I Suppose It Was Just a Matter of Time!

Traditional hand drawn border

...and one with a cropped border

I don't know where this came from. I rarely draw something so overtly sexual as this. The life drawing piece was sexy, but not naughty. It may seem ambiguous, but no matter, this comes from deep in the subconscious, and if you knew me, it’s clear I need a girlfriend or at least a hobby. Hell I’ll take a date where we talk about hobbies! 

I suppose it was just a matter of time before redheads with large breast crept into my artwork. It will please those who care I haven't dated a single redhead in years (of course we still need to count all the married ones.) Oh ~ that was bad! 

I’m just getting one or two ideas out of my own head so I can work on that project with Griffin. I am amazed how fast the Lady Viking was drawn, almost a personal record.

SoulFireBang and DavidStreetART on DeviantART

I’m starting another project. I know what you’re going to say, but I keep waiting for that burned out feeling too. You know, like a piece of paper that has had an eraser rubbed over it too many times, but nope, nothing yet. So I’m just going to roll with it, and keep doing as many projects as I can until I poop out. 

Wait till you here what it is though. I’m teaming up with my son Griffin to do some art! 

Cool huh?! 

I have him doing a portrait of me in his style, and I get to do anything I want with his series “The 4^th” in my style. He even said he was excited to see what I can do with it. How many Dads’ get to hear that from their kid? 

All this is going on DeviantART. What a great place for an artist to be seen. I’m on there because I can put my large pieces on there and have them printed for cheap. So go check it out and buy something. Search DavidStreetArt and SoulFireBang. Tell me what you think. 

I’ll post when we get the project stuff done. Peace.

I Was Dating This One Girl

I was dating this one girl ~ beautiful! I walked out to my truck one night. There was a Mercer Mayer book tucked under the windshield wiper blade. If you asked me which one now I couldn't tell you.  ~ Oh, I could narrow it down. The one that was mine was signed "I love you! ~ Jen"

Sucker punched with a children's book!

However did she find that weakness? It was all over from there ~ All of our kids grew up on Mercer Mayer. I've given you a few covers to peruse. If you want me to wax all philosophical and stuff, I won't. He is sweet and simple and to the point. Just as it should be sometimes. I will say my favorite cover is "Just Lost!"~ Maybe you can relate.

This was the book title; just in case you were still wondering!

Benign Narcissism

It’s Sunday in Boise, ID. ~ it's windy and cloudy and The Doors are playing while I type. Jim Morrison said something that I related to back when I was young, but now even more so, which may explain my hyper seance of self importance today.

No. 2 (2011)

“I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being, but with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most crucial moments.”

Isn't that a fun quote?

No.11 (2008)

If you want to talk to me I would like to think I could be honest and direct, not just wax all eloquent and stuff about whatever it is you want to know. Also just as important I hope I would find you as interesting and the conversation would go both ways. 

No. 8 (2008)

Even if it wasn’t interesting, we could always talk about our shoes. I’ve found shoes more of a hot topic than the weather in some cases.

No. 9 (2009)

However, if there were times I could not give you the answers you seek, I believe my art is as much of a tattle-tail if ever there was one. You and I have talked about some of these self-portraits before, some of these things bear repeating.

No. 7 (2012)

Whether it’s my lack of ability ~ Oh and regardless of what you’ve heard, good looks and artist ability only get you so far in this world; about as far as my shoes sometimes ~ Now where was I? Oh yes, whether it’s my lack of ability as an artist or my lack of interest in the subject; I tend to clown around with these paintings and not take them too serious.

No. 6 (2012)

No. 5 (2011)

Maybe you’re asking yourself “what does he mean by too serious”; I mean things like self-portraits No.4 ~ the infamous Poor Sad Bastard Portrait. I was just doing a harmless painting when it hit me. BAM! I dug up all this crap I had stuffed down inside myself; and by pulling it out with my art it cast a new light on my problems. What a help it was for me.

No. 4 (2012)

So it’s like I say “Be honest and you never have to remember what you said”. However, I can’t help you when you rediscover your own truths. You’re on your own from there.

