by Marty Coleman | Jul 25, 2014 | Enjoying Life - 2014, Frederich Nietzsche |
It’s no secret, today is #4 of our ‘Enjoying Life’ series!
Five Dangerous Things I Did as a Teenager that I Enjoyed
Taking my small boat out alone after midnight for a rendezvous with 3 European women, 2 Swedish, 1 Finnish, who were anchored out on a boat in a nearby cove. My buddies and I had met them earlier that day while water skiing. Nobody really believed me when I told them what happened, but it did. Kids, if you are reading this, don’t do this.
Hitchhiking from Connecticut to Ohio during my freshman year of college with my roommate. We promised the young couple who picked us up and who were eloping to Florida (or something like that) a joint or two if they took us all the way to the campus, which they did and we did. We were two days late and didn’t think it all that important to tell anyone where we were. Our friends and family weren’t happy about that but we had fun. Kids, if you are reading this, don’t do this.
Streaking (running naked, a fad in the 70s) across my college campus in the snow in the middle of the night and getting stuck behind a grove of trees with 3 friends when a performance let out at the local theatre and the cars exited on the road we had to cross to get back to the dorm. We were stuck for about 10 minutes and it was COLD! Kids, if you are reading this, don’t do this.
Taking the air conditioner out of my girlfriend’s bedroom window from the outside so I could sneak in and having to run like hell when I almost got caught by her father. I guess I could trace my running career to that night if I really want to. Kids, if you are reading this, don’t do this.
Driving to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for spring break with a friend. Our parents were out of town and we didn’t think it necessary to tell them we were going. We meant to go to Florida but the car broke down in South Carolina so we spent our break in a Burger King parking lot near the beach. Luckily, we knew some girls who were staying in Myrtle Beach so we hung out with them for most of the week. The car (an old Rambler my dad got for $200.00) was toast by the time we got home and had to be junked. Kids, if you are reading this, don’t do this.
What dangerous things did you do when you were a teenager?
_______________
Drawing and remembrance by Marty Coleman
Quote by Frederich Nietzsche, 1844 – 1900, German writer and philosopher
_______________
The secret of reaping the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 24, 2014 | Enjoying Life - 2014, Nicolas Chamfort |
Here is the drawing I decide on to go with the quote from yesterday.
Contest
Yesterday I posted this drawing with just the quote and asked people to give me their idea of an illustration for the quote. There were some pretty good ideas. Many talked about a mother or father showing love for a child, or for an elderly parent. Some talked about the idea of adoption. Another mentioned the ‘pay it forward’ idea, which I found particularly intriguing.
But in the end none of them seemed to deal with what I thought was the key to the quote, which is about morality. While I was reading and thinking about it I was struck with the very current and real American debate over same sex marriage. It was the perfect example to me of an image that illustrates both the joy/enjoyment element of the quote and also confronts the perception of morality this issue makes many struggle with.
Some Questions:
- What do you think of my choice?
- What do you think of the definition of ‘true morality’ the quote gives?
- How does same sex marriage come into play with your definition of morality (whether it is the same or different than the quote’s definition)?
_________________
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Nicolas Chamfort, 1741-1794, French Writer and Aphorist
Nicolas Chamfort
___________________
To enjoy and give enjoyment without injury to yourself or others is true morality
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 23, 2014 | Enjoying Life - 2014 |
WE HAVE A CONTEST PEOPLE!
Here is the quote, now you tell me what should be happening in the drawing to illustrate the quote. GO. The best idea (in my opinion) will be the one I draw.
I will give you credit for giving me the idea and I might even draw YOU on a napkin to celebrate your contribution!
_____________________
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 22, 2014 | Enjoying Life - 2014, George Santayana |
I hope you enjoy day #1 of Enjoying Life!
And hopefully as you grow, what gives you enjoyment is more and more about giving joy and love to others as well as getting it for yourself, right?
_____________________
Drawing and Commentary by Marty Coleman. This is the bathing suit version. There is a nude version as well, but it’s not uploaded anywhere as of yet.
Quote by George Santayana, 1863-1952, Spanish philosopher and writer
_____________________
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 18, 2014 | Cyril Connolly, Promises Promises - 2014-16 |
And as I promised, here is the last in the ‘Promises, Promises’ series!
Celebrity
What do many celebrities, whether local fame in a small town or international superstardom, have in common? They burn out and fall from the stars in a flaming display of self-destruction. Why is that? Often times it seems to be promising expectations they can’t live up to. It might be they actually aren’t as talented as everyone thought. It might be they have the talent but don’t put in the work to bring that talent to the level needed. Maybe their talent was only developed in one small area and once used up, there is no where to go.
