The dragon (which I started on last week, see below) is taking shape nicely, but slowly. I finally got around to giving the poor thing a head. The Japanese dragon is a good and friendly creature, they say it brings luck and prosperity and suchlike and it will only set fire to things when it's in a very bad mood, so don't you worry.
For lagniappe, here's a little thing that dear Ms. Linda came up with the other day. In her nightly photograph of a hydro plant (or a similar thingamajig) she distinctly saw Santa Claus; the lit parts being the eyes and the water was the beard, etc. -- and frustratingly, she was the only one who saw this. ("A clear case of Christmas Delirium", as she said.) So she hinted that I might do something surreal on this and well, it's worth a sketch at least, which follows:
Dear readers, Happy New Year!
See you in 2014.
-- Joakim.
I have started on a new painting in oil. I can't say too much, but the result is supposed to hang above someone's very real samurai sword. The commissioner wanted a Japanese dragon and the rest is up to me.
So I decided to fill the poor thing with Nipponiana. I've never been to Japan, but a good deal of naïvité, blissful ignorance and a little wholly thinking might help. All is to be encompassed by said creature, scales and all. The rest is just let loose; and all of sudden there's a little airplane (a Mitsubishi Zero, I think) and some kind of cherry blossom...
We'll see what happens next -- after a short holiday break, that is.
Being an Operator who has to answer phones all day long is no fun, not fun at all, or so my friend told me. The endless plethora of voices cease to be human, they fade into some kind of nagging grey mould inside your eardrums and the bitterness of having to deal with them all the livelong day must soon reach toxic levels. Incidentally, I had just -- but did not think of it right then -- drawn this fish for a book that I might complete someday. The fish is a Northern Pike, and they are Fine Fish, yesssir. And Fine Fish do not have to answer phones. Ever.
The cell phone is modelled on one that I once had -- just a few years ago really. Nothing wrong with it, but outdated. It's thus a little Retro already, and will be very much so when I'm done with the book, if ever. Then, If I'm still on the track, the Grey Mould might want me to buy yet another cell phone.
And every once in a while one comes to the point when one must draw a line, deadline the whole thing. It won't get any better. It is probably both better and worse than I think myself, and now it's time to put up Whale and Mission Impossible for sale on Saatchi and Saatchi, come and get it while it's hot... Heartfelt kudos to Anita for being my muse and forest. The whole thing looks like this
I did the background last: The reflections of the sad dinghy as it is mirroring its sorrow gently in the lake, how the grass is shining as it reflects the glow from the Anita Maples, etc.
And now (id est, next week) for something completely different.
A forest of Dancing Anita Maples (see previous week) is taking shape nicely, or at least the finest grove you saw. (Which is easy as I work with such good raw materials; her inner and outer beauty. It is somehow satisfying to use Photoshop, normally used in the service of distorting natural beauty, to re-create real, albeit surreal beauty from scratch.)
And this is a little detail that only I and a Certain Other might decipher. But as a gentle hint you may note that this sad dinghy (with a heart well pierced) has but one oar. I think that we would row all the happier if there were two -- preferably two matching ones, preferably of the same length and kind. Otherwise we'll merely row 'round and 'round and never really get anywhere.
