preview of calendar

This is a preview of the upcoming calendar. It is also the drawing that I submitted with my essay about becoming a 4th degree black belt. My poor honey has been sooooooo tolerant with me playing "master tae kwon do" for the last nine years!!
By the way...the test went well!

architectural novel

I ran into one of my sketchbooks, and in it I found a bunch of drawings I did back a number of years, which made me almost want to do a comic strip. I had the background figured out. It happened when we had one of our really good electrical storms, and all the computers in the area had to be unplugged, or risk getting fried. Phone lines went dead. It was interesting. So, I came up with this...

That concept spawned the following development for a story line. Yep, the character sounds a little familiar, but stuck in a no-win situation. At least I am not stuck designing door knobs!! So, this is my image of what it would be like working in a large architectural firm. Not my cup of tea.

So, I put the two ideas together, and came up with this little ditty below. It has some fun potential for a continuing story...perhaps a graphic novel?? The concept I like here is showing how removed from Mother Nature our society has become, and how one instant of anger from Mother Nature, and we are TOAST!! Whether it is a bolt of lightning, a hurricane Katrina, or a psunamie. Perhaps there is something to be said about living in harmony with mother nature...

greatest hits #2

I just love this drawing because of the fun time we had paddling the lower Columbia River. We stayed at Skamokawa, on the Washington side of the river, and paddled up stream from there, and down stream, to the beach where Lewis and Clark holed up for a whole winter, near the mouth. Our trip was guided, and the guide liked bird-watching. But at the same time, we could see the landscape, and paddled through some old indian villages. That's what those funny looking palm trees you see in the drawing are, old pilings from buildings that had been built over the water, and the tops were rotted off, and ferns had been growing them. They were all over the place!! The birding was great, and obviously, we saw some bald eagles that were spectacular!

topo duo

Hold the presses!! I found a bunch of old sketch books from years gone by this last weekend, while cleaning out the guest bedroom. This drawing is one of my favorites.


Two kayakers, in a Topo-Duo, in a very UN-harmonious situation. Yes, dear reader, I draw from experience. Chris and I have paddled the Topo-Duo down just about every major river in the West, including Middle Fork Salmon, Main Fork Salmon, Colorado through the Grand Canyon, the Rogue, Deschutes, Umpqua, McKenzie, and I don't remember where else... There have been times when I order us to paddle somewhere, and Chris has told me in no uncertain terms...."NO!" At one point, we were going to paddle back into a rapid to help out a raft that was lodged on a rock. As I paddled forward, Chris was paddling backward!! She wasn't going to have anything to do with that nonsense! That was the episode that spawned this drawing.

I think I have learned over the years, that this is a team effort, and both parties need to be in agreement before anything gets done. At least I hope I have learned...maybe not...our latest adventure in the Topo was on the Rogue, and we ended up going over lower Grave Creek falls upside-down, dragging both our heads over the rocks; all because I thought I could make a spiffy move above the drop. I forgot to include Chris in this decision.
Old dog, new tricks??? hmmmmmmm