’tis a rare day when I go to hang out at a coffee shop. Friday I had to leave my house for 2 hours because we fogged the attic for spiders. My wife has had spider bites a number of times this year and so we have started having the house sprayed. We have had quite a few spiders this spring and summer, in particular the dreaded brown recluse (probably not what bit her, but we aren’t sure), one of the nastiest spiders there is. If it bites you it can have your flesh start to die. I’ve seen it in action on an ex-girlfriend’s daughter’s leg and it’s BAD.
Because of that I went to the new Starbucks in our quaint little hamlet here in Oklahoma to draw, periscope and drink some coffee. A young woman, styled impeccably, walked in right before me and I knew, if she was staying, I would want to draw her. Luckily she did. Below is the drawing I did on a Starbucks napkin.
Asking Permission
Most of the time I don’t ask permission to draw someone. But in this case the tables were arranged so I would have to sit very close to her and I was going to be periscoping my drawing, which meant I would be talking to my iPad and picking up my drawing and turning it around to show my viewers. It was going to be obvious what I was doing and so I wanted to ask her in advance, which I did. She graciously allowed me to proceed. You can see a photo of her with the drawing below.
Periscope
I periscoped the entire time I was drawing. The app quit about 20 minutes in and I had to restart. I was able to get part 1 of the video processed so both the comments and ‘hearts’ are showing. Part 2 had expired by the time I tried to process it (Periscope only keeps videos available for 24 hours). However, I was able to save it without the comments and hearts. You can find me on Periscope at @thenapkindad (same handle as I have on twitter and instagram).
Part 1
Put the video on full screen to be able to read the comments.
Part 2 – this one does not have any comments or hearts, sorry about that. I am still learning how to integrate Periscope into everything else!
Jennie
Here is Jennie with the drawing after I finished. She was very kind and sweet as well as stylish. I really appreciated her allowing me to draw and periscope her. I gave her my card and hope she sees this. Thank you Jennie!
Ever notice that self-help really is the exact opposite? It’s never just you helping yourself. It is always you wanting to help yourself so you go looking for those who can help you do that. I think true self-help is never heard about because the person helps themselves and that’s that. They didn’t ask anyone, they didn’t tell anyone, they didn’t depend on anyone. they just did what they did, on their own. That is true self-help, right?
Don’t get me wrong. I think that the best world to live in is where we are all helping one another. It is how our communities, cities, states and nations all come into existence. And it’s great.
Word Play
I just think the play of words is funny and somewhat telling about our society that we call what is obviously other-help, self-help instead.
Many of you know I am a pretty liberal guy. I am liberal in my politics, outlook, style, humor, love, modesty, etc. You name it, I am probably more liberal than the the person next to me (at least in Oklahoma where I live!). However, if anyone would make the leap that that means I don’t love the country where I live as much as a conservative, they would be sorely wrong.
Periscope International
Yesterday during the Periscope video I was broadcasting showing me actually drawing the drawing above we got into a discussion about America with some of my friends in the UK and elsewhere. I responded to something someone said by saying I am a Promise Patriot. I liked it and wrote it down so as to not forget it.
Promise Patriot
And that is what I am. I am a Promise Patriot. I believe in the promise that was at the heart of founding of the United States. I believe it is still at our heart and I still believe in it. This past month we saw that promise in action with the Supreme Court decision regarding marriage equality. We are seeing it play out as well with the drawing down of the Confederate flag across the south and elsewhere.
What the Road Ahead Teaches
That also means I am not a blind patriot. I, as the founding mothers and fathers were, am a critical thinker patriot. I want us to ask hard questions. I want us to critique ourselves as if our lives depended on it. I want us to realize we are not at the end of a journey but in the middle of one, and that we have to be open to what the road ahead teaches us, not just what the past has.
Vacation 2005
Ten years ago we took one of our first big vacations as a new family. As a matter of fact, Linda and I weren’t even engaged yet (that happened a month later) but we were bonding as family. Linda, Caitlin and I went to visit my daughter Rebekah in Virginia and we went into the city of Washington D.C. for the 4th of July celebration at the Washington Monument.
Here are some pics from that day.
Looks like a Promise Patriot to me! This was 10 years ago. Makes me wonder where he is today and what he looks like. Probably a straight-laced business man in a button down shirt, who knows!
My favorite photograph from that trip. The Washington Monument behind the Jefferson Memorial.
Linda and Caitlin visiting with Abe.
Some random couple who were too attractive not to photograph.
The scene at the monument before the fireworks.
Linda and Rebekah listening to the band play patriotic music with the Lincoln Memorial in the distance with the World War II Memorial in between.
Quote by Rep. Barbara Jordan, 1936 – 1996, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives
I like to think of myself as mostly being in the traveler category. But I am also a tourist and go to tourist spots, especially when I am new to a location and I like that. They are popular spots for a reason and I want to see them just like most other people. What puts me primarily in the traveler category isn’t where I go as much as it is how I am looking at the places I go. I look with the artistic eye I have always had and I think that makes the difference.
