A fun Goodbye song from Lelly and the Gang (an ESL story)

I've been having fun!
I taught a poem's emotional content- what is the speaker feeling?- with the help of my guitar, today. A poem has abstract thoughts that make one challenging, even to a reader who reads it in her first language. Imagine if it was written in a second language: how would you say how you understand its feelings, when you have just turned ten? ( It is "Guardian Angel" by Francisco X. Alarcon.)

I can't say I always feel I got the point across. But teaching any new concept is cool and fun.
You can be very entertaining, even you are teaching a foreign language (to a speaker in a language you barely understand- I am at a beginner level when, say, I speak in Chinese).
Who knows? This may help me :

Write things more clearly in English
Write material for children
...and show me things about childhood in other cultures!

As my friend Braband and my friend DAvid told me, I remind them of Mr. Rogers. With a touch of Negan on the side- in case of apocalypse.

So, I teach Say ABC twice a week. I also teach DaDA the other five days.
In SAyABC, we have this silly boat we use to go to different islands, which represent stations where you learn things in phases, like letters, vocabulary, phonics, usage.
I love the imaginary concept of me and the students and my charismatic animal helpers all boarding a boat and sailing across the waters.
At the end, on the Goodbye slide, you put the students into each window of the boat, and encourage them to etll you and one another, goodbye!

Well, my one student- I've yet to have all four slots filled for a class- was having some trouble with her computer. Meanwhile, I took her favorite color, Yellow, and made a song about what's coloured yellow, along with her name. I sit by the piano for Say ABC, to put me close to my router, for ethernet, so I like to introduce class with a song and a hello, as well as make a song halfway through that incorporates things we've learned (like orange, red, blue and green!).

So, poor Coco was disconnected. I waited. She made it back once, then, when we had only the Goodbye slide left, we got disconnected! Bummer! Just one more slide!!!

The IT person was enjoying my piano playing and encouraged me to keep making music to pass the time, so she could listen. I admit, this kept my spirits up. I stayed much longer than the class would've run- I didn't have another class, after all. So, I looked at the slide, and started picking up my helpers and putting them in the camera shot. Now, they would appear in each window of the boat, one at a time!

I used this to begin singing a jingle, as I like to do when I have the energy. It passes time and keeps me cheerful.

Sam and Jabot




Anne and Lelly

M
I sing, then Sam the Monkey sings. Lelly the Elephant sings, then Jabot Rabbit, Anne the Doll, then everyone.
I pecked out a bright major key tune!

Now, it took over an hour to get the piano part recorded right the next day, because I am out of practice and never was Mozart to say the least (more like MOrt's ARt).

Then I asked Angela DAwn, who created Lelly's voice originally as a voice she used to talk to our cat CAptain, to please sing the jingle. (Cap is trying to crawl up my arm right now- does he know I'm writing about him?)


I layered her attempt and another piano recording into my Audacity stacks of audio.

I did not sing them originally to a click track, and realize I could do them more precisely with a mixer, but...

do they not sound more like a classroom of children, in their boisterous, off-set way?


I can't wait to play it at the end of my classroom on Tuesday. :-D I may start using it for my other classes where appropriate.

I hope this is the first step I've taken in quite a while towards making some music just for kids. I think I'd do a whole online show, if I could pull the pieces of it together, with dubbed voices for the animals and everything.

Well, time to say goodbye!

Do you think TV destroys creativity?

I was asked: How does televsion destroy our creativity?

In moderation, I don’t even think it does!

Actually, I’d answer: not if you plug it into a helpful round of recursive meditation.
I think, more to the point, that moderation should come about from a rich collection of other experiences that otherwise consume the time. You can find enough quality television across the various platforms to never have to watch anything mediocre. Plus, programs can stimulate interests like yoga, cooking, history, science- dramas can bring up intriguing ideas reflective of real world situations- TV can be a terrific tool, and a sociable way to unwind. A good laugh with your best friend, or a viewing party of some beloved franchise, or a streamed show to provide a topic
uniting you with a friend living far away: television can play part of a healthy life.


There was a satirical criticism leveled at TV one time in an episode of Futurama. Does the unpredictable scare people out of a layer of complacency- a layer people seek to wrap themselves in, by the very practice of watching TV? I’d suggest, for all the bad ‘reality TV’ and dopey sitcoms to come along since 2001, television’s come a long way.

