Sunday, February 8, 2015

Recent Drawings, 2/8/15





At the tail end of 2014 - it seems so long ago - I found a Wikipedia page that gave a great number of web sites for Indie Papers (my caps) around North America. Since the Toledo Free Press had decided not to use my cartoons for their paper, I decided I had nothing to lose by sending my work to other papers around North America (by North America I mean there were some Canadian papers and a Nova Scotia one, too), so I sent out a plethora of e-packages with 5 samples of my work, from the Village Voice to the Memphis Flyer - and everything in between.

As of this date, I've had one inkling of interest from a Lansing paper, who requested to see additional drawings, then I never heard anything more. That's it. Though this annoyance hasn't diminished my drive to get my work out there, I can't help but to wonder if I'm totally loopy in thinking that ANY of my art is worth anyone's attention. 

Sometimes I see other (local) outputs of art - in any of their various forms: music, theater, visual, et al - and wonder : 1) if this poor excuse of a town is cursed when it comes to the Arts, or 2) I, in fact, am delusional in thinking my work is worth anyone's attention.

It's only my thinking that #2 is bullshit, that I continue throwing stuff out there, and, not unlike throwing spaghetti against the wall, seeing what sticks.

With that in mind, I share a fresh sampling of the "cartoons" aspect of my work (even though I have posted some in earlier posts). Enjoy.










The above are all what are being referred to as "bad homophones," play on words, what were called "homophones" when I was in grade school, if I'm not mistaken. Silly? Yes.




These last two are an idea where a four-letter word is rearranged to form another word that can then be drawn in a picture integrating both words. Not sure "Dis Lexia" is the right name for it.

So, if anybody's got any ideas as to where this output can find a home, you know my name, look up the number.

Monday, February 2, 2015

This Winter Means to Kill Us All








February 2, 2015


This was written last year, but not surprisingly, fits the bill tonight.


This Winter means to kill us all
by any means at hand.
Freeze our marrow to its core
each bird and beast and man.

Our bones will crunch in Winter's jaws
our skin will crack like ice.
We'll try so hard to break its grip,
yet nothing will suffice.

And while we yearn with all our might,
yearn for Summer's heat,
relentless cold and frost and snow
will make the kill complete.

A little goes a long, long way
when it comes to Winter's hold.
The skies are grey, both night and day
and you can't ignore the cold.

Yeah, this Winter means to kill us all
it has no real contender.
And if you're wise, you'll empathize
admit defeat, surrender.

- Steven J. Athanas
(from “Cal 'n Dar, 2015”)

February 1st, 2015 (While Da Cold Winds Blow)


(apologies for the weird white boxes framing the letters)

February 1st, 2015, My Stoodio 




As you enter

I was going to start this entry by saying that there is not a more comfortable room in my house than my stoodio (sic), but that's not entirely true. Sometimes when I can't get what's in my head to come to life in front of me, it's kinda hellish. Frustrating, painful, rendering me insecure, ready to give it up, get that job that my Dad always said I should've (little late for that, though). So, truth be told, the converted bedroom on the second floor with windows on the North and West side, more often than not offers up challenges, but it's still my favorite room.



The door, as you enter, that never closes, which has Gandhi's Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World, as well as the word "Meraki":
a word that modern Greeks often use to describe what happens when you leave a piece of yourself (your soul, creativity, or love) in your work. When you love doing something, anything, so much that you put something of yourself into it. 

"To have a sacred place is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room or a certain hour of the day or so, where you do not know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody or what they owe you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be." - Joseph Campbell


Ma 'n Pa 


Ceramic Self-Portrait and a couple o' "BOINGS!!!" 


Shelf above the desk 


Inconsequential heart and stick piece 


2 Santa Fish Wait for the next season 

Time, of course, is the true enemy, both in a micro and a macro way: 1) utilizing the hours of the day and trying to get work done before the sun sets, and 2) the longer view, the one that takes into consideration just how many finite beats my heart has left, and . . . when I'll run out of energy and return to dust.




2 Views of workspace table top 

"Never apologize for your studio." - Denise Bezanson

My stoodio is a mess - and it should be. If I were working with pristine glass sculptures or shiny chrome pieces, maybe then it should be clean -maybe. But I'm not working those mediums. The works that come outta there reflect the squalor, I see it as a necessity. For 6+ years I've been working here, and I "cleaned" it for the first time at the beginning of January,2015, only because I was going to be working with a student.

"I used to empty the studio out and throw stuff away. I now don't. There will be a whole series of dead ends that a year or two down the line I'll come back to."  - Anish Kapoor

In my stoodio you'll find a tub (one of those plastic containers that are meant to store Christmas stuff) overflowing with tissue paper, various sticks obtained while walking Ghoti, spools and spools (mostly rusty) of varying widths of wire, containers of brushes, pencils, colored pencils, markers, (more) sticks, scissors, cutters, Sharpies, a rolling pin (which I can't find right now), wire cutters/shapers of all shapes and sizes, rulers, photos, a tin titled "plastic army men" and one marked "toy money," works in varying states of completeness, Barbie heads, Ken heads, wire heads, plaster o' paris, polyurethane, pieces o' paper with various quotes ("Doubt not, o poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, and shall out!'" - Emerson), a shop-vac (why?), a space heater, multiple empty small tins of Altoids for a future project, sketch pads, saws and tools, barn wood, lath . . . and that's the tip o' the iceberg.  



Mobile experiment 


"5 Men Confess"
("I have a cuticle infection," "I photograph pears," "I met Jack Parr," "I forget to brush," "I pass gas and run") 


1 of 3 hanging men 


North side/front cubby hole 


Corkboard above work table 

Homewreckers' flyer 


Study of baby's deformed skeleton

"Keep your shop and your shop will keep you." - Benjamin Franklin

There is a huge blizzard that rages outside, with an expected accumulation of 10 - 12 inches before it's all done. But I am warm, not only from our imperfect furnace, but from the energies that emanate from my little haven. It's small. I hope, in one way, that I'll move to larger spot someday, but if that ever happens, I'll prob'ly wish for this spot where I will now close this entry and let my muse in.

"We are informed about the gallery space but never involved with it as being an extension of the artist's studio – a haven that purifies emotions through the evocation of fear, stimulation of thought and interaction." - Faisal Abu'Allah