Unconventional Sleeping Arrangements

Drawing a Day: Owl

This one was drawn at Z's swim lesson, with a ten year old mostly naked Russian-American child hanging over my shoulder, and his mother behind us, talking in Russian. And him answering in English, "Yeah, yeah... no, she said it was okay."

I did say it was okay.

Great Horned Owl, I think.

Drawing a Day: Queen of Cats

Sometimes, I fantasize about drawing a game of some sort. Maybe a card game. This is the Queen of Cats.

Drawing A Day: Alice's Hair

This one was inspired by my college roommate, Alice, who had (probably still has) the most amazingly beautiful, curly red hair I've ever seen on anyone. And it went with her looks, too. She's quite stunning.

Tom Robbins wrote something about redheads, once:

"The harsh truth is, most red-haired men look like blondes who've spoiled from lack of refrigeration. They look like brown-haired men who've been composted out behind the barn. Yet that same pigmentation that one a man can resemble leaf mold or junkyard rust, a woman wears like a tiara of rubies."

So, I drew her in black and white! And she is a very clean person. A spider would never, ever, ever find its way into her hair! 

Drawing a Day: Washing Dishes

This guy is completely imaginary, as is the bird in the window. I'm not sure if it's a really bird, or a ceramic bird, or a stained glass bird. Maybe he wants to help with the dishes?

Drawing a Day #4: The Hangover

In high school, Jared was what Midwesterners call, "an odd duck." He had long black hair and he wore a suit to school every day. He often carried a briefcase. The briefcase was like the Queen's purse- what does he keep inside of it?

One evening, I went with my dad to his BBS club meeting at Pizza Hut. (If you don't know what a BBS club was, look it up. I don't have time to educate the world, here! Suffice to say that my dad and his friends invented the internet in the private meeting room at Pizza Hut in 1988. [You always wondered what went on in that private meeting room at Pizza Hut, didn't you?]) I was just digging into my Veggie Delight Personal Pan Pizza, sitting at the long table with fifteen or so sexless teenaged computer geeks, plus my dad, (because he was cool like that,) when in walked Jared, with his three piece suit and his black pony tale and his briefcase. There was murmuring. He was not normally a part of this group. Also, he was late. Jared set his briefcase down in the middle of the table, opened it up, and took out a giant rubber squid and laid it in the middle, amongst the pitchers of root beer. A giant, translucent, rubber squid. And then he sat down and acted like nothing unusual had happened. 

So that's what he kept in the briefcase.

This story is neither here nor there, except that today's drawing is a portrait of Jared. A very, very, very hungover Jared. He put a picture of his hungover self on the Facebooks on New Year's Day, and I drew this from that.

I exaggerated the awfulness a bit. In real life, I believe Jared (like most humans) has a symmetrical face.

A Drawing A Day #3: Bodkay in a Little Suitcase

Bodkay the Cat died in July. The last photo of him healthy was of him sleeping in a little suitcase. I drew this from the photo.

When he isn't orange, he doesn't quite look like Bodkay- but I'm still happy with how the drawing turned out. 

A Drawing A Day #2: Forest Floor, Trees

I imagine these two large trees are friends, holding roots underneath the ground, grown very, very close together over time. Little sprouts and clovers grow up around them on the forest floor. 

A Drawing a Day for 2016- Drawing #1

I don't know if I can really do this, but I would like to draw a picture every day in 2016. And post them here. Even if they are terrible.

I've had some experiences and conversations this year that have made me think I should do this.

1. I know someone who is friends with an artist who just died, and right before he died (when he was sick) he said, "My only regret in life is that I did not create more art."

2. My coloring book is still selling copies. With my other books, after over a month, people just stopped buying them. It was over. (Although Exhaust(ed) sometimes has little resurgences, but it's complicated.) And what is a coloring book? Pretty much just a bunch of drawings. So if I drew every day, I could take the best drawings and make them into coloring books.

3. I hurt my ankle back in September, and I'm not supposed to walk too much. I'm supposed to stay off of it as much as possible. So I thought that, instead of walking or running for fitness, I could draw and increase my skills in that area. And concentrate on healing that *ankle!

4. I've been following an artist on Facebook as she did a month of "a drawing a day," and it was fascinating. I loved looking at her drawings. I didn't even necessarily think they were good art (which is why I'm not saying her name) but the experience was fascinating. She wrote about the drawings, too, and why she drew them and stuff. I still look at her feed every day. So, maybe you would like looking at my drawings in the same why that I like looking at other people's? Or not. But it will be here, either way.

5. Meditation is good for your brain, and when I draw, I do go into that deep concentration, sometimes. I would like to increase my ability to do that, and increase my inner calm. And increase my ability to draw!


Here's drawing #1:

It's supposed to be a close up of a cedar tree. I don't know if it really looks like that? It was an interesting experiment in negative space. BAH teased me that I was, "wasting ink." He gave me the sketch book for Christmas, by the way. I love it! Thanks, BAH!



*More about what exciting things I've learned from my ankle in a future post!