We, In This Imminent Fall, Still Dream

Kiss the night air

pencil drawing, Calbayog City, 2025

"May I kiss you then. On this miserable paper. I may as well open the window and kiss the night air." - Franz Kafka

Portishead - Roads

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Pencil drawings

pencil drawings

Calbayog City, Philippines

2024

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black sharpie on paper

Miami 2009

I lived in Miami for a few years. I rented a small apartment right on the bay. It was lovely. Land crabs and iguanas used to wander around the yard. Beat that!

Miami has some of the most beautiful beaches on earth. White sands and tropical blue water. I used to hang out at beach cafes and draw.

Back then my main drawing tool was the black ultrafine sharpie. I was into drawing quilts. Crisp black and while images drawn off the cuff.

Here's another one.

Hermanos Gutierrez - Hijos del sol

black sharpie on manila paper

Miami 2010

Bay Harbor beach, Miami, 2009

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A young woman with bangs

8B pencil and finger rubbing

Calbayog City 2024

Bangs make me weak at the knees.

I keep tinkering with this drawing. This is where its at now.

Here's the initial sketch

Reading tea leaves

ballpoint pen and alcohol

Calbayog City 2024

These drawings are like reading tea leaves. I draw a bit then I splash alcohol on it and see what the smearing tells me to do next. This particular drawing I actually made on the backside of another drawing using the bleed through. Really fun when a face starts looking back at me..

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ballpoint pen

Calbayog City 2024

Our kitten invasion continues. There are three of them. All three grey and white and all three little bundes of kitten energy.

And cute.

I call this one Spider.

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Those thoughts followed him

pencil on newsprint

West Los Angeles 1977

In 1977 I was renting an apartment in West Los Angeles with a surfer friend of mine. Every morning we would wake up before dawn and drive up to Malibu to go surfing. When we would get to the beach it was usually still dark but never once did I see the waves empty. No matter how early we got there, there was always somebody already out there in the dark surfing.

Surfers...

I can remember so clearly hitting the surf in the pre-dawn darkness. We would dive headlong into the waves with our boards.

What a way to start the day.

I was doing a lot of pencil drawing back then. I drew on newsprint so most of the drawings have disintegrated with time. I did however manage to save this drawing. It was one of my favorites so I put it away in a folder and forgot about it for thirty odd years until I found it again. I just took this picture.

Brings back fond memories.

Dawn Patrol - The Eiminators

So beautiful

The Blacksmith (Live in Cotopaxi) Lady Moon

black sharpie on bond paper

San Francisco 2003

I spent Christmas 2003 with some friends in San Francisco. They lived in this big two-hundred-year-old house that sat on the prison grounds of San Quentin penitentiary. It's a long story actually but what I remember most was the bed. The guest room of the house had this large old four posted wooden bed frame with the softest thickest most wonderful mattress I have ever slept on in my entire life. I will never forget the moment when I laid down and sank into the loving folds of that luxurious mattress. I felt embraced by softness, and I fell asleep as if floating on a cloud.

When I awoke the next morning I was amazed at the time. I had slept through the entire night without waking up once. I felt wonderfully refreshed.

After breakfast I sat down with my sharpie and drew both of these drawings in a single sitting.

black sharpie on bond paper

San Francisco 2003

pencil drawing on watercolor paper

Calbayog City 2024

I just drew this about 30 minutes ago. I know it's not a finished complete drawing but its finished enough that she's talking to me. And I'm listening to her.

I think I'm going to listen to her for a while. Tomorrow is another day.

Update:

I worked on her some more. She's still only half done but she's still talking to me so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. And it's dinner time.

A young woman with a hair barrette