FIGURE STUDY 6

30" x 22"
Ink, watercolor and acrylic on Arches paper

REMINDER

8" x 10"

Ink and watercolor on Arches paper

Sometimes my drawing table is a blur of post it notes. When it is imperative that I remember something important like recycle day I refer to a poster I made instead.

Always be drawing!

WOO WOO MOMENT

18" x 24"

Mixed media illustration on Canson watercolor paper

" I'm in Portland, Oregon. I've made an appointment with a woman that I've been told is a gifted healer. I show up at her door and I am not prepared for the five foot five two hundred pound woman in a pixie haircut with a hot dog in one hand and a quart of Pepsi in the other.

Without speaking she says to me "Okay honey, just lay there on the table."

So I lay on the table. She's poking on me and she said "You think I'm fat, don't you honey?" And I say " No, Karen, you're big boned, you're not fat."

She said "I don't normally do this, but I'm actually going to show you what I look like. I'm also going to show you what to paint."

I sat up. I put my hands on her shoulders. I looked into her face that goes out of focus and blurs and reforms itself into June Upton, the first woman that I ever loved in the 5th grade. Her face then reformed into every single woman I've ever loved. At the end of it she winked at me and said "You know, honey, paint that!"

Story by Marshall Arisman - A Postcard From Lilydale

THE FEAST OF VENUS AFTER RUBENS

THE FEAST OF VENUS AFTER RUBENS

14" x 22"

Ink, Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens and florescent acrylic in ProArt sketchbook

COUCH PRELIMINARY STUDY

11" x 14"
Pentel brush pen and Kuretake Fude brush in ProArt sketchbook

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

11" x 14"
Ink in ProArt sketchbook

"You can't laugh at a gun. I had a gun put to my head in a bar, over the Pueblo incident.  A cop.  I got a load on and argued with these guys about shit in Vietnam.  I said, "Saigon's got a million-dollar police station and my brother's got a station a hundred years old.  Where's the money come from?  The cops and firemen are paying taxes and they're not fixin' up their stations."  This guy, Jim, who's a city cop for twenty-four years, is everything you want a cop to be.  When I was eighteen he was thirty eight, he was a supercop.  But the hate just fucked him up, and the war.

I was in the bar and Jim had his load on, too.  He's got personal problems, he's married twice,, divorced.  He said, "We should invade Korea, bomb it."  I said, "You're ready to drop a bomb on a country with civilians."  He said, "Ah, you fuckin' commie." So I turn my back. I feel this thing on my temple, he had a gun to my head.  Two guys next to me dived for the ground.  With my left hand I come toward his wrist.  The gun went to the ground and I grabbed him in a headlock.  Three other cops in civilian clothes broke it up.  You gotta watch that gun."  - Tom Gates quote in WORKING by Studs Terkel

TORSO STUDY

11" x 14"
Mixed Media in ProArt sketchbook

VEGAS ANGEL

11" x 14"
MIXED MEDIA in ProArt sketchbook

EMPEROR NORTON

11" x 14"
MIXED MEDIA IN ProArt sketchbook
Joshua Abraham Norton (b.1815) made a $$$ fortune during the California gold rush in 1849. If that happened to you would you be happy with a fortune? Yeah, well Norton wasn't, so "in 1853 he gamboled a quarter of a million dollars on an effort to corner the rice market in San Francisco, buying and stockpiling all the available supply, and thereby artificially inflating the price. However, just as he was about to cash in, several ships laden with rice sailed into the Bay, glutting the market. Prices plummeted, and Norton went bust."
He lost everything then realized that he had an empire to rule!
Completely realized, he began telling everyone that he was Norton the First, Emperor of California. For the next 21 years he patrolled the streets of San Francisco on bicycle and foot making sure that things ran well and the vibe was happy.
Norton wore a military uniform with officer's golden epaulettes, a "tall plumed beaver hat, a sword, and a rosette."
He issued edicts, printed his own money in five and fifty cent denominations which were "accepted freely in most shops and restaurants in San Francisco." He dissolved both the Democratic and Republican parties because their existence caused "dissensions". Emperor Norton was well loved by everyone. He died in 1880 and thirty thousand loyal subjects attended his graveside service.
Some people claim he was crazy. But he freely chose to live the way he wanted to. He certainly wasn't neurotic because "simply put, neurotics are miserable because they think they are not as good as everyone else, while eccentrics know they are different and glory in it." (Source Eccentrics Dr David Weeks and Jamie James)

TO BE YOURSELF

5" x 16"
Uniball pen and watercolor
I'm not a phone person mostly because I don't have much to say and I'm not interested in complaints or robocall sales pitches. Fortunately I have friends who will do all the talking when they call. I keep a sketchbook just for drawing while I'm listening. It's fun to always be drawing. Here's a recent 45 minute doodle.
The quote is by Emerson: "To be yourself in a world that's constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment".

