Life Is Fragile

"Life Is Fragile"

This is a series of drawings or art that I have developed to depict the fragility of life.  It all started with my oil painting "The Yellow Flower"

I painted this flower in the 1990s, just after the car accident that disabled me.  I have flashbacks of this flower through all of my near-death experiences.  The loss of my parents, some relationship losses, and some public events are all reminders of how fragile life really is. Series "Life is Fragile" nos. 2-5 are small variations of The Yellow Flower, carved in wax, rubber, drawn in graphite, etc.

"Life Is Fragile No. 6, Baboon"

(below photo of an Idaho Fish and Game Warden hunting and killing a family of baboons, published in 2019, was the inspiration. The baboons in my mind are screaming. The man was forced to resign. Shooting young baboons is like shooting toddlers.)

Below are two depictions that equal "Life Is Fragile No. 7, Fragile Life" ("Fragile Life No. 1" and "Fragile Life No. 2")

"Fragile Life No. 1", oil bars on cotton cross stitch fabric

"Fragile Life No. 2", Yarka Sauce on Strathmore paper

Below: "Life Is Fragile No. 8, Rain", chalk on blackboard, placed in the rain - video here

"Life is Fragile No. 9, baby",washable ink on a cloth diaper

"Life is Fragile No. 10, Snap Trap, Mouse" Chalk on board

"Life is Fragile No. 11, School" pencil on brown bag paper, on my 27 year old denim-covered notebook

"Life is Fragile No. 12, Troll", chalk on board

"Life is Fragile, No. 13, Eastern White Pine" oil on canvas

(c) laeom

"Life is Fragile-Drawing on Blackboards" Video on chalk and supplies

Iron Gall Ink (Apple Gall Ink)

I have in the past, made my own iron gall ink, wanting a permanent, hand-made ink.  Recently, when starting a project called "READ THEIR NAMES BRING THEM HOME" regarding the 7800+ MIA Korean War, I again have been looking into making my own ink.

I did a brief overview in this video: Iron Gall Ink Overview (Apple Gall Ink)

My MIA Korean War blog has me currently using Parker pens and Noodler's inks, both for quality, to avoid pens made in China, and for permanence.  However, as I said, I knew I could make my own inks, and have dug out my supplies for making iron gall ink.  In addition, I have cut some new pens from turkey feathers, a video you can find here:

Making Your Own Pen From a Feather

The steps I am taking are below to make my own ink:

1. I break the apple galls up with either a nut cracker or hammer, whichever is easier. You can then grind the pieces with a mortar and pestle. 

2. I place the broken/ground  pieces in a washed-out peanut butter jar and cover the galls with water.  I did not weigh the galls before I started the batch I am currently making, but 1-1/2" of broken apple galls, covered to the top of their mass with water, in a 16 ounce peanut butter jar, weighs 8.5 ounces.

3. This needs to soak for a week, at which time I will remove (strain) the gall pieces out, and the resulting liquid will be made into ink.

4. In the past I had added 1 tsp. ferrous sulphate to the liquid in that batch, which had started with 1 ounce of oak apple galls, weighed before being ground.

This is what an apple gall looks like when cracked open:

In the photo below, you see the pieces of oak apple gall ready to be ground in a mortar and pestle:

The galls and water are only on their second day of soaking, yet the tannins leaching out of the galls are already visible in the water:

I will post more photos as I complete this batch. You can find more information at Iron Gall Ink dot Org , including recipes!

After a week, the oak apple galls in water looked like this:

I strained the above mixture, heated it in a double boiler to a very low temperature, and added 1 tsp. of iron sulphate. The resulting ink is below:

and below are the different color hues achieved with varying amounts of iron sulphate added:

This is a beautiful ink, and depending of the type of dip pen in use, can be either very dark or paler.

Making Your Own Sumi Ink Calligraphy Brushes

Normally, bamboo handled brushes with squirrel or goat hair or a similar hair are used for Japanese Sumi ink calligraphy.  You can make your own brushes from items you may already have at home.

Video: Make Your Own Paintbrushes for Sumi Ink

Boku Undo Co., Ltd and 

◎ The Producing of "Sumi" Ink Sticks

Crayola and Painting American

Recently I learned there are 7800+ MIA Korean War. If not for my father being sent to Germany during his Service in the Korean War, his name could be on the lists.  This caused me a shock with my sewing machines- Singer now manufactures in China and Brazil, so their bottom line of profit depends on China. China is the ally of both Russia and North Korea, and we are still at war with North Korea.

