My sabatical

Wow, it's been a long time. I almost forgot my password to get in here. The last time I posted some sketches was getting ready to set up at our local pow wow and do some caricatures in my brother's booth. I was a wary about doing this because i'm not very confident about my skills but Courtney, my brother, told me to get over it and come set up with him. So I did and I had a great time. Because I had so little experience with this I charged only five dollars a "head" and made about three hundred dollars over the weekend. It was cool. Pow Wows are a great place to meet people of all shapes, sizes, ages and colors and most are in a great mood. When the weekend was over I went home and set up my large sketch book and continued to draw more caricatures from memory. It was weird but I made great strides in skill after my weekend and during my practice.
I finally went out and bought some watercolors. I got a cotman field set. I thought this would be a great starter and I could easily use at home and outside with excuses. I have a lot to learn but I think I'm going to have learning and I'll worry about the Smithsonian Pieces some other time.

CHECKING IN

I haven't posted any drawings for a while but I've got new stuff I'll put up soon, but first I want to just something while I've got my mind on it.
Regarding Native American mascots.
I'm really intrigued by this issue and why america is so resistant to letting them go. I think the reason is because in order to do that Native Americans may have to be recognized as U.S. citizens or maybe even as real people and not symbols of some mass fantasy of a "noble savage". And if Native Americans are seen as real people then African Americans, Latinos and poor people may have to be recognized and accepted as humans and if that happens then we may find ourselves seeing Iraqis as real people who love and fear and hope just like us. If all that occurs, we may just then realize what we are doing, have done and plan on doing. And that insight may be too overwhelming at this point in our country's history. Yeah, that's it. Thats why america clings to these idiot mascots the've constructed, it keeps the truth out of their reality just a little longer.

yet more biggstuff

It's been a while

This is an example of what happens when I fixate on a particular subject. In this case it's the hand. It occured to me how the hand is connected to the arm. How the wrist might work and what the relationship is between the hand and the thumb. I learned this all years ago in some Art School I flunked out of but for some reason it clicked today.
A diagram. What happens to us when we can't connect and why does it happen?
Courtesy CNN.com
Me obsessing with hands again.
Heroes out of ordinary folks.