Colored Pencil And Symmetry

"Into the mystic" Van Morrison

Let me tell you a story.

We used to live in Los Angeles California.

I loved Southern California but one day in 2020 I was driving home from work listening to an NPR discussion about the war in Ukraine and at one point one of the panelists asked,

"What should the US do if Putin decides to use nuclear weapons?"

(!)

True story.

When I got home I told my wife I was going to quit my job and that we were going to the Philippines.

And she said,

"Great."

We had been planning this for a while so she was happy to hear I had finally decided to make the move. We had a house waiting for us. And family. We were only staying in LA for my work But my work had suddenly become not worth it.

So.. We packed up our kids and left.

Just like that.

Into the mystic.

Precious cargo. Sunset over Negros Occidental, Philippines.

to dust we return

pencil drawing, calbayog city, 2024

By the sweat of your brow

will you have food to eat

until you return to the ground.

from which you were made.

For you were made from dust,

and to dust you shall return.

-- Genisis 3:19

pencil drawing, calbayog city, 2024

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A young woman with bangs

8B pencil and finger rubbing

Calbayog City 2024

Bangs make me weak at the knees.

I keep tinkering with this drawing. This is where its at now.

Here's the initial sketch

Neil Young: Fireplace

Aluminum can #1

Watercolor and pen

Los Angeles 2016

A friend of mine once told me that she liked Mark Rothko because she liked how he applied paint.

That got me thinking.

What I need, I thought, is a simple image to serve as a vehicle for the application of paint.

With this thought in mind I began painting fantasy aluminum cans.

Some of them turned out very pretty.

Here's another one.

Aluminum can #2

Watercolor and pen

Los Angeles 2016

These days I'm not so ambitious. When I want to apply pigment I just freakin' apply it.

All blue

Colored pencil and alcohol

Calbayog City 2024

She come in colors

Colored pencil on paper

Calbayog City 2024

"Dad, what do you call a solar system without a sun?" Sean, my seven year old son asked me.

It was evening time and we were walking into town to get a snack.

I thought about it for a moment and couldn't think of a fast comeback so I said, "I don't know, what do you call it?" and braced myself.

"A system!" he said and looked up at me grinning. "Ya get it?" He asked and laughed.

Got to admit that made me smile.

It's about four blocks from our home to our town's downtown area. Along the way I stopped off at an ATM machine to get some cash.

When I got the money my son said to me,

"You mean you can just get money from a machine?!?!"

"Yah," I said not really thinking about it.

"Then why don't homeless people do that!!!" he asked in astonishment.

I started to answer him and then I remembered that thats basically what the government does....

I stopped walking and looked up into the sky.

Waiting for an answer that didn't come.

Calbayog City 2024

She comes in colors - Love

All this love

pencil drawing in my moleskine

Calbayog City 2024

I was sitting in the car waiting for my family and I didn't have anything to draw with so I reached in my son's book bag and grabbed one of his standard issue school pencils. And hey... looks not bad actually.

Kind of funny.

All this love - El Debarge

The Band - The Weight

ballpoint pen and alcohol

Calbayog City 2024

I was fortunate enough to see The Band's farewell concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1976. My friend's mother was a reporter for the LA Times and she had guest tickets but she couldn't go so she gave the tickets to us. It turned out the tickets were for the VIP section! What a great show. There we were, three crazy young hippies, high on peyote, sitting in front row center seats, along side a bevy of Hollywood dignitaries, digging The Band and all their guest artists.

Fond memory.

What a trip.

E ticket.

The Band

.

Hail the King

AKAE BEKA

Time passes slowly here in the provinces.

Each day I read the news coming out of America and I thank God I got out of there.

Calbayog City, Philippines, 2024

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This one

black sharpie on poster board

Rosemead 2012

This drawing exists, somewhere.

I did this drawing a few years back. After I finished the drawing I took this picture of it with my cell phone and then I gave the drawing to my brother. Never a good idea but I love him and he liked it so why not. He actually had it framed and he put it up in his office at work. Prominently displayed. For a few years and then he left that job and had to clear out his office so he took it home. My brother owns a big house with a lot of piles of stuff in the attic and in the basement and in the garage and in closets and last year when I asked him if I could borrow the drawing so I could get a better picture of it he said he'd look for it and then after a day or so he told me he couldn't find it. It's buried in one of the piles somewhere he said and well, he can't find it.

So it goes my friends.

I know it's there somewhere.

Drives me nutz.

I'm glad I took the picture.