(Movie Review) The Monuments Men by Matt Damon

My middle son dragged me to watch The Monuments Men because he enjoys Matt Damon’s acting and he made sure to call it a family outing bringing the younger brother and his girlfriend along.  “But mom, it’s about art.”  I thought about it.  It’s family outing.  I need to have some more family outings to make memories for them.  So I went along.

I do enjoy Matt Damon’s acting but he has a very small part in it in the first half of the movie.  Nevertheless, his costars were superb, be they tall or fat, old or rickety.  It was good fun and great American humor, but I don’t agree with the mission.  This is a real story of a platoon of World War II soldiers going around Europe rescuing art that the Nazi’s were looting systematically everywhere they went and destroying them as they were retreating.  But listen, no single piece of artwork is worth a life.  Not one, not two, not even thousands.  Not even the depiction of the Lord’s Supper.  It is man made.  Don’t even say it’s created.  Only God can create something out of nothing.

If your brother is stuck behind enemy line and the famous Mona Lisa painting is just in the next town also behind enemy line, which one would you save?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  The two greatest commandments in the New Testament, our covenant, are these:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”  Mark 12:30

If you couldn’t even rescue your own brother, you are falling short.

I am an artist and I know what transpires when I put paint and marks on a painting or drawing.  There is a sense of pride involved in the process, that I “created” something, that I was expecting how others would marvel at my cleverness.  It’s all vanity, everyone.  Vanity.  Read King Solomon’s writing in the Ecclessiastes, folks.   It may sound like a depressing book where everything we do are futile or meaningless but that’s exactly the point.  Existentialism follows the same lines.  Whenever a people is rich and has everything, everything seem not to mean much anymore.  Nothing matters.  Only rich countries suffer this syndrome, readers.  In a poor country, everything matters.   Paintings are not worth dying for.  My youngest son begs to disagree because it’s important for him to keep a record of that legacy.  Who cares about legacy when a human life is involved.  Oivay.

Get your priorities right, readers.  Should a war break out in your neighborhood next time, don’t turn back to go for the painting of your grannies or your gold or jewelry or family album.  It’s time to go out and save lives!!

Don’t waste eight bucks for the movie.  Watch it when it comes to your nearest video store.

After A Long Hiatus

I could finally sit today after 2 months.  What a glorious day, to be able to sit, not have a swelling leg that hurts at the groin level and sit, just sit, and sit purposefully at the table to draw.  Able bodied people will never understand how just to simply be able to sit and walk means so much to one who is incapacitated in those bodily movements.  I thank the Lord for answering the prayers from all of you who prayed for me.  Thank you, thank you, all of you who prayed for me.  I feel like I’m myself again!  And so here are all a bunch of small fast sketches that I did tonight since 11 pm and it’s now 2 am.  These are a mixture of Hero fountain pen, Pentel Pocket Calligraphy brushpen, watercolor, Mungyo oil pastel, Pacific Arc watersoluable graphite crayon and pencil.

Animal Paintings Part 3

It’s been a long time since I’ve painted and doodled but now with renewed strength, here they are!

These are in Strathmore Toned 5.5 x 8.5 inch sketchbook.

Caran D’Ache Neocolor 2 crayons and Hero Fountain Pen

Hero Fountain Pen

Mungyo Oil Pastel

Mungyo Oil Pastel in Bogus Kraft Paper 9×12 inch

Daniel Smith watercolor in Stillman & Birn Alpha 5.5×8.5 inch hardbound sketchbook

Canson Biggie Sketchpad 9×12 inch

Winter Trip 2013 sketches

We just came back from Southern California and along the way, I sketched. I brought a Stillman & Birn Alpha 5.5 x 8.5 inch hardbound sketchbook and a Strathmore same size spiral 70 lb but never used it once. When you have to keep up with kids in Legoland, San Diego Safari Park, eateries, Chinatown, you just don’t haul anything larger than palm size. Plus I had to be discreet when I sketch people around me. So a very small 32 page blank book and a Moleskin watercolor journal 3.5 x 5.5 inch. The watercolor one, I used mostly in the car rides or it would be too cumbersome with even a small travel palette and a waterbrush. These were done with Daler Rowney travel palette.

I have learnt from my last trip not to bring my bottled ink because every time I have to drive over 4000 feet elevation, there are spills somehow. Plus who wants to deal with inky fingers along the trip. A pencil and a Pilot 78G with a cartridge were perfect. But for characters with personality, the best is the Pentel Pocket Calligraphy Brushpen. A few strokes and I could describe the scene.

Animal Paintings Part 2

A few oil pastel pieces on 6×6 inch Strathmore black field study spiral sketchbook.

 

Some cartoon animals

Finally, I allowed myself some free time from bible study to draw some.  I meant to practice some serious pen work but ended up doing cartoon animals.  Oh well.

 

 

Pacific Arc Watersoluable Graphite Sticks Review

I have bought a pack of the above graphite sticks that come in 8B, 10B and 12B for $5.95 and it’s made in China. I have all along suspected that it might be sumi ink in disguise since the time I saw the packaging online and today, I tested them out. It’s a hybrid I think of graphite and soot and not pure graphite because I have a German Lyra 6B watersoluable graphite stick and it doesn’t disintegrate like these after I apply waterbrush to it. So much so that my fingers were all inky and the table gets inky too, something that the Lyra doesn’t do at all. Washing my hands take more soap and it does have the resemblance of sumi ink when smeared on my hands. As a result, I have to stand them up in a little jar of its own when it’s still wet. Scroll down for sample paintings and comparisons.

A couple of Southwestern theme pieces

Finally managed to do some art today.  Oil pastel for the first piece and pen and colored pencil on the next two.

 

 

 

Some Zentangles and some animals

I bought the book Zen Doodle and did some pen doodles.  Some I added Daniel Smith watercolor and some I didn’t.  Most of the time, I wished I hadn’t added watercolor because it looks so messy.  Done with my range of Hero and Lamy and Pilot fountain pens.

These few are following the book.

These are my own.  This one has FW sepia acrylic ink dipped with pencil because I was too lazy to go get my dip pen.  The rest is pen work and Prismacolor sepia pencil.

Sharpie Ultrafine markers.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

I picked up The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles at the recommendation of members at the art forum I go to and I thought it was about art but actually, Steven Pressfield, being a historical novelist wrote about writing. Nevertheless, all that he wrote still applies to those who want to create but feel blocked. The entire book tells you how to combat RESISTANCE and he measures everyone of our faults and proscratination as a form of resistance, down to binging, indulging in food, shopping, sex etc…as long as we don’t do the work, it’s because of RESISTANCE.