29 faces challenge Faces 10 and 11

Two faces again today: collage, paint and markers. Makes it a bit easier to keep up ;-)

It's a poem from Rod McKuen, who I only recently found out passed away in January. I felt sad when I read that, I have been a fan of his poetry for so many years, and it feels like such a shame that there never will be any more new poems from his hand. Luckily he has left behind such a wealth in writing, I haven't even read everything yet.

Here's an overview of the other faces I did this week:

Faces # 5 and 6: the weekend is always hard for me to do any art. So a pen drawing with two heads is about all I could manage ...

Face #7: trying to be more "messy" with my technique, hmmm ...., not sure if I succeeded

Face #8: Not liking what I was doing and starting to swipe the paint away, and then the idea of a guy falling apart was born ....

And finally face #9: wild-hair-girl

Remember that I wrote about the refugees fleeing to Europe last week? That same night I found a beautiful haunting picture with an even more beautiful poem about refugees, and it touched my heart so much that I read it and re-read it over and over again. I want to share it here with you, it's a poem from Warsan Shire, a Somali poet who is fast becoming one of my favorites. But be warned: it's very long!

picture from David Ho

"HOME," by Somali poet Warsan Shire

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it's not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn't be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child’s body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i don't know what i've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.


That's it for this week. Next week I'll post another funny, promise :-)

Thanks for visiting me here, and thanks for your wonderful comments. I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, to Show your Face and to 29 faces.

Wishing you a beautiful day and a happy peaceful weekend! I'll be back on Saturday with another face! See you then ♥ ♥ ♥

29 faces challenge face #9

Quick face today, no paint. Somehow, paint always takes much longer. Might have to make more and more pen drawings, or maybe oneliners, for those days that I'm short on time (which seems to be almost every day lately ....). Anyway, I felt like drawing "complicated" hair again :-)

See you tomorrow, thanks for visiting!

Falling apart: face #8

I was playing in my journal and not at all liking what I was doing. So I just swiped my brush sideways meaning to start over, but then I quite liked the effect, so I swiped a bit more, and here he is: my falling-apart-guy :-)

And this makes face nr8 in 8 days. It's becoming harder to keep up, I hope I'll manage ....

Thanks for visiting and leaving your lovely comments! I'll be back tomorrow ♥

29 faces challenge: face 7

Today's face was an experiment with Christy Sobolewski's messy acrylic portraits. She made it look so easy, but as it always is with these things: it wasn't ....

In the end I did it my way, but it was still more messy for me than usual. So it was certainly a learning experience :-)

Can't get the colours right with my scanner. Her cheeks are much more pink, but that's a colour that's never visible on my scans. Pity, because I like to use that colour ....

Thanks so much for visiting, I'll be back tomorrow!

29 faces faces 5 and 6

In the weekend I almost never have time to do art, so I made a quick ink-drawing today with two faces. Who knows, I might find some time tomorrow and I'll do another one, but for now this one will do for the next 2 faces:

Still have to get by all of your blogs. Don't worry, I'll get there :-)
See you on Monday ♥

29 faces face 4

Wow, I kinda forgot how much work it is to produce a face every day and also post about it. It makes me realize how often a day goes by without me doing any art. Just life getting in the way, and this past week it got in the way big time. School started again, I had a ton of paperwork to do, the kids needed all kinds of things for school, and this week was also my most favorite bookfair of the year, where I spent a whole day browsing tons of books. I'm actually amazed that I managed to get 4 faces done!

This face #4 is a page in one of my journals that has been there for ages. I had glued some magazine-pictures on there, and the paper buckled and it looked ugly, so I ripped it off again, part of it stayed stuck, I put some leftover paint on there and then just left it. For months and months. But while I was looking through my book to find a page that I could put a face on, I saw a face in the smears of paint. This is how it looked:

So I decided to work on this page, and that's how face #4 emerged:

With her wild hair she reminds me of a woman from a faraway country, and with the whole tragedy today of refugees trying to escape war in their home-country, I thought the lyrics of Natalie Merchants' song "Motherland" fitted her well. I love this song, but never really understood what it stands for, but this is what Natalie Merchant is saying about it herself: "the song is a desperate plea for innocence, to be 'faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free,' expresses a craving we all share now for the world we took for granted and lost. Suddenly there seems to be no hiding from our past as a nation or our present, or our future. For me it's the death of nostalgia and dreams."

Kind of depressing, but isn't the whole situation depressing? People having to leave everything behind and embarking on a dangerous journey where too many people die, trying to escape violence and cruelty, fleeing to countries where they are seen as a burden, where they are not welcome. Wanting nothing more than staying in their own country with their own people. Pictures of the refugees, seeing the despair on their faces, carve in my soul and tear at my heart. And I'm not even speaking about the picture of the little boy that drowned. I don't even have words for that.

Anyway, don't want to get too heavy in this post, so I'll just show the other faces I did this week:

Face #1: I'm finally starting to use my Stabilo-all pencil. Still have to get used to it, but it's handy when you don't have much time ;-)

Face #2: coloured pencils experiment

Face #3: quick sketch

That's it for now. Didn't have time for my big painting, hopefully next week...

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. to 29 faces and to Show your Face. Great blogparty's, so do take a look over there and admire the lovely and diverse work of so many people.

Thanks for being here and leaving your lovely comments. I really appreciate it and I'm trying to get to all of your blogs this weekend! Take care of yourself, and enjoy your day. Wishing you a weekend full of joy and warmth. I'll be back tomorrow ♥ ♥ ♥

29 faces face3

Very quick post today. Not much time so I did a quick sketch. She's not finished yet, not sure what I'll do with her hair yet. Might just leave it very simple ....

 I'll be back tomorrow!