Some of Our Friends

Bear
pencil on paper

Study of Bear the kitten from one of Pyar's photographs. At this point they were barely two weeks old and oh so sweet.

Oh My!
pencil on paper

Study of the kitten Oh My from a photo taken by Pyar. She was the smallest of the four abandoned kittens that Pyar found only a few days earlier. She is all white with a little gray at the top of her head and oh so sweet.

Works in October

Eggplant Friends
pencil on paper

All of my schools have some kind of garden, usually several kinds that are maintained very well by students and teachers. These eggplants are from Shinjo Elementary School. My teacher, Satake Sensei gave them to me after a visit to her second grade class. When she gave them to me I gestured them toward each other mimicking some kind of conversation since they both seemed to have long noses and odd shaped heads. We shared a laugh and a knowing look, since we mostly communicate through gestures and our mutual limited shared languages.

Wara
pencil on paper

Tanabe is a farming and fishing town. The rice harvest season is over now, but many of these have been built or rebuilt from the rice reeds. Depending on who you ask gets you several answers on what these are called and how they might be used. This one is along a road on the way to Akizuagawa and just before one of my favorite coffee shops, Kirara. To the right of the structure is the rice field and to the left and behind are mikan trees. It is a lovely green space. Further back along part of the river, you can see many turtles basking in the sun along various logs and river edges.

Doodles at Kinugasa
pencil on paper

Many of my schools have great areas to sit outside and think or draw while enjoying a shady corner of the ball field. Kinugasa Junior High School is one of those schools. This was done in a few minutes between periods while enjoying the cooler weather.
I am happy to see that bees are thriving.

Higanbana
doodle on paper

There are many of these around town in red and white marking the autumn equinox. They are lovely signs of a cooler time of year, though the deep red seems very hot in clusters across the many fields around the house here in Tanabe.

Cut Outs for Danielle
paper on paper in Journal

Danielle religiously mails me a letter from the States each and every Monday. Depending on weather and some strange time line created by the Japan Post, I get a wonderful treat about once a week. One reason is, she knows I love it and because she includes a recipe and some cut outs from magazines or newspapers, she fills me with some English reading. The best reason is she likes me, but more than that, she has lived away from her home for two years when in the Peace Corp. She lived in Gabon, Africa. She knows what mail means. What it means to be thought of in such a meaningful way that a friend would spend time to create something so special as to put a stamp on it and mail it to the future. What a special gift and a special friend. I am lucky. I love her handwriting too, this is part of one of her letters. And since she is a designer and artist, she does not at all flinch that I use her envelopes and letters for my own projects.
Thank you, Danielle!

New Works

Small Lime

watercolor on paper

This study is for our friend Kubo Sensei. She has a tree outside her lovely home with many of these little limes. I am not sure of their name in Japanese. They are great for making juice and squeezing over bean burritos. We had a wonderful meal with the Kubo Family and as one of our many gifts, we got to bring home a whole bag of these!

Small Lime Study

pencil on paper

Two Beavers

(aka Terrel and Jerence)

pencil on paper

I told Pyar about my comic idea for my drawing of two beavers and showed him a drawing a little different than this final piece. Like always, Pyar was encouraging and let me finish it the way I wanted. He added some great text, to see his comic, go to

http://rockthetoilet.org/?p=1109

thanks boolovey

Mystery Me, Self Portrait from the Past

pencil on paper

Someone recently told me that we share a common experience from my past. It was an awful reminder of how I have put myself in unhealthy situations. This was me, masked and in solitude with flowers waiting to grow. Now, I am grateful that my gardens are in full bloom.

Thanks be to God.

Library Card Series

Birds and Scissors

Flowers in Birthday Harmony

Library Card Series

Who

Owl on Branch

Grrrr Scissors

Blossoming Tea

Blossoming Tree

Library Card Series

Balancing Bicycle

5" x 3" mixed media

Jessica gave me some library cards from discarded books. I erased some of the entries and painted over other entries before stamping the designs.

One of my fondest memories was waiting for my Dad at the law library at George Washington University in D.C. What certainly must have been only a few minutes to exchange books felt like hours to a six year old. Honestly, I do not remember how old I was but I do remember the treat of pickles at the corner deli afterwards.

Counting Elephants

Carolina's Tree

Library Card Series

Octopus on Bubbles

Directional Tree

Along Numbers

Camera on Flowers

Pushing Happy Birthday Block

Shirahama's Goonies Rocks

Sunset for Lindsay Hadley
acrylic on wood disc

Pyar and I have an amazing view from our apartment's balcony. Since we first arrived we often watch the sun change along this portion of the sky. The rocks across the bay are at Shirahama. We think they look like the "Goonies" rocks from Astoria, Oregon.

Mouse for Eri

Eri's Mouse
pencil on paper

I drew this mouse for Eri's birthday. Her Chinese Zodiac is the nezumi. This is my fourth drawing of the mouse for friend's birthdays. I also know many tigers whose birthdays are coming up shortly. The collection has evolved from my original idea of making stamps for each animal, that will be the next step.

Conor's Birthday English Counting Book

The "I Can See" Counting Book
This is a KOLO photo album that I used to make a counting book for Conor.

Inside cover of book, I used store bought number stamps for this page and the cover. The rest of the numbers in the book have number stamps that I carved. The number stamps are rather small, and thus a real challenge to carve.

Maeby is Conor's dog friend
This stamp is actually my dog friend named Ellie who has posed for many cameos.
Since Ellie has iconic dogness, she posed for Maeby's portrait.

Conor's Birthday English Counting Book

Conor's Birthday English Counting Book

the English counting story

I can see one dog named Maeby and two bicycles
and three monkeys and four elephants
and five rabbits with six pandas and
seven balls of yarn and an octopus with eight legs
and nine pencils with ten piglets
having a tea party in Savannah.

Rogue River Gorge

Rogue River Cliff with Trees study
pen and ink

We visited the Rogue River on Monday of our wonderful vacation in Oregon. I was standing at an overhang/outlook and spent a few minutes trying to get all of the beautiful textures on the cliff. I especially love how the trees seem to hover over the sides while growing out of the lava rocks. It was an incredible view and a wonderful day.

Chipmunk
pen

This guy was at my feet while I was drawing the cliff study featured above. It moved quickly, this was literally a ten second gesture. I think I captured its squirrel like movements.

Kansai Airport

Kansai Airport Red Chairs in Sun
watercolor

We flew home the week before last to visit family in Oregon. This was about a twenty minute study. The light on the red was absolutely gorgeous.
I was especially drawn to the reflections on the floor.

Tanabe Landscape

Tanabe River for Steve
acrylic on wood disc

This is my third painting on the wood discs. This is the river from a bridge just beside the overpass before you get to Konan. I take this route to go to two of my schools. This is where I usually see many koi and turtles swimming.

In honor of my friend Steve, a great mentor and teacher.

New Stamps on Wood Discs Series

Sokrates' Friend, the Pig for Sokrates the Pig

This stamp was inspired by Maren's pig on the alm. She has two of them. I have not seen the second one, and I am not sure the other one's name, so I made this stamp of him.

Pencil and Paper for Marjorie Hendrix

New Stamps on Postcards

Black Dog Talking with Brown Dog and Ellie

Ellie Thinking about Brown Dog Talking

Crow Talking with Five Monkeys

Crow Thinking About Pig, Brown Dog and Black Dog Friends

Panda Thinking About Panda Friends