douglas brent smith

  87th Street, Oak Lawn, IL For a little while, I lived in Oak Lawn, IL. This picture is probably from right after I moved in. I had a small room with a single bed, a black and white TV that relied on its built-in antenna for coverage, a Fender Vibrosonic amplifier (one powerful 15 inch speaker), a borrowed Fender Telecaster, and for some reason a cat carrier. Oh, and a top hat. Not much else. Wonderful things happened in the short six months that I lived in the Chicago area for the first time. Weird things, too. Wait -- this could not have been right after I moved in because I painted that painting on the wall in that condo. That painting no longer exists (as far as I know) because I do not have it.  Memories. -- douglas brent smith

 The Cubist Kong - sketch by douglas brent smith, 1977

Notes: Peter, Harry, and I started a little touring theatre company we called the Mustard Seed Theatre Company. We had very limited success for an all too brief amount of time. I later revived the name at churches in Chicago, and I'm sure that any search would uncover other theatre companies bearing that name, but we loved it while we proudly wore it on our t-shirts.  These sketches are modest attempts at logos. circa 1977-1978

 What Is Real? sketch by douglas brent smith, (1977) Notes: Cece and I used to play a word game we called "What Is Real?" The idea was that we were all living in a movie, or simulation, or game, and only some of us and some things are real. It seemed a bit advanced for 1977 but I was reading a lot of science fiction at the time and Cece has always had a very open, very curious, very creative mind. It was fun. We'd also draw pictures, sometimes using a surrealist technique known as "exquisite corpse" where you each draw half of the picture, without seeing what the other person has drawn. The paper is folded in half with a couple of lines visible on both halves to show you where to connect the pictures. It was also fun. These sketches are just doodles from one of my journals.

I drew this cartoon in 1977 -- long before we carried around mobile phones. Every phone was attached in someway to a wall. The phones were heavy enough and strong enough to withstand an alien attack, a building collapse, or a major earthquake. You didn't own them, you rented them. Not exactly the good old days. Of course when the phones got dirty, we just hosed them down. -- doug smith

  Back inside cover of journal #10, cry Wolf (1977) douglas brent smith

 Inflated Pinned and Leaking - sketch by doug smith

 thru five years we've danced daringly with many diverse partners crept thru bedroom windows of  a few starched spirits and spilled a few tears of our own after five years kids become searching adults, your face remains soft and warm and my hands remain calloused but curious (a learning, yearning, burning process breathing Spring, simmering Summer fearless Fall) in five years it appears: some dreams last longer than others and life's road turns faster with eyes open as it rolls on revealing (with a wink) that some cycles and hearts remain synchronized, and that dance steps  echo softly and that i love you still. douglas brent smith

pacing thru the time tripped delicately on edges of faceless fancies freed from the rushing resentment of relentless realities battering upon a daring door of dancing chances taken and rebuttals received answers mistaken and desire deceived. douglas brent smith  

so what if your hair style is three years ahead of the trends and you will not regard fashion because we are above and beyond all that caught between generations and secret dreams "your mustache tickles," she said. -- doug smith  

magic never mattered much spells and incantations are punchlines pounding air barely worth a chuckle and lately most of life stacks a natural order and predictable placid piecemeal wave but a breath and a sigh ago in the warm night air somewhere between the pause of the sunset and the promise of dawn you touched me gently recklessly upsetting all mystery a promise no proper landing dancing between knowing and  hiding in a never-land of  grins and giggles shakes and surprises dreams and desire say, maybe there is magic after all. douglas brent smith  

she held back her tears as she told me the reason she just could not hold me tonight "i'm in need of a doctor who does not ask questions can you tell me a place to go? and my body is trembling from a night past remembering and i don't want the family to know "why does it happen it's my cross to bear? i hear thru your silence -- you weren't even there but i do need some help some how "i know it's not unusual it happens all the time but it's so devastating when the choice is mine..." she refused to cry as she ended the call "i will find a way to overcome it all..." and never spoke of this again. douglas brent smith   

universal bang it was a universal bang it was a universal bang it was a big bang got to thinking about the nature of existance and with a certain degree of persistence i proceeded to untangle all the angles that approach us from the cosmic cloud encroaching us all leading to the theory that a weary sort of human needs awakening acumen to make sense of any reasoning and weather all the seasoning that's bound to blow right thru you no matter what you do you come up a little short and then it slips right thru your hands again it hasn't changed much to the aliens deciding if we're enemies or friends still hoping that we finally get the joke universal bank it was a universal bang it was a universal bang it was a big bang. douglas brent smith Note: from journal #10, cry Wolf (1977)

here and gone and here again the most peculiar fleeing friend you stay you go you tell me so i know it's sure it's what you name it's all in how you play the game but oh i wait here for your kiss there's something that you should not miss: cry wolf my dear and see what shows the wolf will come and i will go. douglas brent smith  

  Pie Out-Moded - sketch by douglas brent smith, from journal #10 cry Wolf (1977) Note: Another silly cartoon, drawn with a flair pen in a spiral bound notebook. That is a lot of ice cream.

dorinda likes to doodle daringly on napkins unseen unnoticed by the scramblers eating eggs or sipping bitter coffee sometimes she pops out a song or sketches a summer scene from somewhere no one's been now here i am in Chicago frozen to the bone doodling on a napkin and wishing i was home but, lacking that i send a pre-doodled napkin to someone who appreciates napkins and things. douglas brent smith  

 A Safe Bet, sketch by douglas brent smith, from journal #10 cry Wolf (1977). I was not much of a cartoonist, but that didn't stop me from occasionally trying. The joke here is basic and obvious and probably just came out of idle doodling.

  Sketch: A Slightly Sinister Creature - from journal #10 cry Wolf (1977).

  Five Sketches in Search of a Hat - from journal #10: cry wolf (1977)

i left my typewriter in new jersey as if some  bloodied murder weapon trying to hide the crimes or forget the posturing of the scene of all my passion and pathos for these seven quite odd years where manhood came and with it the twisting torture of passion's pain distressed and then daring darling and then distressing messing with alternatives though the people traded places sliding parade-like suddenly my massive wooden desk i called the aircraft carrier (covered with unfinished scripts, snatches of poems, and doctors' bills) half my soul (it seems) was spilled poured and splattered into these gold, black, red walls onto the dusty floor filled with cat hair, beard hair, auburn hair too precious to sweep away no, it was not a castle or a page from Architecture Digest but it gave me all I ever needed to become an artist they say we become completely new every seven years we'll see i suppose we will see i left my typewriter in new jersey i guess i'll need to return for it