Buttnekkiddoodles

Stopped in yesterday to the Palette & Chisel where the model for the morning session didn’t show up. The artists present took turns posing.
For the afternoon session however, a new model came for her first time posing at the P&C and being warmed up from the morning session I had a fairly decent time drawing. I was relaxed and though the pose was simple, I found it quite regal in part due to her hair.
     WordPress used to be a decent platform that had in the past been very helpful to me and other artists in gaining exposure on the internet and developing relationships both personal and commercial. 
But now it is just trash. Slow, sluggish to use, forces users multiple failed attempts to simply download images. The expectation is that if you struggle enough, you’ll give in and pay exorbitant fees to have them help you navigate the bullshit SEO labyrinthine mess they created. The artist job is to create the imagery and stories. That should be it! Hastags were simple enough but must have been too efficient and didn’t make them enough $$$$.
I have tried several times to add some more images from my files but with little sense or explanation, I’m having to close and reopen the site. Sometimes that works, sometimes not. Having invested more than a dozen years on this site I can only say it’s being guided by pirates and creeps who provide a sub par service to users.

 
Two and a half hours of a gorgeous day spent drawing a rocky bridge with pedestrian passage in Lincoln Park. Other than the bugs and rapidly changing light, it was quite pleasant.

Drawn with a fountain pen, DeAtramentis Document Brown ink and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Dual Markers on a Boorham & Pease Columnar Book.

On the grounds of Quebec Provincial Parliament, drew two toiling figures from Honoré Mercier’s monument. Mercier was a lawyer, journalist, politician, francophone, leader of the Quebec Liberal Party and ninth premier of Quebec. Well, of course we expect liberals to be champions of the working folks, especially those who toil in the fields and bring  us our food. But as you see below, the fascists felt they had pull with the very same crowd.

Turns out, the Mormons chose to applaud the same honest folks of the soil. To wit, a statue in the Utah capitol in Salt Lake City. Notice the bee hive cradled by the gentlemen. That’s their symbol for industry. Busy as bees. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop it is said.

Oh there’s more to it than that, in young countries, new states, huge countries with large agrarian tracts and burgeoning mouths to feed, new arrivals were welcome. Check out another statue in that same state house.

Yep! Welcome them newcomers. Bring us them tired poor yearning to be free and hankering to start fresh with a hungry work ethic. Well, we’ve seen what become of that unfortunate message. Canada’s prime consideration now is the size of the new applicants wallets and if you have specialized skill sets and educational pedigree. And their haughty neighbor to the south is no nobler, trying as they are to round up the very foreign born workforce union busting businesses are quietly encouraging. Quietly so they don’t run afoul of their angry political constituents who’d like to see our southern border bricked up solid. There just might be a Great Wall for sale in China.
And then of course, any country worth its salt will promote the education and cultural enhancement of its citizens, both longstanding and newly arrived.

Again, even the Fascists seem smitten with the notion of nurturing young minds.

Although a quick look at this pre WWII building from Mussolini’s reign could leave one unsure of the nature of the nurturing, and a suspect notion of the subject with which whom is smitten.
It seems all governments rush to extol their virtuous and historic accounting of noble intentions. The arts even get a slap on the back as long as their leash is short and their creativity finds its way to ad firms with a gimlet eye for well heeled clientele with a product to pitch.

Let’s have a look at dynamics useful in moving any great, ambitious nation forward. You know, building stuff. Useful stuff, and figuring out how to make grand projects, and new cool stuff. How to make better, and bigger stuff than your competitors. Well sir, you might just be talking about Science, Engineering, Architecture, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and other learned kinda stuff. How things work and how to make it all work better. Grow faster. Fly faster. You see where this is going. Check out my man below with the telescope. A visionary, looking beyond the local realm.

Now if we’re to tell the whole story, you gotta keep in check those who’d try and abscond with your cool new stuff, your good ideas. And maybe, someone’s got something you need to make your stuff better. But, they don’t wanna share it. Well, that’s where these guys come in.

And they just might have to do THIS!

Boy howdy!!! Who’d wanna keep doing that?

Well, you’ll need to come up with something persuasive. Something that not only show real gratitude, for like, your dangerous toil and maybe even ultimate sacrifice! But to let you know, you’ll be taken care of, real good, and for like, all of eternity.

So we kinda come back around in a way to the original statue where that hunched over woman looks to be working her tired body like a rented mule. And it’s not like all them fine folks in their fine shoes and soft fabrics eating delicious meals on fancy gold rimmed plates, don’t give thanks to those who had a role in …. well for certain they give some kind thanks. Maybe it’s a catch all thanks. One that covers ALL the bases. Like a big creator. You know, the BIG creator. But some time they leave thanks in a fairly permanent way, you know, as when they do a statues that represent all that contributed to this uplift. And they make it in stone. Or bronze, which will be around for gosh, a long time. Unless it gets melted down and reused, for something like a bell. Or probably a canon.
I’ll give further thoughts in a later post.

Drawings made with various inks, DeAtramentis and Platinum Carbon and pigmented markers by Faber-Castell and White China markers on several different papers, Stillman & Birn, Tomoe River Paper, Strathmore.

For the second time, G Babe and myself returned to downtown Chicago from Chinatown via the Chicago Water Taxi. A really pleasant means of travel with the cool views of the city from the south fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River.
Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a repurposed ruled notebook from the 1940s.

 
Went to a life drawing session at the Palette & Chisel today and found my subject, an artist new to the P&C, Andrew, at work painting the model. He had a great head of hair an enjoyed trying capture his hands at various positions of  work. Also like the way his shirt revealed his underlying features.

Hadn’t drawn the popular model Jayson in quite some time. These were drawn on various days but I like including them.