Television’s no more guilty of destroying creativity than other pursuits like Facebook, video games, and more. Any of those things can be balanced with a creative life to become a pro=creative force. Inspiration could come from anywhere. It’s a matter of the quality of the production with which you occupy yourself. An episode of Face-Off might spur you to learn about special FX make=up. A cooking show might send you to the grocery store. Sesame Street and other programs give children the basic building blocks of understanding.

I know there is an answer possible, castigating the cynical ways ostentatious wealth is promoted, materialism, celebrated over relationships, and concepts, resurrected over and over again in the name of greed. A creative take can be applied to any of these. Few creators are content with slavishly copying what went before. It's just not how creativity works. (That's how Production sometimes works.)

ON the other hand, think of how many creative positions have been generated by the TV industry in central Georgia, alone. With so many platforms, there's a lot of TV shows. They all need creative professionals.

Now, that said: television, and any of those media, present their problem in not only their easy time-wasting opportunity- missing out on sleep to do any of them could hurt your productivity, though a sleepless state of mind can provide unusual perspectives. It’s the pre-digested manner in which information comes to you in these media that can decay critical thinking. If you don’t come away with questions, experiment, research, respond in some way, then your creativity languishes. When there were basically three networks and a bit of PBS, the money was in the lowest common denominator. Why make people feel threatened with anything smart? It’s not that quality programs didn’t appear, mind you. But there was little platform for a niche audience. Still, programs used comedy and drama to challenge people’s preconceptions about race, gender, social issues. Looking for garbage on TV is the proverbial ‘shooting at fish in a barrel’ situation, but there have been charming flecks of gold, just as there’ve been plenty of critics for panning.





Dialing it back to the underlying question, entertaining yourself too much with a passive form can come in the way of interacting with raw materials, having conversations, reading books, cross-referencing articles- experimenting.
If you simply copy what you see on TV, you might find a style of clothing you like, an attitude you think gets results, or if we’re talking about a separate, dramatic creation, you may have a safe way to relay drama in a familiar way.

But ‘safe’ never challenges anyone. If you can’t find a way to some uncomfortable territory, for one, you’ll never break ground. Creativity can be gentle, child-like, while still being unconventional. There needs to be a component of creativity, however, that challenges you to consider a new perspective. Challenges you to recognize and empathize with a point of view with which you reflexively disagree. Offers you to face your own biases, and yes, fears.

When we think of content, we usually think first of 'story'- but wait! What about...music?

Have you ever been inspired by a cool tune from a TV theme, some soundtrack music- or even, a cmmercial? My first memorable regular viewing expereince was that Spider-Man cartoon from 1967-69. I used to record episodes with a cassette, so I could replay its somewhat limited animation in my mind's eye. But was the appeal not only the character of Spidey himself...but the music?

Even today, I think of that Aloe Blac M & M's commercial and think of it as a defining musical bite of that season. I heard that Corona Extra ad and had to search for "Saltwater" by Geowulf. I'm about to give "It's Strange" by Louis The Child a listen, on the stregnth of that Nissan ad connecting with my feelings. Until now, I couldn't even be sure what car they were selling. But when you feed my emotional life, you feed my creative life.




Formula can provide a platform for strange new ideas; tropes can provide relatable short-hand for the participants of time-honored conflicts. But if you’re not broaching any uncharted territory, or representing less represented voices, creativity is more like doing crafts. You have a pattern, you produce according to pattern. That’s still creativity to the average person. But it’s the individual, unique stamp of distinction that answers the purest call to creativity. You may have to risk pretentiousness, but the genuine risk is an act of authenticity. Giving a voice to ideas that are not commonly discussed, or ideas rarely articulated well, is real creativity. Providing a genuine surprise, a hidden beauty- exposing the shadowed Other- this is true creativity. Until you have known stillness inside, and let the living flow of ideas find you- you don’t create, you merely regurgitate. To create is to foment the existence of something that wasn’t there before, to reveal a hidden value.


Television destroys our creativity only when we passively let it substiute for providing, at least for ourselves, some of our own culture. Make a song for your own amusement. Write a poem or story to embody ideas you value! Make a costume that doesn’t merely copy an existing design- let it say something a little different, that comes from your effort. Open the door to some spontaneity. Forge a bit of culture, from your own convictions and insights. There are feelings you will only evoke by taking yourself out of four walls of familiartiy.


