partner driving so the shot would be in her right arm since she was left handed. She thought the nurse was the prettiest woman she had ever seen in her life and told her so. Her partner smiled because she had missed seeing that part of her over the year. Then they waited 15 minutes until the nice firefighter signaled they could go.
When they got home the first thing she did was take off her bra. But she kept the rest of her clothes on because they made her feel good. Then they had bologna sandwiches and potato chips to celebrate as they finally planned their long-delayed wedding.
A Woman Making Her Way – An Illustrated Short Story
Deborah was at a spring party in someone’s backyard. She told the man who was too interested in her this analogy. She saw herself as being on a paddleboard, making her way through the perils of life. She had to row, she had to balance, she had to keep strong, and she had to focus to avoid all the dangers around her and get to where she wanted to go.
The man who was too interested lost interest and went on to another young woman at the party. Deborah smiled and went over to the canape table and ate 6 crackers with crab dip on them.
Back before the Pandemic, when we could actually go and hang out in coffee houses, I did so on a regular basis. Way back in October of 2016 I tried a new cafe, Chimera, in the Tulsa Arts District. After I settled in I drew the scene in front of me in my sketchbook while I sipped my coffee. I used a Japanese brush pen called Copic Gasenfude.
Copic Gasenfude brush pen
Fast forward 5 years. I was looking through that sketchbook and realized I never finished the drawing. Of course, 5 years later I had no memory of the actual colors of anything. All I knew was the bricks were red so I started there. After that it was simply using colors and tones I thought looked good in the scene and together. I added brick under the counter as a way to tie the image together even though I don’t think there actually was brick there.
This is an important thing to remember about art – unless you are being paid to replicate something or someone then what matters is how your image looks, not how accurate you are in copying reality. The image IS the reality people are looking at, not the original thing. That is why so many drawings and paintings made from photographs are so bad, because they look like bad drawings and paintings of photos, not good pieces of art.
Worry less about unoriginal and uncreative copying and trust more your own eye and hand to create something of interest.
What is discrimination, bigotry, racism, ageism, and sexism (and more) but variations on this theme of not respecting who people are? It’s all basically saying you don’t approve of that person as they are. You want them to change to be more like those you approve of. In other words, you want them to be more like you.
Expect my Resistance
I am going to assume for a moment you are reading this from a comfortable, non-threatened existence. Think through what what would happen if the tables were turned and you were the one being shown disrespect for your very existence. What would you do? If there is enough power arrayed against you, you might just get along as best you can, not cause trouble, not raise a ruckus, choosing to preserve your life and family over the conflict that would surely come if you stood up.
But what if this went on for decades and centuries, always finding a way to rear its ugly head no matter what supposed progress was being made. What if the disrespect was so violent as to actually threaten your existence and not just yours but your family, your tribe, your culture. Then what would you do? It’s the impetus behind every struggle for freedom and equality in the history of the world.
Whose Side Are You On?
If you do this thought exercise of putting yourself in another’s shoes it’s not hard to finally understand why people who have been threatened in this way are standing up and fighting back. The question is, are you on their side? Do you respect their existence, not as you want them to be but as they are?
The painting looked at her longingly, hoping she would feel the same. She did, paying $765,000 for her and putting her over her couch so they could watch TV together.
Two Portraits
The portrait sat there for years but the serpent was a good singer so she didn’t mind.
Sculpture and Volcano
The metal sculpture was always hoping for visitors but was usually alone because of the volcano.
Sculpture and Patron
The dream recognized his recent lover but took no responsibility, blaming the image and deed for her condition.
Sculpture and Paintings
The ancient sculpture spontaneously started crying oil paint of various colors from every minute crack and became a pilgrimage spot for all true artists from everywhere.
Sculpture and Nude
The sculpture enjoyed blocking the view of the nude since she was jealous of her having a body.
In 2015 a new app came out called Periscope. It was the first true live streaming app and I gravitated to it immediately. I’ve have been using it ever since. I’ve met some incredible people on it, some who have become dear friends.