Success
There are of course stories of wildly successful people who were pushed early on to become something. Think of Serena Williams in tennis, or Tiger Woods in golf. They both had parents who had a huge vision for them, and that vision came true. Both became superstars well beyond the expectations. And they both were touted as examples of how children with talent could be trained and molded successfully so they would be able to sustain themselves and prosper in their field
Failure
But no parent is perfect at child rearing. And now child is perfect either. So far it looks like Serena has navigated successfully through her fame and fortune. I hope that continues. But we all know that Tiger, while living up to athletic expectations, fell from orbit and self-destructed. He is to be admired for fighting back and not giving up. He still is golfing, still winning and still a force to be reckoned with. But the illusion of his exalted character and status in the world fell hard and has not recovered.
High Up
A big part of the force of the explosion and the media clamor over it was due to the height from which he fell. It wasn’t the height of a parent’s hopes for a young child. It wasn’t the height of a young phenom exploding onto the professional scene. It was the height of someone on the verge of being declared the best golfer in history. That is a long way to fall. It was sad to watch the wreck happen in real time. It was made even worse by knowing he brought it on himself.
Do you know someone, or perhaps even are that someone, who has lived that life? Not just in sports, but in any arena of endeavor. What are the lessons you have learned about this as a result?
____________________
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Cyril Connelly, English author, 1903-1974
It is not an anomaly that Connelly is the author of this quote. He lived it. Here is a passage from the Wikipedia entry about him.
“Connolly followed this up (his novel ‘The Rock Pool’) with a book of non-fiction, Enemies of Promise (1938), the second half of which is autobiographical. In it he attempted to explain his failure to produce the literary masterpiece that he and others believed he should have been capable of writing.”
I used the title of his book as the title of this post, it was the obvious choice once I read that it was about his own promise issues.
____________________
Those whom the gods would destroy, they first call promising
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 17, 2014 | Anonymous, Promises Promises - 2014-16 |
I promise to deliver #4 in the Promises, Promises series!
Pleasure and Pain
Having chosen my quote for the day I visualized two faces, one while making the baby (making love) and another during childbirth. I was thinking that the face of someone having sex would be happy looking and the childbirth face would be intense and full of pain. But when I went to face research (yes, I did research) I came across a site that had portraits of people right at the moment of orgasm. And guess what? They looked almost exactly like the face of someone giving childbirth. Intense, scrunched up, teeth gritted and looking like they were about to explode, which of course, metaphorically at least, they are in both cases.
Pleasure and pain aren’t that far apart. Whether it’s people eating hot chiles that make the roof of their mouth burn off, or people enjoying going into a polar bear plunge in February, people combine the two. It can be combined in sex, eating, vacationing, relationships, drinking, sports, etc. You name it and you will likely find a co-mingling of pain and pleasure.
Keeping Promises
Promises are the same way. It’s easy to promise something when you are turned on, when you are feeling or pursuing pleasure. That’s why we constantly are telling young women and men to not trust what a person promises when he or she is wanting sex, right? The painful part of a promise is in the delivery, not in the proclamation. If there has been any struggle for myself and most fathers and mothers I know, it’s that. How to deliver on your promise. Your promise to your wife, husband or partner, to your kids, your work, your extended family. As I have gotten older I realize I am much happier and more successful when I simply let my delivery be my promise and forego the grand proclamation, how about you?
________________
Drawing and Commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote is Anonymous
Promises are like babies, easy to make, hard to deliver
________________
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 16, 2014 | Jennifer Donnelly, Promises Promises - 2014-16 |
I promise that this is #3 of my Promises, Promises series.
Do or Die
During my first marriage, I broke promises. Somewhere along the line the combination of me breaking those promises and my wife’s own issues and realizations, led her to file for divorce. She made one statement that has stuck with me all these years. It was the statement that clarified for me how bad she saw her situation. She said, “I feel if I stay, I will die.”
There really wasn’t much arguing to do with a statement like that. She had reached a point, whether I understood it or not, where the promise she made to marry and stay married was going to break her. She needed to save herself and the only way in her mind at that point was to divorce me. I didn’t fight it.
Compassion For Breaking
I am not a fan of divorce. But I understand how it can come to pass when what seemed to be just a small ring around your finger becomes a ball and chain around your neck. I wish rational arguments could sometimes win the day, but I know that the human heart and human needs are such that rationality isn’t what drives us into a marriage and it isn’t what causes us to dissolve a marriage.
