Sunday Afternoon

click on image to enlarge

It was a day like any other. Only days were no longer like that.

This quick graphic done using Sumo.

My Greatest Life Art Lesson

click on image to read the very first words I hear.

I turn; nervous for the silence. My right hand reaches for the door. Simultaneous comes the command.

Curdle blood snarling erupts from the landing at the top of the high stair that leads directly up from the back door. A massive hand grips the huge black German Shepard's collar. The other holds a gun. Pointed. Lunging attack beast's front legs flail the air, massive white teeth flashing, spittle sparkling as it flies in all directions, from the dimmly lit stair.


He bellows with a violence that mirrors the crushing volume of the barking: "This dog is trained to attack women!! Don't move!!"

Freeze frame.

A long drawn out slow motion.

this graphic done using Sumo . Rendered quickly, no need to linger.

There will be another dream for me

Click on image to enlarge


Is there ever any particular spot where one can put one's finger and say, "It all began that day, at such a time and such a place, with such an incident? Agatha Christie

Opening the door I knew in my gut that something was amiss. However on this day as most others since my recent ordeal I was not a resident of my body. It had been through quite enough. I'm 18. I'm looking for a holiday. I've come here to visit my group of friends. I don't want to think about all that my body and heart have just been through.

The house is silent. Eerily quiet.

I look to the left. The dining room is empty. The table is scattered with fabrics lying in wait about the sewing machine. The four Bose speakers stand tall in their respective corners. Mute.

I look to the right there is no one at the large welcoming kitchen table, its benches akimbo as though someone recently pushed heels against the floor, turning to leave.

Which is what I do.


This quick retrospective sketch done in Sumo...

Sounds of Silence

You know when you know and you ignore what you know? It was like that. I just wanted my pals to be inside doing what they always did, making jokes, music, fabulous food, and amazing art. There's so much to catch up on, that big old kitchen table is just waiting to gather our laughter and news.


No bikes, no cars...oh well, I certainly can't turn around and go back across town, besides, the back door is always open. I'll just hop the stairs onto the porch and walk in.


Someone is sure to be there soon.


Sumo graphic of the back porch.

There's Something Happening Here...

As I drive across town I imagine I am quite 'out of my body'. It's been less than 6 weeks since I gave birth and relinquished my baby to Catholic Charities Adoption. Then I came back to my parent's house and hear that a boyfriend had died alone in his apartment from a drug and alcohol overdose. After that shock I am informed that I will be living with strangers next door to my family home.

So having permission to borrow mother's car for this sunny Sunday afternoon gives me the freedom to begin to reconnect to the lives of friends. I'm going to visit a raucous group who are pursuing dreams as artists, musicians and poets. This group shares a big old dorm house on the campus of Case Western Reserve. Even being so oddly out of my body I feel happy that I will see them all, hear the music and have the chance to simply hang out.

An hour earlier the guy on the phone had told me that everyone was across the street in the park playing touch football. When I arrive there's no sign of them. Pulling into the driveway feels odd. There are no bikes leaning against the porch railing. There is no music floating out of the open windows into the small back yard.

This quick graphic done in Sumo shows the back of the house as I pull in.