Roger De Muth

For the birds.

When you look at something long enough, eventually the plan becomes so obvious that you wonder why you didn’t see it earlier. “What the hell does that mean?”
Ideas and plan for arbors and Chinese Pagoda to be built in the Fire Swamp.
See earlier post for an explanation.

About 5 years ago, we purchased the property across the street from our home.
Someone before us bulldozed all the trees and left them in a huge clump and then tried to burn them. Dirt and stumps don’t burn well.
Anyway, we cleaned it up and took 16 dump truck loads of stumps away.
Here is one of the dozens of drawings I’ve done and the plan. It is turned 90 degrees from the panoramic photo below of the site.
In the drawing on the top right is a R.O.U.S. (rodent of unusual size) as my homage to the ‘Princess Bride’ -one of my favorite movies. I’d like to make large topiary rats and place them thoughout the woods some day.
After I do a million drawings of something, I know it intimately, and can proceed with the construction. I culled cedar trees from the property to build the chinese pagoda and arbors. Fall is a good time to start Chinese Pagodas in New York State. Good Feng Shui.
I must have a lot of time on my hands, or forgotten how to sleep. Sleep is for wimps anyway. Stay tuned.

Here’s my newest book that should be on the shelves in September. It’s won the Wacky Award from Publisher’s Weekly!
Here’s a clip from the publisher’s Weekly: Most Impassioned Plea to Embrace Vegetarianism:
Please Don’t Eat Me by Roger DeMuth, in which a fish begs not to become an entreé (Blue Apple)
For autographed copies, please email me, or check your local book store.

I shot 1500 pictures of Joan Green’s Garden recently for a book project I’ve been working on. This is an oak on her property. I stole the neighbors views to shoot this image. It’s a composite photograph made up of dozens of images stitched together.
The garden is incredible, and was recently on the Open Days Garden Conservancy tour along with my own garden. She sets a new standard in garden care.
Try this when you get a chance: Photoshop CS3> file> automate> photomerge , you’ll like it. It changed the way I shoot photos. Take a look: www.mrpanoramaman.com

I like Old San Juan. It’s old. This is in the town square where the taxi drivers sit waiting for their next fare.
The fort has been around since the 1600’s and everything else around it was ancient too. I did some paintings on the bus that are some of my favorites.
On a painting… I take notes on the back of the art, note colors, details etc, and then paint it in the hotel room or when I get home. I use a dip pen, and sepia india ink. Sometimes with a pencil sketch underneath or if I feel confident, then right to ink.

Here’s a drawing with overpainting of writer Lewis Beale from a photo in the NY Times.
It looks like a thousand cat scratch brush strokes forming the face. I thought I stumbled onto something and that if I did thousands of cat scatch portraits they would all look as nice as this one. It was going to be wonderful, and every drawing I did would look incredible, and it was a formula that was going to work… every time. All my drawings would be incredible. Life was SOLVED!
Oh, well. you know the ending. A happy accident. Life has returned to normal. Each good drawing is a struggle. A fluke in the sketchbook of life.
Anyway, if you see this drawing and like it Lewis, let me know. It’s a favorite of mine.

Every now and then you get a good drawing. I like this one. Keep drawing, everyday. It makes your brain work better. Smear your drawings with coffee, orange juice, sparkling water, or soda. You’ll like them better.
If you’re hungry in the desert someday, you can eat them too. They’ll taste good. Who says art isn’t functional?

I take my moleskin with me everywhere. Here’s a page with drawings from a lecture by Tracy Kidder. A few members of the audience are in the circles around the page.

I did this drawing of Kanzi the Bonobo Ape who was part of an article on intelligence in National Geographic. Kanzi can speak several languages, type 60 words a minute, uses Photoshop CS3, and works on a Mac. Hey………………… just kidding and wanted to see if you are paying attention. He really writes code on a PC………. now STOP it, Roger.
I devised a clever method of doing drawings to illustrate what I was talking about while in Portugal at the top of this sketchbook page. Pictionary was my way of talking in Pictures. Unfortunately, the only person I met that spoke English, was a Chinese Man working in a Chinese restaurant in Evora. I’m not sure whether the words he told me were in Chinese, or Portuguese.
Kanzi wherefore art thou?