My best Periscope pal is Barry, better known as Freddie Ferret. He started appearing in my scopes around 2016 or so and became a loyal participant. He and is family live in St. Louis and back in 2018 and 2019 I stayed with them while on my way to Marathons in Illinois. In 2019 I was able to spend an entire evening with them and took advantage of the time to draw his 2 daughters, Jaedyn and Shealeigh. I drew them on watercolor paper with the intent of painting them later. It took a while but finally got around to it in time for Barry to give them to his daughters for Christmas this past year (2020).
Portrait of Jaedyn, watercolor on paper, 2020
Portrait of Shaeleigh, watercolor on paper, 2020
While I paint I test, dab and swipe the brushes on a separate piece of paper to test the color or to get the right amount of wetness on the brush. I do the same thing with my marker drawings on napkins and in my sketchbook. I always keep these pieces of paper and later have fun turning it into some sort of art piece.
I did that in this case and presented the ‘extra’ painting to Barry as a gift for our friendship over the years.
Update 3/6/21 – I posted this painting on Social Media and since it was so public I thought it might be kind to find the woman I drew. I had her company email address so I went on Facebook and found someone with her name who worked at that company. I friended and messaged her, letting her know about the painting having finally been finished.
She wrote back saying she loved the painting and lo and behold, even though I had no idea when I wrote it, the thought bubble and text bubble were perfect representations of what she had been going through at the time, which was a time of great indecisiveness (I don’t know) leading up to a final bout of clarity (I know) that allowed her to break up with her BF of four years and start a new life!
‘Know Don’t Know’, Watercolor on Paper, 2021
I drew this woman at a Starbucks in Tulsa, OK in 2019 before the Covid 19 pandemic hit. I drew it on Watercolor paper instead of in my sketchbook, hoping one day to find the time to actually paint it. I finally found time in 2020-2021.
I had drawn in the two thought bubbles early on and ignored them until I was done painting. I liked the idea of her thinking one large bubble worth of thoughts and then editing it down into a smaller bubble. My original idea was she would be writing a story and I even wrote a segment of a murder mystery and it’s edited version but didn’t like the vibe of it so never wrote it in.
Finally I went with what I was thinking at the time, which was, ‘I don’t know’. Once I finished the large thought bubble it made sense to have her typing out the exact opposite of her ‘I don’t know’ doubts, just like so many of us do on a daily basis.
These portraits from 1988 and 1989 are all from my sketchbook. Most of the models were friends from work or were students I asked to model to illustrate how to draw portraits.
Student in Profile, Ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
I asked my students to use sketchbooks extensively because I wanted them to draw as often as possible. Waiting until you are in the studio makes sense for media that needs elaborate prep but drawing doesn’t. You can do it on anything anywhere.
Kathy Lay, Ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
I would demonstrate my use of a sketchbook by using them as models in the lecture portion of the class then have them do the same, using each other as models.
Sheila Gomes, ballpoint pen on paper, 1988
I wouldn’t often get very far with the drawings while they were actually posing for me, usually just a line drawing like you see in the first few drawings. But I would work on them later and show them at a later session to show how you can start with very basic lines and take off from there, even without the model being present.
Theresa Castro, ballpoint pen on paper, 1988
I taught that there is power in focus. You don’t have to complete a drawing edge to edge, as a matter of fact, leaving most of it barely sketched in often allows the focus to be where you want it.
Judy Sugg, ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
These may look pretty realistic to some but they really aren’t. They are a stylized realism, not photo-realism. I taught that an absolute likeness is not essential unless you are being paid to do that. If not, then you can and should feel free to compose and stylize as you wish. It’s how you develop your own look and style.
Kristine Hayes, ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
Individual style comes from adaptation of what is into what you want it to be. In my case I love definition, contrast and volume so I increase the lights and darks much further than they were in real life to achieve that.
Suzanna Jones, ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
In my opinion, no one needs a photographic copy of someone in a drawing. There is photography for that. The acclaim that comes from someone saying, ‘Wow, it looks just like a photograph!’ is nice, but in my opinion it’s just a gimmick unless something much deeper is being expressed (which is possible with photo-realism, I just don’t see it often).
Janet Arsenault, ballpoint pen and Prismacolor pencil on paper, 1989
And of course, my work wouldn’t be complete without adding in a cartoon image, preferably including my longest running characters, Singing Snake and Turtle.
