![Another 5-Minute Drawing: Esteemed Senator Watermelon]()
by Tilly | Aug 24, 2012 | Life
This afternoon I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when my good friend Mickey appeared in front of me and said, “You’ve got good timing,” and handed me a watermelon that he grew from his own garden.
This morning I put some mustaches on the kids, Alden and Kato. August is still too small for a mustache.
What’s the connection between the afternoon watermelon and the morning mustaches? At the end of the day Robbi put one of the mustaches on the watermelon and VOILA! Esteemed senator watermelon was born.
To remember his distinguished visage for the rest of our lives, we made portraits of him in five minutes.
Matthew went for the 1940’s feel with a sideways head.
Robbi’s looks like a real campaign poster that makes me want to vote for him. I’ve never seen a friendlier watermelon.
And my senator watermelon, despite the buffness of his arms, is meloncholy.
He may have a stylin’ suit, a personality worth voting for, and years of experience, but at the end of the day, Esteemed Senator Watermelon needs to be eaten. I think he’ll take it honorably.
![Another 5-Minute Drawing: Esteemed Senator Watermelon]()
by Tilly | Aug 9, 2012 | Life, Tilly
What do you think we do here all day? Work? Psshaw to you then. No, we transcend the mortal confines of phone calls, the postal service, and emails. In just five minutes, Matthew and I discovered a loop hole in this dimension called “reality.” At the strike of 1:00, I announced that we would draw “The Most Fantastical, Mystical Band of Cosmic Dancing Angels Ever”, then our pens set to paper and by 1:05 we had tapped into the voices of our limitless brethren of the deep space beyond. They showed us how to sing and dance and float. And then they told us to get back to work. Well, it was nice for five minutes anyway.
Matthew’s angelic ancestors at the gates of heaven:
Tilly’s winged, wild ones with the winds of time:
A five minute break to draw some random, fantastical hullabaloo can go a long way. Try it sometime.
![Another 5-Minute Drawing: Esteemed Senator Watermelon]()
by Tilly | Aug 1, 2012 | Tilly
It’s the middle of summer and the creatures are out. Especially at night. I love to go on night walks down the road between soybean fields and trees. Often, there is an owl hooting or a fox screaming, which sounds like a shrieking person in agony. As you know, when it’s hot out there are lots of bugs. The lightning bugs sparkle and get mixed in with stars. And as you also know, there are mosquitoes, and when those mosquitoes aren’t eating you, bats are eating them.
Well, I didn’t have to go outside to see a bat the other night. The bat came to me. “What is that little fuzz ball on the floor?” It was a real live bat! And so cute!
Its tiny ears! Its rabbit-soft fur!
We put it in a plastic bag to let it go without actually having to touch it. Who wants rabies? Not me. It wasn’t so cute then.
Adorable, terrifying, beautiful. What strange creatures bats are. It reminds me of a song.
Bats may freak you out, or tear you up emotionally by deceiving you with their temporary cuteness, but they are a beautiful part of summer nights, and so good at counting.
![Another 5-Minute Drawing: Esteemed Senator Watermelon]()
by Tilly | Jul 28, 2012 | Life, The Barn, Tilly
Robbi, Matthew, and the crew are out of town again for a few days, so here I am feeding cats and soaking up the silence. Without the Idiots here to assign tasks, or the children to show me tricks, all I can do is notice the play of daylight on the discreet, mundane objects that are the stuff of life.
This is where Oscar the cat gets his food. The color of the dish is a bright, deep red that shows up frequently around here on such things as plant pots, doors, and rugs.
I noticed this conversation of lines and colors just above Oscar’s dish. There’s that red again in a ribbon that hangs from a curtain rod. Its end once wrapped around a tiny teddy bear, acting as a cat toy.
After noticing these quiet, but delightful scenes I turned around and saw this on the floor. Remnants of Alden as she left them.
I wasn’t looking for any of these things. They just stuck out to me. It’s easier to notice the dynamic interaction between nicely lighted objects when no one is around. No one except cats.
![Another 5-Minute Drawing: Esteemed Senator Watermelon]()
by Tilly | Jul 15, 2012 | Life
Okay, there are puppies for sale, but that’s not all this post is about. It just seemed like the most exciting title. First, let me tell you about some other things. We’ll get to the puppies later.
Besides mailing orders for Idiots’Books, I’ve been taking care of some non-book matters, such as lawn watering and mowing.
Look at that precision cut–now that’s a fine mow job.
When I went over to Robbi’s dad’s house to water his lawn, I noticed his doormat. Why hadn’t I noticed this before? It’s the best doormat ever!
Now I want to know what Robbi’s dad knows about who’s out there. These doormats don’t come from just any old five and dime. I’m sure there’s a special ranking of astral status one must achieve through light-years of training in spectroscopy and chakra strengthening before receiving one of these cryptic doormats.
I haven’t yet harnessed the power to operate a UFO, but I can ride a bike. When I moved back here from Chicago, I had to get rid of a lot of stuff, including my most favorite bike in the world, (sob). But, I got a new bike! Well, new to me. I picked it up from a man in Delaware via craigslist.
So if you’re out thievin’ bikes one night, as it is a great American pasttime, you know what mine looks like and there’s no excuse if I catch you with it the next day. Then again, I’ve never heard of ‘Panasonic’ as a bike brand, so I’m assuming it’s not a very nice bike, and I know you only like to steal nice bikes.
The other day, I biked to my home near Quaker Neck Landing and I stopped at one of my favorite places to stop. It’s just a lane that goes to an old farmhouse. It doesn’t seem like anything exceptional for that stretch of road, but I find myself stopping there to look and take pictures every now and then.
The giant puddle was just so beautiful.
Something I just noticed this summer is the blackberries growing on the side of the road. I’ve always known about the raspberries, which have just ended. I don’t know if the blackberries are coming back from years before, or if I simply never noticed them before. If you haven’t seen them, take a look, they are there. And they’re delicious!
Another beautiful thing I’ve noticed, but not in the great outdoors, is some pink and purple light that shows up every evening near the stairs in the Idiots’Books studio.
I’ve tried to find where it comes from exactly. I thought the red was reflecting off of a red car, but it’s probably sunset light reflecting off of a building on the street. It’s a sublime thing to notice, especially after focusing on a computer in the studio for a while. It catches me off guard.
Okay, okay, you’ve read through all of my reflections on what I’ve observed. Now you can have some puppies.
One of my dad’s Chesapeake Bay Retrievers had puppies about 8 weeks ago. Personally, I prefer bike-riding, blackberries, and mysterious purple light, but if you have puppy pictures, it’s kind of evil not to share.
