Berry Picker

54" x 48", oil on canvas.

snow face/ fort in NH

Visited Black Hill Road in Plainfield, New Hampshire last week and collaborated on a snow fort with a few members of the Mogielnicki/Spade family, plus Kate. Then I screwed it up with a big face on one side, once they were all inside drinking cocoa. (Peter stayed out with me, took these photos, and gave valuable feedback.) The winterberry nosebleed was Riley's suggestion; when I left it looked more like a goatee and moustache but it had gotten too dark for photographs.

link: Hadley Nunes article

My old friend from school was featured a couple of months back (but I just now got around to looking) in an online magazine: Hadley Nunes. Some great photos of Hawai'i, painting and interview answers... good examples of the attitude I liked about the Studio School. Yay Hadley!

occupy

69" x 42", housepaint and ink on vinyl (I did it on the back of one of my printed Peace Banners). Then I went and marched from City Hall to the State House, with maybe a couple hundred other people? Got to try out (being part of) the human mike and having a General Assembly on granite steps in the rain. I'm not quite sure I'd call it fun, but worth the effort.

I'd like another stab at this design, or a similar one. The underlying version in graphite was better, but I didn't take a photo!

Esme Standing

24" x 18", graphite on paper. I did this over the course of the past week for a couple of friends in town-- fun to do. Little kids move a lot when they're awake.

last Camp Glen Brook post

Glen Brook Barn, 11" x 16.5", pastel on paper. If you look really closely you'll see that the field is packed full of milkweed, with a few monarch butterflies and caterpillars.


Demanded Peace, got chocolate: since I was away last week from my regular Montpelier federal building peace rally (every Friday 12-1-- join us!) I decided to find the local post office, handy symbol of the federal government, in Marlborough, NH. I walked down the hill from the camp with my protest banner, startling three wild turkeys and being annoyed by those little flies that hover around your nose and then fly directly into your eyeballs-- what do they think they're doing? The lady in the post office, when I told her what I wanted, gave me a look like "Peace? Good luck, buddy," and said she thought it would be okay as long as I stood across the street. Across the street was a lawn with a roto-tiller for sale ($50) and Unbridled Chocolates. I didn't want to piss off the chocolatier so I went inside to ask HIS permission to rally for peace on his lawn. (He looks just like his picture above.) Luckily he didn't say "It's okay as long as you're across the street;" he said instead something like "Peace? Fuck yeah, come in when you're done and I'll give you a chocolate," which he did. I picked a dark chocolate with ghost pepper. It was super.


Stream crossers, near the pond at Camp Glen Brook. The little one in back is a single rock shaped like a big tooth, with two "roots" that work as legs. One of the best things about making these pieces is that I get to see some really neat rocks... sometimes it feels like I'm curating the woods, as pretentious as that may sound. What I'm trying to say is I'd really like to be able to make things that are as beautiful as rocks you can pick up in the woods. (Maybe I could make them like Superman makes diamonds out of coal, by squeezing REALLY HARD.) Finding beautiful things is easy; making them is difficult.

Camp Glen Brook third post

Waterfall Trail, 8.5" x 11", pastel on paper.


Undead Pine, somewhere in the woods, probably fallen by now. I didn't much like the Ents in the Lord of the Rings movies, because they looked dead or at least very unhealthy to me. In general I think it's pretty hard to make a detailed, convincing image of a living tree. On the other hand it's easy to make them look spooky and dead-- and it can be fun.


Monadnock photographer, 5.5" x 3.5", pencil on paper.

to see in Montpelier: HIGHLOW PROJECT

The HIGHLOW PROJECT is a series of large-scale photographs by Ned Castle in collaboration with local young people, showing on walls outside in Montpelier (among other places in Vermont, I guess). I stumbled on it while I was running errands this morning. It's really good. You should go out and see it, and if you have money to spare you should give them some.

more from Camp Glen Brook

I took some photos in the woods-- there was a lot of wildlife. This might be Clavulinopsis fusiformis, according to MushroomExpert.com, a site I can't recommend highly enough. I'm better at taking photos of wildlife that doesn't move noticeably, as you'll see in future posts.


Glen Brook before soccer, 8.5" x 11", pastel on paper. The guy on the left is a camper's dad who started doing some crazy martial-arts-looking activities with what looked to me like a large plumb bob shortly after I started sketching. I didn't really capture the intensity of his movement, but in the end I think it's okay because it would have distracted from the rest of the (relatively calm) scene.


Brave Mountaineer, on the corner of an old stone wall near a meadow full of milkweed. This is the second; the first one fell down overnight before I came back with a camera. By now it's probably time for a third but I'm no longer there.

From Camp Glen Brook residency

Many thanks to Kate Langridge for the opportunity to stay at Camp Glen Brook for a few days. I spent a lot of time in the woods, some time making art, and a bit of time playing Settlers of Catan....Stone Balancer, on one of the trails. The blue streaks on the pines aren't mine; they're planning some careful logging.


Storm approaching Monadnock, pastel on paper, 11" x 8.5". Luckily there was a shelter to duck under.


Camp Glen Brook, graphite on paper, 3.5" x 5.5". The kid on the right is there because he came over and asked what I was drawing, and I said "I'm drawing you looking at my drawing." He's got his sunglasses dangling from his mouth; very cool.

brief political interlude

Here's a blog post on why progressives might want to support Ron Paul (among other topics) argued by Glenn Greenwald.

more sketches of George

George talking #3, 17" x 14", graphite on paper.


George talking #1, 14" x 17", graphite on paper.