This is Gavin. He lives with my friend, Cindy. He’s been losing weight lately, and no one can figure out why. His blood work comes back normal, and everything else that can be checked also looks fine. He’s a great horse. If anyone knows why a horse might inexplicably lose weight, please let me know.
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Tags:Animals·Ink·Sketchbook·Watercolor
I’ve mentioned Roz Stendahl before. She’s the creator of International Fake Journal Month and the woman behind Roz Wound Up, one of the most inspiring art blogs I’ve ever come across. Well, now she’s up to something new. She’s devised a plan to infiltrate everyone else’s sketchbooks and journals. She’s even started a contest to encourage people to draw her. Check out the details here: http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/project-journal-infiltration-2010.html.
To participate in the actual contest, you have to draw her from life, which means being in Minneapolis, where I’m obviously not. As a gesture of solidarity, though, I’ve drawn her from a photo. This is Roz participating in a dog drawing event sponsored by Wet Paint Art .
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Tags:Dogs·Ink·Portrait·Sketchbook·Watercolor
Another portrait for Julia Kay’s Portrait Party. This is Martin Beek. You can see some of Martin’s wonderful work on Flickr, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/
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Tags:Faces·JKPP·Portrait·Sketchbook·Watercolor
Happy Mother’s Day to my beautiful mother! I am grateful every single day that you are my Mom.
Every Day in May #9
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Tags:Botanical·Ink·Sketchbook·Watercolor
Every Day in May #5
A little sombrero for Cinqo de Mayo . . .
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Tags:Ink·Sketchbook·Watercolor
International Fake Journal Month
Text from today’s entry:
30 April 2010
Somewhere in India
Well, this is the end. On to a new sketchbook and a new chapter in my life and travels.
L.S. has canceled his trip for now–life is busy when you’re a superstar, and he’s decided to keep working where he is for now. He let me know this in a note that arrived with a gift, a small box containing the lovely statue of Ganesh I admired at his home in Bangalore. I’m still smiling.
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Tags:Ganesh·IFJM·India·Ink·Watercolor
International Fake Journal Month
Text from today’s entry:
29 April 2010
I guess I’ve know all along–as least since the moment I realized the Beast was in that car. It didn’t really sink in until I heard it from his own lips though. Terry dug up the details.
Dragan Nikolić, the Beast of Novi Sad, hid from our U.N., war-criminal-hunting team by literally becoming one of us. It was quite a feat. He remade himself into the man I knew as Obrad. The real Obrad was killed early in the conflict, and the Beast seized the chance to cannibalize his life. He knew the day would come when he would need to disappear, and he planned from the moment Obrad took his last breath to use him, to become him, to reinvent himself in the most unlikely way by taking on the life of this young soldier when the time came. It’s a testament to his cunning that he actually rose so far and managed, ultimately, to place himself at the very heart of the investigation into the man we called the Beast.
I wonder now, was he laughing to himself the whole time? Were there any close calls? moments when he thought we might catch on? Certainly there were in the end. The car bomb scheme designed to kill Hal and me and fake “Obrad’s” death came about because he thought Hal and I were onto him. I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse that we weren’t. Obviously, I wish we’d figured the whole thing out ourselves. Hal might still be alive. But it’s complicated. In some ways, the man I knew as Obrad really was my friend.
That doesn’t stop me from being glad he’s gone, though. Gone for good this time, stopped by his own hand. The sorry end to the whole thing is that I found him. He’d broken his collar bone in the accident, quite badly as it turned out. And the hack he found to fix him up was more interested in Terry’s favors than Dragan Nikolić’s money. When we came through the door, Nikolić grabbed a scalpel–ready, finally, to end it. He didn’t want to die without revealing himself, though. It’s ironic that he kept thinking I knew, kept thinking he had to get rid of me to protect his cover, even after I’d left that part of my life behind. If he’d just had faith in his plan, he’d still be out there somewhere. And I’d still believe I once had a friend called Obrad.
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Tags:Faces·IFJM·India·Ink·Watercolor