Leave the door open to let Nature speak to you. Let something come to you from a stroll among the trees. Let a conversation bring you a new topic. Let a few moments of meditation uncover an idea that you may’ve buried under hours of television watching. Watch just enough TV to make it a treat- to watch only the best stuff you can find- instead of a form of anaesthesia. Let a passing snip of it set you off, rather than endless hours of binge watching, bury your expression.

We Keep Winging It

How did we get here?

We were planning to go overseas to teach English, a real life interface very similar to what I do, today, but with regular classes, on the island of Sri Lanka. You can't replace some of the wonderful parts of an interaction, in-person. But things fell through for funding our tickets to go. Then we spent our savings trying not to be a burden to our family while visiting. We recorded a new demo, never scraping together the money to finish our product before the studio owner/ manager died. We played live gigs. We began some friendships. Our path was discovered. We were invited to be the subject of a movie about, basiclaly, not giving up on Art. (They shot a lot of footage, but...they seem to have given up on it.)

I took an invitation to join a band after putting it off for months, knowing I was already busy. We paid for a new demo. I drove 37 miles to practice, round-trip, picking up the band leader and his equipment, for a few months. We'd work out how much studio time that was worth. I even wrote a couple of songs and learned some bass. Well, that whole deal went south 'cause in the end, Brandon Barnes will do you however he wants and call what you've done, nothing. Who knows when he started Reckoning to rip me off.



I did start to learn to paint, though I should start over, basically. For a minute, I thought I might be able to sell some pieces as fund raisers. They made nice presents for the family, though, like this one Mother's Day creation featuring my mother-in-law's late child, Joy.That one brought grown men to tears. So don't take this as a complaint that this path never paid anything of value. I just wanted to share what's it like when you are on the underside of success, how much you value every single good thing that comes of it when it's so modest.

OH! WE made a large part of a video about Making Comics. We were trying to draw the adventures of Danger Bot at that time, one of my creations. I felt a little out of my depth, that time. Sometiems you are the one who pushes the idea aside. I couldn't get the hang of Manga. Maybe one day.



If we have been trying to make headway in the arts for so long, why not?
I don't know if what I'm saying here tells why. I prefer to look at the bright spots and expand from there. That's the more enlightened way. If I didn't do that, I sure as heck would've hung it all up out of bitterness long since. Whatever you get just has to be enough. First the recession crushed what we could do with limited funds and experience. Then we moved back here, where you have to cater to the style people want. MOre to the point, they already grew up with all the local musicians they will ever want, really. Once you get to an age where your peers are usually home raising kidw (or grandkids!), you can only hope to find new peers.

Oh, but you know what I often do that cheers me up? I promote other artists. Indie musicians, authors, creators of many stripes- people without massive media machines, but talent.

I did a lot of art commissions that never paid. People ask for things, then just ghost you, and any mention of ever paying you.
You pretty much have to secure the money upfront, or half- even if you have a professional reputation. If you don't, I don't know what to say. You will probably be drawing for people for free. (We did get to draw and write a small comic book - it didn't pay much. OH, we began learning coloring to do that, too. Super Pimp! Then, we discovered the format in which we'd colored it on GIMP wouldn't convert to printable files. DAmn!!! But it was meant to be a present for a guy who said he didn't like it, then broke up with his fiancee, who had commissioned it.)

And hey! I enjoyed the ones I did for free. The ones that paid were a cool challenge, and I'm proud to discover them framed and hung in people's homes. That's the beauty of such a thing.



My friend of three decades, TJ- for whom I began this blog in 2009- wanted to make a book about opiod addiction with me, so we could present alternative treatment options and how far along they are in the U.S. and the world, too, I suppose. He pitched me the idea in 2012 at latest- a very relevant one. It's only become more important. But his migraines worsened, and Dr. Jones- without whom I didn't have the great knowledge and first-hand experience- passed away in September, 2015. That was the hardest turn any of these projects took for sure. But he would say 'keep going at what you love!' and point out, it's because life can be so brief and uncertain that we should keep winging it!


I put my book on sale, got it into the local shops as well. I did a book signing that drew no one at all.
But we got played on the radio. We drew for people at a street fair each month. We started an interactive website with a friend, wrote much of a sprawling "Choose Your Own Pathway" type horror adventure inspired by our family getting back some of its lost younger members. Its creative process even became part of our movie, along with footage of us playing gigs, mostly as guests.

