Amabie, a Japanese yokai for luck, but still wash your hands.

"A long-haired merperson with three scaly tails and a beak might not seem like someone you’d want in your corner, but there’s a good reason this mythological creature is gaining traction online.

The character, known as Amabie, is one of the yōkai—a class of spirits first popularized in Japanese folklore during the Edo period. According to legend, seeing and distributing Amabie’s image can keep infectious disease away. It stands to reason, then, that artists around the world are now sharing their interpretations of the classic creature on social media."

 From Smart News, Smithsonian Magazine. Read the article here.

Happy Holidays 2019

Halloween 2019 Cute and Scary!

Lately, I do not seem to draw cute well. I sent my "Tanuki's Dream" to a young friend. She informed me that it was scary.

Here is my attempt to draw a cuter tanuki for Halloween. The more I worked on it, the weirder it became. Maybe something cute and scary is more disturbing than either just scary or cute!

Well, in Japanese the words for cute, kawaii, and scary, kowai, sound very similar to my American ears.

Happy October 2019

I wanted to have some fun with a Happy Halloween drawing for this year before I became busy with other projects. The Japanese at the bottom of the pumpkin art reads, "Kabocha Goblins" and "Happy Halloween."
 
When I asked a native Japanese friend to check my script, her corrections were mainly concerned with the direction and order the strokes had been put down. This is her approved version.

I was told "kabocha goblins" is the closest translation into English for how I wrote "kabocha no obake." Other friends have told me "obake" is like a ghost or spirit of an object.

Tanuki's Dream

I did ask if my Japanese for the Weird or Strange Raccoon Dog's dream is correct. The Japanese may be correct; but if you see an angry tanuki this Halloween, let me know how it looked, not if it needed glassed but, it's appearance. I would like to know how close I guessed the cute tanuki's Hyde version.

Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Some of my old Art

Leon Redbone - "Walking Stick" Live at the 1973 Buffalo Folk Festival

Stan Lee with Roy Thomas, 1976

You an old man!

I just went out to push the apartment building’s Volkswagen sized dumpster onto the street for tomorrow's pickup. Five little, yes they were shorter than I, children were playing in the yard, maybe ages 2-5 years old. They ran up to me. The eldest in the group, pointing at my face, said, “You an old man. How old are you?”

Gee, I guess I'm thankful my eyesight is so blurry. I hadn't noticed my image in the mirror changing, other than when I needed a haircut or a shave. I think that was the first time anyone has told me I am old. I should be grateful. From now on I know my place in an expanding universe and waistline.

I was taken by surprise at this realization as much as when someone called me “sir” for the first time. I had sat at the counter of a tiny eatery on South Jefferson Street in a small town in Pennsylvania and ordered a hamburger with mustard and relish only. When my order was brought over, the waitress, several years older than I, without emotion said, “Here you are sir.” It struck me that I had never heard those words direct at me. After all, I had a week before graduated from high school and I was used to being called many other things.

When I had told this story of my new cosmic awareness to my wise sister, she encouraged me to, “Embrace it.” I think I will go outside and tell the kids to, “Get off the lawn!” but now I am afraid to go outside.




P.S.  I stepped outside to take a late afternoon walk and now my name is, "Hi old man I saw before."