1425 - "Abbey Groaned"

Introducing "The Deadles": from right to left - George, Paul, Ringo, and John, celebrating their hit Hallowe'en single "Abbey Groaned".

This is likely the best photo I have of our Hallowe'en display for 2017.  In past years I've taken to posing plastic skeletons in evocative ways.  I figured with four skeletons, I could recreate Abbey Road with the Beatles.  Our neighbours seem to be thrilled with these dioramas, and our renters at least tolerate them.  Nobody under the age of thirty seems to remember The Beatles, but even though the kids don't understand they appreciate the effort.

Some kids are scum-sucking deviant motherless uncultured pea-brained visigoths, though.  The neighbourhood watch security cameras caught a dozen hooligans knocking down this display and ripping the heads of the skeletons, meaning that we had to make a trip to the hardware store to get replacements.  The original display had the Beatles' poses exact to the inch, the replacement version is more haphazard.  Also, the Volkswagen is on the wrong side of the picture.  

So Hallowe'en 2017 isn't going to be all that joyful for us, or for our neighbours up and down the street who  also had their things vandalized.  

As improbable as it seems to me, someday those hoodlum lunkheads will grow up, find mates and reproduce, and so will spawn neighbourhoods of their own of an ilk even stupider and more destructive, and the cycle of driving out to the hardware store to find replacement decorations will renew. 

Here's a couple of my previous skeleton poses: please click here and here  to see them.  Also, please click here to see another JSVB version of Abbey Road.  

 

1424 - Princess Hamster Castle I

I've begun a new art project.  Some time ago, I found a large balsa-wood castle at Michael's (the Canadian craft store - did you know that 18% of Canadians make crafts? Every fifth Canadian you meet is crafty!).  The castle is a perfect fit in our hamster cage, and our hamster Zhora loves it.  You can see how she's chewed on the upper left battlement.  The castle is intended for dolls, but it's also a good scale for pet rodents.  There is a tiny and unnecessary magnet that needs to be removed from the drawbridge before the castle can be given to little ones.

I've been working on the underpainting. I should have primed the wood a lot more, since the paint soaks right in.  Also, I am using cheap student-grade water-based pigments.  I've always said that cheap art supplies makes for cheap art, and this project is no different.  The pigments easily separate from the watery filler, casing the ochre and white to combine in an eldritch shade of lilac. 

1423 - Stein After Stein

Me at the Persephone Brewery on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. 

 

1422 - Archangel Gabriel IV

Here you can see some of my palette choices for Gabriel, yet when the paint goes on, it's primary red, blue, and yellow, kind of like Superman. 

 

1421 - Now That's A Big Leaf

Either a large leaf, or my wife has shrunk.

1420 - A Really Old Dog

Despite the copyright claiming 2017, I think I drew this skeleton dog back in 1995.  

1419 - Old Chums

The local salmon have appeared for the purpose of spawning.  These two females seek strong mates and good hiding places for their eggs. 

 

1418 - Archangel Gabriel III

I've been labelling this as Gabriel, but I might be making another Michael. Visual descriptions of angels tend to be nebulous as compared to how one would describe their mother-in-law for example.  Wings, robes, and haloes.  

Michael gets a speaking part in the Holy Bible: "May the Lord rebuke you," he says to Satan.  In Jewish scripture, Michael and Satan fight over the body of Moses.  Jude recounts this dispute in the Christian Bible.  Later, in Revelations, Michael skewers Satan with his sword, so sometimes this archangel is depicted with a blooded weapon.   Gabriel I suppose is coequal to Michael, only Gabriel has more lines to speak ("Hail Mary...") and less violence.

Michael and Gabriel could be androgynous, as there are male and female versions for both.  (The lightbulb illuminates now vis. Star Trek characters).  My version is so ambivalent, I might even make it Michael at the end.  

 

1417 - Birthday Plate

Yesterday was my wife's birthday, I think she's 22 or 23 now.  Something with a 2 or a 3 in it, anyways.  Yesterday was also JSVB Ungood Art Day, so we agreed to put her birthday post a day late.  Happy Birthday sweetheart!  These birthday cake batter beaters aren't half as sweet as you. 

 

1416 - Fozzie The Bread

So just what happened to Fozzie The Bear anyways?  On Ungood Art Day, maybe my oven has the answer...

 

 

 

Well, it's a stretch, but JSVB needs Ungood Art above all on a Friday the Thirteenth.  I made this hearth bread just a few minutes ago.  The other side looks like a perfect loaf.  When I flipped the bread over, it had this delirious smirk

"Quick, put some eyes on it, and you can post it as Ungood Art," my wife says.  The eyes are from a collection of Hallowe'en stickers we've been saving over the years for defacing (I say enhancing) smiley-faced vote-for-me political posters.  

 

1415 - Stork With Twins

I've given my Stork mascot twins, in honour of editor Jen who is expecting as much. 

 

1414 - Archangel Gabriel II

   So why Orthodox iconography?

   I'm not particularly religious.  Likely, I'm in the bottom ten percentile of Catholicism.  I'm told that God loves us all beyond what we accomplish or destroy in life, so that's positive.

   Getting into iconography was my wife's idea.  She wanted to get me out of the house.  I write or paint icons with a small group, so I do get some interplay with other artists, mostly swapping corny jokes. 

   I also get some time handling a paintbrush, which is way different from a pencil, pen, or stylus.  Slowly, stroke by stroke, I'm learning to lay down paint.  Orthodox painting does limit design, but not creativity.