Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Sketches of dead wanderers and revolutionaries





When I'm not picking fights with union-busting mayors and their political operatives, or getting all excited about local artists, or jazzing on confluences - the desegregation of the soul - I am drawing pictures of dead European noblemen with my little bitty skinny kid.

I'm not advancing these dangerous characters, these revolutionaries and wanderers, as models of the human spirit or anything like that. They are not my vision of human beauty either. When I draw from memory, I draw the faces of black women (they tend to look a lot like the baby's mother).

But I have a beautiful new used book about Renaissance Europe, and at the moment, that's the book we like to copy our pictures from. It's fun!

From the top down:





Magellan is not intended to look like a clown, despite the recent pop culture jokes at his expense ("gellin' ... like Magellan"). Leyla just thought I put his mouth in the wrong place. So she put it in the right place: on his nose!

**

[Note to Anonymous with his (it has to be a he!) freelance venom.] Let me save you the trouble and leave your comment right here: "Don't quit yr Day Job!!!! LMAO!!!!"

2 comments:

A.A. said...

I feel sorry for old Magellan....how could he have ever known what his name would be turned into.

Poetry Scores said...

As someone who often swims with children, I also can report that the name "Marco Polo" has gone on a wonderful and unpredictable journey!