My friend gave up on coding the site, and it degraded before we ever made money off it or finished many of its storylines.
Ciara's Haunting became The Air Is Haunting, became then a ghost itself. It succeeded as a birthday gift, in its early phase, for our niece. I think she may have actually played it some.

Did I mention I wrote a pilot for a cartoon? The creator liked it so much, he offered me a pitch to IDW Publishing for revision, a little something he'd verbally pitched off-the-cuff to the right person. Many revisions later-a much more painful process than that sounds, but anyway- including an entire issue of art that went in the trash, and a few full issue scrips and a five issue plot twice over on my part, I was told we were too late, new deal would have to be re-negotiated with new management, and he couldn't really afford the time, anyway, due to poor health. Did I mention I was called up to do an emergency scripting bit on a special for the Pulse Night Club victims in Orlando? Our page never saw print. No explanation. My friends returned the book to the comics shop for a refund. But the hope, the creativity, kept me believing. Kept me dreaming. Gave me something to do besides experience Existential Angst. I invented some characters for later use, too, in the novel I'd been working on when I was offered the chance to create Ciara's Haunting.

So, it's not that I haven't jumped in there and gave it the old college try. You only have control over your part. Many phases of excitement. Many phases of disappointment. Most of the people sincerely glad for you when a break begins to evolve never know or notice when it falls apart. I completely see why artists don't communicate these things until they are basically finished, unless they are fund-raising. Me? I share because of Fun Raising.

Somewhere in between...

Much, much later than I anticipated, we both finally got hired. But the things I excel at were the things I was asked to put aside- for that job. Before that, I was sitting in a podunk town, with no interested employers. Meanwhile, a friend finally discovered my plight and helped me get on with V3 Magazine. A non-paid gig offering me Dragon Con passes opened the road to interviewing comics creators. I wrote for them awhile, the upload stopped working, and I got sick Dragon Con weekend (but did complete my first try at our IDW first issue pitch). I even snagged a couple of comics journalism assignments- that paid, albeit, next year-which inspired me to start a podcast and talk to some cool classic writers, artists, and fans. https://creatingmarvels.podbean.com/ https://creatingmarvels.podbean.com/ Meanwhile, I wrote a couple dozen songs in just over a year, mostly in 2017. I recorded them best I could on Audacity, but they're quite lo-fi- not ready to go out there as prospective music in movies, etc. I mean, I wish they would be fine in this form, but I kinda doubt it. Recording at some type of industry standard is pretty much expected because it's much closer at hand for today's artist. (It's the money that's the problem: ASCAP secured about $1170 for Peter Frampton for 5 million streaming listens to "Baby I Love Your WAy.")

My Pro Tools software has still never been restored to a useable replacement memory stick by the company that took $300 of our money for a program that requires you run Windows 8. So much for Pro Tools as the Industry Standard. It doesn't make me an Avid fan. That reminds me, I need to hunt down that email chain and shake that tree for fruit again.

Candella at Waffle House gave me a shot based on a first impression, alone. I was back waiting tables, I had no idea what kind of psychologically disturbed individuals I'd be sharing my job with. Imagine, if you don't flirt and acted interested, you piss some people off. I thought it worked the other way, and a gentleman should keep from creating awkward and suggestive situations. I honestly wondered if one woman wasn't the victim of mood-shifting head traumas. I loved giving great service and re-established my ability to open a rapport with people in a small space, entertaining them sometimes but staying on point. There's a loooong tell-all essay from my few months there, but....not today. Not here. I was working more than my agreed-upon hours by the last four weeks, sick as a dog with walking pnuemonia, and funny business was going on with the register/ till. To say nothing of other jaw-dropping lunacy. Very colorful time, though. But I over-extended myself, ran out of patience for bullshit, and earned less than minimum wage by my last week. But by then, I'd approached an online ESL company, on the advice of this fellow Mike who always came in with Trump slogans on his shirts that didn't othewise suggest violence or rebellion. I served his coffee just the way he liked. He asked me one day if I'd considered teaching. He'd seen some old coach of his at a ball game last fall, and remembered how much he loved and looked up to that guy. Mike, and my friend Ed, who said "why aren't you teaching creative writing?" both opened my eyes. One eye, each, I guess.


