Hills of Appalachie Vol. 1 No.1

Vol. 1 No. 1

An old friend once said to me, says: “Look boy, Draw’in is just about the Art by gawd; it ain’t bout the fancy-pancy art shows n galleries n exbitions n sellin n wheelin n dealin n all, tis just about the satisfackshun of what ye’ve done, that minor genesis of creation sparkin’ forth more of its own…”

This is not the easiest lesson to take to heart. Matter of speaking though it was just that simple at first before you ever learnt anything different. The slow warp of time tending to stretch and twist those original notions all around until they’re blended with all the other youthful fascinations into that so called adult “sophistication.”

So now I’ve been wander’in the hills here in Tennessee and scribblin’ and scrawlin’ in my ol’ sketchinpad for a good many stretch of years now and seeing the strangeness of life here unfold like a flower to the dawn – not by tracing familiar paths but by shouldering up the tattered green rucksack and slowly traveling this evolving landscape; walking the streets of the old city to witness the sallow faces of urban decay; to the transitional world on the outside of town through fields overgrown and old farmlands succumbed to the sprawl of suburbia between the ridgelines; to the mountains in the east with a hobo’s solitude and the promise of nature and mystery forever untold.

And these footpaths take me up and around and back again and always allude to my friend’s old decree that the art you make along the way is just for the art of art and the tireless and contemplative journey throughout and within.

So with this in mind I just draw what is in these old whispering hills and aging towns. Sometimes with lots of plain ol’ fact, sometimes with enigmatic fable, but always in the eddy of their swirlin’ confluence.

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I saw this fellow gesticulating strange-like down the cracked sidewalk along the outer walls of the Old Gray Cemetery. At first I thought he was “tetched in the head” as we Tennessee natives would describe someone acting a little crazy, but really the guy was vigorously pursuing a sizeable black rat snake with a broom in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.
I just figured he was trying to charm that poor ol’ snake hillbilly style: