Friday, November 20, 2009

Pasty Chicken, Etc.

Doodling... I think I think in color but I actually don't think in color, so when I try to imagine two colors together and think it can work, it actually can't... Eh, so here's a pasty chicken. (I had to white out the brown I used to have for the belly.)








Friday, October 30, 2009

"Volunteers," Etc.

My first oil painting...

5" x 7" Oil on canvas.
"Volunteers"


Learning how to distill single gestures...

after Picasso's "Sleepy Drinker"


And just a random drawing... of an angel?

Friday, October 16, 2009

Friday Kahlo (1932)

From a photo I found online (see below), which has Frida looking rather fierce. Mine... not so fierce, but good practice though. (A deceptively simple photo to draw; because the shape of her face is all distinguished by the difference in shade, I often found myself asking, What exactly am I looking at?)


Frida Kahlo (1932)


Close up


Sunday, October 11, 2009

More Drawings

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Dress and Hanger


Bottle

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Bloom

The word black has many different connotations. The image of the color (as in outer space black) has many different connotations, while the phrase black America or black culture has a whole history of its own.

I've recently used the word, "black," in a poem, and upon reading the poem, from what I can tell, some people were miffed by my use of the word "black," because they believe it connotes the same kind of black as in black America or black culture. I want to make it clear -- it doesn't. Rather, the poem addresses oppression in general.

If I were to speak of black America, I would take the task rather seriously (as opposed to using it in what's more or less an exercise in metered verse). Moreover, I'm weary of speaking for any demographic other than my own -- it's not my place.

While writing the poem, I used the word "black" only in light of it being a single-syllable metaphor and adjective, which could connote a particularly significant result of oppression (especially of journalistic media and of content deserving to be remembered and considered in our educational systems) -- that is, darkness, blindness, the kind that can not only stop you, in your moving forward, but suffocate you at where you stand. (And my hair is black; it has recently become a distraction.)

Bloom

The bulb blooms like an onion
cupped hands over hands
cut and falling – an echo

you harbor under your tongue.
It is seeping out --
a brittle lark of dust.

I smell the growth now rising
from my head, my hair,
a damp and ugly place

to hide. It is grand, you say.
It is without seed.
But look – black suffocation.

*

What is in italics is dialogue spoken by the "you" of the poem. Regardless of what "black suffocation" refers to, it should be clear that the poem condemns the position of the "you;" it condemns the "you" taking pride in the result of "black suffocation."

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Up Close

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Horse (c. 2)

... Just for practice. The picture is taken from a photo I found online.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Tortured Logic | ACLU video

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A petition for Eric Holder, to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate torture and detainee abuse, can be found here.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Flamingo Dance

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At an intersection near City Lights Bookstore.


Took a little break to visit family in [not so sunny, but in a good way] California. Here's something I tried painting and then took apart and then put back together... sort of.


charcoal and pastel on paper
"Flamingo Dance"


And here's a doodle from my sketchbook.


"Long Line"


Fearless Duck

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Two Cherries and a Bag

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red wine and pastel on paper

Learning the basics. Above are attempts number 1... 2... and 3... oy.


red wine and pastel on paper

Cherries



Study of a Bag #2

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Playing with My Food

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Study of a Bag


red wine on paper

Nude in the Snow