Face In The Crowd

 

Face In The Crowd - pen and marker drawing by douglas brent smith, 1989

At the buttom of the drawing you can see the effect of water on the paper. I feel lucky that my journals weren't more severely damaged or even burned completely up in the fire at Elm Street. I spent hours afterwards drying them out in the sun on a trampoline, carefully turning page by page and giving each page some drying time. This is from journal #26. I was up to journal #41 at the time. Fortunately, not all of them were drenched.

 

Horizontal Hold

 

Horizontal Hold - collage by douglas brent smith 29 May 1989

Dreaming of Mineral Wealth

 Dreaming of Mineral Wealth - collage by douglas brent smith, 21 November 1988.

Mineral Wealth

 

Mineral Wealth - River Gold - drawing by douglas brent smith, 1989

This is an imaginary (so far) record album cover, drawn back when album covers still mattered, when they still helped to sell recordings, when they represented additional enjoyment for the music.

I never had a band named Mineral Wealth, but I think it's a great name for a band and the name of the album, "River Gold" makes it seem like a greatest hits collection. Imagine that. Greatest Hits albums were far more important in 1989 than they are at the moment when streaming one song at a time is much more common. In a way, it's all one continuous "greatest hits" parade.

The colors in this sketch were effected by water damage to the journal that occurred during the fire on Elm Street in 2008. A lot more than this whimsical picture was harmed in that fire.

- dbS - 

A Little Cottage By The Lake

A Little Cottage By The Lake - collage by douglas brent smith, 21 November 1988.

How do you like to spend your birthday? Apparently, I like to spend some of my birthday making collages! I've done several collages on my birthdays and this is one of my favorite. Dancers are wonderful additions to any visual composition. The balance, the focus, the motion all add a dynamic that is distinctive and pure. I'm not a great dancer (although I used to think I was, I later discovered that it was my partner who was making me feel like a great dancer. When my partner moved on my dancing confidence dropped. Fortunately, I held onto my collage steps...)

- dbS - 

Make Waves

 Make Waves - collage by douglas brent smith, 19890601

Oddities Unexplained:

This collage, created June 1, 1989, appears on page 249 (with the back-side of the page simply the title) of journal #25. Communication, and the following poem, "Waves" was written on June 30, 1990 (more than a year later) and appears on page 251 of the same journal.

I think how something like that happens is that there was a time when I created collages in my journals deep within the pages, long before the journal writing caught up. Plus, this particular journal took longer than usual to write.

Does it matter? Not much. But, there you have it. Here's the poem:

Waves

everything on the surface

develops

a skin of its own

unexamined,

unrevealed,

unkissed by the sun

and then

something falls with the 

unrelenting

force of gravity

and breaks that surface

bearing a new moment

which 

makes waves

ohmyohmyohmyohmyohmy

holycowholycowholycowholycow...

but then

the waves dissipate

and the skin

of the surface

relents as

peace returns.

- dbS - 

How Was Your Vacation?

 

How Was Your Vacation? - collage by douglas brent smith, 29 May 1989. 

Did you go to exotic locales? How was the weather? My dad went 19 years in a row (and maybe more) without ever taking a vacation. Instead, he used the money from continuing to work to support the family. You probably experienced some sacrifices in your family, too. Are you grateful for the things that those who came before you did for you and yours?

It's so easy to forget big things we should be grateful for. Let's give thanks for them now.

Oh, and would you like to go on vacation in the location of this collage?

- dbS -