A Dream Fragment

I am at home in Bethpage, in the living room. The room looks like it did in the late 70's/early 80's and it is well lighted. At least one lamp is on, casting a warm yellow glow around the area yet most of the room is lit by white, midday sunlight. I am watching an adaption of a Neil Gaiman book on TV and I am loving it. 

  My mom is here as well. We are watching one segment of the show and I get excited. I know they are about to show Dream but I start almost yelling, "Oh my god! Death! They're going to show Death!" Then there He is - Dream. Instead of the 'adult' Dream, they show a young one. 

During a commercial break, we talk about the show and she asks, "Have you ever seen him?" I know she means Neil. I say that yes, I have seen photos of him. She makes a face of disgust and implies that she did not like his looks. I say, "Oh yeah!" but I can't find the words to say exactly why I like him.

 The show comes back from break. Now I am a part of the story instead of an observer. One of the characters has to do some kind of ritual. One part is to wash something in hot water, which she does with no problem. Next, the ritual calls to bathe the something in cold water that has been carried in three baskets, a small red one and a medium white one and a large white one. None of them are not water tight in the least. I am the one who has to figure out how to do it. I am in a kitchen that exists both inside a building and outside. Against one wall is a steel sink with a wooden island across from it. I pull my copy of the book out of my pocket (I don't know the name of it but it is not an existing book in waking life) to see how it is done. I am trying to fill in a steel sink the baskets when I wake up.

A new sketchbook

I thought about joining the Sketchbook
Project at the Arthouse Co-op this year. It sounds like a great thing - fill up a Moleskin sketchbook and it goes on tour before being permanently housed in an Art Library in Brooklyn. It gets its own barcode and has the option of being digitized and put online. You can even get an email everytime someone looks at it.

The more I thought about it, though, I decided I may not finish it. They're charging $25 for the sketchbook. I'd probably start thinking it was too "good" to just sketch in or even to mess up. So I decided to try it on my own, with a blank book I already had. It won't go on tour anywhere, unless I carry it in my backpack and the only library it will see is the the room where I keep most of my books but that's okay. This way, the sketches can be good, bad or whatever and I can just go crazier crazy.

I'll admit it - I stole the theme I was going to use if I signed up.

So, here's the first entry. Click on it to embiggen. I ended up changing the conversation between the two pterodactyls on the branch. The first one made no sense whosoever. I'm not saying it's great art or anything but it made me laugh.

In progress: Freya

Click the graphic to see a bigger version.

Freya is interesting and complex. She is a warrior, riding her boar into battle. As leader of the Valkyries, she is a psychopomp who claims half the fallen dead and takes them to her hall, Sessrumnir. She is a witch, who taught women the art of seider, prophesy and magic.

Of course, there is that other side of her. Lusty, sensual, beautiful. There's no hangups for this girl, she'll willingly use whatever skills she needs to in order to get what she wants. Just look what she did with (to?) those dwarves for the Brísingamen.

When I began this sketch, I wanted to reflect a bit of her complexity. It also seems natural, after facing so much death, to want to reaffirm life. Here she is, in the wood, her warrior's armor is shed, except for her Valkyrie helm by her side (minus the wings, which I haven't gotten around to putting in yet.) She is now wearing a traditional Norse dress and the Brisingmen is around her neck. Eventually, somewhere in the background will be Bygul ("Bee Gold" or Honey) and Tregul ("Tree Gold" or Amber), her two grey cats.

Of course, one of my own cats couldn't let this be without making his own mark so just ignore the spot there in the upper part of the sketch. I still haven't figured out whether it means, "This is worthy. I claim it as mine" or "This is what I think of you and your pathetic scribblings."

I'm not sure I really want to know.

(I also have a few more sketches and a painting in progress to post but I'll do it tomorrow. My brain is nearly gone at the moment.)

Just to prove I’ve actually done something lately…

So, I’ve done a painting of Khnum and worked on a painting of Bast (it still has a few problems but it’s getting there. Veeeeerrrrryyyyyy slowly. She and I evidently have issues.) Now I want to do one of Set. So, I sat down and tried a few different “poses” and they all sucked. In sheer frustration, I did “Mona Set” and “Set on a Tea Break.”

Strange thing – once these were done, my eyes burned for the rest of the day. That was just my sunblock running into my eyes, right?

Right? :::_insert chirping crickets here_:::


I also decided it’s time to get back to drawing hoomans again and I couldn’t wait to post this one, even though it’s not finished. I didn’t know just how out of practice I would be, so I decided to start with someone without a preconceived appearance. He is a character from a popular series of books. Click on it for a better view.



So- who do you think it is?

I don’t know where – if anywhere – this idea is going. It all started with this sculpture. (Scroll down a hair to see it.)


(To quote Austin Powers: “Blimey! Nerd Alert!”)
So I got to thinking: if the dinos didn’t go extinct, what kind of “civilization” would they have? Would it be tribal? Would they have shamans or priests? Would they even have a spiritual way – including sacred numbers and things like that? Would those numbers be dependent on how many “fingers” the dino had (Tyrannids with two, troodon with three, etc.)?

I started playing with markings, sort of like Plains Indians used. The blurry things under the upper dino’s head are actual markings used on horses.

I want to play with “local” dinos, so these two are all wrong. These are T-Rexes, found west of the sea that was here way back when. We had Albertosaurs.

(/end nerd alert)

Oh yeah - the thing in the right hand corner is supposed to be a jumping spider but it didn’t like sitting for its portrait.



This is a result of an idle thought while I played with my dinos: I know what they look like in the movies but what would be like if they were standing right in front of me? This came from that night’s dream. These little guys scattered as soon as they realized I was looking at them.

I am so going to paint this once I get their faces to look right.

Right. I think that’s enough posting for tonight. 'Night, y'all.