Doing the Act
As an artist I am doing two things when I travel that others may not be doing. One, I am actually creating my art. Both times I have gone to Europe (and other places) I have spent each morning up early at a cafe drawing. My wife and daughters were sleeping still and I used the time to observe and create. I drew at other times as well, when going from one place to another. I have drawn in trains, planes, and automobiles.
Observation of the Juxtaposition
The other thing I do is look for the artistic moment according to my aesthetic and artistic inclination. This of course is different with each person, artist or not. I tend to see that artistic moment when I see a juxtaposition between two or more things. I don’t see it so much in a depiction of one thing, like the Eiffel Tower, though an image of that can be pretty. I instead will be looking primarily for the Eiffel Tower in relationship to a person. Someone at the Tower. Not posing, but being and acting. I have my eye and my camera ready when I am in a place like that to find that moment.
The Relationship
The drawing above illustrates that idea. I would be the one seeing the Eiffel Tower tattoo on the back of the woman looking at the Eiffel Tower and wanting to capture that. It’s not that I don’t like pictures of the Eiffel Tower, I tried to get a number of classic shots. It’s just that the really compelling images, the ones I truly love and am excited to have captured, show more than a place. It shows a relationship between that place and someone or something else.
The Difference
Here are two photos I took during my recent trip to Europe. Both are good in my estimation, but the second one is the one that moves me. It’s the one that makes me feel like I really captured the essence of the Eiffel Tower in it’s affect on a real person.
Tourist Eiffel
This one is all about the tower. It’s pretty. It might be a postcard or a stock photo. It tells someone it is a beautiful site. It’s me as a tourist trying to get a great photo of an iconic site.
Traveler Eiffel
This is about the affect the tower has on someone. It is telling the hint of a story and that draws me to her and what she is thinking and feeling. It’s the one that stays with me. It’s me as a traveler finding out about the people of the world.
Which are you?
What do you all think? How are you a tourist and/or a traveler when you go some place new? What do you see that you think others may miss when they are in a new place?
I have started to Periscope myself drawing my napkins and sketchbook drawings. This one ended with a really cool revelation that I want to tell you about.
I drew the quote and the tree with the snake first. It was to be about travel since I had just gotten back from our London/Paris adventure. One of the people watching suggested I have the quote go around in a circle and I adapted that idea to have the first half go across the top and down the side. But then I decided to make the second have a more traditional bubble so it would be easier to read.
My Thought Process
I came back 2 days later and, while scoping, talked about how to illustrate the quote. I thought of what would symbolize ‘the end’ and the idea of a hammock, the ultimate resting spot, would be cool to bracket the bottom. I have an actual hammock in my backyard so I decided to draw in stripes as mine has, plus they would help create the bottom curve holding the image in. The hammock would be empty since the quote is about the journey is what matters in the end, not the end, right?
I decided to draw someone walking, perhaps just having gotten up from the hammock. She was naked at first. I drew the path up to a mountain and then was a bit stuck. What was going to happen behind her? The idea came to me that maybe the path could be never ending, leading off behind her to perhaps the same place she will find going forward.
Breaking out of a Pattern
Right about then someone said maybe the middle area between the path could be a body of water. One of the things I like about Periscoping is that people through out their ideas and it sort of breaks me out of my typical drawing response. I have the type of water I draw, the type of mountains, of people etc. So it’s fun when someone suggests something that makes me view the possibilities a bit different. So, that is what I did, I drew the middle area being a body of water, like a bay or lagoon.
All this was done before any coloring took place (except the tree and snake on the side).
Conscious Choices, Unconscious Results
Once I had the stripes on the hammock the idea came to me to make it a rainbow. This wasn’t hard to come up with since the marriage equality ruling had just come down from the Supreme Court the day before.
Then I had to decide whether to keep the walker naked or not. It really made no sense given the quote and the image so I drew in shoes, shorts and a top. I wanted her to pop so I made her shorts red. I had a lot of green and blue in the background so I was trying to figure out the top, considering purple. But in the end I thought a darker blue would still stand out and colored it in.
Then I had to decide what color to make the walker. I put the drawing up for the periscopers to see and when I did that, and was able to see it on the screen it hit me. The walker was red, white and blue. And what is coming up this week? 4th of July. At that moment the whole drawing changed. It wasn’t just a walker journeying. It was an American. And it was the American journey into and beyond Marriage equality.
Good Art is More than the Artist Intends
I had no intention AT ALL for it to be about that. None of my choices were consciously leading to that. But I went with the unconscious flow, my creative choice flow and it came out to be something I believe in but didn’t intend.
I love that about art.
You can find me on Periscope daily. I am @thenapkindad there and on twitter.
