"Once you've seen a 100-foot cement buffalo on top of a donut-stand in the middle of nowhere, you're never the same." -Lane Smith

Strange, Wonderful Feeling

My baby brother (see above, 20 years ago) is getting married in four months. How wonderful.

The Motive for Metaphor

By Wallace Stevens

You like it under the trees in autumn,
Because everything is half dead.
The wind moves like a cripple among the leaves
And repeats words without meaning.

In the same way, you were happy in spring,
With the half colors of quarter-things,
The slightly brighter sky, the melting clouds,
The single bird, the obscure moon—

The obscure moon lighting and obscure world
Of things that would never be quite expressed,
Where you yourself were never quite yourself
And did not want nor have to be,

Desiring the exhilarations of changes:
The motive for metaphor, shrinking from
The weight of primary noon,
The A B C of being,

The muddy temper, the hammer
Of red and blue, the hard sound—
Steel against intimation—the sharp flesh,
The vital, arrogant, fatal, dominant X.

New Year's Sketches!

Check out some new sketches, one per day.

Its funny how, in my experience, when things are wonderful and real, creating art and living my life can co-exist.

"I certainly do not exist from nine to six, when I am at the office."
— Wallace Stevens

My Niece's Art

My niece and I were drawing with crayons one night when she was about 4. We were drawing a copy of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Proserpine, naturally, since that's what all Aunts do with their 4 year old nieces.

Needless to say, hers was awesome. I give you:

The Origianl:


Mine:


And hers:

Sigh No More

Serve God, love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised, we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry

Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea and one on shore
My heart was never pure
And you know me
You know me

But man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing

Love it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment, a cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be

-Mumford and Sons

4 New Drawings!

They are hanging out over at my art blog, here.

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.
-John Keats

Maybe fish need bicycles. Did anyone ask them?

Only Alive- Jars of Clay

I’m a fair weather friend
I’m a colorless view but I’m willin’ to make a deal
If you think you can make some faith here inside
I’ll drive off and marry you

I’m only alive with you
I can’t get by and I won’t get through
So put me in the river and let me say I do
I’m only alive with you

You’re a sight for sore eyes and a newborn cry
In a year where there are so few
If you throw me a line, I’ll show you in time
I’m fallin’ in love with you

Though my heart has been torn by loves I have worn
And I’m tempted by them ever still
I tremble inside when you walk in the room
You hold my affections and will

1.5.2011 Drawing

HERE!

Death and All his Friends-Coldplay

All winter, we got carried
Away over on the rooftops let's get married.
All summer we just hurried
so come over, just be patient, and don't worry.
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry.

So come over, just be patient, and don't worry.

And don't worry.

No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end;
I don't wanna cycle, recycle revenge;
I don't wanna follow death and all his friends.

No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end;
I don't wanna cycle, recycle revenge;
I don't wanna follow death and all of his friends.






I always think of riding over the English countryside when I listen to this song because I was in England when the album came out. I also think of how that point in my life was so full of change, for the better, and how excited I am for the future. Delicious.

1.4.11 Drawing

Right here.

First New Year's Drawing

LOOK!

Not only will you find the first New Year's drawing here, but you will also find a new painting of my great grandfather and an update on Anna the Apple Farmer's Wife.

Enjoy.

On the Shininess of 2011

Usually for New Year's I make a resolution that takes something away from my life. Last year I said I would eat no bread or pasta for a year. I did it. The year before that I gave up sodas. No problem. The extent of the benefits of not eating those things stopped at making my waist thinner. This year I want to do something that would add to the quality my life. I don't want to make another rule for myself. I'd rather free myself up to become more real.

This year I plan on becoming a better artist.

I plan to make at least one sketch a day (which I will post here, but probably not daily) and complete at least one painting every two weeks (which will also be posted here). In addition to these goals, I also plan to finish one children's story and have some sketches ready to go with it each month (probably not going to be posting these). These are the sorts of things that will help me to live the life I want.
Wish me luck, but don't stop there. Encourage me. Ask me how it's going. Hound me when I fail to post drawings.

Here we go.