Saturday, December 1, 2007
Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007
Today my friend Steve came over and helped me learn how to scan my doodles and post them on my blog. Thanks, Steve!
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fabrica
7/29/08 - I did this one on the paper table cloth at a place called Kincaid's, in St. Paul. I was with a friend who said it reminded her of fabric - something called "Marimekko." That's cool, I said. I've had people tell me my doodles reminded them of fabric before. Now, I notice the patterns on clothes and I wonder...
interesting experiment
This was done at Bell's Diner last Saturday (5-3-08). Margaret and I had picked up Emily for lunch and then we were heading off to see the play, Willy Wonka, at Pioneer. We wanted to find someplace "fun" to eat, but couldn't really think of anything. Bell's was close and easy, and Emily had never been there, so it worked fine. There wasn't a big table, so they sat together at one of the little tables by the window and I sat next to them at the little corner table facing the back of the place. They were talking away, so I started to doodle. All they had was this big blue marker, and I knew it would bleed all over the napkin. But I wanted some color. So I got the idea to use condiments. Well, not initially... at first I just tried catsup. The rose and the heart are colored with catsup. I've had success in the past using marachino cherries (as noted further down on here) on beer coasters; I've been doing that for a while, years probably... But this was something different. The catsup wasn't terrific, and it was all sticky, but I thought, "hmm, maybe I'll try mustard," so I asked for some - that's the yellow, which worked pretty good. The best color though, the darker reddish, orangeish color is the hot sauce they serve with their Bi-Bim-Bob. Then Emily and Margaret came up with the idea of using jelly! There are all those little packets of jelly, so I tried strawberry and orange marmelade and grape, but they were sticky too and didn't really work well. Finally, I was looking for something green, for the leaves, so I tried relish... nothing, really. I let it dry for almost a week because I didn't want it to stick to the glass when I scanned it in... but it did anyway.
Yellow Rose of Texas
done on a napkin at kelly's diner near hobby airport in houston
Knight's in White Napkins 1 of 4
One night this past spring (2008), I was sitting at the bar up at Knight's - my neighborhood watering hole in Ann Arbor (it's only about a block up the street, and sometimes I walk up there for dinner with my friend Jeff who lives next door.) Sometimes, though, I'll just go up there when I feel like drinking... I don't go there too often, because it's a little dangerous... but this particular night, I was in a doodling mood, and I was getting a little play from the folks sitting at the bar with me... I kicked these four out in about a half an hour, with the majority of the work going into this first one... the beauty of these things is that basically they just happen... I don't have to put a lot of mental energy into creating them... I just put the pen down on the page and they come out... (boy, do I wish writing was that way for me!) ...anyway, sometimes people are amazed that it's so easy... which is why I believe it's one of those God-given things, which is part of why I feel like I want to show them to the world via this blog... I like this first one because although it is a little too busy, I think, I incorparated the eye at the bottom, which makes it look like some beautiful sea ceature, like a cross between an octopuss and a jelly fish, or a string ray, I guess, with ribbons of irredescent streamers flowing from from it while it glides through abyss!
Knight's in White Napkins
same night... #2
Knight's in White Napkins 3 of 4
same night....
Knight's in White Napkins 4 of 4
4th one...
Texas Trip 1 of 7 - Profile of Milo (Venus D.)
3-2-08 (original art: 5" x 5") done on the back of an American Airlines napkin on the way from Denver to Dallas... There was a ten year old kid sitting next to me, with his family - all to my left - on their way home from a ski vacation at Winter Park... he said he liked my doodle...
tx trip 2 of 7 - Eagle Eye
I think I started this one on that first leg of the trip from Denver to Dallas... the boy next to me was doing his homework; it was the last day of his spring break and he had to go back to school the next day... I started doodling on the barf bag in the seat pocket in front of me... the material is really cool actually; it's coated with something, or made out of plastic of some sort (you know, to hold the barf, if necessary... I mean, a paper bag just wouldn't do the trick! But I really don't mean to go there... kind of gross, you know?) Anyway, the pen I was using just kind of floated across the page (or, plastic.. or whatever it was.) I like this eye theme thing that is happening... usually I insert flowers or hearts, but I like this eye thing...
tx trip 3 of 7 - Sky Pilot
...this one was on the same bag, I think... I had a couple of them (barf bags) by the time I got to Houston, and I borrowed some siccors at the front desk of the hotel to cut them all out with... and when I got home and started to scan them in, I was trying to remember what order I drew them in... I know the first one was done on a napkin, and the last one on a notepad at the hotel in Chicago during a meeting... but the five in the middle were all done on the plane... on those barf bags.
tx trip 4 of 7 - Gone Fishin'
...I actually got three doodles on the first barf bag on the way to Dallas...