No.3 (2005)

Would you say there's a David Street and Jim Morrison connection in there somewhere? 

I’ll take that as a yes :) 

No.1 (2010)

Four-Thousand!

Wow. Good luck keeping a secret on the internet! Some time this week, this blog will see 4000 people come and go. The stats are crazy. A lot of people see me on Google. They come for things as diverse as Ian's penguins or Terri's cats, to my Aerosmith logo. Facebook is another door you all come in, much thanks! In celebration of this Georgia and I are letting our new banner fly. Comment on it or any of the other posts. Your opinion is greatly appreciated. Cheers!

For the record we hit 4000 Sunday  ~ 3/11/2012 around 3:00 P.M.

The Things You Have To Do For Money

I was asked to do a picture for someone’s boyfriend. Interest was stirred at work from the “Life Drawing” piece. Great for me, but only so-so for my model; most people are having trouble looking her in the eyes now!

The girl that asked me to draw a dragon and some fairies is big and beautiful ~ bubbly and full of life. But there is something you need to know about me. My sister is the one in the family that loves fairies and stuff. Me? Not so much. I think there are far too many of them in this world, and I have no desire to bring anymore in it.

I only took the job because this girl is so cool.

As I sat down planing things out in my head; the dragon was more or less a Komodo dragon with angel wings. I know you’re thinking that’s six different kinds of wrong, but actually it’s me and my laws of...Dude, it’s an imagination ~ don't wast it. :)

...and the fairies are big and beautiful. If I am going to bring more of those pesky things into this world, lets give the laws of gravity and those pretty butterfly wings a run for their money 
~ ‘nuff said!

The real pay off was when I gave her the picture. She turned to her Mom and said with delight, “Mom the Fairies are Fluffy”.

…and that's why I really do what I do!

Enjoy!

Sherlock Holmes and the Fairies

I found this while I was researching for my last project; I always liked this story. ~ d.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Spiritualism, and Fairies

By Donald E. Simane

Frances and the Fairies, July 1917, taken by Elsie. Midg Quarter camera at 4 feet, 1/50 sec., sunny day.
Photo No. 1. (detail) This photo, and the four which follow were provided by the James Randi Educational Foundation. These pictures are cropped to show the important details clearly.
 

---

Photo No. 1, above, taken in July, showed Frances in the garden with a waterfall in the background and a bush in the foreground. Four fairies are dancing upon the bush. Three have wings and one is playing a long flute-like instrument. Frances is not looking at the fairies just in front of her, but seems to be posing for the camera. Though the waterfall is blurred, indicating a slow shutter speed, the fairies, are not blurred, even though leaping in the air.

 

Photo No. 2, taken in September, showed Elsie sitting on the lawn reaching out her hand to a friendly gnome (about a foot high, with wings) who is stepping forward onto the hem of her wide skirt.

 


 Photo No. 3 "Francis and the Leaping Fairy" showed a slightly blurred profile of Frances with the winged fairy suspended in mid-air just in front of her nose. The background and the fairy are not blurred. Hmmm...

Photo No. 4 shows a fairy hovering in mid-air offering a flower to Elsie. Well, this fairy may be standing on a branch, for the fairy images are of indeterminable distance from the camera.

---

 Photo No. 5 "Fairies and their Sunbath" is the only one that looks as if it could have accidental or deliberate double exposure.

 

---

Photographic experts who were consulted declared that none of the negatives had been tampered with, there was no evidence of double exposures, and that a slight blurring of one of the fairies in photo number one indicated that the fairy was moving during the exposure of 1/50 or 1/100 second. They seemed not to even entertain the simpler explanation that the fairies were simple paper cut-outs fastened on the bush, jiggling slightly in the breeze. Doyle and other believers were also not troubled by the fact that the fairy's wings never showed blurred movement, even in the picture of the fairy calmly posed suspended in mid-air. Apparently fairy wings don't work like hummingbird's wings. Hardly anyone can look at these photos today and accept them as anything but fakes. The lighting on the fairies does not match that of the girls. The fairy figures have a flat, cut-out appearance. But spiritualists, and others who prefer a world of magic and fantasy accepted the photos as genuine evidence for fairies.Three years later, the girls produced three more photos.

