Sad but True...

Another news story has inspired me to make some art...   the latest, a story about a young bear that gets hooked on people food...  "Bear falls through skylight, eats cupcakes."  Of course it ends badly for the bear as is often the case when people and wild life cross paths.

Previously (in 2012) I made this piece inspired by another animal tragedy "Alligator bites hand off of tour boat guide" .  The insult to injury in that story is eventually the guide is charged with having fed the gators for the benefit of his business.

 

 I doubt people will ever be satisfied with their urge to sprawl and consume every parcel of land for their own use leaving nowhere for wildlife to be wild. Encroachment and using animals for entertainment are serious concerns.  Maybe someday we'll all learn to coexist. Until then I guess I'll keep immortalizing these stories in images.  Long live Cupcake.

exploring by way of a series

 

sometimes you dont know where you're going until you get there...

the past few days i've been exploring ritual masks of various cultural groups--

african, mexican, american -- first nations...  and thinking about the transformative power

of something hand made that took a dancer or shaman and assisted them in transcending

from the day to day world to a more magical spiritual realm...  i hope to capture a taste

of that ritual magic in my work and bring it back to our day to day lives.

images here of recent carved block and silk screen images in progress

sometimes i wonder how many little blocks will i have to carve before i am done with a topic.

sometimes you're never done and you revisit that imagery over and over for years not realizing the deeper theme but just following where the inspiration leads you.

sometimes exploring art is really you exploring yourself.

sometimes it is just fun to make things that look really dang cool.

just keep working, you'll know when you get there.

on time and ideas

 

when i travel i take this small sketchbook and doodle on the plane while listening to music. it lets me get away from the tiny space and close proximity to strangers around me and lets me avoid small talk.... but it also makes me a little self-conscious.  like a student hiding answers on their exam i sometimes try to cover my little sketches, sheltering them from eyes and judgement. they're just scribbles not intended to be seen but serve as a place holder for inspiration to come back to.  and then maybe months later i revisit them and i think i should have let them be out there it is nothing to hide.  time and distance let me see them like someone in the next seat might see them and i am curious about who made them but i am still afraid to strike up a conversation with her. i wouldn't know what to say.  meanwhile the person in the next seat is asleep anyway.