On Signs
"Wherever we go, we are friends" -Sloth and Manatee
Sloth and Manatee
There have been periods in my life when I have drawn and painted a lot of images of the backs of signs. Mostly long-enough-ago that there don’t seem to be any digital photos of such things.
I think the psychology of it had something to do with not being seen, or with having something to say and not saying it. A pretty universal condition, I think.
I’ve always been fascinated with the support structures behind things like billboards. Maybe this is leftover from hanging around theater sets as a kid, when my parents were putting on plays in a one-room schoolhouse. Seeing all that cool scaffolding, and then the lights going up and it all turning into a world.
The notion that things are held up somehow. Everything. We have skeletons in us. OZ had a bunch of levers or something.
Along Highway 5 in California, there are all sorts of signs inviting you to go buy some berries or get riled up about water politics or here’s how many miles to Anderson’s Pea Soup (where we always stop). They are on posts, and boards, and propped up, painted, repainted, yelling in capital letters (about water politics), wearing off, tipping over. They have lives. They tell a story of somebody having something to say. Sometimes it’s a story of a missing person propped up on an old tractor, or an illegible old campaign slogan. It’s as if the road must be talked-to, you person staring out your windshield. Put your eyes on this. A giant endless landscape-scroll.
And in the opposite direction, here are the backs, like people turned away from you, talking to someone else. Posts sticking out like shoulders. No way to know what they are saying or shouting at the folks coming the other way. Not at least until you make your return trip.
Brainwaves
Best of Brainwaves Volume One: The Fountain of Stuff
Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat
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Art!
From one of many periods of obsession with vintage neon/roadside sign-ery
BunnyFrogCatSnake
Things Of The Week
Oh gosh, somebody made a stream of the music referenced by the character of DJ Johnny Fever on the show, “WKRP In Cincinnati” from the TV of yesteryear (it was funny, and weird, and heartwarming, and probably didn’t age too well). But this stream, it is magnificent. Actual intros and outtros from the show itself, with the complete songs. So great.
Like games? Wanna support a friend’s project, Game Devs of Color? They’ve put out a veritable cornucopia of games on Itch.io. So many!
Nothing, just rehabbing platypuses with their own playspace.
Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.
May you receive a good sign, may the other side of that sign also be a good sign, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy
HELLO AND THANKS FOR READING!!
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