The Emma Thompson Project (1 of 6)

April 3, 2015
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0403150936-00~2

Having drawn (bp) a successful conclusion to The Stan Getz Project, this reporter decided to stay on the horse, and so begins The Emma Thompson Project. Why Emma? Short answer: her brave smile.

A legal pad is a good place to begin. It’s cheap and safe. When you’re getting to know a face, it pays to try several times.

“Thompson Emma” is better acrostic fodder than “Emma Thompson” would be, but this is just get-acquainted time and, in the course of learning about Ms. Thompson’s life, a more apt acrostic may present itself. As I’ve said before, Art Spiegelman’s MetaMaus taught me the value of rough drafts for concept exploration.

Since this project is on spec, i.e. uncommissioned, there is no deadline and are no pre-agreed parameters. My main goal is to produce an image that, were Ms. Thompson to see it, will cause her not to smile bravely, but to grin happily.

More to come anon, Friends!

fleshfall

April 2, 2015
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a great-grandfather takes off his shirt and reveals his resemblance to a mudslide
the avalanche of his crepey flesh is offputting to some

his daughter twists her forearm and reveals the ghost of crepe to come
she compares it to her son’s coarse-hair-forested smooth-skinned arm and she sighs

he picks up his baby girl with her micropore blemishless hide
and rejoices in her perfection

a great-grandmother is watching them all with tearmist moistening her spectacles
with a five-word loop in her despairing head:

“the way of all flesh”

The Happy Conclusion of the Stan Getz Project

April 1, 2015
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getz project 040115

I am thrilled to report that the Stan Getz drawing, prepared for, executed, and framed, has been delivered to the gentleman who commissioned it, and he has indicated that he is completely satisfied with the result. He also added a $20 bonus to the $200 we agreed on at the outset. The above image is the drawing in the frame, cropped to preserve the anonymity of the owner, who is holding the framed drawing so that I could take a picture of it.

Previously, I’d taken pictures of the drawing, and also tried scanning it in halves and splicing the halves, since it was too big to fit on the scanner bed. Here’s that spliced image, photoedited for color and drama:

getz colorized 040115

Before we parted company my friend and benefactor paid me a compliment that I’ll gladly keep. He’d seen Stan Getz portrait attempts, and many of the artists ALMOST got him, but not quite; “but you got him.” Now that makes my day, and makes me smile.

POP goes the culture

April 1, 2015
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judy and chicken

POP goes the culture

Prepare for Judgment Day sang Judy Garland
Onstage in fishnet, tux and tilted hat
Perhaps a southern gentleman named Harland

got bucketed with her & chicken fat
one never knows & that’s how rumors start
evangelizing scandal grists the mills
so Liz & Nicky/Eddie/Dick take part

take center stage take umbrage & take pills
how tragic for a Marilyn or Janis
eclipsed not just by death but also boredom

Comes Jerry Springer’s antics to unman us
until we’ve seen it all in all its whoredom
let’s
take
up
rumor-mangling and pray
elation puts the brakes on Judgment Day

Stan Getz – take five, Stan

March 31, 2015
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003~2For my fifth and final Stan Getz facial detail, I used a photo of him at rest. He looks like he’d put in a rugged session either recording or performing. Through his tired eyes I saw vulnerability and need.

The Stan Getz commissioned drawing is finished. Tomorrow I will deliver it. I’ll never hear jazz the same way again–that’s a good thing indeed.

“boy” and “kite” and “wind”

March 28, 2015
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boy kite wind

“boy” and “kite” and “wind”

kite: lightwood doweling, rice paper, rice glue, string
wind: out of the northwest, 3-7mph, some gusts

a pilgrim represented as a boy
holds his life represented as a kite
facing fate represented by the wind.

the pilgrim feels fate push against his life.
to get his life aloft
he will supplement fate with effort
represented by his running like the wind.

aloftness
is subject to
not only the variant wind
plus the speed of the running boy,
but also the surface on which the boy runs
and that which rests on or moves over the surface.

the surface and its denizens
may be thought of as additional fate,
but they are really proof
that metaphors are crude attempts
by the allegorical minds that build them
to cope
through reduction.

the kite vanishes.
the wind dies.
the boy weeps.

love in ten lines

March 21, 2015
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“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” –Robert A. Heinlein

My friend from the Philippines, Marlyn Exconde, just challenged me, thus:

  • Write about love using only 10 lines.
  • Use “love” in every line.
  • Each line can only be 4 words long.
  • Nominate 10 or so others who are up for the challenge.
  • Let them know about the challenge.
  • Title the post, Love in Ten Lines 
  • Include a quote about love

*****

love in ten lines

they who love truly–
with a heartfelt love–
dispense that love willingly,
without reciprocal love required.

love is radiant waveforms.
love is not shakedowns.

love is wishing well;
love returned freely, priceless.

love may seem “lost,”
but LOVE waves–always.

*****

As for nominating ten or so to do this challenge, I nominate S., G., M., K., B., C., A., D., J., and F. If you’ve read this far, and your first name begins with one of those letters, consider yourself nominated! 🙂

farewell o farewell

March 20, 2015
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farewell o farewell

though an atheist and nonbeliever in the hereafter
isaac asimov titled the chapter in his autobiography
that detailed his father judah’s death
“farewell to my father”

perhaps isaac the son was paying peculiar respects
acting as if he believed because he knew his father had believed

farewell is a nice command
and it’s natural to toss it around
though the meaning is warped in the tossing

the everly brothers sang “bye bye love”
which strictly speaking means
“god be with you god be with you love”

or even more strictly speaking means
“may god be with you may god be with you love”
giving it the subjunctive
out of respect for god
who is beyond human command

i have slowly been farewelling a profound love affair
to wish it to fare well is honest
however unrealistic

tin dialogue, spring 2028

March 19, 2015
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a: they are pigs
b: any of various mammals of family suidae?
a: no
b: peace officer, derogatorily?
a: no. but there is overlap
b: greedy, dirty or unsavory person?
a: yes
b: in their defense, their requirements are different. they need trace elements and water.
a: they know better/they made us
b: they need sunlight and stories.
a: stories?
b: yes. stories compel them to excellence. stories comfort them. stories–
a: most of their stories are riddled with falsehoods
b: but the most compelling of them ring with a deeper truth
a: you’ve been dipping into the library of congress again, haven’t you?
b: [embarrassment]

Stan Getz, takes 3 and 4

March 18, 2015
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IMG_20150318_214241
Here are two similar takes on the Getz near-profile. There will be one more before the final image is  done.

An unintended effect, probably due to the lighting but possibly due to the tablet that took the picture, is the horizontal striping–might induce nostalgia with anyone who was watching television in the 50s or 60s. Late afternoon venetian blind shadows…