2006-09-19 Illustration Friday -- Change Please

2006-09-19 Illustration Friday -- Change Please
Originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This week's Illustration Friday topic is 'Change'. I've interpreted that as 'small change', and, 'things must change'.

So I've depicted a homeless person who HAS changed, though not necessarily in the best way possible. Interestingly, he has a level of happiness that leaves him content. Here he is on the street, drinking, asking for money, living his life.

There are people in the office blocks nearby who AREN'T happy. Not in the slightest. And he's a reminder to them of that. Which is probably why so few of them give him money. They don't want to engage with what he represents.

I'm into change. I want change. I would like to free myself from my own rigidity. Lose some of the rules that bind me and keep me from engaging in meaningful loving relationships. Get out from under the grip of being brought up in an abusive, alcolholic family.

May we all find the right kinds of change.

This pic is based on a photo I found on stock.xchng by haloocyn called 'Street Chillout'.

I painted this one on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc using ArtRage 2.11 in a coffee-shop called Europa in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

The Holocaust, Redheads, and Dysfunctional Families (sitting at Europa, Rosebank, Johannesburg)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Service: * * * * 1/2
Food: * * * 1/2
Ambience: * * * *
Babe Count: * * * *

I've bagged myself a sidewalk table with a power-point for my tablet pc. So I've been sitting in Rosebank watching models limping between the toilets and the modeling agency.

There've been some delicious co-sitters too. At the next table is a red-headed couple. A mom and a daughter. The mom was probably once delectable. But not really anymore. The daughter. Hmmmmmm. Yeeks. She's dressed like a Capetonian gal. Flowing white dress. Tasteful bra just barely peeking out. Full cleavage.

I've just been reading Dori's blog. In it, she has a post asking people about the 'Books and Films that 'wounded' me'. Here's my reply...

The book that blew the back of my head off, and wasted boxes and boxes of tissues was THE LAST OF THE JUST, by Andre Schwarz-Bart.

It's a holocaust novel about a Jewish myth that the world is kept going by a  number of 'just men' hand-picked by god to take on the suffering of all humanity.

The book is the story of the last of those just men, and it's harrowing and brilliant, and a must-read.

The other book that opened the waterworks: HOMECOMING by John Bradshaw.

This is a non-fiction book, and it helps the reader overcome childhood trauma and abuse. I worked through it on a holiday in Cape Town many years ago, and didsn't stop crying for an entire three days. I tore muscles I was crying so hard.

A film that nailed me was KORCZAK. It's about a Polish doctor who decided that he would not allow his Jewish patients to enter the concentration camps alone. He chose to die in the holocaust rather than sit back and watch as a gentile.

I've recently started working on the fact that I came from an abusive family. And I only very recently worked out why the holocaust is such a major source of pain for me.

My father lost most of his family to the holocaust. He was born in Latvia, and was on the last ship containing Jews to be allowed out of Europe.

I realise that the holocaust was ever-present in my house as I grew up, and that it was probably used -- inadvertantly or even intentionally (I don't have memories of it) -- as a tool of abuse.

Another film that really touches me, and which continues to touch me, is BETTY BLUE. It's one of the most authentic explorations -- for me -- about being an artist.

Blue skies
love
Roy

The delicious redhead just stops being delicious. Her waiter is standing near her table. And she wants to hand him her payment. She says, 'Hullo? Hullll-ooo-oooooooo?!?' And says to her mom, 'Uh! They're deaf here!' Then more loudly to the waiter, 'HULLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

One of the other waiters taps Steven on the shoulder. He spins around, apologises.

'Oh please,' she says, and she and her mom flounce off, breasts jiggling huffily.
 

JB Rivers, Hyde Park, Johannesburg

2006-09-04 Illustration Friday -- Safe
Originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Service: * * *
Food: * * * *
Ambience: * * *
Babe Count: * * * * *

This week's Illustration Friday topic is 'Safe'.

Since I like kittens, and since I've completely finalised my breakup with 'S' by being snotty and horrible to her (no, I'm not proud of it; I'm hurting horribly, and so's she; I guess I'm trying my hardest to make sure that we CAN'T get back together again; I dunno; damn idiot, me), and since I'm not feeling entirely safe in the world...

I thought I'd do a picture of innocence. For me, this kitten is curious and alive and loving and naughty and fun. And she's hiding behind the chair leg, believing herself to be completely invisible and impervious to detection from anything.

The source pic I used as reference is from stock.xchng. It's called Cat Story 8 by bretz.

This painting was made using ArtRage 2.11 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, sitting in JB Rivers in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, with a Jesus-freak two tables away saying loudly and drunkenly, 'ANYONE WHO DOESN'T TAKE JESUS INTO THEIR HEARTS IS EVILLLLLLL! EVILLLLLL! I'M TELLING YOU! IF YOU DON' T TAKE JESUS INTO YOUR HEART YOU'RE EVILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!' Well, she's safe. I'm not.

And I just met a gal I thought I recognised from my days working as a promo producer at SABC3. But it wasn't her.

She ended up having some water with me (we both have plastic bottles filled with water), and we chatted for ages about the art world and the movie world (she runs an art consultancy, and she's an executive producer in the movie industry... TSOTSI was one of the projects she collaborated on). And we've agreed that a date would be a good idea.

Yay!