drawpaintwritemakethings

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Good morning. 

The other day I listened to an interview with Robert Skidelsky, member of the House of Lords and classic example of Refined Old British Guy. At one point in the (cheery) conversation he listed his Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as ...

1) nuclear war 2) environmental collapse 3) pandemics 4) our dependence on networks

... and it was that last one that caught my attention. He talked about modern networks as these strange creations our lives have become enmeshed within, that we both rely upon and are vulnerable to. We don’t understand them. And when they fail, we are undermined, damaged or ruined. 

And then I couldn't stop thinking about networks, and how they are everywhere. And how so many of them are maddening, crumbling or unsound these days.

Take simple networks, like the people in your life. Not like it used to be. Think about how you grew up – inside a certain, easily-defined physical world of family, neighbourhood or town, school, friends and perhaps teams or clubs (I had a paper route, so my network was a bit larger, but kids don't do that anymore). With grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as the occasional, second-tier outliers. These days the extended family unit is now more likely a single family unit. Or single parent family unit. And while we might have greater access to 'friends' online, this is like trading a horse for a picture of one. Or a windswept sea for a wading pool. No danger, no depth, no wind in one’s hair. With the added injury of social media not even pretending to be about anything social any longer, just another delivery system for bursts of entertainment and advertising. An algorithm serving flotsam. On Threads, for example, I see artists complaining about this every day, how Instagram no longer shares their work, even among their followers and peers. How something that was once useful as a tool is no longer worth the effort. Or, put another way, is shit. And I'm only seeing these comments on Threads because it's new, and Meta hasn't figured out what to do with it yet (read: how to turn it into shit).

And what kind of connection do you feel to the network of your workplace, where everything is run by a corporate-woke HR dealing in the meaningless currency of awareness days and mandatory culture training, and half the labour is remote, and your position sits somewhere between tenuous and disposable? Do you feel future-proofed? And how many of you feel like the institutions you work for no longer know what they're about, or are managed horrendously, or not at all, and are stable only in a lethargic sense, as if sleeping, or slowly drip-by-drip failing?

And then think about the matrix of electronic networks in your everyday life, draped over you like extra skeletons or skins. Computers and tablets and phones and entire star systems of passwords and cards and codes and keys. Endless, endless screens. And sometimes these systems work and sometimes they don't, and things break and things are badly designed, or designed with malevolence in mind. Navigating the kind of electronic maze you'd expect to find in a Kubrick fever dream, just to locate the page where you can check a box and press save. 

Your email full of phishing and scams. Every second photo you see doctored or faked or generated by A.I. News items that you have to look at like Columbo. Your kid who corrects you on language but can't find their way out of the neighbourhood without an iPhone and Google maps. Not that they go anywhere anyway. Economic networks that seem designed to blow up every so many years. Supply-chain networks that can break anytime. Government networks that operate like the Forbidden City, cadres of mandarins sending emails to each other, having meetings about meetings, but wholly unable to actually do things. Build things, make things. The best they can do is mail out $200 cheques to everyone. 

It seems to me that I used to live in a system where you had to find the right person to get or do the thing, which was a certain kind of skill (relationships, knowledge, etc), whereas now it's about finding the right system to game for the big payday (influencing, shamelessness, etc). 

Minds are meaning-making machines, but when that meaning is defeated by bad networks, people feel helpless. Or unhappy. Or angry. And then they behave badly. 

Which is great for elections, isn't it? All over the world the incumbents are either losing or taking a beating. While our Canadian federal election probably won't happen until the new year, the outcome is already baked in (the guy that no one likes anymore will lose to a guy who no one likes much either). 

Meanwhile my American friends go to the polls tomorrow. What has that election looked like? What have been the big ideas? Oh wait, there were no ideas. It was Faux Democracy versus Fake Fascism. The Stage Managed Candidate versus The Orange Villain. It's awful, seeing Bernie Sanders out there stumping for Harris. But he has to, because Trump is such a stupid, Big Gulp swindler, who will run a government that looks like Wrestlemania. 