---

The girls said they could not photograph the fairies when anyone else was watching. No one else could photograph the fairies. There was only one independent witness, Geoffrey L. Hodson, a Theosophist writer, who claimed to see the fairies, and confirmed the girls' observations "in all details".

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Arthur Conon Doyle not only accepted these photos as genuine, he even wrote two pamphlets and a book attesting the genuineness of these photos, and including much additional fairy lore. His book, The Coming of the Fairies, is still in print, and some people still believe the photos are authentic. Doyle's books make very interesting reading even today. Doyle's belief in spiritualism, convinced many people that the creator of Sherlock Holmes was not as bright as his fictional creation.


Some thought Conan Doyle crazy, but he defended the reality of fairies with all the evidence he could gather. He counters the arguments of the disbelievers eloquently and at great length. In fact, his evidence and arguments sound surprisingly similar in every respect to those of present-day books touting the idea that alien beings visit us in UFOs. Robert Sheaffer wrote a clever article drawing these parallels beautifully.


Over the years the mystery persisted. Only a few die-hards now believe the photos were of real fairies, but the mystery of the details of how (and why) they were made continued to fascinate serious students of hoaxes, frauds and deceptions. When the girls (as adults) were interviewed, their responses were evasive. In a BBC broadcast interview in 1975 Elsie said: "I've told you that they're photographs of figments of our imagination and that's what I'm sticking to."


In 1977 Fred Gettings stumbled on important evidence while working on a study of early nineteenth-century book illustrations.  He found drawings by Claude A. Shepperson in a 1915 children's book which the girls could easily have posessed, and which were, without a doubt, the models for the fairies which appeared in the photos.

---

Illustration for Alfred Noyes' poem "A Spell for a Fairy" in Princess Mary's Gift Book by Claude Shepperson. (Hodder and Stoughton, no date, c. 1914, p. 101ff). Compare the poses of these figures with those of three of the fairies in Photo No. 1. The figures have been rearranged and details of dress have been altered, but the origin of the poses is unmistakable. 

     

Does it matter?

Does it matter? Natural world disappearing from kids books

Books set in nature like "Where The Wild
Things Are" are becoming far less common, according to new research.

Prof. Chris Podeschi discusses his new research finding a sharp decline of nature and animals in children's books.

---

From wild animals to jungles and forests, a new study says kids books about nature are becoming a threatened species. Researchers from several universities reviewed nearly 300 award winning children's titles written between 1938 to 2008. Study co-author, Prof. Chris Podeschi of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, told 97.3 KIRO FM they found a troubling trend when comparing books written in the past to the near present.
"Earlier, the books were really sort of more nature centered, the settings chosen, the animals present were just more prominent," Podeschi said.
Books like "Where the Wild Things Are, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Little Red Riding Hood" have given way more and more to urban settings with fewer animals.
"We're just worried that along with grownups, now kids are increasingly isolated from the natural world in their actual experience."
And he said while there are plenty of great books still being written about the natural world, they worry people will ultimately stop caring about nature and animals as they turn increasingly to a technology centered world.
"We urbanize substantially, park visitation is down as a society, we turn to electronic gadgets that are more and more prominent in our lives," he said.
Not exposing kids to nature through books sparked plenty of conversation and disagreement among the Seattle's Morning News crew. Co-host Linda Thomas argues kids get a bum rap, and any reading is good reading.
"I just thought as long kids were reading or parents were reading to kids, you're ahead of the game there. I really think as long as kids are reading, it doesn't matter what they're reading," Thomas said.
Co-host Tom Tangney argues kids get plenty of exposure to nature from other places. He says his nephew's favorite show is "Dinosaur Train," a weekly exploration of natural environments and animals.
"I think there's a real push in all sorts of different platforms. Nature is more popular than ever," Tangney says.
"That's not nature, that's the nature channel...a screen is not the real world," replies co-host Bill Radke.