I've just completed teaching a Drawing Workshop through College of Marin's Community Education program. I've been teaching this class for a several years. Each class I tweak and refine, and learn things for myself about materials or ways of thinking. Often I will do the same assignments that I give my students. This round of teaching, I decided to a rendition of an eucalyptus tree in walnut ink for the ink component of the class. I had already done a drawing of this tree in charcoal for a previous class I had taught, but wanted to see how the eucalyptus would look in walnut ink. I posted both images side by side on Facebook. One of the comments I received was that the charcoal rendition looked more austere than the walnut ink one. I wouldn't have used the word austere, but I understood what the commentator was saying, which was, when the two images were put side by side, the way the charcoal is used and that it was done in black and white, appeared cooler, and thus more austere, than the drawing done in walnut ink, which is inherently warmer due to the warmth of the walnut ink than the coolness of charcoal.

Here's the eucalyptus tree done in walnut ink, 12" x 9." Let me know if you'd like to see the same image done in charcoal.

Since my dad died in 2020 at the grand old age of 98, I've been thinking of death on a daily basis. I used to worry about my dad's passing all the time, so would find myself worrying every time the phone rang that something had happened to him and that he had died. Well, eventually that happened. He lived a long, inquiring, adventurous, courageous life and while his body failed him, his mind stayed intact pretty close to the end. 

At first I was a bit horrified that all I did was think of death; while swimming, while painting; while taking walks, while washing the dishes, anywhere, anytime. I was getting morbid, or so I thought. Now I'm thinking it's a good thing, this thinking about death. It's coming, it's always been coming, but when one is young it's easier to not think about dying because it seems so far away.

One of the practices of Buddhists is to meditate in graveyards, as a reminder that everything dies, everything is impermanent. At this point accepting impermanence is a relief and a release from attempting to hold on to things as they were or how we might like them to be. It allows a sense of freedom to explore, because why not? What is there to lose? Painting and living are both journeys. The enclosed painting was done back in 2014, it's called "On the other side," I've been thinking about death a long time.

It's a challenge to feel hopeful when so many of the rights that we've taken for granted our entire lives are under attack by the current iteration of the Republican party. And that lack of hope permeates into what artists are making or doing. Some people, (including myself) at times try to focus on the small things we can take solace in; the natural beauty of the world, our family and friends, and a belief that things will change for the good. And if not that, then at least a belief in the afterlife or karma. I'm just waiting for the next asteroid.

It was clear to many of us when seeing the election in 2016, that the Republican candidate, should he win the election would cause great harm to the populace of the United States and to the populace to the world at large. After his win in 2016, he and his cronies set about destroying Democracy for their own personal gain, both monetarily and because they had a penchant for power. Everyday I felt like I was watching Rome burn. And now we're on fire. I painted this painting from a place of despair in 2017.