When I was a child I read about the frontier in history books, and saw The Final Frontier unfold in 1966. And in science fiction, three words from Robert Heinlein’s The Star Beast stuck with me forever: “Space is vast.” Three short words have spawned a gushing river of thought.
Components of modern outposts are crafted on Earth and then flung into Space, and we endlessly wonder what friends or foes or indifferent Others are out in that vastness.
A long time ago I read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which included a prayer of sorts, ending with
…the lightning with all its rapid wrath,
And the winds with the swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place,
By God’s almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.
Today’s Inktober prompt is Armor. And what better Armor that the elements themselves? So I drew, not the elements, but crystal-like metaphors for them, to surround my person in need. I then looked up L’Engle to get the quotation right, and was flabbergasted to find that she had derived her invocation from something now referred to as…Saint Patrick’s Breastplate!
Instead of L’Engle, then, I included phrases from the original, in the original language. Up top it says “attomriug indiu,” which means “I bind to myself today.” “fudomna mara” is “the depth of the sea,” and so forth. I faked some uncial calligraphy for the phrases, intending to lend a mystic-incantation aura to the image.
When I was a college student the Dune series by Frank Herbert was well under way with Dune and Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I joked at the time that How Ya Dune was right around the corner. Here it is at last! 🙂
This is a sincere prayer thrown out to the Self-Aware Universe that a machine designed only to injure or kill or threaten be made obsolete. My mother said many times “It never hurts to ask.”
The first thing I thought of was a banana peel. Then I thought of things that RHYMED with Peel–Eel, Seal, Sleazy Deal. Then it became obvious that an illustrated poem was the way to crack today’s challenge.
There are more verminous creatures afoot than Cockroaches and Houseflies, Friends.
Here’s something I’ve been working on for a long time. It’s at that fork on Creation Road where I the artist must decide whether to put a LOT more work into it, or wrap it up as a cleaned-up As Is. I am uncertain so I am soliciting input from whoever reads this, i.e. You.
This drawing is heavily avian. The temptation is to throw in not only more birds, but anything Bird-related, such as Larry Bird, Brad Bird, Harlan Ellison’s psuedonym Cordwainer Bird, Nicolas Cage in the movie Birdy, the American Eagle, etc. Maybe throw in an obscene gesture or two.
What is most likely to happen is I’ll do a LITTLE more Bird-stuff, clean it up, post it, frame it, and then consider the use of its basic structure as a springboard for a MUCH larger piece, either a large canvas or a mural. Give the elements a little more living space. Study Hieronymus Bosch and various Breughels to go to school on myriad-detail structuring, then set to on canvas, wood or wall.
Note about the fellow in the foreground: on his chest is a triple=acrostic, “Aero Dyna Mics.” It goes like this:
As Clara Blandick’s Auntie Em
Eliminates Your rootless stem, I
Raise a Sting and fell an Orc
Or skewer Bad Guys with my Forks
Any thoughts on where I should go with this piece, Friends?
Have a Dubya Tee & F
Hold a Feast & hire a chef
Off you go to Kung your Fu
Obligations strengthen You
People LOVE to Cuddle. Hell
Even Villains wish them well
Fear and Confidence grapple…
Yesterday I had yet another Bad Pun Brain Teaser contest. This makes about 10 or so. But this time there could be any number of correct answers (usually there is only one–or two when someone is clever enough to solve with an alternate solution!)
Here’s another Bad Pun Brain Teaser Contest. What’s a Washing Machine’s favorite Jukebox selection?
Friends, there is MORE THAN ONE RIGHT ANSWER to this one. I’ve thought of two, but there may well be a dozen or more. And anyone commenting with an answer that rings true will win a Washing Machine with their name on it!! –A DRAWING of a Washing Machine, I hasten to add. If I were independently wealthy it would be a different story.
Ready to Fill, Soak, Agitate and Spin, Friends? Then GO!!! The deadline is Midnight tonight in your favorite Time Zone.
The response was WONDERFUL. No one came up with the two I had concocted before the contest started. They were “Let’s Get Loaded (Like We Used To Do)” and “The Cycle of Life.” The winning responses were better than mine, I think.
Kristi Whitehurst Beckham: “Twist and Shout”
Birdie Birdashaw: “You Spin Me Right Round”
Nancy Gunther: “A Little Bit of Soap”
Lyn Herndon Burmeister: “Ebb Tide” AND “Downy By the Riverside”
Wayne S. Hoyt: “Good Vibrations” AND “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Scott Kaye: “I’m Amana”
Marv Edward Person: “You Make Me Feel Brand New”
Thomas Elmer: “Do the Twist”
And here are the prizes, which I did in as close to “real time” as I could manage as the entries rolled in. Congratulations, Winners!!!
One with Clay, Image and Text 