Quote by Earnest Hemingway, 1899-1961, American author
I was waiting for my car to be serviced and hung out at Starbucks drawing. While I drew I periscoped and talked through my process. You can see the edited video below.
Hi Everyone! I am going to be featured this evening on a #passthetalentshowcase on #Periscope (live video with chat interaction). I would love it if you tuned in. It will start at 8:30 central time at @minniejen’s scope. She will introduce the showcase then hand it off to the first artist. They have 5 minutes and will pass it on. I am the last artist, slated for 8:55. I am @thenapkindad.
We have moved on to Paris in our epic adventure. We are staying in an Airbnb apartment, just like we did in London. This apartment is on the Rue de Dames, right off of Place de Clichy. There is a cafe right at Place de Clichy called Le Petit Poucet. I sat there two mornings and drew the scene I had in front of me.
As it says, the story is made up. I have no idea who either of them are in reality but that is the fun of storytelling. I catch glimpses of things and build them into a tale that makes some sort of sense to me at the time.
Here is a photo of the women and the space. The woman on the right is obscured by the man but he left before I started drawing.
Le Petit Poucet, Place de Clichy, Paris
This one was fun because the woman eating in the background noticed me drawing and came over. She introduced herself and as I was periscoping, introduced herself to all my followers as well.
Here are the 2 edited periscope videos I did of drawing this scene. Each one is about 7 minutes. The second one is where she comes over.
Part 1
Part 2
Here is the photo I took of her and myself.
Train from Versailles
On the way home from Versailles (not the best experience, too crowded) we relaxed on the train. Caitlin was trying to find WiFi access on her phone and I took advantage of the rest time to draw her. We changed seats right in the middle of the drawing due to Linda not wanting to listen to two vapid girls next to us closing the window and talking about stupid stuff. I had been set to draw this one person behind my daughter but we moved so I drew this Japanese girl instead. She was at a different angle, farther away from Caitlin than the person at the earlier location so I moved her a bit closer so I could get her in. That is why they don’t look like they are facing the same direction on the train. That doesn’t really matter but I thought you might like to see my decision-making process in action.
Charles De Gaulle Airport
I drew her after we arrived at our gate at De Gaulle Airport for our journey home. I knew I had to draw her fast since our plane would be boarding any minute. She looked elegant and refined and I wanted to capture that with a simple line. We talked and I gave her and her friend my card so she could connect later to see the drawing if she wanted to.
We never talked about what she was doing in Paris so when it came time to tell the story I imagined a romantic scenario for her. Part of it was based on a kind man that helped us in the train station in Britain. I just imagined her being the person who met him and what might have happened.
Most people, by the way, never end up contacting me. Many do though and I like to think they enjoy seeing themselves in a drawing published on a blog. I often wonder about those I draw, if they ever wonder about
This week we have been on vacation in Europe. We just finished 5 days in London and are now on the EuroStar train to Paris for another 5 days.
The Nest
During the international portion of our flight to London I sat next to this woman. She was frenetic pack rat who made her nest in the seat next to mine. It was pretty humorous. I felt like I was watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the odd nesting habits of humans.
We stayed at an Airbnb apartment in the Lavender Hill area of London. Each morning before my wife and daughter were awake I went to a little coffee shop, Il Molino, had a Caffe Mocha, a pastry and drew the people around me.
The Barista Libusa
The first drawing I did was of a customer ordering something from the barista. A bit later I showed the barista the drawing that I had done of her. She was very happy seeing the drawing. The barista’s name was Libusa. This was at the same time I ordered tea and croissants to bring back to the apartment for Linda and Caitlin. I tried to pay, but couldn’t due to having forgot my wallet back at the apartment. I offered to leave my iPad with Libusa to guarantee I would come back but she was fine with me going to get it without doing that.
Here is an edited Periscope video that shows me doing the drawing.
The Dreamer Giada
When I returned with my wallet I drew a young woman eating her oatmeal at a table nearby. She finished up and left and I continued to draw the rest of the scene.
While I drew I Periscoped live. Periscoping is live video broadcasting with texting interaction. In other words while I am on the air people can watch me draw, I can talk to them, and they can text comments, questions, etc. to me (and each other). The texts scroll up the screen and slowly disappear.
I was showing them this drawing and asking what I should write about her in my little space I reserved for the story. One my followers, @VictoriajamesUK said she should be in love and be waiting for her lover to return. Later Victoria told us that her husband was away inn Scotland and she was waiting for him to return and that was why she said that. In honor of her I put the initials VJ on the model’s shirt.
A bit later I showed Libusa the drawing that I had done of the woman eating the oatmeal, and told her I didn’t get to show it to the woman because she left quickly. The second Barista standing behind the counter said,”Oh, that is ME! I didn”t leave, I just went behind the counter.” She was even more excited about having been drawn than Libusa was. Her name was Giada. I later took a photo of her with her drawings.
Here is an edited Periscope video of me doing the drawing.
