Sunday, December 14, 2008 B
"Finished - Strength Tarot Card"
That theme of 'frustrated' might have played into this quick sketch of a woman very frustrated with a tough lid on her jar.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
"Studying"
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In the source photo the photographer Willem Wernsen is studying books on black and white photography. I have my student learning about planets and stars. Meanwhile I urge you to go look at his photos. Here is a brief bio about him. (His own website is only in Dutch.) For many years he just did photography in his rare spare time, and now his talent has been discovered and he has a book of his photos. A while back I was telling one would be musician who was complaining that he couldn't give all day to music that isn't an hour or so better than nothing? So I pull what time I can from each day, and slowly, slowly I am improving.
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Friday, December 19, 2008
"Quirky Co-incidence"
5:55am
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There's all kinds of wrong in this drawing. She is much too grumpy, for one thing, and the hair went wild, for another. What I am working on is the line, to say much with very little line, and have that line be lively, as well. But it's practice. A curious co-incidence, the source photographer, "mariekejoan", as well as my earlier photographer, are both Dutch. Not only that, but the movie we watched last night, _The Dress_ (De Jurk), is Dutch. It was a strange, but intriguing film.
"The Dress is a tale filled with sex, violence, comedy and drama as it follows the life of a dress. Conceived under a cloud of frustration and despair, the dress serves as the hub in a great wheel of misfortune in an extraordinary sequence of events that envelopes both the dress and those fatefully drawn into its universe. An aloof artist, a virginal school girl, an unfulfilled maid, a lowly train conductor and a broken business executive, all become involuntary players in a macabre game of tag. No one who comes in contact with the dress can escape its dramatic, shocking and hilarious consequences." If you crave quirky, then you'd like this film.
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
"Bellicose Poetry"
7:52am
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It all began with noting the current Friday Illo theme is 'VOICES'. I packed that away in my mind for future reference, should I think of anything suitable. Meanwhile, the PBS newshour aired in the background as I checked my e-mail. It was just gray noise, except for two words that popped out at me, "Bellicose Poetry". I did not hear the context, but I pondered the oddity of such a thing. Poetry is usually given to be one of the more peaceful pursuits in life, how could it be given to starting quarrels or wars? I did a net search on that word phrase and found three places in which it was used. Sure enough, the PBS newshour transcript came up:
"And so if he thinks he's the only honest man, I give him an A-plus for grandiosity and bellicose poetry."
In addition to David Brooks speaking of the current Illinois governor, Simon Bainbridge also used this phrase in
_British Poetry and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars_:
"the singing of patriotic songs and the performance of bellicose poetry" (pg. 12)
Yes, that is adding to the picture. Andrew Shryock gave further view to this sort of patriotism:
"the bellicose poetry composed in honor of long-dead 'Adwani shaykhs, with its
valorization of swordplay" (pg. 301)
It didn't take me long to find a facial model. I drew him, then came up with warlike rhyming words. Next, I reconsidered the Illo theme, _VoiceS_:
So I flipped the man over, and thus two very similar people who none the less consider themselves enemies are voicing their 'bellicose poetry'.
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