All this just to suggest we have some mercy and compassion for those who feel the need to divorce, to break the marital vow before it breaks them. Really, truly listening deep to what is going on inside their heart and mind is the best way to assure you understand.
__________________
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Jennifer Donnelly, 1963 – not dead yet, American writer
Jennifer Donnelly
__________________
It’s a bad thing to break a promise, but it’s also bad to let a promise to break you
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 14, 2014 | Alexander Archipenko, Art, Artists I Love |
The Hidden Gems
There is a museum here in Tulsa, a gem relatively unknown outside of Oklahoma and the art world. Philbrook Museum of Art was originally an Italian inspired mansion built in 1927 by Waite Phillips of Phillips 66 lineage. He and his wife gave the estate to Tulsa in 1938 as an art center and it’s been Tulsa’s center of art appreciation and education ever since.
Philbrook Museum of Art and Gardens
Alexander Archipenko is also a gem relatively unknown outside the art world. If you know Cubist and Modernist art history, specifically sculpture, you may have heard of him. Otherwise it’s not likely.
Alexander Archipenko, 1887-1964
Giddy Rediscovery
Even though I am an artist and studied art history, I know of Archipenko for a more personal reason. My grandparents had a great collection of art in their house growing up. Most were mid-twentieth century American drawings and prints. But they had one art piece that was different than all the rest. It was a small figurative sculpture by Alexander Archipenko.
I had largely forgotten about this sculpture when In 2012 I was leading a group of photographers on a photo shoot called ‘Black and White at Philbrook’. I turned into one of the 72 rooms of the mansion/museum and found this in front of me.
Standing Concave, Bronze – Philbrook Museum of Art
I knew immediately it was the sculpture. I knew it wasn’t THE sculpture because the one my grandparents had was silver plated bronze and this was just bronze. But it was the same sculpture made from the same mold. Most bronze sculptures are made in multiples.
I actually got giddy about this unexpected find. I remember telling some of the people with me about it being the same one I had been around as a kid. I wasn’t at all sure they believed me, but I was excited nonetheless. It brought me back to my youth, to my grandparent’s house and to my unadulterated love of art.
Here is another view of the piece I took in color so I could send it to my family to double check my memory. My older sister at first wasn’t sure it was the right one but eventually came to the conclusion it was.
Standing Concave – Philbrook Museum of Art
Standing Concave / Glorification of Beauty, 1914
Touching and Being Touched By
This is the piece. It looks silver but it is actually a bronze sculpture that has been silver plated. All the grandkids loved to touch it’s cool surfaces and trace the lines (maybe the boys a bit more than the girls). I may have been a giggly little boy thinking it was fun to touch a naked sculpture at some point but what I ended with was a love of the form, style and surface. I am sure Mama Powell wasn’t happy about all the fingerprints but I don’t remember it being a big deal. This piece, and the others in their home, really were the visual starting point for me wanting to be an artist from an early age.
I found out in my research that it actually has two names. It’s listed most often as ‘Glorification of Beauty’ but I remember the word concave always being associated with it and it is also named ‘Standing Concave’ The Philbrook piece is named that way for example. Funny how that goes, I know in my own work I might look at an image years later, not remember the title and retitle it something completely different so it would make sense that it could have two names.
___________________
Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964)
Archipenko was originally from Kiev in Russia (now part of Ukraine). He moved to Paris in 1908, becoming a creative contemporary of Picasso, Malevich, Duchamp, Derain and others. He moved quickly into a cubist style, but with a sleek sensibility to his work that presaged the Art Moderne design style of later decades.
He was one of the legendary artists exhibiting in the 1913 Armory show in New York City, one of the most controversial art exhibitions in history. His work was mocked (as were many other modern artist’s work) by the New York and American press. In spite of the negative reaction, it wasn’t long before he and many other European artists immigrated to America and established themselves and their styles as the preeminent forces directing the future of art around the world.
Torso, 1914
Gondolier, 1914
Blue Dancer, 1913
___________________
As I mentioned, Archipenko was involved with some of the premier artists of his day. These sculptures, with a more theatrical and painterly emphasis than the bronzes sculptures , show in the use of color, form and material and with references to the circus, harlequins, and the female figure, the influence of Picasso and Duchamp in particular.
Carrousel Pierrot, 1913
In the Boudoir (Before the Mirror), 1915
Medrano II, 1913
Composition, 1920 – work on paper
________________
As he matured as an artist, he retained his interest in those same two directions.
Floating Torso, 1940
Queen of Sheba, 1961
Architectural Figure, 1950
______________________
In his later years he won outdoor commissions that allowed him to create in a much larger scale than he had before.
