Yellow Leaves

I might be done with outdoors painting for this season. I have a sort of mentor, name of Lennart Forsling (do check him up) who does this all year round -- in some of his aquarelles one may see the effect of frost cracking in the paint -- but this is as far as I go. 

A closer look as usual... The trick is to finish before you go entirely numb, if possible.

Psychedelic Swedish Coat of Arms

This one I made from a small badge that was printed in black and white on an envelope that I found the other day. I got it a while ago as I've chanced upon some dangerous people throughout this year.

First, the uniforms ask you questions. (One of my interviewers took most interest in the race of the offender, sad but true, and I did note some disappointment when I couldn't give him a pitch-black villain. -- I couldn't care less. I don't wish robbers who beat me next to unconscious to be in any particular colour. I'd like them burned at the stake, well done please, or shot or nicely hanged, but I have no say.)

Next, one can always trust our Protectors to write and inform you afterwards that you've taken a beating. (Deary me, you don't say?)

They also write yet a little bit later, usually telling you that they don't see very much that they can do about it. However;

I scanned and resized the little badge and then I took to smearing things about, adding free interpretations of the forms. This looks like a fish... and this... Next, I threw in some light collage (my own footage, no cheating) and colours.



Details that I am happy with: The wildlife in the crown. The matrix-like nonsense in the Swedish Blue. The typewriters that protect us... Odd subversive little things and stuff.



The peaceful Swedes are not allowed to defend themselves by any material means. So if you don't happen to wear a black belt or -- even better -- a Sumo wrestler's body you're sort of screwed. We all have to make the choice whether we prefer to be legal or alive.

 

By the way, here's the original badge. 

Don Quixote Sketch

'Look! I'm tired today after heavy rowing in rough seas, but I've just made a sketch of the greatest hero of all times, Don Quixote de la Mancha.'
'Don Quixote? Wasn't he the madman who attacked windmills, believing they were giants? Absurd! Quixotic!'
'Precisely! And that's what is so heroic. It wouldn't be heroic at all if they really were giants. Then they would've called for the Don at once. How many other active giantfighters did they have in la Mancha? Not very many.'
'But he lost! He got hurt! He could not win!'
'See what I mean. And he did it anyway. -- Mind, It would be equally heroic to claim that giants are windmills if everyone else believed windmills to be giants. Such an obnoxious person would get in trouble with Society, and in one way or another they'd hurt our hero just as much.'
'But how did that stupid action make Don Q. a hero? I don't understand!'
'And you never will. You're a safe nine-to-fiver. If you live in a democracy, you go to work. If you live in a Soviet state or in the Third Reich, you go to work. You hold brave little speeches of accepting reality and growing up and being normal. You are not brave.'
'But we make society work! We sacrify our days, our freedom!'
'You sacrify nothing. You are windmills, you were made for this and really can't think of anything else than producing very standard flour. Is there any love in your work? Or do you just grind sad wheat for cheap white bread without soul? -- No, it takes a hero to question you, to endure the constant beating of your wings. One definitely has to be mad if one is to question reality. You need quixotic madness if the world is to change for something better. You need madness if any world is to remain. This includes windmills.'

Meeting in Wonderland

For Susanne, who requested owls --

This is the kind of meeting that could end just any way. Owls turn into something else. Those other Somethings do look a bit shady, but one never knows...

There are rabbits too. And they happen to be blue. It's a very normal Wonderland Rabbit colour.

Post no. 200 of Paintstakingly

Dear readers,

With heartfelt thanks for following these serious follies I give you post no. 200, a movie with flashbacks and a little piano by Yours Sincerely; you might recognize the song sometimes after a while... And sometimes not. It is sort of surreal music, thus, to go with sort of surreal imagery.



Enjoy!