Although 90% of our products come from China, I have started to eliminate them from my life and am keeping wither those tools I make myself, or that are American. It's a huge shock and a huge task.

My criteria in the past as a Fine Artist has been to use the best materials.  I was recently venturing into using American or hand-made fabrics for landscape design, but kept running into my Singer sewing machines. I have some oil paintings to finish, and am going to finish some of them with oil pastel over oil- and of course "the best" oil pastels are not American, but French. The Statue of Liberty being given to us by France is not a strong enough reason for me to use Senneliers over - wait for it - Crayola Oil Pastels.  I love Crayola crayons, and making my own crayons came out of knowing the high quality of Crayola crayons.  I have worked extensively in oil pastel and crayon, but do not in any way expect to Crayola oil pastels to be on the level of Senneliers, Holbein, or any of the major brands.

However, Crayola is still based in the U.S. and manufactures in the U.S., in Pennsylvania. So, instead of spinning my own wool and cotton for quilts for Veterans, instead of painting flags, I am going to work in Crayola oil pastels or crayons.  I believe it is going to simplify my art on many levels - quality - color range-longevity-but at the same time, will not be supporting either China or North Korea. I will use cardboard for a support if I have to. American hardboard.

I will be posting photos of work in Crayola products as I do them.  As a side note, Dixon Ticonderoga is now owned by foreigners. A heartbreak, just like Levi's and Singer.

Whales In Oil

Whales in Oil

As I have been leaving some areas of my 42-year artistic career behind, I have been gaining and growing with it in other ways. After many, many years of working in meticulous pen and ink, I have developed a simpler love of art and nature. My metalpoint drawings reflect this, as do the oil paintings you see below. I have a love of whales. I think that if the whales fail, then we have failed. As such, I am painting simple depictions of several whales species. I am keeping them simple because my intent is to remind us of the gifts that they are, just as they are.

No. 900 "Sperm Whale No.1"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 901 "Humpback Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 902 "Beluga Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 903 "Orca Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 904 "Northern Right Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 905 "Blue Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 906 "Pilot Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 907 "Minke Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 908 "California Grey Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 909 "Baird's Beaked Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 910 "Bowhead Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 923 "Pygmy Sperm Whale"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom

No. 929 "Moby Dick"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2010 laeom




Also in this Series:

No. 940 "Moby Dick No. 2"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2012 laeom (gifted to Jonathan Farland)

No. 953 "Sperm Whale No. 4"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2013 laeom

No. 954 "Harp Seal"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2013 laeom

No. 955 "Sperm Whale No. 5"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2013 laeom

No. 956 "Moby Dick No. 3"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2013 laeom

No. 957 "Narwhal"

Oil on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2013 laeom

Currently I am working on a Fin Whale in oil

I had also done a Fin Whale in oil pastel (on 6 x 18 stretched canvas)

No. 994 "Fin Whale in Oil Pastel"

Oil pastel on canvas.

6 inches by 18 inches.

© 2014 laeom

The oils are painted with Winsor and Newton Artist's Oils, the oil pastel is Sennelier for the most part, with some other brands used as well.  Canvas is by Blick Art Materials.

I have been working in fabric and sewing in order to get some of my art knowledge active again after a very bad seizure in December. Below is the link to a playlist of videos on landscape design and fabric:

Landscape Design

Although I wish to be more earth-friendly, if I don't finish the paintings I had started in oil, I fear I may lose abilities.

So, don't think I'm contradictory if I am both advocating fabrics for art, and yet painting in oil. I use Turpenoid Natural, and as many natural pigments as possible.

"Yarn Landscape Design No. 1"

As I am working out the colors and scale of landscape design in yarn and fabric, I find (maybe because of my seizures), I am not at black ink plans, I am at oil pastel and bright simple colors, easy to identify.

So, knowing the toxicity of oil pastels (oil, wax, pigment) and how they remain smearable even when a fixative is used, I have to not balance natural fibers against them, but acrylic yarn against them, due to the colors.

This changes both the cost (buying yarn vs. spinning fiber), and the method because natural yarns work up differently than acrylic. And how green is my planet if I am still using acrylic yarn? Cotton fiber and time-consuming dyeing is an alternative.

It also puts the time focus on making the yarn and not on the designing which is not what I want to do - I have already done that. Hmmmmm. I am wondering if I may as well just work in oil pastel on bio-friendly products.