Five long years' delay. Still not overseas, yet...here I am, the first of us hopefully soon both doing what we set out to do, albeit in a different way. I think the ambitions and delightful dreams that career was meant to support are probably much closer still than I dare say. Some friends have fallen more apart. Some, they always cycle between self-destruction and enlightenment, but want to pass off reality like Truth is just up for grabs, blah blah not buying it. They may not want to look closely at what they really did and said, but who's got time to drink that poison and let's wish one another well.
Some are on target to take life long ambitions to the next level. Bravo! You must really love progress.

So yeah. I guess some people might think we smile like nothing's ever come too hard. I am not even diving into the crazy attempted relationships that ended up more wasted than vital. But, to these and many other dreams. comes a time. Maybe this time, it's the best job yet. Maybe this time will lead to a genuine position in the publishing field, perhaps editing some of the third-party courseware that occasionally drives me batty with its short comings. Maybe the next set of friends will stick, for a while. Once youre old enough to have kids, if not grand kids, people who share in your level of becoming who aren't tied into the thick of raising said family are damn rare. Maybe we'll join a new spiritual order and continue coming into our own after years of an almost-too-informal eclectic path. Maybe this is the career path tha twil open up finanical and schedule opportunities in our new home land, and we'll finally connect with overwhelming support, make music, shows, cartoons, found a language institute. You come back around to gratitude for everyone and everything you had, daily, because you never know when they'll all become part of the past. Some of my dearest supporters are no longer physically with us (I mean they died). But where did their love and encouragement and lessons go, really?

Life's a blink in Eternity's Eye. What seems a dreary and long period of chrysalis is revealed to increase empathy, and every day, had its joys: because the being within was always a butterfly. If you feel like that's you, the bright colors you were always meant to hae, the flowers you were alwasy meant to visit, all will be unveiled by Time.


Keep winging it.

Teaching English Online: a future brightens

Wow!

DaDa wrote: trial class went so well, student and Mom want to sign up if they get- me! Could I consider opening one of my off-days?

As a tutor for less than a month, now, such a request seems extraordinary.

What do I say? I have completed my very first class with Say ABC, where I hoped to work on my off-days from Dada and also, Summer Camp.

I wanna say 'yes' just to see who it was

:-D I'm positive the company's got loads of other lovely teachers who could make'em happy. I'm not even a month in! I think this job and these kids, however, might be calling on a special side/ combination of my gifts. I felt honored and elated!

Must sleep on it...


I just opened even more hours this month for SAy ABC, hoping that will take off and I'll be discovered. I know the limitations on my availability from the start might've worked against me having a busier first week.



Almost certain it was one little one who I could barely get to speak, but made him laugh the whole time and threw every trick I could think of to get two whole words of English out of 'im.

I don't get as many trial classes as I did, first two weeks- I have 46 appointments made for me over eight working days, already, mostly formal or 'interests classes.' Very fortunate to quickly become a Dada recruiting ace. Humbling, for someone to see anything uniquely special in this lucky brand new tutor. I mentioned this in my email reply. I want to open up some hours not in their template, really. But since my students are currently all twelve hours east of me, there's only so much wiggle-room, even on weekends.

I wanted to make it clear I don't think I am so darn special as to deserve the trouble of special scheduling. But a teacher who would consider taking up an extra day just to fulfill a potential new client's request, if it wasn't me, would sound kinda special. Parents know their children better than I, even if I get some flashes of insight. IF they see something in their child's reaction, something about their response to me that gives the parent's hope...maybe I can help, after all.

They even waved the two times early on I was late 'cause I didn't understand you sign in for stand-by (at half pay, hey) even when you don't have a class scheduled. So I get to keep the bonuses I'm racking up.

I may have room in my mind for asking for, and juggling, referrals. Me, I'm honestly just trying not to screw up. I constantly find things that are difficult to explain. You can only get out of your own way and hope an explanation flows.



A lot of plans have been
made and fallen apart in this town, since our stop-over from California extended to five years of struggle. I haven't included every mis-fire that sputtered out like drenched kindling. I can't even say about the relationships that decayed like bad code. At least my mother is so wrapped up in a mediocre guy in Alabama that we watch her house and keep it up like our own. No place, really, for us, except in a few hearts, minds, imaginations. Heck, last friend I made went to jail. No wonder we started planning our next location move in earnest. AFter all...a challenging, fledgling field's offered me a chance to shine, using so many of the skills that precipitated the efforts listed above, in a brand new way.

