GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Alphabet Magic

  • Celestial carabiners clanked across charming cliffs, calling coyly, “Come climb, come climb.”

    An outline handsketch of a hand shaping the ASL American manual letter “C”, in red ink on a yellow spiral bound steno notebook.
    A series of stones on concrete, transitioning from green, through blue to violet and magenta to blood red.

    My parents dropped by our place in the morning to give the kids polished stones from a roadside stand on the way to the Grand Canyon. After they left, the girl sorted the collection before coming inside for breakfast.

  • Blonde bonobos bounced boorishly, brazenly belching behind brunette beavers belligerently bereaving burst bubbles by beige barbed birches.

    An outline handsketch of a hand shaping the ASL American manual letter “A”, in red ink on a yellow spiral bound steno notebook.
    Pink and blue yoga mats on beige tile, strewn with scrap paper and toilet paper tubes.

    Last week, our daughter designed and built a roller coaster from materials at home. Watching the girl press against her 3rd grade deadline surfaced messy memories of late night college studios.

  • Angry aardvarks advertantly abducted an airship at Akita Airport absurdly assuming acerbic albatrosses abducted an adolescent aye aye.

    An outline handsketch of a hand shaping the ASL American manual letter “A”, in red ink on a yellow spiral bound steno notebook.
    A faded pink pillow with a giant tear down the center and exposed stuffing.

    Many years ago, a BoardGameGeek user in Australia asked me to receive several shipments before his arrival in Vegas to attend a friend’s steampunk themed wedding.

    When he came to pick up the games, his wife gave me this pink handmade pillow with chibi Star Wars characters for my newborn daughter.

    Last year, I joined Post.news. The open and accepting crowd inspired me to start drawing again after years of fearful, constipated dormancy.

    I started a series of hand sketches forming the ASL manual alphabet.
    After a few letters I started adding alliterative sentences.
    A month into this exercise, I was forced back into the office.

    Reinserting a commute into my routine was so disruptive that I dropped the project before completing it.

    ~

    A couple weeks ago I also joined Substack Notes. One of the first folks I met was Charlene Storey, who started a weekly ritual to share pictures of “everyday magic”.

    Given my interest in the mundane objects that surround us (I earned my 2003 NaNoWriMo by writing about the stuff in my tiny garage apartment), it’s a perfect way to jump into the new stream.

    ~

    I should finish the alphabet series, but I also like this new weekly thing and I don’t want to wait half a year before archiving these memories.

    So for the next 26 weeks, I’ll be doing a series of unplanned diptychs. Let’s see how it goes.