The Customer with Crutches
The next morning I returned to Il Molino and drew again. This time their was a woman with a pair of crutches that caught my eye and I drew and periscoped until Linda and Caitlin came to pick me up before we headed out for a day of sightseeing. She left quickly and I wasn’t able to get her name. I wasn’t too pleased with the drawing and realized that even though I love to periscope as I draw I still need to keep my creative process intact and not get too distracted talking to others. It’s learning process no doubt!
The Periscoping Self-Portrait
On our final day in London I didn’t have anyone in the coffee shop to draw so I drew myself periscoping. I scope using my iPad. I prop it up far enough away so the drawing can be seen as I create it. I highly recommend you get and use the app for your phone or ipad. It’s fun and insightful. You can find me at @thenapkindad.
The Inanimate Wish
And finally I did a drawing that was only partially based on what I was seeing. I had the coffee and pastry in front of me but the bus was made up obviously. Just a fun goofy drawing, more like my napkins to end my time in London.
I am off on a travel adventure. I will post here, on twitter and FB. I will also be periscoping so if you have periscope find me at @thenpakindad and follow me, ok? Then try and figure out where I am, ok?
Remember, the first step in having an adventure is buying the ticket. Without investing, deciding, there won’t be any adventure. Second step? Get on the train! or the boat, or plane, or sled or whatever. Take the step, take the ride!
While I was drawing this yesterday and today (I started a napkin using this quote yesterday but didn’t like it so I started over this morning) I was thinking that the person waving realized the person walking away wanted and needed to go somewhere on their own and was letting them. But just now I saw it the other way as well. The person leaving is doing so because they know the person waving needs to be left alone.
My Marriage
My first marriage lasted 20 years. There was a moment when I realized I had to give up and let her go. It was after I had been doing some pleading for us to stay together. I had told her that I knew we liked a lot of the same things, wanted to same lifestyle, etc. She then said, “Yes we do. It’s not that I don’t want those things. I just don’t want them with you.” Man, talk about harsh. That was tough. But it was then that I realized that while there might be some way to get her to stay, the truth was she was terribly unhappy and would continue to be unhappy if she stayed married to me. From then on out I didn’t argue for her to stay. Eventually I reached a point where I was able to do what the person waving in the drawing above was able to do – I was able to let her go and hope that she would be happy alone, away from me. It wasn’t a clean and easy process, but I did get there, as did she.
Both Ways
It works both ways, doesn’t it. You can need to be alone, to go, and hope others realize it and allow it graciously, or you can be witnessing someone else having to be alone and play your part as best you can to allow that.
By the way, I am now live video broadcasting the drawing of my napkins on the Periscope app every morning that I draw. I hope you will join me! You can find me at @thenapkindad
As some of you know, I have been heavy into a new app called Periscope. It’s live video with chat interaction. One of the first people I followed was Sara Haines, the weekend Pop News Reporter on Good Morning America.
One of her early broadcasts outside of the studio was a thoughtful reflection on how she works constantly to not be judgmental of celebrities she covers, especially ones like Kim Kardashian, who engender such hatred from so many. I did a blog post based on that for my Shame series. Here is the link to that. – ‘Sara Haines, Kim Kardashian and the Power of Empathy‘
Sara as Kim
A few weeks later Sara did a segment on GMA where she actually made up, haired up and dressed up to look as close to Kim Kardashian as she could. She did a periscope during the transformation and asked someone to take a screen shot. I took a few and sent them to her via twitter. Here they are.
Sara Haines in Kim Kardashian style makeup
Sara Haines in Kim Kardashian style clothing and shoes
In the meanwhile this is what she usually looks like on camera, not at all like the pics above.
Sara Haines as herself
Deeper
The interesting part of this story isn’t about her physical transformation into a KK type look. That was fun to see but it became interesting and insightful the next day when she went for a power walk and talked about what happened when she dressed up that way. She took the walk while it was raining. She had on no makeup at all, the exact opposite of the day before. Here is a very small and blurry screen shot I got during that walk. My apologies to you, Sara, that it isn’t better.
Better Than
Here is what I heard her say she discovered. First, many complimented her, saying she looked better than Kim. The compliments were appreciated but they also started her thinking about why they were being given in that way. Why didn’t they simply say “You look great in that style.” if that is what they thought. Why did they feel it necessary to say she looked better than Kim? Was it that they felt Sara needed to know she won a competition? Was that what it was about? While she was saying this I thought about the ‘who wore it better’ segments I used to see on Fashion Police (before I stopped watching it due to it being negative, gossipy and hurtful). It wasn’t enough to just give the compliment. Sara had to be propped up above the competition. In Sara’s mind that wasn’t true and it was a side to the experience she didn’t really like. It made her sad to think people had that need to compare and judge and that they felt Sara needed it.