TAke it personally and it's brutal. But don't do that. It will grind away your hope. And wasn't that the quality that sent us West years ago, anyway? That somewhere, we could achieve more of our potential- keep growing?

So, you dredge up hope. You try to make openings. You take them as far as your resources allow. You engage the task at hand, the hope at hand, never knowing if it'll last. It's like skipping across quicksand and alligator's heads. Yeah, like Pitfall Harry.

And all the while, the solution's brewing away quietly, waiting for the day you finally search again- and find it!
Man...while I was getting turned down for every stupid local job, couldn't get a break, this industry was only yet being born!
I get to help it from 'crawl' to 'walk' in my own little way.

Fresh baked cockroach bread: future of protein?

Bugged by the thought of cockroach-enriched bread?

If these specially-bred, nutritionally-rich roaches become the grist to a whole new culinary choice, remember back when we were talking about it, today.

https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/ezkeqm/meet-the-scientists-who-are-making-bread-with-cockroach-flour

Andressa Lucas and Lauren Menegon, as they described in the above Vice article, designed their infused wheat flower at the Federal University of Rio Grande, in Brazil. Forty percent more protein than wheat flower sounds like a very helpful alternative. If you ever dealt with the German Cockroach house pest, that crawling you feel is probably your skin. It's not like these clever scientists feel magnanimously towards roaches, either, outside of the lab. But their special fruit and vegetable diet meets national hygenic standards. They're cheap to raise and take a lot less space than cattle.

You may well be thinking, "no way am I giving up my double cheeseburger for Roach Cakes!" I know people who still won't try sushi. Those people have never had to fog their house because of eels, either.

You can't ask for a better source of protein per gram. They're not the same species you find in sewer drains. I don't remotely think I'm convincing anyone, so far. You may not even care for dark, leafy greens. Some of you would try the roach bread over a can of baked beans, any day! (Some of you would like to see for yourself, even if you knew what it was.)

The viability of a bug diet came to my attention in the second issue of Planet Weekly I ever worked on. Sean Johnson knew Entomophagy was off-putting, but he gambled the cover, if not the incidental conversation, would make people pick up his paper. Plus, bugs as protein is a valid point. The ideas that shape our diet are largely instilled, culturally. Not every insect offered was a pest, but the creepy-crawly idea didn't spark Dreamland Caterpillar Fries in Tuscaloosa. I know some people would rather have tofu. And some might have to really think about that. (It's a good choice if you can figure out the texture and flavor issues, though; many of you have it daily.)

I don't know if this sensible substitute will ever catch on. The flavor of the bread was unchanged, say the researchers, who thoroughly polled friends and family (how did that work? IF you tell someone what's in it, who's going to say 'yes, I'll have a slice" ?). Eight of nine essential amino acids, provided by one of nature's hardiest survivors. High quality Omega-3 and 9 fatty acids.

In a hundred years, will we be forced to make choices like this for practical reasons? Will we begin a hybrid of choices, so we can still have some beef if we like, with a side of beetle bran muffins? We were eating animal organs a century ago. Growing up, potatoes, peas and corn WERE an answer to dinner vegetables, and hardly anyone thought of them as poor substitutes. Though, for flavor's sake, out in the country we had a whole garden of other possibilities, like black beans, peppers, and pintos. Fears of mercury poisoning swayed many people away from highly-touted seafood.


Are we really being honest with ourselves about the risk factors in beef production? Are we so at home with the way we raise, say, pork, or the runner-up lean meat to fish, chicken, that hygenic roaches seem beyond the pale? Are we rest-assured the burger ordered from our local drive-through was prepared with no contamination? Hormones in food have been a health concern for a generation. Nuts are a terrific protein source, but almonds, for example, take tremendous amounts of water. Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT) in Rice Krispies have gotten them banned in other countries.

I'm not trying to scare you, but I can't help but speculate on the way we form our biases. From space management to animal cruelty concerns, people have gotten on board with a change in diet from the fare with which they grew up. Sometimes, you simply want to try something new.

IF you thought avacados or turkey burgers were weird, though...

Look at it this way. Even your average American has likely encountered chocolate-covered ants or grasshoppers. Lucas and Menegon were working on crickets and beetles as viable alternatives at the time of the Vice interview. Maybe there's a gateway dish? Side of silk worm, anyone?

