Comic Book Villains
Tag Archives: drawing
Can We Just Runaway…
A pencil sketch I made of my dear friend, DS Levy, when she was a child.
(Inspired by a childhood photo DS shared with me taken by a childhood friend)
The ‘poem’ above was written this morning after feeling overwhelmed by the news. I wrote it to remind myself that we can’t give up the fight for our country – a country where empathy, kindness, compassion, fairness, equity, science… – you know – the good stuff that makes us human – once prevailed
We are better than the sum of this current government
We are much better
Bits and Pieces After the Martyr Dies
Mrs. DeDeo rarely steps away from the classroom. Today she is needed across the hall for a moment. A moment is all Dwayne needs. He leaps to the front of the room body-blocking the chalked letters we’re supposed to copy into our marble notebooks.
With a spoon from his pocket, Dwayne excavates boogers while singing how he likes mowing down squirrels. We don’t believe him. Mrs. DeDeo returns. Dwayne begins mercy yowling. The fear in his voice chains John the Baptist between my ears. Imprisoned in one of Herod’s palace cells, John prays to receive Jesus’ blessing.
The following morning John will lose his head to dawn’s early light.
(I find joy in sharing bits and pieces of my childhood truths here with you. These memories make me smile – even the sad and odd ones. My inner-child lives as a constant reminder of humility and perseverance. Of kindness and compassion.
Each of our childhoods lingers near, our memories like shadows to embrace, to reshape, to share, to delete, to run from, to run toward…)
My flying squirrel was created with Tombow markers and Prisma pencils. I think he’s a few years old now.
Thank you,
am:)
Gifting Pony Love
Every library Friday, I check or attempt to check-out the illustrated book, Pegasus as retold by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Belephron astride Pegasus, the mighty pair battling the Chimera, the pearl-winged horse nuzzling little children.
Sometimes the school librarian says, “You’re not giving anyone else a chance to read this book. Do you think that’s fair?” And Pegasus is taken from me.
On the days I’m permitted Pegasus, the over-sized book holds steadfast beneath my arm like I imagine Jesus carrying his cross.
One Saturday following a library day that I wasn’t given Pegasus, my little sister’s friend tells me how much she loves horses. I see the pony-love in her eyes. I give her my only two Breyers’ horses because I don’t want them separated.
I love horses more than anyone. And now, I have no horses all over again.
Ah, the memories that long ago made me sad, make me smile today:)
(Black and white drawing of my Breyer’s Paint Pony done when I was 13.
The Pegasus book I lived with as a child, I own at 61.)
Sir Top Hat and Abe Lincoln
Sir Top Hat walked in a few years ago – an honest and kind critter with a passion for memorizing the storied history of Abe Lincoln.
Sir Top Hat only surfaces above the earth during the month of October, and then, only when honesty is severely lacking.
am:)
Happy-ish Halloween Countdown
These days I don’t get around to WP as often as I should, but it’s not for lack of desire. I’ve been spending the bulk of my creative time, offline, repurposing my cryptids and creatures. Additionally, I’ve been sketching, painting, barrelling through my menagerie of books and listening to history podcasts on my way to the gym. I’ve discovered, since reteaching myself history, not much has changed, yet everything has. And each day, after reading the news, I return to my quiet, non-territorial creatures who live, accept and love more honestly than mankind.
Art above – (Front of a blank card) I’ve been creating bookmarks, blank cards and good old-fashion postcards (remember those). Using the designer-light program, Canva, I merge my art with manipulated backgrounds then download the files for printing. I hope to bring these printed items to local shops, and I plan on selling them at the next enormous UFO Fair, June ’25.
I hope you’re all doing okay.
am
Yes, Thinking about Millie Again
To keep my focus on the spirit of an image and not become mired in details, “My First Ticonderoga” #2 HB lead pencil is the only art implement I use. This pencil is a cumbersome preschooler one. Many times while sketching, this ginormous lead pencil really pisses me off, but I persevere, because I need the practice.
Why Millie this morning –
While reorganizing my studio desk, I opened the box tucked in the far back of the top drawer. In the small box, a Metropolitan Museum angel ornament Millie had given me years back, plus, other keepsakes added along the way. One such keepsake, another gift from Millie, was a poem printed on ‘parchment’ and its accompanying angel pin whose wings had broken off and disappeared.
I got to thinking how missing wings don’t matter. Missing wings will never matter.
Millie’s angel will always lift me up.
xo
am:)
Happy April Flowers
This will be the newest year…
‘Overwhelmed’ looms on the flashing billboards of my irises
‘Uncertainty…’ notches tighter the belt of the world
I’ve yet to decide on an acceptable version of heaven
Still, I must not give into ‘the unfinished’ of the past newest year
This will be the newest year!
My mettle must leap beyond obeyance of previous resolutions
Fundamental confusion must not stymie my goodwill tenacity
‘Where to begin’ roadblocks must not unseat me
On or off, I am driver, I am driver, I am driver
In my hands, my keys, below my keys, my feet
This will be the newest year!
The impractical apparatus of time must be accepted
In the know is the ‘now’ where we all exist
nothing more
nothing less
With less one can always make more, I can always make more
This will be the newest year!
As this newest year approaches, wineries will bottle their harvests
The media and social will continue their ‘rule of sale’
quintessential chaos begets profit, profit begets stockholders,
stockholders rule the world
“We can all save someone, we cannot save everyone”
—good words for a nearby desk sticky note
This will be the newest year!
Those standing ahead of my engine might consider
I won’t have the balls to roll them
And, they are correct
There are ways around not having your goodness stolen
Fire exists in many forms, I can choose one
This will be the newest year!
Poe spoke of “long fits of sanity”
before he fell into a coma while wearing someone else’s clothes
There is something masterful in the un-mastered struggle
the purity of the un-chartered quest on a quiet day
‘Hold to heart my windmill’ I must sing each morning
as I shake the rust off my fingernails
This will be the newest year!
Wishing you all a kinder and more peaceful newest year
Here’s to 2023!
Love, am:)
elf not on a shelf
I re-post all my little holiday drawings and illustrations as we race ever closer to Christmas morn!
Peppermint Pigs, Not Pickles
I still remember about two decades ago being amazed that a Christmas enthusiast such as myself had never heard of Peppermint Pigs—hard-candy peppermint (pig-shaped of course) broken into sharable pieces for good luck in the new year. I also recall learning about the Christmas Pickle, but due to studio ventilation issues at the time, I opted for pig models over vinegar.😉
anntogether 