Cutting Down
An even more disturbing discovery was how many didn’t just stop with the compliment of how she looked better than Kim. They went on to rant about Kim, cutting her down for her lack of talent, her exploitation of her body, her media overexposure, her big butt, her husband, her lifestyle, her TV show, her this her that…on and on and on.
This made Sara sad as well. It made her sad that so many of the people she came across, including friends, co-workers and family, spent so much time hating someone they didn’t even know. She said some of them seemed to be way too happy hating Kim. And then she said this to the camera, “Don’t love hating people.” and I had my quote for my next napkin.
Getting Smaller, Not Taller
It comes down to something we all started experiencing and doing as children, that is the cutting down of someone so you feel higher. It’s an immature and insecure reaction to life, to other’s success, to other’s looks or lifestyle or preferences, etc. And we all have moments where we do it or are tempted to do it. But when we are tempted remember what it really is we are doing. It’s the equivalent of cutting off someone’s legs so you can be taller than they are. You aren’t really any taller. All you have done is hurt someone else so you can grab hold of an illusion of tallness.
But really only one thing grows when we do that, and that’s hate. And when you fall in love with hating people, judging people, you become smaller. Much smaller.
Getting Taller, Not Smaller
So, if you feel you suffer from this, here is an exercise. Take a celebrity you hate and say five positive things about them. Now evaluate what happened. Did that celebrity suddenly feel empowered to do something bad? Did they feel justified about something? No, they didn’t. Why? Because they didn’t hear you. Only you heard you. Now do that same thing of saying something positive about that celebrity you hate in front of someone else. Was the celebrity affected? No, they weren’t. Just you and your friend. And how were you affected? You said something kind or nice or insightful instead of ugly and mean and gossipy. You aren’t approving of them or their lifestyle, you are simply choosing to find something kind and positive, just as you would if the person was a close friend of yours.
Once upon a time there was a very tall woman named Galindra. Most of her height was due to her very, very big head. Without her head she would be three feet tall. But her head was six feet tall all by itself so she ended up being 9 feet tall. Luckily she also had very, very long and skinny arms that allowed her to reach the top of her head. This was important when it came to grooming habits.
Chapter Two
One day Galindra went to an art gallery. She was going on a blind date and they decided to meet there. It was a hot summer day and she wore her favorite yellow shorts and her tight blue top. She wore flesh-colored flats that made her look like she was barefoot. She straightened her hair (it took an hour) and put on her summer makeup, including trying false eyelashes for the very first time.
Chapter Three
Galindra was there first. She walked around the gallery enjoying the paintings. They were of men doing various activities that involved holding things that looked very phallic to her. In addition there were part of things coming in from the edge of the paintings that were also quite phallic, like elephant trunks, baseball bats and long skinny party balloons. She thought these were very funny and interesting. She became engrossed in trying to figure out the meaning behind each of the paintings.
Chapter Four
As time passed she realized she was being stood up. The blind date had not shown up. This made her very angry and she expressed her frustration right in the middle of the gallery. She had been stood up many times over the years. She knew it was because of her big head. It made her so mad because she really was a smart, funny, kind and attractive woman but no one ever gave her a chance to show it because all they saw was her head.
Chapter Five
When she finished her little demonstration of anger and frustration she noticed someone had come into the room. He walked over to her and asked if she was ok. She said yes, that she had just been stood up and was venting. The man said, “I am sorry you were stood up, that was very rude of the person.” Galindra thanked him and asked him his name as she put her hand out to shake his. He said, “My name is Art. This is my exhibition actually.”
Chapter Six
Galindra shook his hand and said, “Oh My God, I want to ask you so many questions! Would you mind?” Art responded, “No, I would love to answer your questions.” Galindra and Art walked around the gallery talking about the paintings for the next 2 hours until Galindra said she had to go get something to eat because she was starting to feel faint. Art asked if she would like to go to lunch with him and she said yes.
Chapter Seven
Galindra and Art became very good friends. Art eventually got up enough nerve to ask her if she would model for him. He ended up doing a series of 12 paintings of her in all sorts of situations, from nude to being dressed up like an astronaut. He mounted an exhibition of the paintings and the show became his most popular ever. The paintings were featured in Art News and Art Forum magazines. The CBS TV show, Sunday Morning did a long segment on the two of them with their favorite interviewer, Mo Roca, doing the interview.
Epilogue
Galindra and Art got married 2 years later. They had seven children, all of whom had big heads and long arms. They eventually had 27 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren . They had an apartment in Manhattan, a summer house on Cape Cod and winter home in the Swiss alps. Galindra lived to be 88 years old and Art lived to be 92.
The man who stood Galindra up at the gallery was hit by a truck the next day and died.
Here is the fifth in the series. This was originally broadcast live on Periscope.
In this segment I finish shading and highlighting the drawing. It is 6:20 long.
Periscope is available on iOS and Android as an app for live video with chat interaction. It’s very cool. You can find me on it as @thenapkindad. I broadcast daily.
