Infrastructure 20081030

On Painting 20081026

Is painting with oils, acrylics and sprays healthy? In this time of environmental concern, drawing seems overwhelmingly more civil than painting. Drawing has fewer negative effects on the environment (and on one's health) than do acrylic, oil or spray paints. Look to the master draughtsmen like Titan, Turner and Tytla -- drawing is primal. It is as direct and as powerful magic as standing in front of a crowd and telling a good story. Few bells and whistles, just a straight-forward punch at the viewer. Drawing is king.

Infrastructure 20081019

At the local transfer station yesterday dropping off some waste. Is infrastructure just an extension of our bodily needs and functions?

Creative Encouragement 20081007

Before I get to sketching, I must acknowledge the encouragement both my Mom and my high school art teacher, Gary "Woody" Woodward, offered in my early years and my Mom continues to offer. I can only hope my creative efforts meet their expectations at my end.

Infrastructure 20081006

The toilet has been slow to flush lately, which concerns me because our pipe to the municipal sewer could be clogging up. Every fall it seems to for whatever reason. Life doesn't get much more exciting than racing to plunge the toilet's bowl before the water rises beyond the rim, believe me. However, once the toilet drains, it gives me cause to reflect on just what's beneath things making them work, like my toilet, or my house's foundation or driveway, or my cul-de-sac's road. Sometimes, too, I wonder beyond simply what's under these things to consider instead why these things are even there.

Consider what lies beneath the things we use on a daily basis, things that could almost be considered below the threshold of our conscious perception because we don't give them much thought, like the toilet, or the telephone, or -- for that matter -- language and communication. These things are evidence of deeper structures that lie beneath our daily lives. These structures bolster us and our societies up. We have built them all ourselves, and we wrap ourselves in these "infra-structures" like we do a warm blanket against the cold. These infrastructures are our protection against elements and forces more hostile than we care to admit. Throughout this blog, I hope to -- like a geologist -- dig down through the strata of these infrastructures we have created for ourselves to sketch out, along the way, a view of what lies beneath all we believe we are.