Gateway Sculptures, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1950
King Solomon, 1968 (cast based on small model completed before his death), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia campus
_____________________________
There were many other sculptors working during the first half of the 20th century that both influenced and were influenced by Archipenko. Here are two of them.
Jacques Lipchitz, Girl with Braided Hair, 1914
Henry Moore with his sculpture
Remember, seeing art is one of the best ways of insuring you will see the world in it’s fullest light. It’s always worth exploring art.
____________________
If you would like to know more about Archipenko a great place to start is at the Archipenko Foundation, headed by his widow, Frances Archipenko Gray.
You can see others in my ‘Artists I Love’ series here:
Fall/Winter 2016
Winter/Spring 2015
Summer 2014
Winter 2012/2013
Winter 2011/2012
You can also find them via the ‘Artists’ drop down menu on the right.
______________________
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 10, 2014 | Illustrated Short Stories, Marty Coleman |
__________
Prologue
She moved to Denver and told herself she was going to change things, get out and start living again, even if it was just to go get coffee in the morning.
___________
Chapter One
The Knitter liked to go to Starbucks to knit. From her chair at the window she would watch for her secret crush to come in, as he did every morning. She first saw him the very first day she moved to Denver. He was wearing a suit that reminded her of her late husband. He ordered a tall cup of straight coffee, no room for cream, and left promptly.
___________
Chapter Two
She saw him every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 7 months straight. She worked the afternoon/evening shift on those days and so had time to relax in the mornings. He eventually noticed her always being there and would smile, wave or say good morning to her as he left. He disappeared when summer arrived. The knitter was incredibly sad about this, more so than she expected.
___________
Chapter Three
When fall arrived so did he. He came in just like clockwork on the first Wednesday after Labor Day. The knitter was very happy. She had dreamt about him more and more while he was absent and she thought that was all that she would have of him. But she had been so sad for so long that she was happy to be dreaming about something, someone other than her husband, whom she had been married to for 20 years before the heart attack killed him. It had been 2 years when she moved to Denver and he still was vivid in her dreams up until that summer.
___________
Chapter Four
The secret crush smiled broadly when he saw the knitter in her usual seat. For the first time he actually walked over to her and introduced himself. His name was Dave and he worked just down the street as a engineer for an Oil and Gas Company. He had been gone for the summer, assigned to Pakistan for 3 months to help retrofit some old oil fields with new safety equipment. That was his specialty. He ask the knitter her name. He thought Kiki was a very happy name and that it fit her.
___________
Chapter Five
The next Friday he was already at Starbucks when she arrived, and he was sitting in her seat. He got up and nervously told her he had gotten there early to have time to talk to her. He asked if she liked picnics. She said yes and smiled. He asked if she liked romantic movies. She said yes and smiled even more. He asked if she would like to go see a movie on the lawn at the local park. He would bring the picnic dinner. She said yes and smiled even more. He was smiling broadly as well.
___________
Chapter Six
They went to the movie and fell in love. She cried when she got home, realizing how lucky she was. He did the same. Four months later they were married.
___________
Epilogue
She still goes to Starbucks 3 mornings a week to knit. But now they come in and get their coffee together. His office is close enough that he can walk the rest of the way to work and she stays knitting, with a smile on her face.
_____________
The End
Story and drawing by Marty Coleman
____________
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 9, 2014 | Arab Proverbs, Promises Promises - 2014-16 |
There is a 100% chance of this drawing being #2 in my Promises series.
Running in the Rain
When I start coaching a new season many of my runners worry about what we do if it rains. I tell them one of my favorite things to do is run in the rain and that we run in it unless lightning is present. They are not at all sure they like the idea.
But when we start out on a long run in stifling, drenching heat and humidity but with ominous clouds promising rain it doesn’t take long for them to be begging for the rain to actually fall. Those days when it does, it’s glorious. We are energized and rejuvenated and happy. We are little kids puddle jumping. But those days when it teases but doesn’t rain, then we are miserable because not only are we still hot and drenched in sweat, but our expectations of a cooling rain are left unfulfilled.
Cloud Promises
Promises are like that cloud threatening to rain. Our expectations go up and our disappoint is all the greater if the promise isn’t kept. It’s often better for the promise to not even appear in advance. You simply act on what you know you have purposed in your heart privately and the cooling and nurturing rain falls. No promise, just action.
_____________________
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote is an Arabian Proverb
______________________
A promise is a cloud, fulfillment is the rain
Like this:
Like Loading...
