Farmer’s Market

This is officially too many posts about just one thing, ’cause one would’ve been plenty, so next time I’ll post a brand-new picture of something completely different (the defects, by the way, in this particular picture are ’cause I had 1 minute to take it, and also ’cause I’m the world’s worst photographer). But, anyway, I had to part with this piece right after I finished it, which is fine, I’m glad it’ll have a different place to hang for a while. I just kind of need to remind myself to make more of the same very, very soon. If I don’t sort of actively remind myself, I’ll end up spending unusual amounts of time drawing weird little spacemen and other sorts of doofus junk, and the world does not need that. I mean, this world, at least. Maybe on some other planet they wouldn’t mind obscure and utterly esoteric doodles, but who knows, maybe they also would rather not see ‘em. Oh, and yeah, thanks for asking: the sink’s back on the wall and tomorrow we’ll run water in it for the first time in a week. Wish us luck! We’re pretty excited to see what happens.

Oh, but, I oughta explain the picture, at least a little. It’s of my uncle and my great-grandmother…he used to take her to the old Farmer’s Market back in the town where I used to be from; I think they went like every Wednesday. She was always super-convinced she was gonna get cheated, so she always made the farmers show her the apples or squash or whatever at the bottom of the bushel basket. I think she actually got cheated exactly zero times (sorry, long-ago farmers, for all the trouble). Also, she always carried around this black shiny purse, and wore Post Office shoes, and was the best great-grandmother in the whole entire Universe, except for the other ones I also knew growing up. Anyway, to be accurate, the picture would have to have squished tomatoes all over the ground, and nine billion pigeons, and a mysterious odor that’s neither animal or vegetable in nature…the old Market was that kind of place. But, again, there was barely time this week to even do a picture, and I was on kind of a tight deadline.

P.S. That “Soap Bubble Girl” painting down below’s on Etsy now.

Done

This is, of course, a shaky and nearly pointless picture, but I just wanted to document that I did get some work done this week, despite the neverending distractions, like the sink that was broken worse after the plumber fiddled with it than the amount it was broken before, and also the distraction of figuring out afterwards how we’re just gonna have to fix it ourselves. Which is fine, really…although, if I had my art education to do over again, I would totally include getting a plumbing certificate instead of the way less necessary detour through learning how to do sugar lifts and mezzotints (I mean, unfortunately, I have like zero affinity for intaglio). Anyway, whatever, all this rigamarole dealing with pipes and whatnot is actually no big deal, ’cause even though I embrace grouchiness the way some folks embrace bottles and needles, I actually have approximately one zillion reasons to feel exactly the opposite way. And, yeah, I said it circumspectly ’cause I very much believe in jinxes. Like, I’m pretty sure that just now, admitting I had a halfway decent art week even in the midst of snowballing sink trouble, that was enough to shift an asteroid in its orbit. Not, maybe, a big one, mind you. But one just big enough to fall down and possibly wipe out my Pez collection, or maybe poke a hole in my favorite shirt.

Okay, so, officially tired of rambling now. Gotta run errands tomorrow and maybe, maybe draw something for Illustration Friday, if there’s time. Not gonna sweat it, though, ’cause there’s plenty else to do.

Soap Bubble

So, this is about all I accomplished today, meaning that, as usual, I accomplished very little compared to what needed to get done. Anyway, I suppose this thing was inspired by how, when we were at a Family Event a couple of weeks ago, my nieces and also my mom and also everyone else got pretty energized over blowing bubbles (although, my nephew was more into discovering the space-age coolness of Nerf, which is a completely understandable preference).

Meanwhile, I have a meeting tomorrow and plus there’s other stuff to do, but my number 1 dream is to sketch, even if it’s just an inch-square sketch of nothing in particular.

Critter

Also, this painting’s from Tuesday, which was during my recent Critter Period. I think the red shapes are sort of symbols for buildings and clouds and sounds. I think I was thinking about stray cats in places like Ouagadougou and Conakry and Colombo. Like, how they wander around in the noise and dust and heat, all hungry and grumpy and yet not wild anymore. Or, who knows. Anyway, now I’m back to drawing airplanes and cosmonauts.

Silhouette

While I know it’s pretty hard to imagine, I actually have 13 or 14 things I’d like to write about, although I’m not sure “writing” is actually the right word. But, anyway, I’m super-busy at the moment, so I doubt a lot that I’m gonna have time today for any sort of writing or scribbling or whatever at all, which is a shame (for me, not for you), ’cause I wanted to write about this weird orange car that keeps getting parked in front of our house, and about the book I’m reading right now, which is a good book for learning arcane graphic design terms like “beard” and “nick” and “quoin.” Also, I wanted to write about book covers I’ve known and enjoyed down the years, and how it’s really strange I dream so often of golf courses, ’cause I’m not remotely fond of golf or the way it uses up the surface of the Earth (with all due respect to my dad and to the memory of my grandfather…I mean, I guess golf was a pretty solid family tradition until it took a detour around me).

Like I said, though, I have zero time at the moment for all that kind of stuff. So, instead, here’s a painting. Which, you know, I guess I’m trying to paint as much as possible, to maybe try and rediscover how to do art. The goal’s to do maybe five of these things a week, but I am, as usual, behind. Anyhow, I think the idea of this one came from spending time in Phoenix, where the sun is sometimes kind of relentless (although I love Arizona), and figures can sometimes look kind of like silhouettes against the bright, bright air. Plus, I remember from Texas how people would often carry around parasols for portable shade, which is a cool visual. Plus I draw in silhouette anyway, ’cause it’s a cheat for how I don’t actually know how to draw the right way. Okay, enough, I’ve gotta go.