Update:- oil pastel and solvents is not better than yarn. I solved the color issue with cotton floss. And the scale will be 1 to 10 (feet). I have a page complete with that scale and a paper-size of 8 x 10. I can go larger from here.

"Yarn Landscape Design No. 1" (c) laeom

The floss thread allows me to make either color designs or traditional black and white with color accents.

Eastern White Pine Design element (c) laeom - the colors have specific meanings as to planting a young pine.

Earth-friendly Landscape Design

Through my seizures I have taken a direction of renewable-re-usable art. I have been a knitter since age 5. I am creating knitted panels for canvas, knitted elements to represent trees and plants of landscape design.

I love pen and ink and all aspects of painting and drawing. However, to make graphite, you need to strip mine, to make charcoal you need to burn trees. Where does our art come from? Our thinking, and not age-old ways of making art supplies.

People drew with charcoal because it was left over from their fires. By using yarns, some commercial, some acrylic, and also handspun, I can use art supplies over and over again. Life Is Fragile, the earth is fragile.

I am using knitting boards to knit the canvases. I am using flower looms to make design elements of trees and flowers, just like my pen and ink landscape design, except I won't be wasting paper and I won't be using the chemicals that inks use. It's as earth-friendly as I can get.

I currently spin my own yarns-using what most Americans see as "disposable wool fiber (opting for commercial yarns), I can give the sheep, alpacas, and goats a place to have their products used.

I currently have several commercial yarns to use up, but after that, all my landscape designs will be in handspun fiber. I am using a hand-made wooden charkha to spin the wool. I will have to photograph each design before re-using the elements,and will use digital instead of film

These are the looms I am using to make double-knitted "canvas"

Flower looms are most often used with yarn, and other than hand-spun (black and cinnamon alpaca included) embroidery floss makes a durable design element. Below photo is with yarn and a frame of crochet and are currently for another project. Pen and ink is more like floss flowers.

I encourage other Fine Artists, used to working in ink, acrylic, or oil, to consider working in yarn and natural fibers. Not to be a "fiber artist" per se, but to take your talent and make it as reusable and earth-friendly as possible.

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The Thoughts Behind A Simple Whale- Orca

I have been making quilts- that are really large canvases in some cases. Here's a very busy piece called "Code Talker" - It has an oil painting to go with it, which is not yet finished.

I have some videos up called The Circle of Integrity of Art- in which I take my work through three or four stages until I know I have an image or subject as I want it. Each of my art quilts is part of one of these sets, and leads to two oil paintings, and sometimes smaller drawings.

I'll put a photo of this complete set here when I get it more organized. I plan on giving the quilts and some other aspects of each set away, and I keep the paintings. Each set has a whale painting as the main (resulting) image.

I've done many of the whale paintings already- so the quilt sets are actually backing up the image, as if I have taken apart my thinking as to how I got to such a simple whale painting (with so many thoughts as I paint).

#903 Orca (Killer) Whale in oil on canvas, 6 x 18

Orca seems to go with this busy quilt - the other painting is of a crow, the quilt images are fish, eagle, jeep - and as I said "Code Talker", I can assume that all of my thoughts when painting the Orca were about Code Talking. The crow painting is called "Crow has the Secrets"

Even though I am "backing into" my own thought process, an Orca would see a jeep on land perhaps, would see crows, maybe an eagle - it's all as if I have been seeing my painting through the eyes of the whale. And the crow has the secrets.

Before my epilepsy got as bad as it is now- I never wondered how or why I painted what I painted, I just did it. But having the whale paintings up, and seeing all these thoughts in the painting, has prompted me to define them.

The piece I am working on now is a Fin whale, will have a Civil War quilt, a Cape Cod coloring book, and grey wool socks as "thought" elements. 42 pair of grey wool socks. This is where the abstract thinking comes in- why would a Fin whale know about 42 pairs (6 wks worth) socks?

The Coast Guard-and a boat on a six week trip offshore. A pair of clean socks for each day-so, this leads me to hope maybe a Fin whale followed a Coast Guard boat around for awhile.-My epilepsy leaves me unable to speak English at times,which is probably why I'm defining thoughts on the level of literally "making" them- quilts, two paintings, Christmas items or gifts, aspects of life all behind a whale painting - as if you could peek behind the painting and see how it got there. Simple images do not mean poor painting imagination.

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