I am not #Hashtag

The new year, only three weeks old has proven to be a crazy year so far, fraught with a lot of terrible goings on world wide. If not shocking, not surprising in a way, still a bad beginning. I expect that any hour I can read some terrorist assholes blew up something, killed a lot of people--anywhere--even here.

In the cartooning community and on Facebook especially people started putting up pics of themselves holding drawing tools with the slogan/hastag "Je suis Charlie" or "I am Charlie".

I can understand the feeling, but I didn't do it and wouldn't do it because I am not Charlie. While I completely support free speech/ free press including making fun of anyone or any god, I didn't feel my emotions were going down that road. I have no problem with those who did it post the slogan---I suppose you feel like you want to do something, say something--or even more likely, kill the bad guys--and they were. But that only stamps out that fire, not the inferno...

But I think slogans are a very iffy thing. They can easily become a false flag. They can also work against you as they just become a knee jerk #hashtag and loose the original meaning as people just repeat, retweet and pile on. The media gets it, runs with it makes $$ from it and co-ops the thing into a theme song and graphic. Its already gone now, washed over by the next #hashtag, whatever trending topic that might be. I think I'd have to really think about how I would want to react to these situations and how I would want to respond in social media and artistically. That isn't something I would hashtag, or tweet. the issues we face require deep and long thinking and not slogans. I don't hate on those who did like some on FB, calling people out like Marshall Dillon. That is redick! Also you never win arguments of FB, so why even waste the time? Go make something positive, make a song, art, volunteer, whatever works for you.


What this shit does for me is make me focus on, life, now,  my life, my goals, what am I doing, where am I going, etc. You realize that shit can and will go down any minute, YOU can go down, but what can you do? Stop your life? No, you have to stay focused and move forward. You have to do whatever you need to to keep your energy up, your light glowing and hope that effects the others around your circle of influence.

So the energy of 2015 is a strange kinda twisted energy, a real weird mix. Had a great show opening, and good feedback, and article on outdoorpainter, and my commercial work is going solid for DC right now. I'm finishing the pencils for the first issue of my Convergence book, the last pages will be done by early next week, I have them broken down, I just have to transfer my layouts to the board and tighten them up. I wish I could show the pages to you but DC says, NO! But since they already ran the finished promo for this page I'll show the pencils.

So you'll have to wait till April and May to see the rest of the work....

                                                         Manayunk Sunday 9 x 12 Oil

I have managed to get out and paint once in the past few weeks for an afternoon with the PAPP in Manayunk---Brrrrr! After 3-4 hours standing on frozen concrete my poor feet were numb and I had to stop. I wasn't crazy about the painting, but if felt good to get out of the house/studio. The weather has been just off enough to mess with my schedule so the time I am free its raining and freezing. I know that in  amonth the weather will really start improving a lot so I'll have more time to get back outside.

I have also started on a new body of figurative paintings. When my DC gig is done I will be able to move further and faster. But I have started sketches and studies from a model. I have even done some from paintings I saw that I made in a few dreams. That is actually very hard to get that feeling you have in a dream down on paper as the act is like catching smoke to a degree. It more of trying to draw a feeling than a thing. And we all need good dreams these days!