by Marty Coleman | Apr 29, 2014 | The Unnamed Series - 2014 |
As most of you know by now, I am doing an ‘Unnamed Series’. I am only showing you the drawing, not the series theme nor the individual quotes for each napkin. I am doing it as an experiment to see if anyone can figure out what my series theme is. I will post these again all at once next week with the theme and quotes included. All three images I have drawn so far are in this post so you can see them all easily and see if a pattern emerges. Let me know in the comments what your guess is!
Unnamed Series #3
The Unnamed Series #2
The Unnamed Series #1
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Drawings by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 28, 2014 | The Unnamed Series - 2014 |
Here is #2 in my experiment. I am not telling the theme nor am I writing in the quotes until I am done with all 4 or 5 of them. I would like you, my Napkin Kin, to guess what you think the theme is. I don’t expect you to guess the quote, but you might start to get a feel for the series theme as the drawings add up. Give it a try, what are your thoughts?
Unnamed Series #2
The Unnamed Series #1
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Drawings by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 25, 2014 | The Unnamed Series - 2014 |
Something New
I am going to try something new today. I decided upon my series theme this morning and started drawing the image before I wrote the quote on the napkin. I thought it might be fun to see if you, my Napkin Kin, can guess what my series theme is. I don’t expect a guess on the quote, just the theme.
Here is the drawing without the quote.
Can You Guess?
Put your guess as to the series theme in the comments. Share it on FB or Twitter, see if your friends or family have a guess as well. I will post the guesses and any winners, early next week.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 22, 2014 | I Draw in Church, Illustrated Short Stories, Judgment - 2013 |
Practicing at a Church I Usually Don’t Go To – A Short Short Poem
She is walking out of church with very long legs and very short shorts.
I am behind her, noticing, with a remnant, a wafting of judgment,
That I discard and think instead,
You are wonderful, as are your friends, and I love you.
The End
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Drawing and Poem by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 18, 2014 | John Green, Pain & Suffering |
I demand that today show #4 in my Pain and Suffering series!
Burn
When I was in the hospital back in the 70s I discovered three very annoying facts about recovering from burns.
- The procedures for recovery hurt far more than the initial burn.
- That the pain increases, not decreases, every day until you are ready for skin grafts.
- You can’t rush getting to the skin graft part.
In my case it took 5 weeks until I was ready for the grafts. During that time I had twice a day whirlpool baths at about 110º to 120º. After the soaking I had the dead skin taken off , sometimes pretty indelicately, by various nurses. Where the dead skin was didn’t hurt, but for them to get that skin off the had to work from the edges of it, which meant they were constantly going over the edge and touching the part of my body where there was no skin, only nerves. Sometimes I would have been given a pain killer but often that pain killer had not taken affect when this procedure took place. This hurt.
Breaking to Heal
The nurses would then put on a cream called Sulfamylon. This cream burned. It burned worse than the burns. This hurt. They would then cover my body with gauze, wrap me up good and off I would go to Physical Therapy.
In Physical Therapy the most important thing, besides maintaining my overall strength, was to make sure the Keloid scars didn’t grow so as to restrict my movements in the future. To avoid this my therapy consisted of stretching as much as I good, which in turn meant breaking open whatever was starting to heal too tight. This hurt.
I would then have about 10 or so hours until the procedure repeated itself later that day.
Growing Pain
Now here is the kicker. When you are burned your nerves endings are either burnt or retract. On day one of your treatment your nerves are not recovered and you only feel so much. But each day your nerve endings come back just a bit. Which means you feel more, not less, pain as the recovery makes its way. What this does to one’s mind is to keep it from thinking ahead. Not only are you focused, obviously, on the immediate pain, but you are also pretty much incapable of imagining life in the future. The constant pain contracts your ability to imagine. For example, I remember at one point during my stay, in September, someone saying something about January and the new year. I just looked at them and said, ‘I don’t really believe January will ever come.’ In my mind I could not see ahead because the pain was too great and was only growing greater.
Your Pain
I know a lot of friends in pain right now. Many in the throes of divorce, others due to physical pain, some are just emotional wrecks over everything being up in the air in their lives. It sucks for them right now and I feel for them. But I also know something, and I know it from very real experience. January does come. Healing does come. Life will not always be the life you are experiencing right now. If you can’t envision a future without your pain, then just take a chance and trust me. Believe my experience second hand. You will get through it.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by John Green, 1977 – not dead yet, American author
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 17, 2014 | Pain & Suffering |
Guess what? You are going to have to suffer through day #3 of my ‘Pain and Suffering’ series, that’s what!
