50 years ago I graduated from High School. Do you know what that means? No, not that I am old, which I am not (I know this to be true because everyone tells me I look so young I could be celebrating my 49th, not my 50th…)
It means I recently attended my 50th High School Reunion (Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut.) I moved there at the beginning of Jr. High and moved away after High School, living in the town for only 6 of my 68 years. But what a 6 year span it was. My identity was forged in those years and I left with the vision and intention to become a practicing artist, which I did. So did many others in my class. We had a strong art department in our school and many of us went on to have vocations and avocations in the arts. Many others didn’t go into art immediately but had their talent and practice come out later in life. Either way, there was and is a lot of creative activity.
The result of that was the planning committee including an art exhibition and opening as part of the weekend. There are a lot of fantastic pieces so if you are near Darien, Connecticut go check the show out at the Darien Public Library. It’s up until mid-September, 2023. I sent in a suite of 9 napkin drawings as my contribution. Here they are. They are for sale at $200.00 a piece, framed. They are approximately 6″ x 6″ so they fit perfect in small areas. Contact me at marty@martycoleman.com if you are interested.
Click on any image to see a slide show of them all.
I recently ran the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas and took the opportunity while there to visit one of my favorite museums, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. I’ve been a number of times before while visiting my niece who attends TCU nearby but this time I made sure to take pictures of some of my favorite pieces in the collection.
The Carter is one of 3 museums in the same location. The others are the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Kimbell Art Museum, both of which are incredible in their own right, both architecturally and because of the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions.
No offense to Fort Worth’s more attention-getting cousin, but Dallas doesn’t have anything on Fort Worth when it comes to museums. Don’t get me wrong, I love the DMA, but these three museums are really special.
Chimney and Water Tower, Charles Demuth
Two Herons 1948-50, William Lester, Oil on Masonite
Parson Weems’ Fable, Grant WoodRanchos Church, New Mexico, Georgia O’KeefePeaceable Kingdom, Edward Hicks
Peaceable Kingdom – close upA Dash for the Timber, Frederic Remington
A Dash for the Timber – close upSwimming, Thomas EakinsSwimming – close up
Finally, after many years of not being able to get out and draw live i’ve started to sketch in person again. These are from the winter of 2022-2023 in various locales; in a waiting room, at a pharmacy, at a coffee shop, in church and on a train. Sometimes I talk to the person, sometimes I don’t. It all depends on the circumstances and proximity.
These are done with a Copic brand pen and Copic brand color markers.
‘A lion roars when they want, not when they are told’
Kara Goucher
A few days ago I saw a post by Kara Goucher the former professional runner and now TV analyst. She was talking about her mantra as she was growing up, which was,
“Be patient little lion, there will be plenty of time to roar.”
She went on to describe how much it helped her through many setbacks, how it was her mantra of patience as things in her running career and her personal life didn’t always go as expected. It served her well and she eventually became an olympian, world champion and elite competitor for decades. In addition she’s been a fierce advocate for a clean sport in running, with rigorous drug protocols to prevent cheating. She goes on to encourage others in her essay that if they are in a season requiring patience to remember there will be a time for them to roar. She’s someone to admire.
What Is a Roar, Anyway?
Her quote made me think about lions and when they roar so I came up with this companion quote to hers.
“A Lion roars when they want, not when they are told.”
Kara did all sorts of things when she was supposed to. She followed training plans that laid out what she was supposed to do and when. She planned specific races on specific dates where she wanted to accomplish specific things. So didn’t she roar when she was told, either by her coach, program, schedule, race? No, because that wasn’t the roar. That was the hunting for food, the protection of territory, the building of her fitness and stamina. It was all the things lions (and people) do quietly without attention and without glory in pursuit of a goal.
The Roar Moment
The roar happened when she wanted something and she chose that moment to go after it. She chose that time to express the roar that was inside her all along. The roar that she had been practicing and honing for months and years. She chose it to let it out and show the world she was the lion she had trained to be.
Roaring doesn’t guarantee success. A lion can roar and still not catch their prey. What the roar does is signal the world you are ready to fight for what you want. Whether it’s a race, a career jump, a big relationship move or something else. Your roar is your statement that you want something and you are going to go for it.
Are you ready to roar? Find your moment, the moment of your choosing, and roar away little lion!
