Me passport hasn’t been stamped in two years. That’s right, I said me.
Marbled Paper
Back to illustrating on marbled paper. I like cutting out the shapes and gluing them down. I always wonder what will happen once I start drawing. It's a surprise waiting to happen. Here's the result.
Toys
My nephew has outgrown toys. He plays video games and watches cartoons where all the characters use the f-word. So in order to do a drawing when I visit him, I have to scrounge high and low to dig up a few old mangy toys that have yet to be purged. This is the best I could do.
Escape
Recently 40 beef cows escaped from a slaughterhouse in Pico RIvera, California. They roamed through the suburban neighborhood after leaving death row. It took the prison authorities all day to round up the escapees. I was always under the impression that once a cow escaped a slaughterhouse they were given a reprive. Seems I was wrong. Only one inmate was sent to an animal sanctuary. The others were electrotcuted and ground into patties. Oh well.
Website
I do have a website where you can see tons of my rubbish all in one easy to digest place. Hours of fun for the kids and grandma too. It has some nudies too. Pervs will love that section. Go to tommykane.com if you want to get sucked into the vortex.
Vase
I drew this typical vase I found on the street in Brooklyn.
Don't Kill Animals
I watched a seminar about the production of cultivated meat without killing cows. Today, a biopsy of cells the size of a peppercorn is taken from a cow. From this sample up to 80,000 hamburgers can be grown under lab conditions more humanly and with less environmental impact than tradition farming. It’s done in what looks like those giant tanks that beer gets brewed in. The grown meat is identical to that of a killed cow. Plus it can be made into any steak-like shape using 3D printing technology. With the world population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, increasing our current animal slaughter is beyond unsustainable. If people can’t alter their eating habits, then alternatives like this will have to do. Scientists see the environmental disaster looming and are desperate to make alrenatives. I won’t eat this stuff but hopefully meat addicts will.
Franklin
A sound argument can be made that Aretha is the best ever.
Joni
It's been Joni Mitchell week for the last few weeks.
Stillman & Birn
These are two new sketchbooks that STILLMAN & BIRN were kind enough to send to me. Usually, I put stickers all over the covers of my sketchbooks. This time I did something different. Wanting to have my sketchbooks appear special and unique when I whip them out in front of other artist types, I hand painted designs with acrylics. Doing this probably has more to do with insecurity then confidence. I need to telegraph the fact that I’m decent at sketch booking to mollify the not good enough fears lurking below the surface. All the psychology aside, I do like how they turned out when I was done.
Octopus Teacher
I hope everyone watched the documentary, My Octopus Teacher. It’s playing on Netflix. It won the Academy Award this year for best documentary. You get to see an octopus in the wild develop a real friendship with a human being. If you still want to eat calamari after seeing this film, then something is mentally wrong with you. It is sad that these underwater friends of ours not only have to deal with the onslaught of garbage, climate change, and pollution, but they also must hide from every low-end chef on the planet. Can’t be an easy life. Let’s start thinking of them as neighbors and not as deep-fried appetizers.
Whale Tale
It's hard for me to think about the ocean without reality creeping in.
Seaspiracy
In the conversation about not eating meat or animal products, one thing always gets overlooked. Seafood. I often hear people say, “I eat almost no meat anymore, just fish.” It’s a typical refrain. Seafood has marketed itself quite smartly as health food. The problem is, it’s not so healthy for the oceans, the planet, or the animals themselves. Even other vegan artists never really do art about this subject. I’m off on my own little island. Now that summer is upon us, the air is once again filled with the scent of barbequing, overfished, farmed or illegally caught fishies assisting in the continued depletion. It smells like victory.
