Blank Canvas

Time

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:01:03 GMT

I sit here contemplating, and the wind blows through the trees

With all the passage of time remaining, and the sacrifices seen.

I somehow still remember the kiss, and how the light in my lovers eyes gleamed.

Time can be a friend awaiting, it can also make your heart bleed.

Time can turn events to fleeting, leaving your future bare.

Time can also award you, with understanding beyond compare.

In the light of a shining day, with the warmth of the sun,

I can still feel arms around me, holding me, all things frozen and made one.

Somewhere in a place far from here,or even in the next room,

There is a woman shedding tears, there is a man in which victories won,

There is a small boy playing in his world, there is a girl that runs.

Time can be a friend awaiting, it can also make your heart bleed.

Time can turn events to fleeting, leaving your future bare.

Time can also award you, with understanding beyond all compare

The people pass on the streets, each looking for a heart to hear.

Moments pass between us, like the fingers through your hair.

Each and every glance has a meaning, every touch leaves a mark.

All sound makes a footprint, placed upon the soul and heart.

In the light of a glowing night, in the shadow of the moon,

I can still see you standing there, making the earth move.

Upon this place we live on, history is both past and here,

What is left has not been yet discovered, and contemplation is always near.

The Mermaid plushie

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:27:22 GMT

I have a hobby of making Franken-plushies and the reverse mermaid seemed like an awesome challenge after the half-pony half-monkey monster I made for Jonathan Coulton. So here are the preliminary pics, It still needs lips, a skirt or stockings (anyone know how to make fishnets?), and a name.

Pics are here: http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e254/Loulabelle87/The%20Mermaids%20Sister/

Feed back is love!

~ Loula

Life. Something... Something..........

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:48:33 GMT

I wrote a little something.....

Life

The doors open before you know, to scenes yet to come.

Your heart opens before the dreams, like the dawn before full sun.

The steps taken on the path, are only one way to run.

Yet how many ways are there to pay, in time that has begun.

Don't turn your back on it.

Don't put your head in the sand.

Don't put the blindfold on, and walk the way blind.

The spirit is and always was upon your covered shelf.

Your mind has folded many years deep within yourself.

The love within is standing still, and will not loose its pinnicle place.

Yet with all the battles and the trials, leaves lines upon your face.

Don't turn your back on it.

Don't put your head in the sand.

Don't put the blindfold on, and walk the way blind.

Take up the ways in moonlit night, or in the golden glow.

Hold up the lantern light through the dark, among the fog below.

Shade and cover your precious eyes, from the hellfire ahead.

Hide your soul deep inside, keep it from the devil instead.

Don't turn your back on it.

Don't put your head in the sand.

Don't put the blindfold on, and walk the way blind.

Through the doors you must travel on, whatever come what may.

Hold tight and close to what is you, donot fall into hard dismay.

Grasp close the courage that you need, for your endless test.

Seek and find within yourself forgiveness there is not upon your quest.

Only you can see doors and paths ahead that far reach lead beyond.

Take faith and heart, and believe above it all, there is more beyond the gate.

New Sea Legend Art

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:35:40 GMT

Here's a take on the Phantom Ship.

This piece has been slowly working it's way through my studio for quite a while. I think it's about there. Comments welcome.

Thanks-

Jeff

Great Big Rug Hooking... the Mermaid!

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:30:12 GMT

My Mum and I have just started a new project together. I sketch & she's a rug hooker... so we've put it all together and she'll be hooking a rug for me based on the Mermaid. I've started an album for the rug on Flickr and as things progress I will be posting process photos there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sew_luvli/sets/72157605856633573/

Here's the design I came up with...

The finished dimensions will be approximately 40" x 40"

Berry Picking Time Comic

Mon, 07 May 2007 03:09:59 GMT

Something I sketched up in class after the Charlotte show, based off of some of the banter. It's pretty scrubby, but, well...

a bit of wine never hurts

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:23:23 GMT

Upon a time, long, long ago, upon a rock in the bay, sat a woman with long golden hair, and eyes as green as the sea.

She sat there waiting for the sailor of her heart, wind ripped the words from her as would be. "I am here, tarry no more, come quickly..set me free".