PORTRAIT OF MARSHALL ARISMAN

11" x 14"
Mixed media in ProArt sketchbook
A while back Jonathan Twingley turned me on to Marshall's work and I have been studying it and learning a lot from it. Both Heaven Departed and Postcard from Lilydale are fantastic books of his. I'm just now getting into using mixed media and different tools other than just a brush thanks to his very instructive DVD. It really is a fun and freeing approach to making art. Anyone who is takes his class at SVA is very lucky indeed!

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE

8 1/2" x 23"
Mixed media in Moleskine sketchbook

When I was a kid there was a woman who lived in my apartment building that everybody said was a witch.  Her name was Gloria. The laundry room of this building was in the basement and Gloria  had all of the dryers full of her clothing.  I wanted to get our laundry done and noticed that one dryer was finished,  so I emptied her clothes into a basket and carried them up to her apartment .  Her door was open and she was in the living room folding laundry, casting spells while singing along with Tito Puente music turned up full blast on the radio.

 When I looked in I saw things flying around and bizarre beings were making strange sounds.  The place was a vortex!  I heard her say "You see this too, right"?

 Before I could muster up a response everything  stopped swirling and the room returned to normal. "It's ok, cabron" she laughed.  "I know what I'm doing".

One of many woo-woo moments in my life.  

GALERIE MOKUM AMSTERDAM

8 1'2" x 23"
Watercolor and ink in Moleskine sketchbook

CITY BRIDGE

18" x 24"
Mixed media on paper

SMILE

11" x 14"
Uniball pen, Pentel brush pen and acrylic in Pro Art sketchbook

Soft footbed sandals are super comfortable and I wear socks with them.  My sandals are not a political statement, I just know that if I take care of my feet the rest of me feels great too.  Wearing the socks prevents dirty feet. Socks are a barrier between the feet and the icky stuff on the streets. For some reason wearing socks and sandals causes people to smile when they see them.  Even grouchy people who schlep along with eyes cast down have smiled or at lest rolled their eyes when they see my socked sandals.

I'm happy to provide smiles to the world but will someone please tell me what the deal is?  

COMPASSION

30" x 22"
Ink and Acrylic on Arches paper

Terry murdered Patty over money or drugs, it doesn't matter which.  Stabbed her twenty seven times.  Cause of death was exsanguination.  She once appeared to me in a dream sitting on the edge of the bed staring directly at me.  At the time I thought it was real, that she was there in the room with me.  But it must have been a dream, right?

Terry died in prison doing a life bit with a ten year tab.  Heroin overdose.  This week I dreamed that when they met in the spirit world she understood and forgave him.  He was suspicious and wondered why? She explained that compassion was they only way to end their endless cycle of suffering.  There was an angel comforting them as I woke.

UMATILLA REZ, OREGON

8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Uniball pen and watercolor in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

JORDAAN

8 1/2" x 11"
Uniball pen, watercolor and Faber-Castell brushes in Canson sketchbook

DEAD BATTERY

11" x 17"
Uniball pen, Faber-Castell brushes and Kuretake Zig ink in Canson sketchbook

KEY BEND

8 1/2" x 23"
Uniball pen, watercolor and ink in Moleskine sketchbook

Eugene, Oregon has had a very active vaudeville community for many years. Lots of jugglers, fire eaters, magicians and sword swallowers. And then there is the Reverend Chumleigh. He's a bearded long haired original hippie day glo dude that performs the key bend trick. Or is it a trick?

At the show I attended he asked for a volunteer who had any keys in their pocket to step up onto the stage. I knew I wasn't a shill so up I went. He told me to take any key out of my pocket and hold it between my palms. I wisely chose the mailbox key instead of the car key and held it as instructed. He never touched the key and I was not hypnotized. He had the audience chant "Bend, Bend Bend" in unison for about 30 seconds. Lo and behold I had a bent key in my hands!

I'm told energy and physics can explain this.

OK, tell me how he did it