Tagged: Faber-Castell USA

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.

Orvieto. Did the layout and developed the buildings on site. Got to Milano and finally decided to switch from Fountain pen and Pitt Pen Markers to watercolor and lay in the landscape and clouds. Quite the clutz and a bit tight with that medium but this is the year I make a game effort to get comfortable with a medium I am really moved by and in the hands of so many artists I admire can have real zest.

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    It was extraordinarily enjoyable to return to Orvieto after 46 years since I first saw it. The majesty of the cathedral, Maitani’s facade, a the great, great frescoes by Luca Signorelli were as astonishing as when I first stood before them.

 
Looking up at the bluffs from the Etruscan Necropolis. We stayed at an BnB a block behind the tower on the crest. I first visited Orvieto as a 24 year old art student at The University of Texas in Austin. I’ve been yearning to return to my favorite Italian hilltop city. When Rome was sacked in 1527, the Pope took up residence here for some time.


Last night was date night with G Babe (second night in a row). We went to the Harris Theater to hear the Grant Park Orchestra perform Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Oberon, Ralph Vaughn Williams Serenade to Music, Shostakovich’s Suite from the Incidental Music to the film Hamlet (WOW!! I enjoyed this the most of the evening’s offerings), and Tchaikovsksy’s Hamlet Fantasy Overture after Shakespeare which conductor Carlos Kalamar introduced by saying,” after you have had your fill of a big meal, sometimes you’re in the mood to have a big piece of chocolate cake, with lots of whipped cream.”
I managed a few sketches throughout the concert. Which, included the couple in the row before us. The lady in the hat appeared most drowsy and even let her head sag onto her companion’s shoulder while resting her chin on the palm of her hand. Given the way her mouth drooped open I feel confident in posting that my subject took a kitty nap. Yeeeeesss you did dear. YES YOU DID! Disinterested or exhausted from a fatiguing day taking in the delights of downtown Chicago, and a flute or two of Prosecco, (I’m permitting harmless speculation here), our patrons of the arts chose to leave early. Harrumph! They didn’t even make it to Mendelssohn’s rousing Wedding March!!!! Not to mention Shostakovich truly fabuloso ????????? !!!! film score.
Well, me and the G Babe, and the bald dude two rows in front of me, as well as the stylish lady (more speculation) with the satin top and page boy haircut more than made up for our tuckered twosome in enjoyment. Props to the seasoned cellist in the orchestra.
 
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens on Japanese Mulberry paper in a sketchbook made for me by Eugene Wooddell Jr. I especially like the new Fude nib Pitt Pens which have a bit of flex to them and were used for all the contour work.

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.

 

 

Up Into The Marble Peaks Of Carrara

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