African Mask Drawing - Basonge, Zaire

I made some time today to do some drawing. It's been too long since I sat down and disconnected from the electronics and fell into an image. Losing myself in making marks and playing games with shadow and light. I've been thinking about African masks lately. They hold a mystery and power that stirs deep waters in my soul. They are one of my favorite things to draw. I have several books of African masks that I idly flip through for inspiration. My "model" came from a book called Masks of Black Africa (African Art Art of Illustration) that has a fantastic selection of masks from all over Africa to browse. I choose this mask because it's mix of silly and scary. The mouth is the silly bit for me. This is simple black ballpoint pen on paper.

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Some Times They're Playing Possum and Sometimes They're Just Dead

Found this little guy in the yard. At first I couldn't  tell if he was really dead, knocked out or pretending to be dead. I went up to the house and got the camera and he was still there, so I gave him a nudge and he was stiff and cold. I didn't see any evidence of violence (after decades of watching CSI this and that, I've developed my cop-mind), no teeth marks or blood, so what happened? He is tiny, about five inches long without the tail, so a youngin' not long out of the nest. Barely got started in life and was cut down. Sometimes nature is cruel, actually indifferent, we project the cruel part, and will take who or whatever makes a mistake. Another reminder to live each day as if it was our last. "Freshen your mind with death" as the Bushido says.

Whenever I find a dead animal, I always enjoy the opportunity to closely examine an animal that when alive, I might only get a glimpse of as it scurries off to escape me. I love the the curl of his tail and the tiny hand-like paws. The fur is beautiful too, the delicate white hairs floating above the gray fur. I took my photos, then got out the shovel and gave this baby a proper burial.

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We are all in this together...

These are fine, weird and interesting times that we live in. Anyone reading this is well aware of the unstoppable earthquake of change that is rolling through seemingly everything all courtesy of this here intertubes that is carrying these words. Not long ago if you were an artist or writer or musician or filmmaker, you had to grind away for many years honing your craft hoping for the day when you might be able to get your efforts in front of the right eyes. Eyes in the head of someone "connected", a gatekeeper that would bring the manna down from heaven in the form of a recording, publishing, exhibition, production contract that would whisk you away from the hard-living reality of Ramen and Natty-lite. Well, those days are gone with record, publishing and movie companies all reeling from the tsunami of all this interconnectedness. What is happening now is that the middle man is getting cut out for better and worse. The worse is with the gatekeepers of cultural taste falling to shadow, we are no longer protected from the massive mountains of steaming shite that lie in wait to steal our time and attention away. The better is artists can now sell directly to their fans and cut out all those many layers of corporate dependents siphoning off all the real profits until the artist is left with only crumbs. Part of this new paradigm is fans getting the ability to "invest" in an artist's project before hand often for the price of a CD or DVD, in small payments often as low as one dollar, art funded by the crowd or "crowdsourcing", as it is called. I've been throwing my money behind some projects via the fine web site Kickstarter that is designed to help artists raise money for their projects. Any kind of art you can think of, any kind of project you can conceive can be found on their. So far, I have supported seven projects, everything from a horror film (Hardcore Indie) to a couple of video games (Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns) and my latest, my old friend Barbara Nesbitt's Album project. If you like alt country, then you you love her stuff. I love her voice and heartfelt, authenticate lyrics. She has a good way to go to be fully funded, so give some of her songs a listen and consider helping her bring this album to life. Because you know, we are all in this together. We got to help each other out and we can do it.

Zahdah!

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Image for March 19, 2012 - Monday Sunset

I got out for a walk after work with my old friend Colin. Our friendship goes back over thirty years. There was a stretch of many years where we lost touch, but we reconnected a few years back and I marvel at how we've managed to find a new level as friends. This does not always happen. Sometimes the drift sets in and there's no pulling it back. Friendships are tricky and mysterious things. It's hard to guess which ones will last and which ones will fade away.  There's no sense in worrying about it, better to appreciate the moment and hope you get more of them in the future. Friendships are like a sunset. Brief, beautiful and easy to take for granted. As I get older I realize how lucky I've been to have had so many sweet friends.

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