Many a moon, passed her sky, tide entered, and left her be.

Sailors would come and ask her name, telling stories of far off isle, promising trinkets and songs of faraway lands.

Away did she stray, but not to faraway, from her place, her seat the rock in the sand.

Then one night with stars in her eyes, I stumbled out of the ship.

I came to the bay, full of rum and play.

I saw her sitting alone, her heart to pocket I would slip.

I spoke of the waves and the sun and the Skip, I spoke of the ways of the wind.

I spoke of men having lost their lives, their souls adrift on the tides.

Never had I seen a more open heart, like a mirror of glass was her mind.

Her gaze was deep; she peered into my past, beyond words that can describe.

She spoke to me of the future to come;

promised fortunes yet to be had, like a bribe.

Stories she told, of Kings and Queens, and Princes yet to be born.

She told me more about herself more that any man would care to know.

She then took up my hand, and held it near to her so.

"My hand, my heart". she said to the count of three, she said this unto me.

It was there and then, that I swore to the tasks she put to me, never to sway from the quest.

To this day, I know not what, the wisp from earth, or the sea.

I have sailed away longtime since onboard a sturdy ship a far voyage away.

Not do I know, if she is sitting there still, her hair paling to grey, a fishmongers wife she may be.

I keep to the stories she holds, never to fail the test.

I will in my lifetime see the end of my quest, and live a life of the sea.

In my heart I hope for her that she is really free.

Playing a Bouzouki

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:00:07 GMT

Can anyone help me with learning GBS tunes on the bouzouki? I am a good guitar player, and I hope that playing this new instrument won't be a long, hard, slog of a steep learning curve for me.

Any ideas would be appreciated, like the tunings they use and some basic chord structures perhaps. "Consequence Free" might be a good starting point.

OKP Gallery!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:56:46 GMT

Would it be a good idea to have a thread (this one I would Guess) where we post links to our works or embed files of our work in the thread? Just a gallery of work, not nesc to talk about it?

New Instrument

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:30:28 GMT

I am beginning to learn the Uilleann Pipes. They are BY FAR the most difficult instrument I've ever tried to learn. I went through college to be a music educator. I have training on all "classical" instruments. I am able to play most at a high school level. I tend to pick up instrument pretty quickly. However, I've never come across an instrument with so many techniques as pipes. Having to pump my right arm while squeezing with my left is bad enough. Having to remember fingerings and ornimentations in addition to all that is quite difficult. WOW, I have a new found respect and awe for people who play Uilleann Pipes and HIghland Pipes (and all others for that matter). Right now my biggest challenge is fighting the death grip. I am only able to practice for about 30 min at a time before my hand starts cramping so bad I can't move fingers.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions about getting started and what I should do/not do during this most crucial time of discovery. Also, does anyone know of any good players I should get recordings of?

In addition, what is the most difficult instrument anyone else has learned to play? I'm always curious to find new instruments and hear about other people's experiences with them.

CHEERS!

Nova Scotia

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:53:46 GMT

Born in halifax and family in yarmouth town, I now visit there once or twice every year, (and will be going to university there next year) and like to take pictures, man I love the east coast!

Heres my photo page on deviant art! (all pics taken in sandford, yarmouth, Nova Scotia!)

http://brendonl.deviantart.com/gallery/

Chance the fickle thing

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:21:23 GMT

Circumstance has played a game, that many opposites can lay to claim.

We sit on different sides of it, yet touching closely as to a flame

Chance is a fickle thing, What comes once comes not again,

Now I've lived my life through a colored glass, on the edge feeling the life thats to begin,

Thinking what has not been in sin, can only bee seen from within

The fork has passed apon the road, we've gone our way so long ago

Yet I sit still waiting to just to see if the dice will roll again, on the chance I'll win

But chance is a fickle thing, what comes once comes not again

Thinking what to sink or swim, this breath can only be so thin,

How can I make high hope demands, on the cloth that woven in the sand

Wind takes up the dust , to bear away from here to who knows where,

Silently we will hold our piece , for a better share.

But chance is a fickle thing, what comes once comes not again,

All to do is to hold hopes balloon, to soar away without a care.

