Tumeyland

 

June 27, 2011 Acrylic and metallic dust on canvas. 17x20 inches.

by Paul Tumey Give her a break. She’s probably as scared as you are. While you are in love don’t forget to ask who made that juniper bush that grows  out of a canyon wall like a baby  carried on its mother. While you are falling ignore the parachute fly through the sky  watch the sun melting stand on a desert dune and witness the universe contract into nothingness as it tends to do. Notice the space between the stars the space between you and her  that is what’s good. You will find  the way she sleeps into you like a rock hugged by a waterfall or a juniper bush tucked into a warm and safe place Brings tears big wet wonderful surging that blur your vision. Wipe them away to water the plantings And be ready to see their tender green leaves unfolding They need you to see them Do not be afraid of the good moments with her. If you don’t want to you will not have to let them come back and haunt you. Hold this slowly dying candle to the window when night is...

June 5, 2010 I glanced a few times at this image, while painting it. At some point, a memory of rendering a large pen-and-ink drawing based on this image when I was 15 or 16 came to me. I think it was shown in a county fair 4H art show. I remember it was matted and placed on a wall across from the prize goats. On the album cover, his t-shirt prophetically shows a Triumph motorcycle. A couple of years later, he would wipe out on a Triumph, disappear from the public eye for a while, and re-invent himself. I am also shape-shifting... so perhaps that is why I painted this image. However this is an artist rendering an image from 1965 in the year 2010... and so the final painting has some of his 2010 shape in it: Click here to see a two-minute film displaying more of my paintings.

A few scans from my notebooks.  A drawing made in an organically inebriated sun-induced haze on a Kaui beach in February, 2007. That's a weather-worn tree in the drawing, clinging to the beach... I identified very much with that tree. Memphis Slim. Check out his comments on Blues In the Mississippi Night . Waiting for a couple of Moons Over My Hammy plates at Denny's, my boy and I made up this comic strip.

Mollysongs ~ For Molly B.1999  -  D. May 6, 2010 Mollydog I called her usually Molly and once in a while damn dog! She had some songs, like 'Sweet Brown Dog,' which made her smile Sweet brown dog of mine, loves to be patted on her behind and then there's MOLLY: Queen of all she sees, Molly - Queen of the seven seas, Emperess of the dog treat Majesty of the light of the moon Friend to many, enemy to no one Comforter of my bruised heart Maker of the snooze fart fog, My Molly - My sweet dog. Sometimes in the car I'd sing to her Ohhhhhhhhh there once was a dog named Molly She was quite quite jolly She loved sport but not folly thaaaaat Molly! Now I am singing the song of soul pressing mud grief missing her, and the song of gratitude for her gifts - the gift of showing I could be a father the gift of saving me from abject, desparing lonliness the gift of someone to care for when my son had to go away every week the gift of...

April 25, 2010