Image for December 28, 2011 - AKAN!!!!

I'm trying to finish off a little sketchbook that I've been carrying around for way too long. It's filled with mini-portraits of surrealist artists and African masks. Recently while catching up on the ever-growing pile of New Yorker magazines on the bed stand, I read a wonderfully enthusiastic review by Peter Schjeldahl of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of African masks. One of the mask images accompanying the article caught my eye and I had to add him to my sketchbook. This drawing is rough three inches high. I included an extra enlarged image because I love looking at the texture of the pen marks.

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Image for December 26, 2011 - 700 Miles and Counting...

This photo is actually from yesterday, but no matter, I'll be hiking again today too. I took this just at the moment when I completed my seven hundredth mile for 2011 thus accomplishing my hiking goal. I pulled a seven mile walk yesterday that left my total at seven hundred and three miles and will add a bit more to it before this year is done. I am pondering now whether to increase my goal from seven hundred to say, seven fifty, but we will see.

This has been a good year of hiking. I had the opportunity to hike in several different states including Virginia, North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin and Florida, not to mention one overseas excursion to Scotland. I've had the chance to walk with a lot of my friends, some of whom aren't regular hikers, but I'm always trying to convert folks to the walking life so I'll always have companions for the trail. No point taking a journey if you don't have a friend or two to share it with.

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Happy Christmas 2011

Our Christmas card for 2011. Merry Christmas to all! I wish you health and peace and love.

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Image for December 23, 2011

Click image for larger size

...and so, two days before Xmas and I'm posting a sketch I did of Edgar Allen Poe, go figure. I did this as a warm up for the Monster Drawing Rally event at 1708 gallery in Richmond, Va a couple of weeks back. I had some fun with this portrait, pushing the asymmetrical quality of Poe's face and exaggerated the size and shape of his head. I think I'll be doing another drawing or two of Poe, something more detailed as I just like his face. He also has a haunted, slightly crazy look in his eye that I find compelling. Kinda how I feel about the Holiday Season about now. Merry Ho-Ho!

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The Monster Drawing Rally - December 10, 2011

Ralf and I throw down

Today was a great day because it was Monster Drawing Rally day at the 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA. The premise is simple, invite a bunch of artists to draw in one hour shifts and donate their efforts to the gallery, which in turn sells the art at $65 a pop as a fund-raiser for this most excellent non-profit creative space. I did the event for the first time and was a bit nervous drawing in front of people and under a time limit to boot, but actually found the boundaries actually had a freeing affect. This year, I couldn't wait for the big day, which was originally back in August, but Hurricane Irene ruined that, so it was moved to today. An old friend from way back in the underground comix days, Ralf Schulze (of Zombie Vomit and Dinky-Doo fame, check out his blog) joined me this year. That is he and I in the top photo, Ralf is on the right. My first big drawing was called "Edgar Allen Poe VS. The Brain Eating Microbe" and some one from the Poe Museum in Richmond stopped by to look at it. I'll post a clearer image of the drawing in a later post. Several Richmond friends came out in support and it was wonderful to see so many old friends that I haven't seen in so long. Mark your calendars and come on out next year!

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PS- My friend Casey Gwinn took the photos. Check out his photo-blog COGfoto!

Me and my drawing "Edgar Allen Poe VS. The Brain Eating Microbe

Image for December 7, 2011 - Hello Rudolph!

I got out for a quick two mile walk after work tonight. The air was full of wild energy because a storm front was moving in. The winds were whipping the trees around. Many of the houses in the neighborhood are well decorated with Xmas lights. There seem to be more then last year, which I take as a good sign that things are getting better. One yard had a lovely herd of reindeer lights with Rudolph in the lead. Guide us through the gloom Rudolph!

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