Another Friday, another newsletter. It’s great to see you. You are beautiful and talented and you deserve to be rich! Or be served breakfast in bed.

As is now the pattern, personal news is upfront, followed by art and rambling about such. Read on!

These Days …

Fuck cancer.

I write this newsletter over the course of the week. Different sections therefore end up with different moods. This section is angry and tired and sad. Maybe a little hopeful. On Sunday I got a call from an old friend. We hadn’t talked in years. We’d been in touch by occasional (very occasional) texts but not voice. I was out a restaurant with Sarah and the housemate. When I saw the number on my cell phone I was expecting bad news. Who uses the phone to talk any more? A phone call from Alaska means something happened.

My friend has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Hell. Just. Hell.

Since Sunday, there’s been a lot of up and down. There’s a lot I don’t know about her situation. After the initial call our communications have been texts again. The diagnosis was just the first step. She had a CAT scan on Monday. A biopsy was to follow but gall bladder problems were requiring immediate attention. That surgery couldn’t be done in Fairbanks so she was trying to get it scheduled in Anchorage.

And apparently it couldn’t be done in Anchorage so she got flown here to Seattle Wednesday night.

She quickly discovered that communication between Fairbanks and Seattle … sucked. No one in Seattle was expecting her. So she spent Thursday getting the necessary information and paperwork communicated and now, supposedly, she has her first operations scheduled for Monday.

She’s staying with a friend in Shoreline. Sarah and I will be going to visit her after work tonight. We’re picking up Ethiopian food on our way. There’s apparently no good Ethiopian food in Fairbanks. We’ll be up past our bedtime. We do what we need to do.

Face the Face

Who wears the Face?

Is he an urban legend? A guilty conscience incarnate? A hoax? A conspiracy?

That Face has been seen staring accusingly across a crowded room.

That Face has been heard whispering accusations from the corners of rooms that should have been empty.

That Face has grinned before the punch landed.

That Face was worn by the man who charged into the burning building and pulled people to safety.

That Face spoke from his Youtube channel, recounting the sins of the rich and powerful.

That Face was worn by the man who caught the tear gas cannisters and threw them back at the riot cops.

That Face snarled and did not back down.
.

The Face is watching. The Face knows what’s been done. The Face will drag the secrets into light.

Finishing Up

The next two images have been years in the making. I started them in 2017. I finished them in May. This last May. I’d been trying to do more of my finished art digitally. A lot of younger artists do all their work digitally. I really like working with pencil and brush and marker on paper but I think it’s a good idea to learn new media. I was using these two images to practice.

This was the pencil sketch for the first one. It features my crime fighting clown and her living ventriloquist dummy partner. They had names when I first drew them but I didn’t write those names down so I’m going to have to invent new ones.

This is about where I gave up four years ago. I wanted the image to be mostly areas of color with minimal lines. I use a wacom tablet from digital drawing. I’d been using it for a few years already but it was still an awkward tool.

This is the version I finished this month. It’s a reminder that practicing with a tool increases ones skill and comfort with said tool. I know both the tablet and photoshop better now.

This second piece is a portrait of Aunt Hortense, doing what she does best – smoking and drinking. She also overthrows civilizations, teases children and does bad things to narcissists but she does that while smoking and drinking. She is not a good example for young people.

Above is the pencil sketch that I started with. Below is what the digitally colored version looked like when I stepped away from it.

And this the version I completed last month. Care for a drink?

The above two images are available on a bunch of schtuff at my Redbubble store.

I also run an online store at Zazzle. Different images, different schtuff.

That’s it for this week. Thank you for spending some time with me. I hope that things are good in your part of the universe. If not, I hope you have friends and family (chosen or otherwise) to help you manage the rough spots.

Cheers!