Happy Birthday Bukowski

Hank would have been 91 today. It's amazing he lasted as long as he did considering how hard he tried to end sooner. I stumbled on Bukowski through a great article about him in Film Comment magazine when "Barfly" was coming out and it made me curious enough to get one of his books, "Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame" and it branded my vision. The older I get, the more I understand what he laid down. There is a directness and truth to his writing that never fails to pierce my soul and help burn the bullshit away. Here's a little taste of Hank reading "dinosauria, we". Reminds me of Leonard Cohen's "The Future". Get a good jar of the red, close your eyes and listen to this:



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Images for August 15, 2011 - Bring Out the Gimp

Here's another sculpture I did many years ago. He was one of a series of little busts that I sketched up in Sculpey, a polymer clay. I usually painted them with acrylic paints, but this one was never painted. I recently was surfing up what other artist are doing with Sculpey and found a whole group doing some fantastic sci-fi and fantasy genre stuff. One of my favorites are The Shiflett Brothers. Their work continues the same epic sense of adventure and power that painters like Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo are so well-known for. Looking at their work and going back and reexamining my own from back-in-the-day, is making me a little itchy to push some clay around again...

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Images for August 14, 2011 - African Mask Drawing

Got a little drawing done today. I have to get my skills sharpen in anticipation for the Monster Drawing Rally in Richmond at the 1708 Gallery later this month.

This is a "Gabun, Bakota figure" that I drew from an old book titled, "Primitive Art: It's Traditions and Styles". I like this piece because it is so abstract and alien. After finishing the drawing I noticed how asymmetrical the main form is of my version  compared to the original and I'm OK with that. The aim of the exercise was not to perfectly replicate the photograph; I may have well just scanned the photo and posted that, instead I wanted to filter it through my hand, brain and heart and see what happened.

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Images for August 10, 2011 - The Amazing Hypno-Man

Stare deep into my eyes...Deeper, DEEPER. Yes, that is better. Your eye lids are growing heavy, heavier, really dang heavy. BAM yo ass should be asleep.

Beware the Amazing Hypno-Man! You never know when he'll strike next!

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