Never
You know what I never hear or read? This: “Man, I just listened to a lecture about watching out for back stabbing people who pretend to be your friend and I am totally never going to let that happen now that I heard that. Lesson learned! “
A Lot
You know what I do hear and read a LOT? This: “Man, someone I thought was my best friend just completely stabbed me in the back. I trusted her and now I realize I shouldn’t have. I am hurt bad but I am never going to let that happen to me again. Lesson learned!”
Lesson Learned
Intellect doesn’t breed transformation, experience does.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Brian Herbert, 1947 – not dead yet, American Author and Kevin J. Anderson, 1962 – not dead yet, American author
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 15, 2014 | Photographic Sunday |
There had to be a million or so people around the globe watching and photographing the Bloodmoon last night. I was one of them.
My friends on Facebook seemed very happy when I posted these. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you, the Napkin Kin, also are happy that I posted here. Of course, they, and you, could go to a thousand other better photographers’ websites or social media sites and see much better photos of the moon. Why did they respond with comments like “Marty: Thank you for capturing this. Now I am happy. I was sad, that I missed it.”? I think it’s because relationship connections are what it’s about. Evette, who posted that comment, knows me. She knows I posted this to share with her and my friends. That means something to her. I am not a magazine, I am not a photo agency, I am not removed from her. I am connected.
It’s no different than when a friend of mine gets to go to a special event. If I see photos they took of it or read their description and feelings about the event, I feel connected. I am happy and grateful they shared it with me. I am experiencing it with them and through them. It’s not the same as just any old photo of the event by a stranger.
Linda mentioned as we were looking at the moon how many others on the planet were looking at the same thing at the same time. It’s an amazing thought. What takes that thought to the land of happy wonder for me is how many of my friends around the globe either saw it or felt connected by seeing my photos of it.
I think we live on a pretty cool orb. I love that we have been blessed to be conscious of it and intelligent enough to explore it, and the universe beyond, together. Knowing there is friendship and love at that heart of it all gives all that wonder and awareness the greatest meaning and value in my book.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 14, 2014 | F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pain & Suffering |
I am picking today to be #2 in the Pain and Suffering series.
Pick Your Pain
I pick my scalp. My father did as well. My mother and sisters would tell him not to. My wife and daughters do the same to me on occasion. My response? I don’t stop for long. Why? Because I like picking my scalp. I like picking because I like the little bit of feeling, the pain, attached to it, among other things.
Picking a scab might lead to infection, it might bleed a bit too much. We all get that, but we do it anyway. Why? Because we like it. We like the pain because we know it is controlled. We know the pain won’t kill us (the infection might, yes, but the pain won’t). We know it will only go so deep. It’s the same reason we press a bruise or a sore spot on our body after we have exercised hard. We are testing the pain, seeing how painful it is. And that pain feels good because we know we can relieve the pain easy enough by just stopping.
Choose, Self-inflict, Repeat
Why are we so ready to repeat pain but not pleasure? To me the answer is simple, we don’t have any guilt with pain. Pleasure can make us feel indulgent, selfish. But how can you feel indulgent and selfish when you are feeling pain? It isn’t nearly as likely.
That’s why we have so many quasi-martyrs in the world who love to advertise their suffering. That’s why the ‘fruits of the spirit’ in the bible include ‘long-suffering’ but not ‘long-pleasuring’. We don’t unleash moral condemnation on pain and suffering, do we.
True Danger
There are times when self-inflicting pain really is dangerous and life threatening though. Self-loathing and self-hating can lead to inflicting pain that can have permanent and even fatal consequences. Sometimes to others as well as yourself. I wish I had the answer as to way we do that. All I know is it’s way too frequent among those I love.
What are your thoughts on it?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940, American author
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 11, 2014 | Pain & Suffering |
Is is weird to be happy that today is day #1 of my new ‘Pain and Suffering’ series?
Friends in Pain
Recently I posted the following on my Facebook profile.
“Recently I have talked to 4 friends in pain over relationships and where they are in life. I don’t like seeing my friends in pain but I love knowing them well enough to know that they can get through it. Pain isn’t forever, even if it feels that way.”
Many people ‘liked’ the post. I went through the list of those who liked it and found six more who I personally have talked to in the past few years about the pain they have suffered in relationships or some other aspect of their life. And those are just the ones I talked to directly. I suspect many who liked it have also gone through a lot of pain, I just don’t know the specifics. Then again, when I think about it, how many of us haven’t gone through pain in our relationships?
Out of the 10 I have talked to personally, 6 have gone through or are going through a divorce. Of the other 4, they either broke up with long term boyfriends or girlfriends or are contemplating doing so, or they were not on good speaking terms with their spouse last I talked to them. Many of them have other painful issues they are dealing with as well. Who knows about the others, but I suspect there was a lot of pain in all those ‘likes’.