These are available for purchase as NFTs (nonfungible tokens) or as prints. Message me on instagram or FB (thenapkindad) or email me @ marty@martycoleman.com
Annie finished reading her daily scripture and was contemplating its meaning when the phone rang. She decided, based on her morning study, that she was not going to answer the phone. The phone call was from the National Academy of Poodle Excellence and they were going to offer her a job as Executive Vice President. This wasn’t the first time she hadn’t answered a call from this number so they eventually gave up on her. They offered the job to Sid, a poodle in Oklahoma, who took it and eventually reached world-wide fame as the CEO of NAPE. Annie meanwhile continued her studies and was never the wiser because she didn’t watch the news.
Here are 10 drawings I’ve done over the Winter and Spring of 2021. Let me know your favorites!
‘The Tik Tok Dancer’
Ink on Paper
2021
She practiced her TikTok dance in the mirror in the room with her favorite dog and painting on a Sunday instead of going to Temple.
‘The Sunbathers’
Ink on Paper
2021
“I Like to Sleep in the Sun.” “Me Too.”
‘The Overdramatic Musician’
Ink on Paper
2021
The story is told of the time when the melodramatic musician overreacted to the famous painting of Mt. Vesuvius and burst an embolism and died right at that spot and made it even more famous!
‘Spiraling’
Ink on Paper
2021
‘American Allegiance’
Ink on Paper
2021
‘The Whiner’
Ink on Paper
2021
“Whoa (yes, I know it’s spelled wrong) is me why me who am i why cant i when will this how will i ever what will how will i be?”
“OMG, why did I get such a whiner for a mom? Damn, that means I am going to be the grown up from day one. UGH!”
This idea caught me by surprise. I had never really thought about how the contemplation of eternity or the afterlife is a form of leisure. I think it is a pretty broad definition of the word leisure though since there are people who are employed and working hard to think on these things. Nonetheless, it isn’t the primary creative purview of people laboring to survive at an existential level. It’s for those who have the time to contemplate it, right?
Interesting secondary thoughts
is this true of all aspects of religion, not just the afterlife?
I sometimes think ahead and scan my line drawings before painting them. I thought I would show some of them to you side by side. The drawings were all done live at the scene. Painting was done afterwards in my studio. Five of these were done in coffee houses, one was done on an airplane.
There is a slider you can control, going from just line to fully painted. What do you think?
The Conversation, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2014
Anna and Meera, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2015
The Knitters, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2018
Megan, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2015
Catherine, Before and After, ink and acrylic paint, 2013
Britni the Filmmaker, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Fair Fellow Coffee, undated
Men at Starbucks, Before and After, Ink and Acrylic Paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, undated
The woman had rarely been out of the house for the last 12 months. The last time was picking up her daughter from the day care center the day it closed down. Since then she’d had groceries and meals delivered or her partner had gone shopping. She had worked remotely and had done all her exercising either on her own or via zoom.
She had gotten into the habit of staying in her sweats all day, not wearing a bra, makeup or doing anything with her hair. She told herself she liked it like that because it was so much easier.
But when it was time for their vaccine appointment she put on a bra and makeup and even colored her hair her favorite color. She put on her best tank top (it was hot that day) and her old skinny jeans and tried out a new pair of hoop earrings she had got for her birthday but had no reason to wear over the year. It made her unexpectedly happy to do all this.
They waited in the car line for about 20 minutes then it was their turn. She was so excited she forgot to put her mask on but no one said anything about it. She made sure to be on the passenger side with her partner driving so the shot would be in her right arm since she was left handed. She thought the nurse was the prettiest woman she had ever seen in her life and told her so. Her partner smiled because she had missed seeing that part of her over the year. Then they waited 15 minutes until the nice firefighter signaled they could go.
When they got home the first thing she did was take off her bra. But she kept the rest of her clothes on because they made her feel good. Then they had bologna sandwiches and potato chips to celebrate as they finally planned their long-delayed wedding.
A Woman Making Her Way – An Illustrated Short Story
Deborah was at a spring party in someone’s backyard. She told the man who was too interested in her this analogy. She saw herself as being on a paddleboard, making her way through the perils of life. She had to row, she had to balance, she had to keep strong, and she had to focus to avoid all the dangers around her and get to where she wanted to go.
The man who was too interested lost interest and went on to another young woman at the party. Deborah smiled and went over to the canape table and ate 6 crackers with crab dip on them.
