Ice Dream. There’s some strange references going on in this one. If I don’t explain it won’t come together. Back in my day the Europe 72 3 record Dead live album had a crazy kid on the back cover smashing a cone on his head. Later an ice cream truck company called Weaser ripped off that art and would visit my mid Jersey neighborhood daily. Google it if you care. Flash forward to 2019. The ice cream truck that hits my neighborhood EVERY DAYS has a loud obnoxious song and no Greatful Dead connections. It drives me out of my mind so here is the result. I always try to turn my pain into gain. What a long strange explanation it’s been.
There was a royal lineage in Europe that was so inbred that their jaws started getting really distended and weird. Like Jay Leno, but inbred. (I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.) Feel free to look up the Hapsburgs. I'll wait. The second picture is a Fiji mermaid and a merman. I think I want a merman tattoo. SMOLDER.
I went to Europe in 2012 and visited Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, and Greece. I loved the architecture that I saw in these countries, but I found the architectural style of the houses in Germany and Switzerland particularly charming.
Superstitions: Nightmare
The 'nightmare' was originally believed to be a huge spirit which settled on people while they slept and gave them a feeling of being stifled - and in Europe an old preventative for this was to place a knife or something similar at the end of the bed, as it was well known that the denizens of darkness feared iron and steel.
Here we have some very fancy European history folks, a creature that might be a dummy, and Harry Potter as a nervous waiter who can't remember if you got diet or regular soda. Because, let's face it, Harry was never THAT good at magic.
Superstitions: Nipples
According to a strange middle-european superstition, it is possible to tell from a man's nipples whether or not he has fathered children. If they are pink in colour, then he has not - while if they are brown, then he has!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE9eRXBBeRQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Superstitions: Virginity.
The most bizarre superstition about virginity was the notion originating from Central Europe that a woman who gave birth to seven illegitimate children thereby regained her virginity.
On Tuesday evening some 1000 people gather in front of the German chancellery to demonstrate. To ‘Open the borders! Safe lives! Fight Fascism!’ were called for by ‘Seebrücke Berlin’ and others. We marched along Reichstag (seat of german parliament), offices of members of parliament, Russian embassy to Friedrichstr, where a final rally was hold (this is where the sketch emerged). Seebrücke appealed to the parliament to allow at least these refugees in most urgent need to come from the inadequate camps on the greece islands to their german member municipalities, that have space and are willing to host them. German parliament yesterday refused to do so, presumably due to their fear of further rise of right wing parties. This influence was another topic, that was adressed by the demonstration, that marched against any influence of right wing and fascist parties in Europe and for an international spirit of humanity.
These are some gesture drawing sketches I did in ink with white pen highlights on brown paper. I was in Europe and sitting around a fountain watching people go about their lives. This was a really fun figure study and I think people make for great works of art.
Plantain, Plantago major, was considered to be one of the nine sacred herbs by the ancient Saxon people, and has been celebrated in Anglo-Saxon poetry as the "mother of herbs." In Russian this plant is called Подорожник - meaning near the roads. Native Americans called it "white man's foot" as it is often found growing along well-trodden foot paths and it was brought to the Americas from Europe. The Latin generic name means "sole of the foot."
When I was a kid, we would use the leaves of this plant for small hurts and scratches. We would spit on the leaves and stick it onto our scratches.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSE9jT9LqUY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I often have weird dreams that inspire my artwork, and that one I had last night where I took over a jungle (or was it a forest? I don’t know) sure got me inspired.
Lockdown makes some of us forget what good times were like before the coronavirus reared it's nasty little head, so in response we dig down into our brains for times that really mattered.
A fairly special one for me this week, as today’s post is inspired by what would have been the time of Beltane celebrations. As it is, we celebrated at home in our own little ways, and in the case of myself indulging in my usual habits! Drinking and of course drawing, the usual stuff...
