A New Chance

Shadow games

Los Incas - La Mandorle

The other night I saw some neighborhood kids playing shadow games. It was so beautiful.

Calbayog City, Philippines

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if you look

black sharpie

Miami 2010

If you look closely at the edge of a black hole it becomes obvious that the entire universe is made of little tiny things.

black sharpie on manila paper

Miami 2010

Carrickfergus

Pen and watercolor on paper

Los Angeles 2016

Carrickfergus

I wish I was in Carrickfergus, Only for nights in Ballygrand, I would swim over the deepest ocean, The deepest ocean to be by your side.

But the water's wide and I can not swim over And neither have I wings to fly. I wish I could meet a handsome boatman To ferry me over to my love and die.

Irish folk song

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The Sari Sari store

One of the more lovely aspects of Filipino culture are the Sari Sari stores. Small family businesses that operate out of a home window. The streets are lined with them. Little window shops selling snacks, drinks, canned goods and what not. In my early trips to the Philippines the colorful item filled windows reminded me of the repetitive motifs of my own art. I thought about this for the entire trip once back in 2016, and then when I got home I sat down drew this.

Sari Sari, watercolor and sharpie, los angeles, 2016

Sari Sari store

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Femme Fatale - Nico and the Velvet Underground

pencildrawing

Calbayog City 2024

I never liked The Velvet Underground until I listened to them.

Sometime around 2010 I downloaded their first album and,

I loved it.

Highly recomended.

I think back when they first came out I was just put off by the whole seedy Andy Warhol scene so I really never listened to them.

Lesson learned:

"Don't dislike a band until you have at least listened to them."

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Leonard Cohen - Mastersong

We have two calamansi trees growing on our balcony. This morning as I write they are covered with fragrant white blossoms. The smell of the citrus perfume takes me back to Southern California and my own springtime.

Age has given me some peace and for that I am grateful. But youth gave me crazy love and for that I sometimes long.

Wine and Bread

Pencil drawing

Calbayog City 2024

High tide

watercolor and pen on crepe paper

Santa Barbara 1980

I have had a life long love affair with the Pacific Ocean. I did this painting years ago when I was living in Santa Barbara on the California coast. We'd go on long road trips up the coast highway. Have you ever spent the night on the beach at Big Sur? Put it on your bucket list.

I now live on the other side of the ocean on a small island in the Philippines. We go on road trips up through the coconut jungle mountains to this little beach town we know. The northern coast of the island faces the Pacific Ocean. The deep blues of the tropical sea are literally intoxicating.

Dream river and moon

Colored pencil and pen

Los Angeles 2018

When the mind dreams it is at play.

There is an appeal to illustration that transcends subject. My art is a reflection of nature. My art is my dream.

Somewhere, even in deconstruction, there is a promise of reconstruction. My art is my reminder.

My art is my ouija board.

Dream river blue moon

colored pencil

Los Angeles 2019

Dream river no moon

Colored pencil and pen

Los Angeles 2018

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Youth and innocence

pencil drawing

Culver City 1977

This is an old one. 1977.

I can still remember drawing it. I was living at the time, with someone special, in an apartment in Culver City, with a big double bed. When she came home that night she loved it.

I stlll have this drawing tucked away in one of my drawers.

And I still have my memories tucked away in my mind.

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Tunji