Back before the Pandemic, when we could actually go and hang out in coffee houses, I did so on a regular basis. Way back in October of 2016 I tried a new cafe, Chimera, in the Tulsa Arts District. After I settled in I drew the scene in front of me in my sketchbook while I sipped my coffee. I used a Japanese brush pen called Copic Gasenfude.
Fast forward 5 years. I was looking through that sketchbook and realized I never finished the drawing. Of course, 5 years later I had no memory of the actual colors of anything. All I knew was the bricks were red so I started there. After that it was simply using colors and tones I thought looked good in the scene and together. I added brick under the counter as a way to tie the image together even though I don’t think there actually was brick there.
This is an important thing to remember about art – unless you are being paid to replicate something or someone then what matters is how your image looks, not how accurate you are in copying reality. The image IS the reality people are looking at, not the original thing. That is why so many drawings and paintings made from photographs are so bad, because they look like bad drawings and paintings of photos, not good pieces of art.
Worry less about unoriginal and uncreative copying and trust more your own eye and hand to create something of interest.
What is discrimination, bigotry, racism, ageism, and sexism (and more) but variations on this theme of not respecting who people are? It’s all basically saying you don’t approve of that person as they are. You want them to change to be more like those you approve of. In other words, you want them to be more like you.
Expect my Resistance
I am going to assume for a moment you are reading this from a comfortable, non-threatened existence. Think through what what would happen if the tables were turned and you were the one being shown disrespect for your very existence. What would you do? If there is enough power arrayed against you, you might just get along as best you can, not cause trouble, not raise a ruckus, choosing to preserve your life and family over the conflict that would surely come if you stood up.
But what if this went on for decades and centuries, always finding a way to rear its ugly head no matter what supposed progress was being made. What if the disrespect was so violent as to actually threaten your existence and not just yours but your family, your tribe, your culture. Then what would you do? It’s the impetus behind every struggle for freedom and equality in the history of the world.
Whose Side Are You On?
If you do this thought exercise of putting yourself in another’s shoes it’s not hard to finally understand why people who have been threatened in this way are standing up and fighting back. The question is, are you on their side? Do you respect their existence, not as you want them to be but as they are?
The painting looked at her longingly, hoping she would feel the same. She did, paying $765,000 for her and putting her over her couch so they could watch TV together.
Two Portraits
The portrait sat there for years but the serpent was a good singer so she didn’t mind.
Sculpture and Volcano
The metal sculpture was always hoping for visitors but was usually alone because of the volcano.
Sculpture and Patron
The dream recognized his recent lover but took no responsibility, blaming the image and deed for her condition.
Sculpture and Paintings
The ancient sculpture spontaneously started crying oil paint of various colors from every minute crack and became a pilgrimage spot for all true artists from everywhere.
Sculpture and Nude
The sculpture enjoyed blocking the view of the nude since she was jealous of her having a body.
In 2015 a new app came out called Periscope. It was the first true live streaming app and I gravitated to it immediately. I’ve have been using it ever since. I’ve met some incredible people on it, some who have become dear friends.
My best Periscope pal is Barry, better known as Freddie Ferret. He started appearing in my scopes around 2016 or so and became a loyal participant. He and is family live in St. Louis and back in 2018 and 2019 I stayed with them while on my way to Marathons in Illinois. In 2019 I was able to spend an entire evening with them and took advantage of the time to draw his 2 daughters, Jaedyn and Shealeigh. I drew them on watercolor paper with the intent of painting them later. It took a while but finally got around to it in time for Barry to give them to his daughters for Christmas this past year (2020).
Portrait of Jaedyn, watercolor on paper, 2020
Portrait of Shaeleigh, watercolor on paper, 2020
While I paint I test, dab and swipe the brushes on a separate piece of paper to test the color or to get the right amount of wetness on the brush. I do the same thing with my marker drawings on napkins and in my sketchbook. I always keep these pieces of paper and later have fun turning it into some sort of art piece.
I did that in this case and presented the ‘extra’ painting to Barry as a gift for our friendship over the years.
Update 3/6/21 – I posted this painting on Social Media and since it was so public I thought it might be kind to find the woman I drew. I had her company email address so I went on Facebook and found someone with her name who worked at that company. I friended and messaged her, letting her know about the painting having finally been finished.
She wrote back saying she loved the painting and lo and behold, even though I had no idea when I wrote it, the thought bubble and text bubble were perfect representations of what she had been going through at the time, which was a time of great indecisiveness (I don’t know) leading up to a final bout of clarity (I know) that allowed her to break up with her BF of four years and start a new life!