Ok, she wasn’t actually sitting on the phone. Well, ok maybe she was sitting on A phone, I don’t really know. But she wasn’t sitting on the phone she was talking on. She was talking on that phone. It would be weird if she had another phone with her that she was sitting on, wouldn’t it?
Epilogue
She was off the phone (the one in her hand, not the possible one she may or may not have been sitting on) but still sitting there when I had to leave. I showed her the drawing I did. I think she thought I was weird. Which I might be.
Here is part 3 of my video series on doing my napkin drawings. This segment starts with the line drawing now complete and I am starting to color and shading.
These were all originally Periscope videos. Periscope is live video from your mobile device with chat interaction. In other words, you talk on your video live and people watching can text to you and the texts will scroll up the screen.
You can find me at @thenapkindad. It’s owned by Twitter and is available on iOS and Android.
When I am done these videos will eventually be on their own ‘video’ page.
I am old enough to have seen the original Mad Max when it had its US debut back in the early 1980s. It was a crazy adventure thriller, basically one long car chase, with a lot of death and injuries. It was set in a dystopian future.
Fast forward 35 years and a new Mad Max is released. It is also a crazy adventure thriller, basically one long car chase, with a lot of death and injuries. It is also set in a dystopian future. I wasn’t all that excited about seeing it until I read comments online about the public reaction to it. It turns out there were some men pissed off because, while it does have Max in it, and he plays a big role, the main protagonists are a group of women escaping from captivity. This made me want to see the movie. I like seeing strong women overcoming harsh situations and thought that would be a good twist in the story.
After an opening scene showing the capture of Max, the movie turns its attention to Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. She is leaving the Citadel, the enclave of the tribe, in a huge tractor-trailer. She is driving it to another enclave across open desert. She is a hard ass truck driver with short-cropped hair, black makeup covering the top half of her face. She has a large group of vehicles going along with her for protection. Mid-way through the trip across the desert she veers off course. She convinces those escorting her that there has been a legitimate change of orders.
Max meanwhile has escaped and is following the same route. He eventually engages with the escorting vehicles, who have realized the truck driven by Furiosa is going rogue. Mayhem ensues as you might expect, with a three-way battle between the escort vehicles, the truck and Max. Eventually Max is left unconscious near where the truck has escaped, now temporarily safe from their pursuers.
This is the scene Max finds when he awakens.
Along with Furiosa are 5 young women. They have been hiding in the truck and Furiosa has planned all along to help them escape. From what, we aren’t sure exactly. Later we find out they are the 5 wives of the evil leader of the tribe. One is pregnant.
They are all supermodel thin and minimally dressed and this is ok in the scheme of the movie. They were pampered captives, coddled and protected, not forced to do anything physically demanding or harsh so it makes sense that at the beginning they act that way. Unable to do much but be scared. They try to help but aren’t of much use. Furiosa is the only warrior.
Fast forward to the middle of the movie. While Furiosa and Max have been fighting non-stop the five women have been looking worried and scared. They are minimally involved with the fighting. They have helped a bit in tending to some wounds and fixing some things on the truck. They have loaded a gun or two. What they haven’t done is evolve and develop. This in spite of the fact that along the way they have met up with a tribe of older women who are fighters and warriors. Do they learn from them and take their place as they fall in the fight? No, they don’t.
Fast forward to the end of the movie and, spoiler alert, good has triumphed. And the 5 women? They are basically the same women we saw at the beginning of the movie. Why is that a problem? Because they and their truck were under attack for the past 2+ hours of the movie and they didn’t transform into warriors, into mechanics, into drivers, into intellectual leaders. Do they learn from the older women and take their place as they fall in the fight? No, they don’t. Do they learn from Furiosa, Max or Nux, an unlikely hero who joins their ranks? No, I don’t think they do.
Max and Furiosa don’t develop either. But in some ways they don’t have to since they are already where they need to be given the plot of the movie. Actually there is only one person in this movie who does evolve and develop and that is Nux, the character who starts out as a villain and becomes a protector and hero for the women.
One might ask, so what? Why can’t some not end up being warriors? That is true, and if one or two of them didn’t that would be ok. But when none of the five make any progress in becoming warriors and war is the only thing happening in the movie, then a great opportunity is wasted.
And that’s why, in the end, I was disappointed in the movie.
In part 1, I gave a tour of my studio and explained how I pick out a quote to use in my drawings.
Today’s video shows me choosing the quote and thinking through it’s placement on the page and then starting in on drawing the main character in the scene.
Periscope
By the way, These videos were originally broadcast live on the Periscope app. That is why they are in a vertical format. If you would like to follow me on Periscope you can find me at @thenapkindad
I have recently started to use a new app on my ipad called Periscope. It’s live video with chat interaction. People watch you live and they can text messages, questions, etc. Those messages scroll up the screen as the video plays. You can then save those videos and post them wherever you want; Youtube, Facebook, etc.