Family

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:52:20 GMT

Structure, strength, contrast, stability

Conflict, acceptance

With distance closeness

Happy relations

Grounded in teaching and past

Familar

Memories constant, now forgiving

Visited in present and future

By voice and sight

Future histories secured

By fortunes trick of life

once disrupted now placed on different paths

With signals.....back and forth

to find patteren

Ties that bind on heart strings,

through time, succumb, change, bend

Knowing not which comes ahead

Placing blood above conciousness

Can be broken with selfishness

To be important still

Happiness and humanness

Just a Girl on the Beach

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:37:41 GMT

Just a girl on a beach

No big deal

Just a girl on a beach

Looking around

No big deal, nothing new

Just one girl looking,

Thinking, wondering

Just a girl on a beach

Freezing

Burrrrrr!

Alan's Freckles. :) ( a portrait)

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:10:52 GMT

Hope you like!!!

New siggy...

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:36:32 GMT

Testing, 1 2... testing!

A bit of McCann

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:01:00 GMT

Just thought I might post these two pen ink and watercolour drawings I did from my favourite Sean pictures.

My first painting in years

Fri, 22 May 2009 01:38:53 GMT

Years ago I used to paint often .It was a good three years since I painted a watercolor, the only paint medium I have really tried. As a graphic designer for a newspaper I just found no drive to paint after work, having spent my creative juice each day I suppose.

But I felt the itch growing over the last month. There is a barn just down the road I have seen all my life and now live a half mile from . I went to take pictures of a few weeks ago, the painting, a small painting, was completed about 5 days later.

As I put my brain into the paper I was aware of how long it had been since I had painted. I was also aware of how long I had been seeing this barn and how I retained something on both the emotional and cognative plane each time I had seen the barn. I was thinking about comic books and sequential story telling...and I was thinking about all of that at some level, and I was painting.

(Discussion Point: The interwoven, overlapping montage that is time, recollection, creative process and vision visa vi the watercolor)

Even better I was pleased with the results.

I showed it to my mommy! she is 80.

I intend to post a link to the painting here shortly after I get it off the fridge at Grannies' house.

Art about the Sea and its Legends

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:54:34 GMT

Hey GBS Fans-

If you are here on Blank Canvas, then you are interested in art, and as a fan of GBS, stories and lore of the sea are something that probably provide you with enjoyment as well.

OK, for those of you in and around Long Island, NY, (and I know there are a few of you), you may want to check this out next month-

Be well- Jeff

Alan Oil Portrait (AKA, my first Wacom tablet project.)

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:46:20 GMT

Really easy and fun to do. Loving my new tablet!! (stupid typo in the title. lol)

Of Celtic Roots

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:18:33 GMT

HEY GBSers!

I just finished a big oil, smacking of a rocky landscape with cool, damp mists—it might fit in with the crowd here. With Imbolc just ahead, here is my Brigid of the Green Mantle—

All the best-

Jeff A. Menges

very large picture of sean

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:07:34 GMT

this is actually a very small drawing(12cm by 12 cm) but through much magic i give you a very large picture of sean, tah-da!

lets see............bridges

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:41:32 GMT

Contest: DRAW BARENAKED LADIES - ends Mar 19

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:15:13 GMT

Just got this contest update from Barenaked Ladies.

Hello Barenaked Ladies Fans!

Barenaked Ladies wants you to draw them! Yes, the band is having a contest for their fans of all ages. It doesn’t matter what your artistic skills are, Barenaked Ladies just want to see the most creative cartoon of them. The drawing can be something fancy, professional, a kid’s drawing or just a little sketch. It doesn’t matter your level of drawing skills! Your grandmother and your toddler can submit their artwork!

The winner will get a fantastic prize pack that includes a BNL hoodie and t-shirt, plus a personally autographed CD of their upcoming album “Snacktime.”

Submit all of your designs to bnlcontest@nettwerk.com and be sure to include your contact information (name, address, e-mail address, age, and telephone number).

By submitting your design entries, you acknowledge the contest design rules and regulations listed at http://www.bnlmusic.com/stpromo.html Entries must be received by March 19, 2008.

You can enter as many times as you would like so get your designs turned in today!

lets see.............winnipeg tramp

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:13:45 GMT