Beautiful Things

Midnite - Jah umbrella

watercolor and ballpoint pen b&w

"Look into your eyes, see you are infinity" Vaughn Benjamin, Midnite/Akae Beka

Supplication

watercolor and ballpoint pen

Calbayog City 2024

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Pedro UK - Searching for light

I've been doing music video artwork for my friend Pedro UK. Some of them have turned out nicely. Pedro UK's music is great as well. The drawings are all done with pen and colored pencil. I used 'Paint' to assemble the covers. Tumblr only lets me upload one video per post so I uploaded Pedro's song "Then 2" (below). The other videos are uploaded on YouTube.

While we're on the subject, if anyone knows anyone who needs cover artwork done for video's or CD's I'm open for business.

Cheers.

Pedro UK - Then 2 first mix

Pedro UK - Mother

Pedro UK - Lockdown Sessions

Pedro UK - Lockdown Sessions

Just between you and me

colored pencil watercolor and pen

Monrovia, CA, 1995

In 1995 I was living in Monrovia, CA, and, on the advice of a judge, I stopped drinking alcohol.

Not being drunk all the time came as a shock to me. I suddenly had all this time to kill. I decided to work on large, time cosuming projects. The drawing above was my first. It took a couple of weeks to complete. And then I did another.

I drew. I drew in the middle of a life completely shattered. I drew, and I dreamed of a future. A future far away where I could be new.

Years later, in 2011, when I first landed in the Philippines, the first thing I noticed was the smell. Manila smells like an overwhelming mixture of cooked pork, motorcycle exhaust and BO.

As I walked down the tarmac I was still in Monrovia and I was still dreaming.

Calbayog City, Philippines, 2025

Akae Beka - Rebellion Running

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Bonfires of joy

ballpoint pen

Corvallis OR 1971

The university was about an hour drive from the Oregon coast. On weekends ends we would pile into our friend's van and drive through the mountain forest to the beach. When sunset came we would light huge bonfires of driftwood logs and eat bread and drink red wine and dance with joy.

Hippy days, long gone, but still here.

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Finals week

Bic ballpoint pen

Corvallis OR 1971

Some very old drawings. My freshman year in college. I didn't learn much calculus tbh.

Study?

Bic ballpoint pen

Corvallis OR 1971

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One / One

Black sharpie on paper

Monrovia 1996

I drew this in 1996. I spent a few days on it and when it was done I didn't like it so I immediately put it in a drawer and forgot about.

Twenty-two years later, in 2018, I was going though old piles and I found it. I had completely forgotten about it. It was an amazing find. I had not seen or even thought about this drawing since the moment I had finshed it.

And, I'll be honest with you, I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with it as I would somone wonderful, someone who I had thoughtlessly lost, but who had then, by some miracle, come back into my life.

And forgiven me.

1/1 - Brian Eno

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colored pencil & pen, Los Angeles 2016

I'm a big admirer of Paul Klee.

I don't think Klee ever used this motif but as I drew this I was thinking about him.

Embrionic Journey - Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane)

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High tide

watercolor and pen on crepe paper

Santa Barbara 1980

I have had a life long love affair with the Pacific Ocean. I did this painting years ago when I was living in Santa Barbara on the California coast. We'd go on long road trips up the coast highway. Have you ever spent the night on the beach at Big Sur? Put it on your bucket list.

I now live on the other side of the ocean on a small island in the Philippines. We go on road trips up through the coconut jungle mountains to this little beach town we know. The northern coast of the island faces the Pacific Ocean. The deep blues of the tropical sea are literally intoxicating.

black sharpie, Monrovia 1998

Another swirl drawing. I put those gaps in the lines just because I thought it would look cool but then the drawing took on a completely unexpected life. I was surprised.

Drawing those big swirls was a challenge. I remember feeling neurotic about them not being perfect. A couple of them still bug me. I'm a nut. :))

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Non-thinking

Alan Watts - Non-thinking

black pen, monrovia, 1996

Alan Watts

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The fallen fruit

black sharpie

Los Angeles 2017

The things that we are not allowed to talk about are pretty much always true. Prove me wrong. Likewise, fruit is sweetest just when it is about to fall.

If Eve had waited for the apple to fall would she still have sinned?