The Old Pine

My version of Qing Gaozong's Old Pine:

The Old Pine
Ink on Shuen Rice Paper.
The little brown sliver on the left of the image is part of the wood block holding the paper down.

Painting the twisting nature of the pine was interesting, it was a simple lesson in remembering not to cross certain lines. I tried to take extra care with the needles - trying to keep larger needle strokes near the center of the bunches and smaller needle strokes on the outside.

I started the painting with very light ink and then added darker inks in layers. The final layer was black ink with a wet brush for the tree's edges. The bark texture is a mix of black ink - dry brush and light grey ink - wet brush.

Writer's Workshop - 06-03-09

Here's an interesting writing idea from Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop: write your own obituary. Sounds fun so I'll give it a whirl.

Ink's Obituary
With solemn words, we regret to inform the public of the passing of Ink at 183 years of age. He was in the National Aquarium in Baltimore where he was shot by an old friend who was angered by his 'The Rolling Stones suck' comment, subsequentlly falling into the mako shark tank and while being devoured the building was hit by a meteor. Twice.

Ink led an interesting full of wonder and mischief. As everyone is aware of he made some startling discoveries in the areas of Science, Technology, and Art. His anti-aging pill helped to eliminate the ravages of old age while simultaneously increasing the 'mad scientist' gene in all who imbibed it. His invention of flying cars that runs on weasel-power (a renewable energy resource) helped to lead the way to cleaner and weaselier future.

At one point in his life he began experimenting with the gravitational constant of mass and found how to create black holes around grains of sand. Unfortunately, this technology was banned when an experiment conducted by many people affected by his anti-aging pill went awry and half of France was obliterated... the bad half. (sorry France!) Oddly enough, at that time croissant sandwich stock went through the roof making many people rich.

His love of painting shone by many thousands of paintings that he painted. With paint. He also contributed to quite a few charities such as Defenders of Wildlife, St. Jude's Childrens Hospital, NRDC, Mad Scientists of America, Weasel Weekly, and Fringe Science for Fun and Profit. He also helped to found the financial magazine, Croissanting: Investing Wisely in Pastry Futures.

He is survived by many pissed-off weasels.

The Dream Cycle, 2009.6

Boa Constrictors and Flamethrowers
I was in a large house with a few other people. I feel it was part of a military unit, but I'm not quite sure. Someone gave me a flamethrower (score!) to use in battle. It turns out that the house was invaded by a huge boa constrictor and that we had to take it out.

We started out in the basement (I don't know how we got there) and began moving towards the stairs up. At the bottom of the stairs was a 4 foot by 3 foot platform. This platform was covered by scarab beetles. The sarge (looked like he was from WW2) told me to light those buggers up. So I did. It was kind of odd though, when I attacked with the flamethrower, the flames shot out in a 'square cone' if that makes any sense. I commenced with incinerating those Egyptian beetles. For some odd reason, the house didn't catch fire.

So the unit makes it's way up the stairs. We get into the living room area and a guy in the unit called 'Windows' (he was wearing glasses) tells everyone to hold and listen. We hear a faint hissing and know the boa is near. We're holding still waiting and watching, but the python is not moving either. It lasted like that for what felt an hour....

then I woke up.

I'm pretty sure I know where the different elements of the dream come from this time. The snake theme comes from watching 'Life After People' - the episode was talking about boas becoming the dominant predator in florida swamps. Flamethrowers? Ok I got nothing. 'Windows' was a character in the movie 'The Thing' which I watched again (for the 50 millionth time - love that movie!) over the weekend. The scarab beetles are probably inspired by some stories from Egyptian mythology that I was reading yesterday. And the whole WW2 unit... well I play alot of WW2 games like Call of Duty: World at War.

Writer's Workshop - 05-21-09

Here we go again! Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop - Dig it!

Share a love letter.
It's not what you think. Or maybe it is, I dunno.

To the world and existence:
You constantly surprise me with your ups and downs. I love the roar of the ocean waves and the remote majesty of the mountains, the flowing rivers that connect us together and the expansive fields that keep us apart, the violent storms that energize my soul and the sunny days that keep my blues in check, the howling beasts of the field and the beautiful flowers that inspire paintings, the catastrophes that end civilizations and the golden ages that show our resourcefulness, the introverted secret journeys and the wide-spread pack mentality, the blood steaming off the pavement and the tears of side-splitting laughter, the corpse that decays in holy ground and the innocent smile of a newborn, the faint light of a myriad of stars and the overwhelming presence of our Sun, the smallest grain of sand and the largest boulder on the hill, the chill of the whispering wind and the warmth of a Summer breeze, the cycle of everything and the meaning of nothing.

Now that's a run-on sentence. :)

The Dream Cycle, 2009.5

Attacked by a Giant Alien Turtle
I was on the rooftop of a building in a city with a bunch of other people. We were having a party and chilling out. This city had a bay, suddenly something large went streaking across the sky and crashed into the bay. I was expecting a large wave to come hit the city but it never came.

After the mist cleared out in the bay, I saw a gain turtle that looked similar to Gamera.

Except that this turtle looked more like a snapping turtle and it's shell plates rose into large wedged spikes. It began moving towards the city.

I sat and watched transfixed as utter chaos engulfed the city. The monster was rampaging, destroying everything in its path. Building were crumbling under the onslaught; droves of people fleeing in all directions; cars and busses crushed. I stayed on the roof top watching. And I woke up.

It was neat to have my own monster feature in a dream. Now I have to figure out a way to draw it! Career in Kaiju, here I come!

The Dream Cycle, 2009.4

In Class
I was in an art class and for some reason I was wearing an old medieval-style cloak. Maybe it was the dreaded holocaust cloak? :) I remember I was painting different things and talking to this girl who was sitting next to me and painting also. There were three major pigments we were using, ground from stones. These were azurite, malachite, and amethyst (blue, green, and purple respectively). All of these colors in their different hues and values made for a great landscape painting.

And there was more do the dream... but I don't remember it. :(

Writer's Worshop, 4-23-09

Sure I haven't written anything in a while and my dreams (that are worth recording) don't seem to be happening. Yet Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop usually has a good prompt or two to get the creative juices flowing. I'm running with two prompts this week to make up for my slacker-ness.

Book Review: Scottish Ghosts

I've been reading a conglomeration of stories about Scottish ghosts recently. It's a well composed book, full of interesting stories written by Elliot O'Donnell (I think that's the authors name, I dont have the book in front of me right now.) The book contains different 'genres' of ghost stories, all historical accounts. Castles, battles, regular residences, holy places, and devil sightings are all covered within. It covers all kinds of ghosts too; the longing lost, jilted lovers, benevolent spirits, mad lords, and more malevolent spirits. It's definitely worth a read if you like good ghost stories based on historical accounts.


I'll never forget...

I'll never forget...
My late Grandmother's spirit
Her strength and her life

Now she lends her spirit
Across the island of Oahu
Scattered to Diamondhead

I'll never forget...
Someone who used to be close
How this world damaged you

Love that was once so bright
Shining like the burning sun
Only shadow remains

I'll never forget...
The animals of my childhood
Every dog, cat, and bird

Jingles, Buttons, Bear,
Sid Whiffle, Duchess, Reagan,
Poogy the Cheesepuff!

I'll never forget...
My life out in Pittsburgh
Wandering streets at 4 am

An empty city
These hollow concrete spires
Covered in ice, surreal

I'll never forget...
The roots of my existence
Where I have come from

And where I may go
Will always be tempered
By memory and experience

I'll never forget...
My desire to create
And move people's souls

Open their eyes
To ever-present possibilities
That life is more than consuming