Crayola Saturday

I was going to write about a lot of stuff.  About how this blog started just about this time last year; how I’m following a lot more art/drawing bloggers and really diggin’ it; or maybe something political.  But I totally spaced on it all and have come up short.  But it is Crayola Friday, now renamed Crayola Saturday to avoid confusion, and I’m gonna talk drawing.

I’ve started to follow a lot more people who are posting their art on their blogs, and I’m lovin’ it.  For me, starting a blog was a godsend drawing-wise.  Not only did I now have an outlet for my artwork, but a reason to keep at it, and hone my draftsmanship skills.  I don’t consider myself an “Artist”, although I did major in Art in college during the late sixties, as did my wife.  For most of the time between college and now, the glorious land of retirement, I was more of a potter, than drawer.  In fact, when friends see my blog, their usual comment is, ” Oh, I didn’t know you could draw.”

From the late eighties till now, I was a part-time studio potter, throwing hand-made functional ware ( bowls, mugs, plates etc.) on my wheel out in the backyard, and selling the stuff at local craft shows.  I have a gas kiln, two electric kilns, a wheel, and garage filled with a shit-load of ceramic supplies (make my own glazes).  I stopped selling pottery soon after I discovered I could make time and a half working over-time at our local Juvenile Hall. Sell out?  I prefer: renting myself to the highest bidder.

Anyway, I’ve always drawn throughout my life.  And just today, my grandson was sitting down to draw something, when some of my recent drawings slipped out of the sketch pad I was letting him use.  After hurriedly trying to hide my raunchier stuff, he asked me when I stared drawing.  I told him I started right about his age, 8 years old, maybe earlier.  I told him about the joys of drawing, which he, and most kids, already know, and shared some of my experiences with art.

Got me to thinking about my drawing.  What the hell is it?  How would one describe it?  How would I describe it???

Well it is what it is.  One of my biggest influences, besides my usual medication, was Mad magazine and the art of some of it’s earliest illustrators: Bill Elder, Jack Davis, and Wallace Wood in particular.  You might call them cartoonists, but they were actually quite good comic book illustrators, and among the best of their times.  The other big influence was the Surrealist Movement, and Salvador Dali.

I don’t usually draw from life.  I’m not attempting to do serious art.  And everything you see stems from my rich fantasy life.  Maybe that’s why ya might just notice certain themes running through my work again and again.

Bottom line is, there is no bottom line!  I’m able to just do “art for art’s sake”  Nothing’s for sale.  Big difference from trying to sell pottery.  And to all those who may be doing something similar with their art and blogging, I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.  [If  I’m following you, you better believe I like what you’re doing.]  And what’s really cool is,  all my drawings are out there for all to see.  Sorta like an On-line gallery.

If any of you out their in the Twilight Zone they call the Blog-O-Sphere are closet artists, get out a digital camera and post them puppies.  Don’t worry about what people may think.   I obviously don’t.

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