when i'm sixty-four
i remember the first time that i listened to the beatles song from their sgt. pepper album. unfortunately, my parents didn't have the later beatles, they only had the vinyl of the beatles from their early times, which is unfortunate, since most of the beatles best work was produced in the last three albums. as matter of fact, i think john lennon's best work was when he was solo, towards the latter part of his life. his work was more soulful, it was more introspective and the power of john lennon was that he was writing how the collective unconscious was feeling, whether it was an intentional facade to sell more records - i don't know, but he did it well.
the song was the opening theme to "the world according to garp." which is a great john irving book, by the way, that details the odd life of one man from childhood to manhood. i read that book about 3 times during my adolescence. and as an adult, ts garp finds that his mother houses a group of man-hating women. of course, he feels guilty and then rageful to have to feel guilty for all the men in the world. of course, those women had many reasons for their gender specific hatred; most of them were abused, either sexually, physically, or mentally, when they were either children or adults. as a child, i saw many women that hated men too, because their husbands either abused them or neglected them. and i thought, 'man, i'm gonna be a nice guy, so that my wife never feels that way about me.'
but then, i have to wonder - what is a nice guy? the guy who finishes last? the guy who gets walked over? perhaps it's a man that rarely, or ever, gets his desires fulfilled because he must sacrifice them for the happiness of his wife? maybe the man-hating is a stage of women, developed by oprah and the lifetime network, during their 30s? maybe the man-hating has more to do with their own worldview? i have no idea, but i wish that i had the cure. sometimes, living in a house full of girls, i feel like ts garp.
"will you still feed me,
will you still need me,
when i'm sixty-four?"
no? yea, i didn't think so.
i drew this skull and rose in less than 2 hours, which gives me hope, 'cuz years ago, it would've taken me days to complete this very easy drawing. i still like it, tho - and the prismacolor blending marker makes the colors bleed together in the easiest fashion. gawd, i love that pen.
title: skully rose
medium: prismacolor pencils on cheap sketchbook paper