Our local antiques store had a huge treasure trove of vintage Native American themed toys and gifts this weekend. I realized that 1) I'd owned a lot of them and 2) none of my friends had. It never occurred to me that my collection was particularly large or unique. Doesn't every kid have a fixation on this country's indigenous population? Apparently not. I love the visual language of the Navajo and Hopi especially. My Kachina doll collection was the bomb.
"Man on the Train: Hey, are you a dreamer?
Wiley: Yeah.
Man on the Train: I haven’t seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming is dead, no one does it anymore. It’s not dead it’s just that it’s been forgotten, removed from our language. Nobody teaches it so nobody knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well, I’m trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming, every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it’s ever faced, ever. So whatever you do, don’t be bored, this is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting" - waking life (movie).
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So the other day I had a beautiful conversation about lucid dreaming with some friends. We shared amazing dream memories that we all had experienced and right the next day this sleeping beauty started showing up on a piece of paper.
What about you, are you a dreamer? :)
♠️
This drawing looks a bit like one of those "how are you feeling?" hospital charts. It starts out okay ("smiling cat", "drunk pirate"), and descends into full Lovecraftian Horror. I was driving toward a local town known for its unpleasant yokels, which probably explains the progression. Today, for the record, I'm 75% Apathetic Lumberjack, 5% glassy-eyed cat, and 20% Vampire Waluigi.
I've started a new sketch book (one of many, lol), which I am dedicating to ink drawings only. No pencils, no watercolours, just pen and ink :) I drew this doodle today with a Uniball pen and a light ink wash for the space sky. No reference, totally made up. Mistakes and all! Available as stickers and other goodies on Red Bubble.
Sketchbook is Stillman and Birn Alpha - I love, love, love the whiteness of its pages!
This doodle is based off Norman Rockwell’s The Tattoo Artist and pairs with the blog I wrote about how I think our society needs to change the words we use to describe love. ❤️ “ Love is a collaborative work of art.” https://princess2dutchess.wordpress.com/2018/02/04/loneliness/
Currently exploring image making with fountain pens: immediate mark making, no pencil, no eraser. I'm enjoying the discovery process and embracing the stray mark made with semi-blind contour and continuous line drawings.
Daily Painting Challenge 4 - argyle
Following the daily painting challenge with Lisa Congdon over at CreativeBug though I haven't quite managed to keep up daily. Still, it's wonderful picking the brush up again and splashing around with paint!
Daily Painting Challenge 2 - basketweave
Following the daily painting challenge with Lisa Congdon over at CreativeBug though I haven't quite managed to keep up daily. Still, it's wonderful picking the brush up again and splashing around with paint!
Daily Painting Challenge 1 - gingham
Following the daily painting challenge with Lisa Congdon over at CreativeBug though I haven't quite managed to keep up daily. Still, it's wonderful picking the brush up again and splashing around with paint!
Over the course of a few months, I got to work with Good Karma For All on what you might consider a "passion project". The job consisted of freehand painting murals on every single (large) wall and hand-lettering inspirational quotes all over the inside and outside of the building.