Poem- How to Climb a Tree

When you climb a tree don't simply exert force. You’ll break that which should support you. It’s not the trees job to hold you. You must support yourself and be prepared to receive force from the tree. It is the tree that exerts a force on you. And you must exit yourself and balance between the two. Until suddenly you see it is the tree that is climbing you. 12.19.12

Poem- I Saw a Plum Growing on the Side of the Road

I saw a plum growing on the side of the road. The kind only birds plant. Twisted around a fence, where no one, ever, will ever pick a fruit. They’re in bloom again, must be spring. The plums have a kind of mischievous charm to them. I like that. Full of indecision and exuberance, much like the young. Half in bloom, half putting forth leaves, still red with the kind of delicate skin, lush and flushed, before they callus up with time. That green we love so much, and take for granted. Soon they’ll start making fruit with a kind of industrial efficiency born directly from a will to live. They’ll be the small ones with a big pit, sour perhaps. That’s what happens, you know, when they escape from cultivation. I’ve heard people say that they’re not really good for eating. What a waste, on the side of a freeway. Bullshit. Birds eat them all the time. Friday, 2/17/12 Fremont

Digital Watercolors- Pterodactyl Waterfall

I did this for the conference as well- or something similar. I got a critique, and so have changed the image some from the originally submitted piece. I flipped it, to keep the movement going left to right (as it is now), I enlarged the pterodactyl to push its wing tips off the sides of the pages to really make it seem BIG, and I pushed the contrast between the shadowed background and highlighted foreground (i.e. the pterodactyl itself) to really make it pop as much as I could. What was fun was that I brought in a natural media watercolor abstract that I've been working on, and found the composition in it by digitally inking on it, adding more color, darkening areas, etc. It's definitely a very specific style, but I really liked working this way, and may play more with other abstracts in the future.

Digital Watercolors- The Chickens Are Out!

I'm working on some new portfolio pieces for a conference on Saturday.  This is the piece I finished on Monday.  Done digitally, with line work in Paint Tool Sai and color work in Artrage.

Poem- Form and Function

Form and Function

One of the great joys

in tending to a tree

is that form still follows function. 

Many people hack at a tree.  They want

a certain affect, and so deliver

aesthetic wounds.

The long,

sinuous

line

of a trunk

speaks to

elegant health.

And the removal of twigs

unhealthy to a tree

add to its beauty.  To open the center of a tree,

and let it breath freely, to remove scale

and disease, is to reveal

the powerful chest of a plant

most likely older than yourself.  And much as they might tell you

if you were studying words, or books, or science, or theorems,

it is the elegance of a tree’s beauty

that leads

to the smoothest, strongest function.

1/16/12

Poem- Bending the Knee

Bending the Knee

You have to learn to how to bend the knee

to become a gardener.

If you want to plant a flower

you need to open the earth.

And if you want

to remove weeds

you have to start at the ground.

Only a fool tries to weed standing up.

Even the old

get down on their knees

to tend to the needs of soil.

Digital Watercolors- Trees and Hills

Week 2 of the Artrage class I'm taking. I'm experimenting with doing quicker speedpaints, just to play with processes, produce work, and move on to the next piece. These both took 30-45 minutes. Done entirely in Artrage. The one with the mountains in the background is from a recent drive we were on in the Central Valley. The other, more nebulous painting is just from my mind. It's been fun to just produce some work and let it go.