Oh, he doesn’t mean what he says, he says a lot of crazy stuff. All I care about is that when he was president the economy was better. He’s not capable enough to do all that dictator stuff. The people around him will keep him in check. I don’t like him as a person but maybe we need a gangsta. And so on. I’ve heard enough of this kind of thing to think that he will probably win on Tuesday.  

But, just like with the Martian on Bugs Bunny, there will be no ka-boom. There will just be loads of vulgar incompetence, obvious criminality and mock-Christian culture war pornography. Some rich people will get a tax break, certainly, and in the background all the unstable, pernicious networks will continue. 

Until the day they don’t.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow, djb

Information networks straddle the world. Nothing remains concealed. But the sheer volume of information dissolves the information. We are unable to take it all in. — Gunter Grass

This Tinyletter (yes, I’m still calling it that) has been brought to you by the vanity license plates …

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… with a big thank-you to Meg F!

E / T / C / E / T / E / R / A my Etsy store / my Big Cartel store / my Instagram / Kiss Me Deadly, original ending / We are undone, prepare to die. / kid dances to impress / you need to wellness / donkey loves chicken

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

library card art set, action and plastics

Four ink and wash paintings on vintage library cards.

Each card is 3 x 5 inches and attractively packaged for gift giving, in a clear sleeve with a decorative card top.

Library sign-out cards only remain as curiosity items — relics still occasionally found in the back pocket of library books. I take these vintage, obsolete cards and repurpose them as art, making ink paintings that work in concert with the signatures, stamps and marks the cards have acquired over their history and service.

The titles of these four cards are …

Twelve Men of Action by Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1952) The Military Interpreter by R. Dubuis (1954) Statistical Methods in Structural Mechanics by Vladimir Vasilevich Bolotin (1969) Plastic Theory of Structures by Michael Rena Horne (1972)

Library card artworks are fantastic bookmarks (they have an incredible durability), and absolutely shine when framed. They also make great gifts — just tuck one into a Christmas or other greeting card and suddenly you’re sending your friend or relative some original artwork for the cost of a stamp. 

The artwork is wholly original, done freehand, directly onto the cards, in ink and wash.

Every order comes with an extra art surprise.

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.   — Anais Nin

All human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.  — Jean-Paul Sartre

I love Los Angeles, and I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.  — Andy Warhol

Buy from people, not from corporations. And buy things that are made by human hands, not computers. 

Escape the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art.

SAVE OUR LIBRARIES

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Inktober, so far.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

so don't go

original painting in mixed media

on aluminum panel

8 x 10 inches

a texture-rich painting meant as a compelling accent for a bedroom, mantle or office area (even sitting quite easily in the corner of a cubicle)

badger is leaving (perhaps vanishing)

Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden-in all the places.  — Frances Hodgson Burnett I'm leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it's not raining.   — Groucho Marx Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.  — Kenneth Grahame

varnished: a durable artwork that can be freely handled

suitable for framing but also stands on its own

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more work at 

and

https://society6.com/darryljoelberger

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

and you believed me

original painting in mixed media

on hard panel

8 x 10 inches

a small but texture-rich painting meant as a compelling accent for a bedroom, mantle or office area

the writing in pencil goes as follows …

and then i turned away

and would now look again

or so i promised

varnished: a durable artwork that can be freely handled

suitable for framing but also stands on its own

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

“Ring Found” and “A Glass Eye” 

two original gel monoprints on found paper, with typewriter text

each 8.5 x 9.25 inches

image patterns in French sky blue, fawn brown and emerald green with darker line and type marks

on found paper — pages torn from a discarded book about the French Impressionists

the writing is original and my own … 

I took out an advertisement in the classifieds.  It read:    Ring found. Public beach at Withering Place.  Real diamond? Describe it and the circumstances of losing it. Box 1457.    I had found no ring, of course. But I was bored,  and wanted some mail, which was so hard to come by  in those days.

