BLOOD RED

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.
—Revelation 6:12-13

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Clockwise from upper left: (1) filtered sun over the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve; (2) filtered sun at sunset; (3) match-and-hand "dragon" and night setting on the camera; (4) blood-red half moon at twilight.

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The sky is filled with haze from the wildfires that are devouring Eastern Washington. The sun is hazy orange throughout the day, blood-orange at dawn and dusk. The half moon is blood red. The dragon hunts in the night.

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Sometimes the world just feels apocalyptic. Sometimes it isn't even a recognizable violence. Sometimes it is quiet and still. Sometimes it seethes.

Sometimes it is less "unveiling" and more small, near-silent voice.

FROST PARK: NIGHTFALL

"Nightfall" by Troy's Work Table. Frost Park Chalk Off. Friday 21 August 2015.

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After "Wildfire Shadowbox," I had some spare time, so I just started scribbling and sketching. It was charcoal first and then chalk, followed by more charcoal.

FROST PARK: WILDFLOWER SHADOWBOX

"Wildfire Shadowbox" by Troy's Work Table. Frost Park Chalk Off. Friday 21 August 2015.

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Eastern Washington burns. The wildfires continue to grow and devour more land. To stop the haunting I needed to put the nightmare down in chalk on concrete. So I did.

Not my best piece, but very cathartic.

THE METAL NOW

Right now, TWT is in a bit of a metal mood.

Meir (2013) by Kvelertak.

Blackjazz (2010) and One One One (2013) by Shining.

There Is No Land Beyond the Volga (2013) by Jucifer.

Hosannas from the Basements of Hell (2006) by Killing Joke.

Australasia (2003) by Pelican.

Legend II (1998) by Saviour Machine.

Once More 'Round the Sun (2014) by Mastodon.

Sunbather (2013) by Deafheaven.

SALMON SPIRIT II and III

"Salmon Spirit II" by Troy's Work Table. Milton Days. Saturday 15 August 2015.


"Salmon Spirit III" by Troy's Work Table. Carport concrete. Saturday 15 August 2015.

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TWT stopped by Milton Days since he heard there was a chalk art contest for all ages. The chalk box came out and there was an attempt to get another "Salmon Spirit" onto the pavement. The problem was that the canvas was asphalt, which was older and pitted. That meant that the chalk and charcoal and pastels bounced about and there was no good way to get detail on the ground. To compensate, there was an attempt to get more color on the ground than initially intended.

So, TWT decided to draw another "Salmon Spirit" upon arriving home. The newer and smoother concrete was a much more agreeable canvas than the asphalt. The chalk and charcoal and pastels glided where intended. The details were crisp. The colors were bold. The cooperation of the medium allowed for the salmon spirit to finally swim as it intended. This improved salmon spirit allowed the chalk muse to let this picture go and stopped haunting TWT.

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The difficulty of chalking the asphalt meant it took almost an hour to chalk a rough and unsatisfying piece. The ease of chalking the concrete meant it took just slightly less than fifteen minutes to chalk a piece that one could be happy with.

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You can view more comparison pictures of "Salmon Spirit II" and "Salmon Spirit III" HERE.

FROST PARK: THE WATCHER

Detail of "The Watcher" by Troy's Work Table. Chalk art for Friday 14 August 2015 at Frost Park.

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There's been a lot of talk (and pop-science articles) in the past few days about octopuses being aliens. It's about difference from who we are as humans/homo sapiens—tasting with skin and suckers, the largest eye of any invertebrate, a nervous system that is essentially a neural network, independent nerve control of arms from the main brain, skin that can camouflage due to a complex network of chromatophores, the ability to spray ink, a body that can squeeze into/through any hole that it's beak can get into/through, et cetera.

They are not aliens, although they are watching. And waiting. The question is: for what?

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View more pictures of "The Watcher" HERE.

FROST PARK: PUPPETS and OVERLORDS

"Puppets and Overlords" by Troy's Work Table. Chalk art for Friday 07 August 2015 at Frost Park.

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"I saw a beast rising out of the sea having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names."
—REVELATION 13:1

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While I was watching the main "debate" by the top-ten-polling Republican candidates for the office of President of the United States last night, I kept hoping for something of substance, but didn't find much there. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I did notice the number of people on stage (10) and heard a bunch of talk about "the donor class" "buying" "the political class"—and people on stage trying to claim to be one or the other, or distance themselves from the same.

I couldn't help but think of the powers in the biblical book of Revelation and the numbers and symbolism with which they are represented. And then it was pretty easy to push it into the realm of satire and tentacled alien overlords and puppet politicians.

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You can view more photographs of the ten chalk politician "horns"—Christie, Rubio, Carson, Walker, Trump, Bush, Huckabee, Cruz, Paul, and Kasich—and the seven overlord "heads"—Rough, Roost, Master, Blaster, Index, Right, and Rex—HERE.

GEOLOGIC

"Geologic" by Troy's Work Table. Chalk art for Tuesday 04 August 2015. Jason Lee Middle School, Tacoma.

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We headed up to Arts Night Out at Jason Lee Middle School in Tacoma. The event was hosted for the seventh year in a row by Hilltop Artists. In addition to demonstrations of glassblowing, Hilltop Artists invited other neighborhood and local organizations to celebrate the night with them. So, there were skateboarding demonstrations, T-shirt making, restaurants, and, of course, chalk art!

TALLYING

"There remained the handful of gold dollars in his secret sack, never mind how much they came to; had he not engaged himself in the Western dream, in order to find out what he truly expected of himself, he might have gone on believing, as do so many broken down citizens, that the history of America is the tallying of what we all once had in cash."

—pages 28-29, The Dying Grass by William T. Vollmann

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I've started the simultaneously thrilling and daunting task of reading the fifth dream in the "Seven Dreams" series by William T. Vollmann. The publication of volume/dream five (as well as it being the fifth of the seven books published, following volumes 1, 2, 6, and 3) comes twenty-five years after the publication of the first volume/dream (The Ice-Shirt) and fourteen years after the publication its most recent predecessor (Argall). It is also easily the most voluminous dream, being just over 1200 pages of story and another 150 or so pages of chronologies, glossaries, and notes on the text (all the latter in a smaller font).

So I head off into a novel of the Nez Perce War...