How do I draw from just my imagination?

Here are two approaches to drawing: Make something as much like an image from life as possible, and Make something that doesn’t exist outside of imagination.

Here is The Marc Kane, with an old sketch of us with our friend Jamison, the first day we ever hung out.
There were no pictures, but she had a strong picture in her mind. She uses realistic elements, but an imaginative style (1998), drawn from her vision.

Here's a still life nature drawing that uses mostly elements as they were layed out to my eye, and some arranged by my imagination.

Now, cartoonists often use an approach that works down the middle. They draw often simplified versions of real things, like cars, trees, animals, and might merge them with images that are not entirely realistic.

It’s a matter of style.
If you want a photo-realistic style, work from still life and photographs. Your question, however, suggests you’d like to try something without reference.

Sometimes, a masterful vision involves a perspective that is very difficult to attain or pose. The first one is Lewis Trondheim, illustrating Poppies of Iraq.
Jim Steranko, Steve Ditko, Paul Smith, Peter Max...I'm trying to remember who did the William Carlos Williams tribute...it's driving me nuts. I'll include Renoir, here, an Impressionist who used oil to make the color impression, used depth...but did not slavishly limit things in lines. Real people and flowers don't have thick lines around them at their limits, after all.

Depending on the story, or your tastes in portraits, you might like one of these over the other:


This last one, Rackham, drew things purely from imagination. INspired somewhat by nature, but super-normal, as Mattheson once put it.

You really have to ask yourself 'what's my purpose, this time out?' Sometimes, you are simply out to discover what's inside. In that case, decide how you feel about it later. What are you asking of your vision: what's your vision look like? Developing that sense of inner vision is the ultimate creative goal.

Do you want something never seen in real life? Mojo here, an Arthur Adams visual design, is an exaggeration of feelings we know all too well: what does his face tell you? What kind of world do you think he inhabits?

Yildiray Cinar, here, illustrates something unreal, but lights and crafts it in a way that lets it exist powerfully within its own reality.

Youka here, by me, was inspired by a real person. I wanted to express her warmth. I used a photograph- but she also represents a fictional character of mine.
Now this pencil drawing, including a mirror image, was inspired by real life model Max Wasa and her love of Dr. Who. But the vision came from my head, rather than copying a photo of anything.

Here, Emmryza DAwn, who you can find under the name, The Marc Kane, used a small book to sketch this image based on real life, but drawn from her vision- from purely her imagination. She is much stronger at this quality, in my opinion, than I. I can capture many loving details, but I never get to draw long enough to really develop an ability that comes naturally to her. It's a self-imposed, or predisposed, limitation.


HEre is a still life. I didn't use a medium I could erase, and my figure moved quite a bit. You can still get a sense of the real person.

This was made with no planning, really, to go in a Christmas card. NO photo reference, but, the style was done to evoke an effect (funny, I hope).


I will be honest with you: reference is great. IF you want to draw a real person or object, it’s best to start with basic layout, a stick-figure type underpinning, then add details. You might even make a cartoony style to represent these things, in which case you change details such as proportions. Mastery of realistic anatomy is a great start to drawing perspectives that seem to bend the rules.

When you say you ‘can’t draw without reference,’ what you literally mean is, you don’t like the results. They don’t satisfy your need to represent the subject in question.
So my advice is two-fold:
1. Learn to like what you make up from your head. Don’t expect it to be completely realistic. Let art take you on a journey: discover your imagination. Let your art represent things that have never been, in styles we don’t see in day-to-day life.
2. If you are still getting the basics down and want the option of being realistic, nothing replaces a good book like, Bridgeman’s anatomy guides, or a book by Burne Hogarth, or some other classicist. (Classicists are people who draw with realism in mind, primarily. Experientalists are on the opposite side of the wheel: they want to express states of mind and emotions, fantasies of form.) Practice drawing body parts with classic style; practice shading solid objects. There’s no replacement for practice, when it comes to producing these things from your mind. Conversely, there is no substitute for letting your mind flow- let go of the need to match a realistic standard and discover how to express yourself in your own style. I really recommend looking at ARt History and seeing the different approaches. You will see how artists uncovered secrets of perspective, especially in statuary, long ago- yet new movements arose that represented reality with different values than solid realism.

Be Chill, Cease ill