and 

Something gleamed beneath the dresser. Lamont searched in tiny patterns with his flashlight.  It was a glass eye. Look at you, Lamont said.  As he squatted down to retrieve it, two fingers  already forming a pinch, Lamont could feel but  not hear the various cracks and pops in his knees  and back. He cursed while his chunky cop shoes  twisted and squeaked beneath him. And while he  could feel the sudden cold, the appalling wrongness  of the shadow which suddenly loomed at his shoulder,  he did not hear its approach. After the second hammer  blow, he heard nothing at all.

each print lightly tacked to foam board

packaged for gift giving in a clear cellophane sleeve

meant for framing but can sit on a mantle, shelf, or corner of a cubicle as well

two artworks in conversation

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more work at 

www.etsy.com/ca/shop/cigartinstories

and

www.society6.com/darryljoelberger

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

sometimes i even enjoy it; mixed media on cradled wood panel, 6 x 6 inches. This painting will make you thin. This painting will make you happy. This painting will lower your cortisol. This painting is nutrient-rich. This painting will make your enemies fear you. This painting will earn you six-figures in passive income. No work at all. This painting will activate your glutes. This painting will calm your anxiety. This painting will make you feel young again, and all your dreams come true.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

five ukiyo-e ink brush drawings on paper

The ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") genre of art flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. Ukiyo-e artists produced woodblock prints and paintings depicting samurai, beautiful courtesans, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, history, folk tales, travel in romantic landscapes, flora, fauna and erotica. The Floating World, as the pleasure districts of Edo (modern day Tokyo) were called, describes the sensory pleasures of urban life, but also offers a bittersweet reminder of the fleeting nature of all worldly delights. Some of the greatest Japanese artists of the time—Ando Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Toyokuni III, and Keisai Eisen among them—became known primarily as woodblock print designers in the ukiyo-e style. Their work had a profound impact on European artists around this time—its flattened perspective and innovative compositions inspired artists such as Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as the Japonisme movement in art and design.

Here are five original ink-brush drawings in the ukiyo-e style — a reinterpretation divergent from a simple pastiche in that the historical ukiyo-e images were never done in simple black and white.

samurai at rest

samurai with fan

samurai with playful ghost

samurai with spear

the warlord

superblack India ink on various weights of all-wood sketch paper: a textured-surface, cold-press paper with anti-microbial agents (for protection against environmental acids)

8 x 10 inches each

packaged in a clear sleeve with lightweight archival board

… Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; … refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world… ~ Asai Ryoi Singlemindedness is all-powerful.  ~ Tsunetomo Yamamoto At the moment of victory, tighten the straps of your helmet. ~ Tokugawa Ieyasu

meant for framing, to be displayed as a series

a wonderful gift for the Japanophile or fan of Asian art

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

find it here: drawthingspaintthingswritethingsmakethings.bigcartel.com/product/five-ukiyo-e-ink-brush-drawings-on-paper

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

stop holding onto yourself

an original mixed media painting on cradled wood panel

24 x 30 x 1.75 inches

ready to hang, with a wire attachment in back

figurative, in black and white, with spot colour

the astronaut, high above east germany

alice blue, beige, bisque, blanched almond, bone, citron, coquelicot, dark turquoise, eggshell, ghost white, isabelline, ivory, light orange, mint cream, orchid pink, peach puff, saffron, sinopia, thulian pink, vermillion

for the centre of a smaller or medium-sized room, or corner of a larger

classic astronaut, straight from the space age missions

three quotations come to mind … 

Space is to place as eternity is to time.   — Joseph Joubert I wanted to be a secret agent and an astronaut, preferably at the same time.   — David Byrne Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.   — Hermann Hesse

no preliminary pencil lines … straight brush to surface, with tiny details in collage

varnished: a durable artwork that can be freely handled

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

painting, art, expressionist, wood, wall art, decorative, texture, mixed media, art gift, art lover, collector, astronaut, space

wood, paper, acrylic, wire, gel, drawing, collage, varnish, marker, crayon, black, white, grey, stars, rockets, adventure

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Number 306. A road trip described. You can find it here.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Some retro 8-bit gaming designs in my Society6 store. All pixelated, all the time.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

the world is out there

mixed media collage on cradled birch wood panel

14 x 14 x 1.75 inches

drawing, painting, writing, pencil, crayon, ink, acrylic, wax, collage, type, found pieces, found paper, wax emulsion, wash, gel, varnish

the title is from a quotation ...

