Black Sharpie On Bond Paper

Black sharpie in my moleskin

Earwax cafe Chicago, 2000

Is the Earwax cafe still open? Anyone in Chicago? I used to go there and drink esspresso coffee and doodle in my moleskin.

Sipping a warm cup of coffee while just outside there'd be a raging cold midwestern blizzard. I loved Chicago.

Earwax Cafe, Chicago

from my moleskine

Earwax Cafe, Chicago 2000

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going home

colored pencil and pen on paper

Los Angeles 2018

"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everyone rushes around in a great panic as if it is necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."

-- Alan Watts

colored pencil and ballpoint pen

Los Angeles 2018

black sharpie

Hollywood 2018

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One / One

Black sharpie on paper

Monrovia 1996

I drew this in 1996. I spent a few days on it and when it was done I didn't like it so I immediately put it in a drawer and forgot about.

Twenty-two years later, in 2018, I was going though old piles and I found it. I had completely forgotten about it. It was an amazing find. I had not seen or even thought about this drawing since the moment I had finshed it.

And, I'll be honest with you, I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with it as I would somone wonderful, someone who I had thoughtlessly lost, but who had then, by some miracle, come back into my life.

And forgiven me.

1/1 - Brian Eno

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Peyote memories

ballpoint pen and alcohol

Calbayog City 2024

I think the only mind altering substance that I truly miss from my misspent youth is peyote.

Way back then, back before life's crushing journey had forced responsibility upon me, I found that next to the emotion of love, the mental state produced by consuming the peyote cactus was perhaps the most wonderful thing this side of paradise.

We, my friends and I, used to blend the peyote buttons in V8 juice.

We called it V9 juice.

"Watch out for that 9th vegetable," we would say.

And crack up.

Totally unrelated but here are a couple drawings I did this morning..

I don't know why but they got me thinking about psychedelics.

Peyote memories

ballpoint pen and alcohol

Calbayog City 2024

And yes, they do look similar. That's because I drew one of the drawings on the backside of the other drawing.

Why not? 🤣

Peyote buttons

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Blaze Foley - If I could only fly

black sharpie on paper

Monrovia 1996

Almost felt you touching me just now

Wish I knew which way to turn and go

Feel so good, then I feel so bad

Wonder what I ought to do

If I could only fly, if I could only fly

I'd bid this place goodbye

to come and be with you

But I can hardly stand,

I got no where to run

Another sinking sun,

one more lonely night

- Blaze Foley

black sharpie and colored pencils

Westwood 1986

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Black sharpie on paper

Los Angeles 2015

I like this drawing.

I know the signature is upside down.

But so is the drawing.

Destiny - Zero 7

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Lost in time

black sharpie on paper

Los Angeles 2013

I think this was the last Sierpinski drawings I did. I really enjoyed making these drawings. The sierpinski triangle is a drawing technique that one, or at least that I, can become utterly lost in. Hours can go by with no other thought than "draw."

So lovely.

Like a good drug.

I should do another one.

Chet Baker - Almost blue

This song kills me.

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colored pencil & pen, calbayog city, 2024

My 5 yo daughter asked for a drawing with pink in it so I drew this. She says she likes it.

My brother, on the other hand, said he liked it more when it was unfinished and still had some white areas.

Maybe..

Luckily I took an in progress photo.

Time for coffee.

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black sharpie

Hollywood CA 2019

A couple more older drawings just because they're cool.

This morning my eight year old son Sean told me matter of factly, "Frogs can jump higher than the Eiffel Tower."

"No they can't." I said.

"But dad," he said starting to laugh, "the Eiffel Tower can't jump."

Moments like these I just sit back and take it.

Presently he controlled his laugh and asked me,

"Daddy, do you know why dinosaurs don't eat fish?

He looked at me innocently.

"No." I said and braced myself.

"Cuz they're dead!"

He's holding his sides laughing.

We were in my office. I was working on a drawing. He sat down on the floor and began playing with his legos.

Presently he looked up at me and asked, "Daddy, are the suction cups on octopus tentacles like plungers?"

I paused for a moment to take in that image.

"Yah," I said, "pretty much so."

"They don't let in the air." he said knowingly like he'd already figured this one out. Then he stopped and thought for a moment like wait a second..

"Daddy," he asked me, "is there air in water?"

"Well, yah," I said, "There is air disolved in water."

"Then why can't we breath under water?" He asked.

Hmmm.. That's actually a good question. How can I explain..

My mind raced for a moment considering semi-permeable membranes, concentration gradients, oxygen partial pressure, selective transport, hemoglobin binding capacity.. and..

I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

That shit's over.

"Little dude, we're in the Philippines now." I laughed. "Go ask an octopus."

"Hey dad." He said after a moment. "Do you know why the skeleton didn't climb he mountain."

I braced mysef.

"Cuz he didn't have the guts." He said. Running away laughing.

Calbayog City 2024

black sharpie

Hollywood CA 2019

Only with spring

Watercolor & coloredpencil

Monrovia 1996

Oh sweet spontaneous earth...

How often have religions taken

thee upon their scraggy knees

squeezing and buffeting thee

that thou mightest conceive

gods.

But true

to the incomparable couch of death

thy rythmic lover

thou answerest them

only with

Spring

e. e. cummings

E. E. Cummings