I decided to do a Napkin Dad Show, showing my studio and me drawing a napkin. I did the show in several parts for a few reasons; first, the videos take up a lot of memory and take time to upload if they are too long so breaking them up is easier. And second, showing the entire process is boring. It’s just like in cooking demonstrations. They show you bits and pieces and then show you the finished product, which they had made prior to the filming. It’s kind of like that with doing art.
Here’s my first in the series. It’s about 5 minutes long.
The Napkin Dad Show – How I Do My Drawings, Part 1
Last month I entered the Tuaca Napkin Art contest. I found out after submitting the napkin drawing that the contest had been extended another month. I took the time to think up another napkin for the contest and here it is. I used one of their sayings, “Moderation is an Art” to create the theme, which is that drinking is great fun and a wonderful social activity. But it’s great and fun in moderation, not in overdoing it.
I Periscoped with a TV Newsperson the other day (see the end of the post for an explanation of Periscope).
She was in a cab after a long day of work and play. Her name is Sara Haines and she is a Lifestyle and Pop News Anchor for Good Morning America on ABC. It’s a good fit for her because she is chirpy, funny and a energized ball of laughs and smiles. She had been Periscoping during commercials and then later at a party. But now she was done for the day and on her way home.
Understanding Kim
I and others were watching her now in a more relaxed, contemplative mood, reflecting on things based on questions we were asking. Someone asked her if she liked the Kardashians. The person asking may have been expecting a typical, ‘I hate them, they are terrible’ type of response, I don’t know. But that is not what they got. Sara said she is intrigued and fascinated by them, especially Kim Kardashian. She said she tries to imagine what she would do if she was raised like her, looked like her, lived her life, had her money. What choices would she make and how different would they be from the choices Kim does makes? In other words, she doesn’t judge or shame Kim, she empathizes with her. And that means she can simply enjoy her for who she is and try to understand her.
Empathy Covers Shame
So far the 21st century is the century of public shaming and judgment. But what Sara shows in her attitude is that happiness and joy comes from empathy and understanding of others, not judgment and shaming. It’s a lesson we all need to learn again and again, that when we are tempted to judge, especially in the public arena when we truly don’t know the person, it’s best to step back and try to empathize, to understand what it is they are feeling and reacting to in life. That is when we will grow and learn.
Hope for Humanity
I like Sara from what I seen of her on TV, but she went to the top of my ‘I have hope for humanity’ list when I was able to hear her talk about her way of seeing the world and the people in it. She’s also now at the top of my ‘What TV person would you most want to have lunch with’ list. I think the conversation would be fantastic.
Periscope – Periscope is a live video broadcast with texting interaction app from Twitter. It’s available on the iOS and will be available on Android soon.
I loved my mom. She was wonderful and flawed at the same time, like most moms. I’ve written posts about her in years past and will put the link at the bottom of this post for you to read if you would like.
But today I am also thinking about my other mothers. They were the women who also helped raise me. They didn’t help raise me in the ‘I went to live with them’ sense. They helped raise me in the ‘they took time to love me and nurture me’ sense.
Aunt Betty (left) and my Mom, Lee Coleman
Aunt Betty
Aunt Betty wasn’t my aunt. And her husband, Uncle Frank, wasn’t my uncle. I didn’t realize this until I was probably 10 years old or so. That’s when I figured out we called them that because they were as close as relatives to us, not actual relatives. What they actually were were my God Parents.
But in real life Aunt Betty was my mother’s best friend while we lived in California. They were the Lucy and Ethel combo, funny by themselves but hilarious when together. From the time of my birth until we moved away when I was 12 Betty treated us (my older sister and I) like her own kids, and my mom treated her kids as her own as well. That included watching over us, keeping us in line and feeding us among other things. It included letting us have complete freedom within their house. Their house, high overlooking the Del Mar racetrack and airport was, and still is, the best, most fantastic house I’ve ever ‘lived’ in. It was definitely the golden age of free range parenting and we ranged wide and free around both homes. I wouldn’t change a thing about my young life and she’s a big reason why.
Libby
When we lived in Maryland briefly during my first few years we had a housekeeper come in once in a while. I don’t remember Libby from those years. Years later we had moved back to California and when my mother had a late pregnancy and my younger sister was born Libby, who had also moved to California, actually came to live with us for many weeks to help out. While my mother took care of Jackie, Libby took care of the house and my sister and me.
We had a nice house but it wasn’t big enough for Libby to have her own room. My room was actually a big playroom downstairs, big enough that Libby became my roommate for those weeks. It was totally awesome.
What I remember about Libby really is pretty fuzzy but I remember how much she loved me. I also remember how she silently championed me, the younger underdog, in my battles with my older sister. She loved Nancy as well and didn’t take sides, but she was always letting me know that it wouldn’t always be that she could beat me up, or it wouldn’t always be that she would be the boss of me. I held on to those promises for dear life during those years.
