Buttnekkiddoodles

III In the back of a Land Rover and crashing up the snaking gravel roads and hair-pin, hair-raising turns of the marble quarries which pockmark the mountains of Carrara, Italy. Humans have been chipping and chopping away at the much treasured white limestone in these mountains for 2,000 years, removing 6% of the inherent prize to date.

The scale of the mining and extraction is difficult to convey in a couple sketches. There are 190 quarries in these mountains. In the drawing above, you can see openings to caves in the mountain, the interiors which can themselves be cavernous. The smallIsh looking shack in the lower right hand is itself a large shed where some of the cutting could take place and is much larger than the large trucks used to haul multi ton loads of marble down the mountains. The pile of rocks along the bottom of the drawing is the edge of a marble gravel road we took to tour the quarries. There is a precipitous drop just on the other side of the gravel pile and more than four hundred yards between that and the cutting shed you see below.

Drawn with various fountain pens, DeArtementis Ink, Pitt Artist Pens, on watercolor paper, Stillman & Birn sketchbooks.

 
Noggins. In the drawing above, the two heads were drawn while on the #22 bus using Ochre and Dark Sepia Pitt Artist Pens. Later I added the green blue tints and black. The bottom two were drawn as is in a cafe.

       
With the exception of the last sketch of my brother Bob, this collection was drawn this August in the Chicago/Evanston area. Bob, was drawn watching the t.v. some 27 years ago in Austin, Texas.

Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens, most on a Rhodia unlined notebook. Bob was drawn on a repurposed diary from someone had kept notes in from the Second World War.

 
The booth of Henry’s Farm, Evanston Farmers Market. Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia unlined notebook.

The old soldier, ears thoroughly bitten, shy a few teeth, still keeps vigil over his domain.

Given the less than appealing name Stinky due to his feisty nature when we got him. What would you expect. The critter was feral. I’ve never come up with a substitute name and refuse to use that one. I haven’t been swatted in over two years and he usually comes over to rub against my leg and let me scratch behind his ears. I make use of Old Man, Dude, Buddy. The nameless wrangler that helped send the rats packing, patrols the complex, and has mellowed considerably. Well, the squirrels would argue with that last part. I could call him Sheriff. Or Sharif, after Omar.

Fountain Pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia unlined notebook.

 
An exhibit most definitely worth your time and $10 is at The Pritzker Military Museum & Library of the great combat and op ed artist, Bill Mauldin.

 
My sketch of Mauldin drawing on site. Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia unlined notebook.

A drawing over half a century old which couldn’t be more relevant today.