‘Know Don’t Know’, Watercolor on Paper, 2021
I drew this woman at a Starbucks in Tulsa, OK in 2019 before the Covid 19 pandemic hit. I drew it on Watercolor paper instead of in my sketchbook, hoping one day to find the time to actually paint it. I finally found time in 2020-2021.
I had drawn in the two thought bubbles early on and ignored them until I was done painting. I liked the idea of her thinking one large bubble worth of thoughts and then editing it down into a smaller bubble. My original idea was she would be writing a story and I even wrote a segment of a murder mystery and it’s edited version but didn’t like the vibe of it so never wrote it in.
Finally I went with what I was thinking at the time, which was, ‘I don’t know’. Once I finished the large thought bubble it made sense to have her typing out the exact opposite of her ‘I don’t know’ doubts, just like so many of us do on a daily basis.
These portraits from 1988 and 1989 are all from my sketchbook. Most of the models were friends from work or were students I asked to model to illustrate how to draw portraits.
Student in Profile, Ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
I asked my students to use sketchbooks extensively because I wanted them to draw as often as possible. Waiting until you are in the studio makes sense for media that needs elaborate prep but drawing doesn’t. You can do it on anything anywhere.
Kathy Lay, Ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
I would demonstrate my use of a sketchbook by using them as models in the lecture portion of the class then have them do the same, using each other as models.
Sheila Gomes, ballpoint pen on paper, 1988
I wouldn’t often get very far with the drawings while they were actually posing for me, usually just a line drawing like you see in the first few drawings. But I would work on them later and show them at a later session to show how you can start with very basic lines and take off from there, even without the model being present.
Theresa Castro, ballpoint pen on paper, 1988
I taught that there is power in focus. You don’t have to complete a drawing edge to edge, as a matter of fact, leaving most of it barely sketched in often allows the focus to be where you want it.
Judy Sugg, ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
These may look pretty realistic to some but they really aren’t. They are a stylized realism, not photo-realism. I taught that an absolute likeness is not essential unless you are being paid to do that. If not, then you can and should feel free to compose and stylize as you wish. It’s how you develop your own look and style.
Kristine Hayes, ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
Individual style comes from adaptation of what is into what you want it to be. In my case I love definition, contrast and volume so I increase the lights and darks much further than they were in real life to achieve that.
Suzanna Jones, ballpoint pen on paper, 1989
In my opinion, no one needs a photographic copy of someone in a drawing. There is photography for that. The acclaim that comes from someone saying, ‘Wow, it looks just like a photograph!’ is nice, but in my opinion it’s just a gimmick unless something much deeper is being expressed (which is possible with photo-realism, I just don’t see it often).
Janet Arsenault, ballpoint pen and Prismacolor pencil on paper, 1989
And of course, my work wouldn’t be complete without adding in a cartoon image, preferably including my longest running characters, Singing Snake and Turtle.
Shrek Do you remember Shrek? The main premise of that movie was that while he was ugly he was also very kind and thoughtful, a genuine good ogre. It was a big hit precisely because it turned the ‘beauty equals goodness’ paradigm on its head. Ugly equaled goodness, not beauty. As a matter of fact, the beautiful and handsome ones in the movie were actually quite terrible.
Beautiful People The problem is that ‘beauty equals goodness’ imbues ‘beautiful people’ with an aura of goodness that they don’t necessarily have and allows them an advantage they don’t deserve. A classic and seemingly trivial example is the beautiful woman getting pulled over by a cop but being let go with a warning. In reality though there is a flip side. There are people pulled over who do not fit that beauty standard. They are not given the benefit of the doubt and let off with a warning. They may not even just be given a ticket. They may be hauled out of their car and arrested, all because they aren’t ‘attractive’.
Judgment Bias It’s combination of many things that leads a person in authority to make judgments. And obviously there are legitimate criteria by which to do so. But it could also be they are judging hair and clothing style, the make and age of their car, their race or age, their dialect or accent. If that is the case, then that judgment is based at a fundamental level on ‘beauty equals goodness’ and brings in the associated biases.
Bottom line When we have the power to judge someone, we should double check how and why that judgment is coming about. Is it due to the ‘beauty equals goodness’ bias? If so, we need to rethink.