The world is out there, but descriptions of the world are not. — Richard Rorty

Rorty rejected the long-held idea that correct internal representations of objects in the outside world are a necessary prerequisite for knowledge.

a painting about identity and meaning

this artwork is sealed and finished with varnish

a piece alive with texture, colour and movement

durable — can be freely handled

three more quotes come to mind …

We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about. — Joseph Campbell Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite. — Charles Spurgeon I am rare, and there is value in all rarity; therefore, I am valuable. — Og Mandino

ready to hang (there is a wire hanger applied in back)

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more work at

and Society6

have a great day in the world!

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

New Tinyletter is out, reading it makes you bulletproof. Here.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

we don’t listen (song of the sirens) — a mixed media set of book art objects. do people listen to you? do you get listened to? is it a generalized, omni-problem, where your voice is never heard (dismissed, talked over, shouted down) or is it a particular set of people (family, friends, managers, politicians, etc) who never seem to hear you? just don’t listen, will do whatever they want anyway? Martin Luther King, Jr. said. “A riot is the language of the unheard.” i there's hope some riotous energy is in these two collages.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

loup y es-tu?

a double-sided painting and concertina card art set

the painting is 6 x 8 inches, varnished with liquid glass on both sides

the concertina card is eight panels per side, seven folds, sixteen panels in total, 60 inches long when completely unfolded

folds down to fit into a matching envelope

each panel is 7.5 x 4 inches

all images are original, painted by hand

an art set about wolves

the painting is meant for a frame but can sit just as well on a bookshelf, mantle or desk

the concertina card is an art object that can stand in multiple configurations — an adjustable, folding, paper sculpture for any surface

an affordable art set gift made specifically for ease of mailing or gift giving (or ease of transport — it's art that comes with you)

some quotations about wolves … 

There's always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street. — D. H. Lawrence Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.   — Isaiah Berlin All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel. ...Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist.  — Margaret Atwood

a pair of perfect accents for any space

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more work at 

and

https://society6.com/darryljoelberger

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

asteroids

two original artworks on canvas board

each 8 x 10 inches

monoprints worked into abstract paintings

packaged in a clear cellophane sleeve

two artworks in conversation about sudden endings

meant for framing but perfect as accents on a mantle or a shelf

shipped with care

Every time I lock my people in a spacecraft or land them on an asteroid, the blood wells up again, and I'm writing horror. Horror's my default setting. It's also where I prefer to write.  — Stephen Graham Jones

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more work at 

www.etsy.com/ca/shop/cigartinstories

and

https://society6.com/darryljoelberger

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

o moro, don’t go — plus two cigar-tin stories about endings

an original painting in mixed media on pouring panel board

9 x 12 x .75 inches

plus two cigar-tin stories about endings 

— a cigar-tin story is a mixed media artwork –– an empty dessert cigar tin that has been repurposed as an art object, with an original painting on the cover and an accordion booklet with a story inside  

— all paintings are original and all stories are my own

— these two cigar-tin stories contain endings

three artworks in the same colour scheme of atomic tangerine, cadmium orange, champagne grey, cyclamen pink and dark sienna

meant to work together as accents for a bedroom, mantle or office area

expressionist works alive with colour and texture

some quotations that explain this set …

Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming. — David Bowie God is cruel. Sometimes he makes you live. — Stephen King I don't believe in happy endings. — Jeanette Winterson

varnished: durable artworks that can be freely handled

ready to display or hang

a wonderful set to have me send to a friend of yours as a gift

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more work at 

and

https://society6.com/darryljoelberger