It is Sunday and the Easter holiday in Los Angeles and I just felt a very long earthquake [Update: NOw people are saying it was a 6.9 - 7.2 magnitude quake in Baja Mexico). It was a pretty big quake, and went on longer than most Earthquakes i have felt in Japan and California. It just happened a few minutes ago, but people on twitter are saying that they felt it in Phoenix Arizona which is 600 km away or so. I am scared that it might have been very big somewhere. I hope everyone is okay. In Japan, old myths say that earthquakes are caused by a catfish in the center of the world who keeps flopping around. I wish he would go to sleep.
A LITTLE BIRD COMES AND GOES
Aka Shobin is a bright red kingfisher bird. His beak thick and handsome and red. He flies in the forest of Izumo, and sits on old temple tops at night. Bright red, but not so easy to see because he hides in trees and grasses.
Koyuki was at her window and looking out at the sun. It was rising up and there was dew dropping from the flower petals as ume was starting to blossom. Aka shobin was perched there, and was heavy and made the plum branch droop. Aka shobin's neck moved in jerky, robotic bird movement, and with his eye he saw Koyuki and she saw him.
Koyuki was larger than any bird aka shobin had seen before, and her feathers were long and stringy like a kosagi's mating plummage....and they only sprouted from her head, the rest of her was naked and bare, like a vulture in reverse. Aka-Shobin felt bad for staring and flapped on into the forest.
Koyuki watched the ume tree shake as aka shobin pushed off, and the dew drops rained down all at once like a solitary storm. and the aka shobin became a flash of red that blurred away into the cedar forest.
Now, Every spring morning, when ume is in bloom, Koyuki stands at her window and watches for Aka Shobin.
Koyuki was drawn at a figure drawing class when I got bored. She is charcoal and pastel on fancy french charcoal paper from garage sale.
Aka Shobin looks like this.
Ume blossom looks like this
Kosagi's mating plumage looks like this
Easter is a time for Labbits
Today is a Good Friday, and so Easter is coming soon. Easter is a good time for drawing labbits because they easily hope into your imagination. I didn't mean or plan to draw these labbits, but they accidentally came onto the paper while I was painting. The one of many labbits...was just a big blue shape at first....and then I saw the labbits hiding in it...and drew their outline with a pen. They thanked me, because it is a difficult life to be a creature with ambiguous shape.
LABBITS
UNHAPPY JACOB is also an Easter Labbit. Do you remember him?
Cows in my Mouth at Langer's Deli
On Monday , I visited the MacArthur Park area in Los Angeles and made this video. It has many handsome murals, including one by Hector Ponce, and one with a handsome piggy.
It's also is the home of Langer's Deli. People in Los Angeles say that it has the best pastrami in the world. I put some of the pastrami, and corn beef hash in my mouth and tasted it. I don't know if it is the best in the world, but it was yummy.
Dog and Rabbit is together
Dog and rabbit first met in a lonesome green meadow after the rain had stopped. Rabbit likes to sniff flowers and grasses when they are wet and Dog likes to eat the grasses sometimes, even though it makes his tummy hurt afterwards. They have a lot in common. Dog can get lonesome running around in meadow grasses, but not when there is Rabbit to be near. Rabbit wants to hop on Dogs back for a bumpy ride, but she doesn't know how to ask.
Here is another picture of Dog and Rabbit, but Rabbit is located outside of the picture, so you have to imagine her sitting there. Are you imagining her yet? How about now? Ok.
