GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Alphabet Magic

  • kilo

    I had a lot of fun with a pencil for graphing a graffiti style versal. The pencil lets me fly around with light lines to find the right shapes, but I can still erase or crank up the density and line weights to sculpt the shape to my liking.

    Either way, it’s less stressful than ink…and with my architecture sketching background, I willing to live with the unfinished look.

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    My father-in-law lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last week. He fought for three seasons until finding his rest in the early morning.

    That day, I stayed at home with the kids while my wife and her mom made arrangements. They played on their computers while I listened to podcasts while working on a jigsaw puzzle that had been sprawled across the playroom mat for a month.

    When she came home, we took a walk around the neighborhood school. The boy then played with our neighbors. They wanted to stroll around the school too.

    So we did.

    — May 2026

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  • juliet

    This feels properly swoopy with a nice plum accent for this lovely word.

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    He started wobbly, paused constantly, tumbled a couple of times, but in an hour he was peddling down the straight away and making wide looping turns!

    between bike sessions we went to the playground.
    he’s always passive on the swings,
    but not today, riding next to his sister.

    I gave a good push
    he extended his legs and exclaimed “sun”
    and he folded them back, saying “bank”

    — sun — bank
    — sun — bank
    — sun — bank
    — sun — bank
    — sun — bank

    higher and higher!
    he was finally swinging himself
    with a mantra all his own.

    — December 2023

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  • india

    Along with my current gothic scripty kick and the standby pointed brush cursive, this chunky wide brush has been consistently satisfying, especially when pushed to the extreme.

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    He taped a red jar cap to the wall and pressed the button each time he headed out to school.

    The boy tripped and bumped his head over the baby-gate.
    Installed three years ago, when he was a toddler.

    Stayed to keep him sleepwalking down.
    Now it’s just in the way.

    Was in the way.
    The hallway feels brand new!

    —November 2023

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  • hotel

    Before starting the NATO run, I worked through Arthur Baker’s book of swash capitals. The straight brush also loves the blocky forms of Rudolf Koch’s Neuland. The two got mashed together here.

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    After tower defense on Blooket,
    They made me a night zombie,
    Seeking brains in the dark while
    They hid under folded sleeping pad huts.

    Brains, brains!

    Morning comes the sun!
    Away I go!
    They ran into the playroom to fortify
    With pot lid shields and
    Miso containers shooting arrows.

    pew pew pew!

    Dangerous labor,
    This zombie gig.

    —September 2023

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  • golf

    and a few monsters.

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    blarg blarg beasts

    they waved their arms like noodles
    splayed legs meander through the bedroom
    if you get close to another blarg blarg, give them a big hug!
    i blarg-ed Mama.

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    he said i was a ready monster.
    ready, reaady, reaaady
    flapping little arms like a t-rex

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    i’m an oig monster
    walking through the kitchen
    hunched over
    bent chicken wing arms

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    a baoulu baoulu
    hovers around the safe zone
    breast strokes to swoop
    kids hopping off their beds
    dragged into the dark

    —August 2023

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  • foxtrot

    I had a lot of trouble with the cursive on this one. I need to go back to more rigid practice and to rebuild into a more expressive script.

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    I tried drawing with my right hand
    she exclaimed that’s easy!

    sketching at dinner
    he saw me staring

    he dove under
    she did too

    they didn’t want
    bad monster to draw them

    I switched targets—
    mama, surfing the phone

    —August 2023

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  • echo

    It took many tries to get the two tone brush to work. I don’t recall being happy with any of the results, even after the edits in the computer. Another month later, I’m really happy with this one.

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    they piled stuffies on the chair and called me to the room

    I stood behind the chair and held up my hand

    she grabbed a plastic tube
    set it down,
    dropped a quarter,
    and pushed the joystick

    zzt zzzt zzzzt
    BOOP!

    the hand descended
    grabbed Bear-Bear and George

    they slipped out,
    try again!

    this time, Peppa

    and again!

    a Boggle set
    and Unicorn

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    a few weeks later at Primm

    in front of a claw machine.

    I had only one dollar

    we got a Pikachu!

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    —August 2023

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  • delta

    Just a simple attempt with foundational hand, albeit with the ascenders slightly short.

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    Reinhard Staupe designed this little, brilliant memory game, Sherlock: go around a circle of eight cards and name them before flipping them up. If you land on a card that you previously remembered, grab the card, refill the slot, and flip the other cards back down for the next player’s turn.

    As an adult with too much on my mind, my daughter absolutely destroys me. The boy can play too. He doesn’t play well, but he understands the rules.

    The joy is in watching the kids play together. They find certain cards hilarious for no obvious reason. Especially the sock, which is absolutely, gut wrenchingly funny.

    Not the drawing, it’s just a green calf-length sock. The illustrator wasn’t trying to be funny. The publisher told Oliver Freudenreich to draw a sock, which he did.

    But don’t tell that to the kids—that sock taps into the raw, mystical connection developed over four years of fighting, crying, and laughing.

    —February 2022

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  • charlie

    It’s only been a few months since I made this piece and I’m not sure if I could do it again (it took so attempts to even get to this one!)

    Looking at it with fresh eyes, I also wonder if the h should have tied into the flourish of the C. Such combinations rarely work, but it hits every once in a while. One reason I take so many shots.

    The ink is a Noodlers Red-Black that was super dark, but watered down to this lovely burgundy.

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    I wandered into a game store and asked the salesman for suggestions now that kids have preferences that I can describe.

    I walked out with a couple of games that will be put in a big box of games that I’ve bought for the kids, to be slowly shared over birthdays and holidays.

    While driving home, I realized that we only got six more with her. Ten with him, before the nest is empty.

    They grow up so fast, hopefully that box will be empty by 2036.

    —January 2026

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  • bravo

    Even a 9×12 sheet can’t fit a 3″ brush without ligatures and a pile of failures.

    At this point, it’s only remarkable when I’m satisfied after a few attempts.

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    Years ago, we bought a toy bird for the girl that records and repeats short snippets. The boy is now well past her age then, but two fresh batteries and it squawks again. They’re upstairs, talking, singing. and laughing at distorted tweets.

    In the other ear, Mama is on the phone, searching nutrition labels for high protein, high calorie foods to stem Grandpa’s weight loss. My mind searches for anything to thread these competing conversations across electronics, but I come up empty.

    Life isn’t tidy.

    —16 November 2025

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