digdougsart blog

So I decided to play golf this past weekend.  I was so excited to play because we got a really good deal on the price and it was a semi-private course.  It was beautiful, a little windy but still a georgeous day.  First hole off the tee box I hit a tree.  No worries I say to my self I’m just not warmed up.  Next shot whack right into some more trees. Again no worries I’m still not warmed up.  Needless to say I seemed to find almost every tree around that day or at least my golf balls did.  It was like they were trying to escape my presence, or find a nice place to just hide.  After all if I were a golf ball I think I would hide too.  That got me thinking, I just cant get enough of trees.  I am attracted to painting them, I like to sit under them, and apparently focus on them way too much.  So much so that I hit a tree with every one with my golf shots.  I know your saying, those poor trees, they don’t deserve to be picked on.  Well I say to you, maybe just maybe trees are like a magnet that’s drawing me in closer so that I can feel their  joy, movement, and yes pain.  Maybe the more I know about trees I can better understand how to illustrate them on canvas.  After all there’s energy in all living things. Or maybe the trees are saying you should have stayed home and painted instead of playing golf. 
 
 I also just thought of something a friend once told me.  Tress are made up of 90% air…..then why do I manage to hit the 10% that is not air?

Phase tow of painting

Recently I have been working on a piece inspired by a Japanese painting of a wave I saw on TV and the movie, “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”  The wave just really spoke to me as far as the style, the bold image, and colors.  The movie however really provoked my creativity with its visual symmetry and the overall color palate of the movie.  After I watched the movie I just felt good.  It kind of had a calming effect on my on I am not sure why.  One thing that I really liked about the movie was that all the marine life in the movie was totally invented for the movie.  I am doing the same for my painting, which is titled “Into the Deep.” In most of my paintings I have hidden images, some on purpose, some on accident or fate I believe.  “Into the Deep,” will have more images that are easy to see when up close to the painting but from afar maybe not so much. My oldest daughter who is 3 came up and I asked her, “do you see any animals in the painting” and she replied,” I see a whale.”  Thats exactly what its suppose to be, my representation of a whale. There’s also jellyfish and squids too.  I am very happy with the progress and  believe it totally will make sense to all when I post some pics or video of the piece itself.

Today I went to the recycle center to put back into circulation all of our used plastics, bottles, cardboard and paper.  Since I was 18 years old I have recycled.   At one point I lived 30 miles from the nearest recycle center.  Over a period of 4 months I saved all the cardboard from the place where I worked and then I took it to the center in my pick up truck.  Two trips later I had recycled all four months worth of accumulation from one business.  I was very proud of myself for this accomplishment.  Today still I recycle, luckily I don’t have to go as far.  Just about 10 miles once every 3 or 4 months. 

Another aspect of recycling is the paint I use when I am working on my latest creation.  I will sit there for another hour just tyring to use up the last little bit of paint until it is all gone.  I feel really guilty when I  don’t.  I also use old plastic cake tops as a palete for my paint.  When I was younger I used Le Menu plates.  For those of you who dont know about Le Menu I will inform you.  They were these handy dandy little plates, about 6 inches in diameter that came inside the frozen entre of your choice. Washable and totally reuseable.  I thought it was the coolest thing to get a plate with a frozen meal.  Man am I easy to please. 

Its hard to believe that when I was working at my first job that we use to burn cardboard and paper every day until it was outlawed in 1988 I believe.  I did’nt really know much about recycling at the time but when I look back at those days its hard to believe that it was allowed.  Now most of the time people just throw things away.  I think I actually put my trash can out by the curb maybe once a month, sometimes even a month and a half.

With all of this said, I hope that someday when I die.  I will return to the earth, feeding the tree and recycling myself back into this world.  Maybe then I too will be part of my series, ”Trees of Life.”