Imagined Future
I went through a divorce after 20 years of marriage. It was painful. One of the things that hurt the most was the loss of an imagined future. Not one I planned in advance, but one I realized was gone once the divorce hit. People would say, ‘but you will have a new future and who knows, it might be even better.’ I didn’t really want to hear that because at first I couldn’t imagine it was true.
But it was true. I am in that new future now and it has many things in it that I could not have imagined back then. Not all of this future is perfect, of course not. But it is filled with love and value and meaning and support and creativity and purpose. I am not sure I could ask for much more than that, right? Could you?
How the Future
How did this future come to pass? Well, eventually I had to allow the past to be on it’s own. I had to say goodbye to it as a constant companion because it didn’t want me looking at a new future. It wanted me to only look at it. The past was a jealous mistress and I had to divorce myself from it as well. That doesn’t mean I don’t visit the past. I love much of my past. but just as I don’t sleep with my ex anymore, I don’t sleep with my past either. I have a new wife I sleep with and a new present and future that accompanies her.
What that means is I made room for discovering a new understanding of my life and my future. If you are willing to do that, you can discover something new and wonderful as well.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Khalil Gibran, 1883-1931, Lebanese born poet
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 8, 2014 | Illustrated Short Stories, Marty Coleman |
A Short Short Story
Transcript:
5 seconds in her mind while we were in a church and she was in front of us and I watched her for a while before I made this up
Second One: I am alone, I am still cold, I wish I was married, I wonder if I am getting sick.
Second Two: I don’t think I am sick; it’s just allergies, I need to pay attention & eat better but lunch sounds good maybe a cheeseburger. No, a salad.
Second Three: No, maybe I will skip lunch and fast. I need to pray more so I can lose weight & be happier. Maybe just 20 pounds.
Second Four: But I am already happy I think because I am saved and that means I am going to not go to hell. I think I don’t chew well.
Second Five: But if I lose weight I will have to buy new clothes and I am broke. I am going to close my eyes now just for a little while then I will fell better again maybe.
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Drawing and story by Marty Coleman
Model unknown
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 4, 2014 | Marston Bates, Research - 2014 |
This may boomerang on me, but today it’s #5 in my Research series!
True But
I think this is true but incomplete. I think it must be added that it’s not always the alley that is blind, it’s the person in the alley who is.
Blind Alley, Blind Person
A researcher can contribute their own blindness or shortsightedness to the process of going down an investigative alley. At least I know this holds true in art. If I am not paying attention to everything around me I can think a place is devoid of creative potential. But the truth is there is probably a great deal of creative opportunities anywhere, if I am paying attention. I would think the same is true in research. Yes, you have something specific you are looking for, but you can not be blind to what else the alley offers.
Recognize, Then Edit
As you go on your research journey, no matter the field, keep your mind and senses open to what presents itself, even if it’s not completely on topic. That doesn’t mean you have to grab it and indulge in it. It’s just saying you know what it is that is in front of you and are open to what it might mean. Recognizing something and deciding to leave it behind is much better than never recognizing it in the first place.
See the rest of the Research series here. If you are interested in having them as posters or framed prints for your school or company, let me know!
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Marston Bates, 1906-1974, American zoologist
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“Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind. “
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 3, 2014 | Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Research - 2014 |
Do you see? Today is #4 in the Research series!
My Daughter Led the Way
One of the things I love about having a daughter who is a scientist is how it’s turned my attention to science as well. I read up on it as best I can and I like to watch shows on it. I don’t pretend to know much, but it’s an amazing path to follow, never ending in it’s ability to surprise.
Art and Science
I also find more and more how similar being a scientist is to being an artist. Yes, science has a certain rigor and a much more detailed protocol for everything that creating artwork usually doesn’t have, but the essence of discovery comes from the same spot in our minds. That spot is an open, non-judgmental space that tells us we are free to explore. Both scientists and artists believe that the joy of exploration is it’s own reward. But we also know another truth and that is that when you do explore with freedom, lack of fear and judgment, moral or otherwise, you are very likely to discover things of importance.
See the rest of the Research Series here. Scroll down to see them all.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1893-1986, Hungarian physiologist. Discoverer of Vitamin C and winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1937.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 1, 2014 | Bill Watterson, Research - 2014 |
I hope you don’t think I am a jerk to tell you… today is day 3 in the Research series!
What would this field of research be in, anyway? What would the disease even be called? Do you think the government would give a grant for it?
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Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman
Quote by Bill Watterson, 1958 – not dead yet, American cartoonist, author of Calvin and Hobbes.
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