The Hurt Bird This morning I heard a bird hit our front window. I got up from my chair and went to see if it was hurt. There was no bird but there was a hole in the snow and a light wing flapping pattern around it. It obviously had been stunned but not badly and had flown away on it’s own. If it was still there I was going to go get my work gloves and get the bird to see if I could help it. Have you ever found a hurt bird in your yard? When you pick it up you have to hold on to it tight enough that it can’t jump out and hurt itself but not so tight that you suffocate it, right?
Holding It Lightly That is a handy metaphor for questions and answers in life. I need to hold on to ideas (questions and answers are just different manifestations of an idea after all) that seem important to me, but I can’t hold on to them so tight that they can’t breathe.
Nurturing the Idea What that means with the bird is yes, there is a chance it could get away with how lightly you are holding it but there is a greater chance it won’t escape and you can nurture it back to health. When it comes to ideas this is also true. An idea grows and changes as it ages in your mind. It might become more clear, towards a more firm answer, or it might become a bit more muddied, so you have more questions about it than before (neither direction is better than the other). But the thing is, whatever the direction, you don’t know it in advance. All you know is you have to keep it alive so you can enjoy your relationship with that idea.
Living with Uncertainty And what that means is that it is good if you can live with uncertainty. If you can’t you will demand an answer to every question even if there is no answer that is true or helpful. Then you will hold on to that answer as if your life depends on it, so tight you kill it. It will no longer be alive, able to grow, mature, modify, expand. It will be dead.
Desperate Soil In religion it will lead to legalism. In politics it will lead to hyper-partisanship. In relationships it will lead to unhappiness and isolation. In all cases it will lead to desperation and both questions and answers aren’t nourished well in desperate soil. Where they grow best is in free, loosely packed intellectual soil, rich in nutrients and other ideas, nourished by a loving gardener who takes the time to let both the questions and answer grow into everything they are supposed to be.
The thing to talk about in motivational speaking is our power. If only we would realize our power we could stare down bullies, get that dream job, overcome disease, and end world hunger, is the message. No giant of inspirational rhetoric ever talks about not using power. And why should they, no one is going to travel or pay to listen to someone tell them to be meek or passive, right?
But here’s the truth, motivational, inspirational, or not.
Not is essential
Not is important
Not is powerful
And here is why. Because saying not is taking control. For example, saying, “I am not afraid to fail.” means you are willing to attempt something with the understanding failure is a possibility. Now, we all know the truth is you actually are most likely afraid to fail at some level. So why say it? Is it just a mind game to fool you into doing something? Yep, it is. At least at first. You aren’t actually saying you are not at all afraid to fail. You are saying that in spite of your fear you are going to attempt it anyway. The desire to succeed overcomes the fear of failure.
I am preaching to myself here of course. In my case it’s simple. “I will not have that lemon loaf from Starbucks.” is what I should have said.
What idea do you get just a bit too much pleasure out of? That is your most dangerous idea because, just like a passionate but toxic relationship, it’s the idea that is blinding you to red flags. You are so enamored of it, get so much pleasure from believing it that you forego the usual checks and balances you have on new ideas. Next thing you know you are deep into it and feel like you have invested too much to turn away. This is not true. It only has power when you hold on to it. Drop it like a bad dream and see how it’s power fades as you move away from it.
You won’t regret it.
“The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because it is true. He thinks it is true because he gets pleasure out of it.”
She was writing the letter to her father but had a hard time saying what she wanted so she had started it 7 times.
By that time she was copying bits and pieces of the earlier attempts into the letter in the hope it would finally come together.
The first letter was too harsh. The second was too mushy. The third was too mushy. The fourth was too safe. The fifth was too pretentious and the sixth was too boring.
The seventh was turning out to be all those things and she didn’t like that so she took a break to get another cup of coffee.
As she stood in line she saw a mother roughly pull her child out of the way of a customer walking with a hot cup of tea. It reminded her of something good.
She put on her headphones and got lost in her romance novel until it was her turn to order. The barista said, “Bless you.” when she paid. It gave her a warm feeling.
While she was waiting at the end of the counter she saw an old man grab a pile of napkins as he picked up his drink with both hands. He smiled at her and said, “You can never be too careful, right?”. “Don’t I know it.” she said back with a smile.
As she settled back in her chair she heard the man behind her explain in great, minute detail the process of brewing a perfect cup of coffee to whoever he was with. She quietly chuckled and rolled her eyes.
She felt confident now of what she wanted to tell her father. She smiled as she wrote the five words and signed her given name.
