A Quiet Moment Amongst Friends

The Greatest Hand Turkey Ever Made

8 1/2" x 11", pencil on paper, 2008

I have drawn, without a doubt, the greatest hand turkey in the history of the world. If anyone can find another hand turkey that comes even close to the realism and beauty of this one, I will send you a $5 Starbucks gift card.

Just as the Indians shared their popcorn and vegetables with the Pilgrims, and just as the Pilgrims shared their guns and dark clothing with the Indians, I would like to share this hand turkey with all the people of the world. Please take this image and use it any way you wish. You can print the hand turkey and show it to your loved ones over the holiday weekend, or you can frame it and put in on your wall. You can copy and paste it into your Facebook or set it as the backdrop on your computer. It's just like they said at that first feast at Plymouth Rock, "what's mine is yours and anything goes."

May this Thanksgiving be the greatest ever!

An Albino Deer!

As part of my job, I get to look at a lot of blogs. Periodically I will share some of my interesting findings as well as the art that it inspires.  

A couple of weeks ago I came across the blog of Billy Ray Hearn, the Founder and Chairman of EMI Christian Music Group. In July, an albino deer was born on his property:

 

I've attempted to capture the magic in a quick pencil drawing:

7" x 7", pencil on paper, 2008

Update: It sounds like the deer is doing very well:

"People keep asking about the albino fawn. I see it quite often grazing around the property and last night it was bedded down with mother and sibling on the back part of the property when I returned from the BMI awards party about 11:00 PM. They have bcome [sic] a little more skiddish so I  haven't been able to get a picture. It is growing up fast."

We Are All Captains

The blog is growing up fast. Thanks to all the friends who have chipped in with original art. I've already gotten a back log of cool shit. Stay tuned for pieces from Kevin R, Nico C, and Ben D.

To all of the new visitors -- friends and friends of friends -- please send your art to: aquietmoment@gmail.com.

Don't worry about the quality of your work. This one guy wrote his name 100 times and I still put it up. It was fun to look at and everyone had a good time. 

Thanks,
John U

Lizard People

Carl W sends in his Buddy System collaboration:

It's the world as it is versus the world as we'd like it to be. 

A Lizard Amongst Friends

With this post, I'm officially kicking off a new feature of the blog: The Buddy System. I'll be sending friends partially completed drawings and asking them to make a finished product and friends will be sending me things to complete. It's all very exciting.

For the first assignment, I sent out this simple line drawing:

And here are the responses:

Peter F strapped on his goat-skin leggings and horned helmet and got to work on a scene from a heavy metal satanic rec-room. Heed the lizard's command and "ride the snake to Detroit Rock City"!

Seth L fired up the paint feature in Photoshop and cranked out another awesome lizard.This lizard found a delicate flower and is caught in a conflicted pause, torn between protecting the simple beauty and its instinct to devour the sweet nectar. I'm pretty sure it's a metaphor for global warming.  

 

Seth L lives in New York and works on a radio show. He makes really good Halloween costumes. Peter F lives in Oakland and makes art with robots.

Election 2008 Doodles

It's been two weeks and already I miss the election. A tip of the hat to Carl W for sending me doodles created by Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Both doodles tell us what we already know, mainly that Obama is a cool dude and Palin is borderline mentally retarded. 

During a boring Senate hearing, Obama drew lovable cariacatures of Senators Diane Fienstein, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, and Chuck Schumer. Pretty good by this blog's standards. 

 

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, made this doodle in 1996 during a city council meeting as she prepared to run for mayor of Wasilla. She uses a self-referential artistic technique that we've seen on this blog before. Her best lines include, "Taxpayer!" and "You would be my boss!"  See the detailed Sarah Palin PDF here.

UPDATE: I did some research and was able to track down a John McCain doodle. McCain reportedly made this doodle on election night at Phoenix's Biltmore Hotel in the hours before he gave his concession speech. The man is clearly battling some personal demons. I hope he gets well.

 

No Regrets / O, Egrets

6 1/2 x 9, ink on paper, 2006

 

Ben C uses his pen to tell the tale of three explorers who stumble upon a cave inhabited by a messianic figure. Confusion ensues when the long-haired stranger stretches out after a slumber and tells the trio that he either has "no regrets", or something about "egrets". We know from the dialogue bubble that the explorers expected to find bones, but we don't know the type of bones they expected. Human bones? Bird bones? This is left to the viewer's imagination.

Ben C lives in Albany, California and teaches kindergarten. He is currently working on a graphic novel. The above selection is an outtake from that project.

The Supine Body and Anatomical Bits and Pieces

5 x 7, 6 x 6, pen and colored markers on paper, 2008

Teresa U sends in original works from her anatomy textbook. The patient depicted in the first drawing is splayed out in the supine, or anatomical, position. His bloated limbs and sausage fingers are the result of genetics. For the lay person, genetics are God's secret code, passed down through our ancestral blood over millions of years.

The second image was colored in by Teresa. Each color in the illustration depicts a different piece of guts. All of the guts, bones, and muscles in the human body work together to make it possible for us to live. Stop and think about it for a while. It's pretty incredible.   

Teresa lives in San Francisco and is studying to become a nurse.

Ball of Dance

8 1/2 x 9, ink on paper, 2008

Check it out, dudes. Kevin G sends in this mega-doodle created by his friends Ashwin and Emina. The doodle was part of a flyer advertising a house party. If you can tell me the exact number of times the word "dance" appears in the drawing I'll send you a $5 Starbucks gift card.

Kevin and his friends live near Berkeley, California and teach the German language to teenagers and young adults.

Obama Night in San Francisco

Here's a taste of election night in my neighborhood on Valencia Street:

Early

Late

And here's an MP3 of a great election night sound collage from WFMU's Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon (The file is one hour, 69MB, so you may want to download it to your iTunes). It's a strange show, but I think the second half of it perfectly captures the happy energy of the day.

http://podcast.wfmu.org/kdb/mp3jump.mp3/0:9:9/0/CP/cp081106.mp3

UPDATE: Unlike the above footage that I found on YouTube, Jonathan H actually recorded his own video in New York. It features people I know!