Texas trip 5 of 7 - Winter Harvest
The leg from Dallas to Houston was kind of rough... I was sitting next to this guy with a big beard and glasses... I could tell he was a little worried because the plane was bouncing around pretty good... I started in on a new barf bag, and I could he was watching me... we never really said anything to each other... he was travelling with a couple of other guys the were in the seats in front of us... I think they were on their way home from a hunting trip of something...
tx trip 6 of 7 - Storm Clouds
3-2-08 ...on plane from Dallas to Houston ...it was getting rough, so we had to fly 'around' a storm was brewing beneath us... the clouds were absolutely magnificent ... it's like we were flying in the little white spot at the top of this picture and all of this stuff was happening beneath us... the girl in the seat in front of me and I were oooing and ahhing while the plane was rattling around... it was an evening flight and the sun was poking through from the West... I hadn't thought of it, but were heading South and I was in a window seat on the right side of the plane... it was pretty incredible...
tx trip 7 of 7 - Dangerous Meeting
3-6-08 ...Chicago O'Hare, on Hilton notepad at meeting ...end of a long week...
Valentine's Card for Margaret
valentine's day 2008...
Christmas in Colorado
Coloring book for Margaret... while we were at my sister's house in Denver over Christmas Break of '07, I drew this and my daughter colored it in with crayons...
torso
be still my beating heart... Winter 2008
purple passion
originally entitled "field of wheat" - there was some debate with Margaret about the title... Winter 2008 - these were done with some neat colored markers I was given by a friend for Christmas - Thanks!
This Is Crazy!
This is an old doodle I found on a sticky note, probably created sometime in the last couple of years; but I scanned it in and played with the tones, and voila! Crazy!
Crazy II
Wow...
Really Cool 1
Really Cool 2
cracks
not sure of date (original art: 4.5" h x 3.75" w) ...black pen on white paper...
John
Jan. '08 (original art: 2.25" h x 2.75" w) ...black pen on white paper, in honor of my friend John on becoming a new father...
lost in the wilderness
not sure of date (original art: 5" h x 8" w) ...black pen on white paper...
dragon's tail
1-25-08 (original art: 2.75" h x 1.75" w) ...black pen on legal pad...
skyport control tower
1-22-08 (original art: 3" h x 3.25" w) ...black pen on the back of a square sheet, from a memo cube (with flowers on the front!) at Kathleen's office...
little flower
12-20-07 (original art: 1.75" h x 2.25" w) ...quick one in the car, black pen on the back of a claim check (not sure for what)...
Tapestry
12-15-07 (original art: 3.75" h x 5" w) ...black pen on white paper, at Starbucks on Main Street after Christmas Party with Thursday morning breakfast crew, during a most wonderful snowfall...
Open Heart
original art:
Swirl
Pharoah's Eye
pyramid
desert wind
Banana Split
12-15-07 ...black pen on napkin
le Fleur est bleu para no sabe cantina
12-10-07 ...go ahead google it ...the French word for "flower" is spelled both ways ...no telling where the Spanish came from!
valet 2
12-13-07 ...back of Linda P's parking stub after lunch at Gandy Dancer
valet 1
12-13-07 ...back of parking stub after lunch at Gandy Dancer with Thursday morning crew
4000 Fairies
12-11-07 ...on Jonathan's pad at Sweetwater's
rodadendrum
12-13-07 ...at Bruegger's Bagels, black pen on envelope
Third times a charm
g-spot
12-13-07 (original art: 2" h x 1" w) ...at Bruegger's, black pen and wax pencil on verizon envelope...
