Moondog's Doodles: August 2008

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The other day at Portofino, I met two ladies who were so beautiful that light shown from them. They reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in a while, a quote, which another beautiful person shared with me, from a speech by Nelson Mandela, called "Our Greatest Fear." Upon re-reading it, I was inspired to share it here:

OUR GREATEST FEAR

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, handsome, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inaugural Speech

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interesting experiment

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.

Knight's in White Napkins 1 of 4

$Knight\$
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!

tx trip 2 of 7 - Eagle Eye

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

Texas trip 5 of 7 - Winter Harvest

tx trip 6 of 7 - Storm Clouds

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...

towers and spires

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.

Untitled

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.

Wisconsin Cheddar

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

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.