My Sharpie Scribble Style Art 2005-2019 - #17

 Odds and ends...  As I mentioned way back in this series of blog posts, when I decided to start building my Sharpie art into a business, I knew I had to step up my art game.  I looked through a bunch of art online, asking myself what I would want to put on my own wall.  I ended up drawing a simple, stencil-style face, of Bruce Lee, my first hero.  As my skills improved, I knew I wanted to go back to Bruce Lee, and do my own take on the classic poster that all us kids of my era knew Bruce Lee from.  This is that drawing.  I was pretty dang happy with this one.  The flames in the back could been a bit better, and I added a bunch of Bruce Lee's quotes on the left, which was cool.  This drawing is 18" X 24", and is now living in California.

 This is my "four legged niece," my sister's dog, Willow Belle Durham.  Willow is a very lovable dog, an Aussie Doodle, and probably my favorite extended family member at this point.  She was part grown, but still a puppy, at the time of the drawing.  Willow Durham is her name on Facebook, and she'd love to friend you.  She's not prolific at posting, but maybe you can get her a little more active online.  Other facts about Willow, she will offer you a paw to shake if you mention (University of North) Carolina, and she'll bark is you ask her about Duke.  She also likes scarves.   12" X 18"

 Here's a full grown Willow in a photo I took of her with Taffy, the ceramic tribute my mom did in the 1970's to her (my mom's) dog, Taffy, a golden cocker spaniel.  When I was a little kid, Taffy was still living at my grandma's house.  So to me, this is my favorite dog picture from our family.

 Being perpetually broke while living with my mom, I drew/made this photo collage for her on her birthday a couple of years ago.  The photos are of her two grandchildren, Katherine and Ethan, through their lives.  Mom was pretty stoked on it.

 This is an 8 1/2" X 11" drawing I did recently, starting with a magazine photo of BMX freestyler Monte Hill doing a turndown.  I did this to illustrate my poem "Become," one of the few poems of mine that survived, because I memorized it.  Here's the poem:

Become

You must risk

If you're to succeed

For when you grow

Sometimes you bleed

Each must climb

Over the fence

For the only cage

Is ignorance

Each Jedi knight

and Shaolin monk

Evolved from

A lowly punk

Don't get caught

In the world's throws

We must become

Our own heroes

-The White Bear

(my BMX nickname/poetry pen name)

This is why you don't see many selfies from me.  I make goofy faces and don't smile.  The 20 years of struggling with homelessness and working hard as a taxi driver have taken their toll.   I'm fat, and my teeth are basically all rotted or broken off at this point, and I look like shit.  That said, here I am with seven drawings taped up on the front window of an empty storefront, on Broad Street, to show off my stuff off at the October First Friday Art Walk in Richmond's Arts District.  #sharpiescribblestyle