The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Art

  • Driveway Flat Cat

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Three thoughts on “Driveway Flat Cat.” 1. The title may sound like a tragedy, but it’s actually a pretty happy thing: A sidewalk chalk sketch of a cheerful bipedal feline, possibly wearing clothes, possibly jumping up off of the curved blue line beneath him. 2. Art on paper is tame and easily warehoused, but this…

  • The Theology of Homestar Runner

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Back in the ’60s, Robert L. Short had a surprise bestseller with a book on The Gospel According to Peanuts. Short had a lot to work with in a strip like Peanuts, whose creator Charles Schulz was documentably preoccupied with spiritual matters. But finding the theology of Homestar Runner is another matter altogether. There isn’t…

  • Classic Car

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Great attention has been paid to the contours of this car body. From the steep climb of the car’s snub nose to the semicircular arc of its rear, this car is one clean contour. In fact, if you start at the front you can see two lines that don’t quite come together. Those are actually…

  • Cat in Rocket

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Wheeee, I’m a cat in a rocket! I’m zooming around at high speeds, a feline making a beeline (if you will). No stopping this cat, no sir. I’m just zooming around and around and… hey, why am I zooming around? I’m just going in circles! I’m — I’m– I’m on a rocket ride at an…

  • Van Morrison Wants a Danish and You Have Ringworm

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    I’ve got a weakness for spectacularly bad music, and I’m also a fan of Van Morrison. Normally these two passions of mine have nothing to do with each other. But once upon a time, long about 1967, young genius Van Morrison was contractually obligated to make another album for a producer he was quite finished…

  • Life of the Butterfly

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    O Butterfly, you fling yourself into the air with reckless abandon, smiling as you climb into the sky. But what’s this? A single egg drops from the mother butterfly as she flies? In reality, butterflies tend to lay between a hundred and two hundred eggs. We know this not from observation but from reliable authorities.…

  • Insight Beyond the Average

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    “To become an artist, one must become a total person. The broader the base of general education, the more able the artist is to cope with the environment. I believe, too, that gratitude for life itself is basic to the development of insight beyond the average.” Millard Sheets (1907-1989) Quoted in Lovoos and Penney, Millard…

  • Cat Draws Boy

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Freddy Age Six draws a drawing of a cat sitting upright at a table, drawing a drawing of something I know not what (je ne sais claws). The table not only supports the cat’s work tools (box of crayons to his left, box of juice to his right, page in front of him), but it…

  • Little Pony

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Gesture is everything in this whimsical depiction of a pony. What moment has the artist captured? The pony throws back her head and shakes her mane with such spirit that it is hard to believe her front hooves are solidly planted on the ground. It would be pressing the four-year-old artist’s gestural bravura too literally…

  • Attentive Cat, Mouse with Cheese

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    This cat (by an artist age 6.5) is all circles, curves, and friendliness. See how he extends his paws outward generously from his body. The only sharp corners on him are the points of his fuzzy ears. No claws on those teddy-bear paws, and no fangs in that sweet muzzle. But conspicuously absent from the…

  • Planes and more planes

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Consider airplanes. They are simple structures, with a certain minimalist elegance. They are necessarily aerodynamic, with the happy result that their sleek horizontal lines appeal to the eye of any aesthete. The binding logic of motion and force dictate most of their structure, including the delicately nuanced perpendicular of the wings sprouting from the body.…

  • Can I Get It With The Apple Dippers?

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    I guess if it weren’t for a road trip, I might have missed this altogether: Doug TenNapel’s Catscratch is the theme of the current Happy Meals at McDonald’s! Splee! TenNapel is the mad genius whose singular Turlock brain virus has infected video games, animated cartoons, and graphic novels in recent years. For anyone who’s followed…