Goodbye Summer 2005

Goobye Summer 2005! It was a great summer, one of my best as I reflect back upon it. It seemed to become fast paced and time compressed in parts, especially the 4th of July till the San Diego convention. Then August seemed to slow with the heat waves that had me running the air 24/7 in my home and studio.Now another September is here and another terrible trajedy.


This summer was great for friends too. I got to see many long time friends, some I hadn't see in a few years and I got to make new friends and become better friends, a few former students, one whom is now my part time assistant. I have to say seeing and working with younger, talented and motivated artists is a charge and the reason I teach and do DRAW!. If I can have just one student per class blossom in some way...well that is so worth it. The feedback on the last issue of DRAW!has also been really great and it was very obvious in San Diego during the con people love the mag, which makes me feel good. My youngest brother Marc oved back to Philly and is staying with my other brother Dave, so it's Manley brother action! I got to paint some this summer and draw for myself personally , away from the everyday concerns of commercial art. Don't get me wronng, I like the comercial work as well, but the personal work is much more rewarding and allows me to grw in ways the commercial work doesn't.

I can't wait for the first really crisp night, the crunch of leaves. Fall is my favorite time of year and I can see the longer shadows already starting to creep in along with the halloween cand and Santa. I do have to say though I really hate having these hoidays artificially forced on us in a bigger way, earlier and earlier. One can hardly enjoy the left over hotdogs and potato salad without "the Man" shoving candy corn, Frankenstien and Satan...er Santa down your throat as well. Often that nite or the next day after the holiday, being it easter or the 4th, the stores are stripping out the candy eggs or flags an linning the shelves with the next batch of holiday merchandise. It's sooo commercial and articfical, ever moreso! My operandi is 'go smaller', just reject the push on me by the over commercilization of everyhing. Hey, I like Halloween and X-mas, but dang, let me take a minute between holidays! It's compressing time too, it's rushing things faster, faster! Consume more! When what we all really need to do is be consuming less and taking more time.

Work has kept me so busy I haven't had a chance to blog much, but I hope to get back into the swing of things. The tragedy down in the New Orleans has also sapped some energy too. This is probably the biggest human tragedy we are like to see in the US our lifetimes outside of a nuclear bomb going off in a US city. The coverage is amazing and angering at times. Those jack-asses on Fox news need to be dropped in a shark tank like an old Bond film. And the amazing smallness of soul that is our idiot-in-chief is a great wonder to behold. His gunslinger stance as he strolls the wasteland and devistaion and kisses a few black women on the noggin was so infuriating and tricically funny. I hope this tragedy is the start of the snowball that will grow and roll all of these assholes out of office! How emabarrasing for us as a culture, as a people for this to happen.

So not much drawing outside of work, but here are a few doodles from this week.