One of the most profound and devastating moments of my life, the first real eye opener into the wider world I ever got, was the day we went to Libby’s house. I had never seen it and I just assumed, as most kids would, that she probably lived in a house like ours. I was wrong. I remember driving up and seeing what in my mind was a completely dilapidated shack. Worn wood, crooked steps, mud. I really truly was shocked. I remember thinking we needed desperately to bring Libby back to live with us, that we just couldn’t let her live in that type of place. I had no idea about poverty or race or inequality until that moment. I was 9 years old.
Libby taught me so much but most of all she told me that no matter the issues of race, poverty or inequality, you still could be loving, supportive and happy. I also always remembered how she gave me a hope for the future. Of course, in my case, my hope for the future as simply to be able to wrestle my big sister to the ground, but she knew that and gave me the hope that was appropriate for who I was. That was a big gift.
Helene
Helene was another friend of my mothers. She had met my mother in line at a grocery store decades before in Maryland when we had lived there for a brief time. We moved to Connecticut when I was 12 and we moved to the same town she lived in by then, Darien, Connecticut. Helene was not a typical Darienite. She was bawdy and irreverent and funny. She had a witheringly sharp tongue for pretension and snobbishness that could rear it’s ugly head too often in Darien. My mother was the same way.
What made her an important ‘other’ mother to me, and what really set her apart was her creativity and her desire, no – her demand, that one pay attention to creativity in their own life. It was a godsend for me as an artistic teenager to have someone like that pay attention to me.
Floyd and Helene Hall (left) and my parents.
Her home was a reflection of all that as well. It was messy and cluttered in the best artistic way. She had sculptures here and photos there. A painting leaning against a wall, a clay head in the inca style being worked on in her studio. Trinkets and books and everything else inhabiting that space just screamed art, creativity and freedom.
She challenged me as an artist. I remember taking a trip to New York City with her to go to a Picasso Sculpture Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. When I told her the pieces looked like anyone could do them she said one of the single most important and profound things any one has ever said to me about being an artist. She said, “It Doesn’t matter if you CAN do it. It matters if you DO do it.” It took me years to figure out what that meant, but when I did it clarified so much about art that it really broke me through to art maturity in my mind.
She also was witness to my family falling apart. She saw my mother descend into alcoholism and she was the first person I called when I found my mother unconscious on the stairs, suffering from what we would later find out was a cerebral hemorrhage. It was not an easy time and she was there to help out.
Ginny Moore
My best friend during my teenage years was a guy named Jim Moore. I can thank his mother for our becoming friends. She saw that we had moved in down the street and within a day or two she kicked Jim out of the house and told him to go down the street to meet the new kid and not go come back until he had. So he did and we became pretty fast friends from then on.
Ginny gladly welcomed me in to her home, always making me feel welcomed and loved. They took me on vacations (and we took Jim on some as well). They suffered through me being the rabble rousing teen that I was, including several instances where I broke, ruined, wrecked or otherwise caused mayhem to descend onto various possessions of theirs.
I was sort of the Eddie Haskell (A 60s TV show, ‘Leave it to Beaver’ reference for those not old enough to know) to the Moore Family. Nice but always tending to get Jim and myself into some sort of adventure. It wasn’t all me of course. Jim was pretty good at finding adventure himself. What Ginny saw was the importance of our friendship and bond and allowed all the wild things to transpire as part of that bonding. I am grateful for that!
The Moore Family (Ginny, bottom right)
When I moved away after my senior year of high school but wanted to come back and live in Darien the next summer, they graciously allowed me to stay the entire summer in their house. It didn’t occur to me until much later what a incredible gift that was.
Vivian Johnson
I’ve written often over the years about the incredible man, Dwight Johnson, who was the father of my first wife, Kathy. I don’t talk as often about her mother, Vivian, but she was incredibly important in helping me move into adulthood and being a husband and parent.
Vivian and Rebekah
We had a good relationship, one that included a lot of patience on her part, watching this young ‘bad boy’ marry her daughter after only about 9 months of dating. We were a lot alike in many ways. We were the two most competitive people in the family, often going head to head in legendary Scrabble battles at the family cabin. She was feisty but also very focused on being positive and nice. She could say sharp things but chose not to most of the time. She gritted her teeth and smiled when she probably wanted to hit me, or at least yell at me.
She was supportive, kind and understanding as she watched her daughter and I build a life for our family, slowly and with a number of missteps on my part. She didn’t always like me but she always encouraged and supported me in spite of that. That taught me a good lesson about what it means to be a parent and parent-in-law.
It Takes a Village
None of us were raised in a vacuum. I am so grateful for all the women I mentioned above (and others I didn’t mention) who made up my village of nurturers, caretakers, friends, and visionaries. They helped me so much, I could never repay it so all I (or any of us) can really do is pay it forward as best I can.
Who are your ‘other mothers’ and how did they help you?
