Tree of Life

Happy Friday! Went to a street sale and bought a used copy of the movie, The Fountain. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it but it might take a few views to really get what the director is going for. The whole movie is based on the desire to find eternal life. One man in present day, finds it through his medical research. One woman in his past life finds it through creating in death. After she dies, her body deteriorates and it nourishes the tree. She becomes the tree. The birds eat fruit from the tree so she becomes the birds, and so on…

That movie led me to thinking about Fibonacci’s number sequence which is a pattern found in all things including nature and human beings. In made me feel like we are all one, people and the natural world.

So anyway, I began to draw stripes on the arm of the man which is holding a striped branch that he took from the tree behind him. I wanted a repetition in the complex striped design in the tree to be reflected in the human arm and the branch (the tree’s metaphorical arm).

Maybe I’m putting too much thought into this napkin piece. It was lunch time when I drew this, once again. The napkin came from the best deli in East New York that makes something called a Jacked Up sandwich…hot, melted pepperjack cheese on honey turkey and the works.

Napkin drawing has been a great way for me to distress at work so I’ve been doing quite a bit there. I’ll do my best to visit some other parts of Brooklyn for my next one.
Doodle & De-stress, everyone!

Keats’ Isabella

 

Victorian Frock

Drawn at work again during my lunch break on a left over napkin from the end of school year party. One more week to go until my Summer Break! This doodle reminds me of a John Keats poem that I read when I was a British Literature major called, Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil.

Isabella is from an aristocratic family but they are broke. The family fortune relies on her marriage to a prosperous gentleman. However, she falls for one of the workers, Lorenzo. The brothers aren’t having it though so they kill Lorenzo off by decapitating him. Lorenzo’s ghost gives her the head’s up (no pun intended) on his body’s whereabouts. She searches in the night to find him (the part that reminds me of my doodle) and decides to put his beautiful head in a giant pot of basil to preserve his beauty. She carries the pot of basil with her everywhere since his death left her in a delirious state. She never marries and the brothers become destitute (I suspect). The poem is based on Boccaccio’s story but I fell in love with the Keats version of the story. Click HERE to see the full poem.

Night Owl

I’m a night owl.

-Joni Mitchell

Night Owl

 

Plugged In

“What is a soul? It’s like electricity- We don’t really know what it is but it is a force that can light up a room.” -Ray Charles

Today’s napkin doodle.

Puck

Thou speak’st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night.

-Shakespeare (Puck), Midsummer’s Night Dream, Act I, Scene 1

From the sketchbook, a pencil sketch. I had to come up with ideas for statue within my community for my 3D Design class. Since a new theater opened in Brooklyn for Shakespearean plays through the acting troupe, Theater for a New Audience at The Polonsky Theater, I thought I would create a statue for Puck. So, er, here’s how it turned out…

I think he looks cute. He’s currently hanging out on my dresser but I think a larger version of him would be cool in bronze over by Fort Greene Park which is near the theater. I thought it would be cool if the theater would do Shakespeare in the Park like it’s done in Central Park every summer. Puck would mark the area they would perform, maybe, vignette of the their plays to advertise themselves. My professor liked the idea of it, anyway. Wish I had guidance on next steps though.

So, yeah, this doodle inspired something 3 Dimensional.

Also, if you are interested in Shakespearean Theater in Brooklyn, click HERE. I was a British Literature major in my undergrad years a while back so that sort of thing intrigues me.

Drummers Grove and Tribal Mask Doodle

Music speaks louder than words.

-African proverb

Hidden within this maze of swirls is an abstract mask. Maybe you can find it. It reminds me of the African Tribal Masks. I drew it during my lunch break while in East New York, but was inspired by something I saw yesterday while bike riding through Prospect Park last night.

Every Sunday at Prospect Park, there is an area called Drummers Grove where a large group of individuals, called the Congo Square Drummers, get together an play on all manner of drums and bongos. The music is hypnotic and people dance in the center of the circle. Click HERE for more on that area in Prospect Park.

 

Drummers Circle at Prospect Park

I was bike riding passed it and stopped to take it in. I was told that it was okay to take pictures on the outside of the circle but the middle of the circle was for individuals blessing a particular spot where they danced for their deceased loved ones. Reminded me of the Mexican Day of the Dead a little. Anyway, today’s napkin doodle is my version of an abstract tribal mask. I remember seeing an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on this kind of design and they displayed different types of dances. However, if you want to read more on the types of dances that are performed, click HERE! 

Congo Square Drummers in Drum Circle at Drummers Grove in Prospect Park

 

High schoolers’ epic stop-motion fight jumps between the third and second dimensions 【Video】

This takes Art War to a whole new level.

Flower for the Samurai Seven

Your work is to discover your work and with all your heart to give yourself to it.” -Buddha

Drawn at the Japanese Fusion restaurant, Kinjo, after watching the movie, The Seven Samurai at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

 

 

Art as a Language

Sat down with my usual Earl Grey Tea at Megabites and drew this odd little creature. A local artist who displays his art pieces within the diner noticed that I was drawing on my napkins again and said something really interesting,

Artwork is it’s own language with it’s own psychic landscape.

He’s absolutely right! Wouldn’t it be great if we could have one whole conversation using illustration rather than words?! What if Congress used this method?! We would not need lawyers or politicians to interpret the archaic legalese way in which many of our laws were written. The Tower of Babel would be made whole again. Yeah, I don’t think it would really work but one can dream. Still, I like the idea behind using art to bring meaning to something which words fail to illuminate.

Well, those are my random thoughts and doodle for the day. Cheers to the waitress who got to the doodle first after I left!

 

Russian Tea

I’d like to believe this is a cute Russian soldier. When I was a wee lass, my grandmother would buy little Disney figurines for each new child that was born. She went through all of the seven dwarves with my older siblings. I’m the ninth child so she ran out of Disney figurine ideas and I ended up with this tiny Russian soldier with a heart on it’s sleeve. I’m not Russian but maybe I was in a past life or something. Anyway, I wish I knew what happened to it. So, this doodle sort of reminds me of what it looked like.

Speaking of all things Russian, I ventured out of Brooklyn yesterday to a place far, far away in the land of Manhattan. I went to the Russian Tea Room. See below…

My proof I was there. 🙂

No, that’s not tea (it came later, complete with sour cherries to sweeten the tea). And no, I did not create a doodle on their napkin so I really shouldn’t post this. They had cloth napkins. Fancy schmancy stuff!  It’s not like it didn’t cross my mind though. However, since this IS a blog about doodling in Brooklyn. I managed to find one of their printed napkins and brought it back to Brooklyn for a future doodling date in the near future. Yes, you heard me. I actually looked for their napkins to bring home so I might have the PRIVILEGE of doodling on them. My commitment to napkin doodling knows no bounds. Russian Tea Room napkin coming soon!

I’m going to end this blog posting with a Happy Father’s Day! Here’s a tribute to all the cool dads out there. Click HERE to see how one dad that actually doodles all over his son’s lunch bags.  Keep doodling and share them with the world!

XOXO

Mary