Garden of Eden
12-4-07 (original art: 2.5" h x 2.5" w) ...same plane ride, same envelope...
Let It Be
12-4-07 (original size: 5" h x 2.5" w) ...on the plane to Dallas, black pen on "slick" envelope (wonder if I can find some paper like that?)...
towers and spires
11-14-07 ...Done at the Starbucks across the street from the campus of Princeton University, where - of course - Fitzgerald's great first novel, "This Side of Paradise," is set. This is like a pilgrimage of sorts, made almost 30 years after I first read it. I walked around campus and crept into a few buildings. It was late at night. I was only there for an hour. But my interest had been picqued by a recent viewing of "Across the Universe," which is also set - for a time - at Princeton. I picked up a CD of British Invasion hits at the Starbucks in honor of the Beatles. And in honor of F. Scott? Well, sorry it took me so long to get there, senor.
napkin number nine
Found this in my laptop bag, probably done on same trip to New Jersey in mid-November, 2007, when I snuck down to Princeton... black pen on a white napkin
yahtzee, anyone?
no date - more old era
j.o.h.n.
no date - old era
Untitled
4-5-06 ...This was done in John's basement - some time ago now - during the recently-ended last era. It was done with a black pen on the grey back of the flap from a green box of Kroger dryer sheets. The "last era" - which was mostly spent at John's house, playing cards and ping-pong in the basement - lasted for almost exactly four years - beginning in the fall of 2003, and ending in the late summer of 2007. This was a time of great wonder and expectation. A glorious time! ...and although it is not titled, the word "Someday" can be seen in the center of the piece, and I treasure this drawing because it is one of the first ones I actually kept, way before I had ever thought of posting any of them online.
God Is Love
12-2-07 (original art: 3.75" h x 2.5" w) ...This is the one I'm talking about in the blog above.
Black Tie Affair
No Date - This is old doodle, done with black pen on a white square note cube page.
Google Moon
7-10-06 ...This is a fairly intricate doodle done on a "Marriott" napkin at O'Hare Airport during the summer of 2006. I think it looks like a cityscape from the air, like the tops of buildings ...on the moon!
Some Kinda Wonderful
10-10-07 (original art: 8.5" h x 11" w) ...Black pen on the back of a flier of some sort. A friend of mine was actually going to make a glass 'etching' out of this one, but I'm not sure it ever happened.
Maraschino Cherry
8-26-07 ...As far as I know, I invented this technique at Casey's, doodling on the back of beer coasters. To add color, I use a Maraschino Cherry from the bar. First, I bite it in half (eating the half in my mouth, of course ...mmm, good!) then I take the open end of the other half, and use it like a paint brush, rub it on on the coaster ...and, voila, it's red! (Although this one was actually done at Conor's.)
North by Northwest
11-11-07 ...This one was done at the new place, Coffee and Chocolate, on Jackson Road, while having coffee with my friend Shorty.
Wisconsin Cheddar
11-10-07 (original art: 2.75" h x 5.25" w) I drew this while watching Michigan lose to Wisconsin on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007. The announcers kept saying how it didn't matter whether Michigan won or not, because they would be playing Ohio State for the BIG 10 Championship the following week anyway; which I thought was stupid because A) Michigan had started out so bad this year that they needed every win they could get, and I couldn't see how they could lose any more and still be in line for a championship, and B) because by saying all day long that it didn't matter if they lost, that it just sort of pre-disposed them to lose. Anyway, a friend of mine had invited me over to watch the game at his new place; said he was making a pot of "Wisconsin Cheddar" soup just for the occasion. So, while he was in the kitchen cooking, I started scribbling, to keep from getting too frustrated about the game, and this is what I came up with.
PhD Blues
Last Friday, November 30, 2007, I met a friend for coffee at Shuler's Books up in East Lansing, and she started telling me about how she got her job at Michigan State. Really, what she was talking about was how hard it can be to find a job as an academic, even if you've got a PhD and you're really talented. She was grading papers and she had this red pen. She said every semester she has to buy a box of them before she starts grading her students' final exams. While she was talking, I picked up her red pen, grabbed a napkin that was laying on the table, and started doodling. This is what came out.
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