Page VI- Original Erwin (and other) Illustrations

It’s Show and Tell time. I have been drawing and painting a while. Here’s a retrospective, with new stuff added as they happen and after I post them on the front page. This gives people a place to find rather than take my word that I, you know, like, draw.

All original works are, of course, or hopefully, protected by copyright. all rights to my work are reserved. Thanks for scrolling!

2015

slide, swing-back, turn and…
first try with new colored pencils… yeah, well; working on it.

Somewhere between cartoon and a rendering… needed one more redraw.

So difficult to capture women… it’s the softness. I keep trying.

“INSIDE BREAK” is the precurser to “SWAMIS,” and. the story. I wanted to tell when I started realsurfers.

It doesn’t matter what beach you go to, how big the waves are; it’s a part of the mystical ritual to get to the edge, find your inner Greg Noll (forever deified in the photo by John Severson), and prepare for the epic battle/love affair between surfer and sea. And then there’s some kid/freak channeling an inner nine year old John John… and beware, that freak could be some old guy, that weird bit of spittle drooling onto his soul patch might just be froth.
I showed this, at a bit of a distance, to my wife, Trish. She nodded, approvingly, then asked why there were so many words. “I can’t help it,” I explained. So difficult to be clever, even with a few phallic symbols and a double entendre or two. Oh,and now I’ve over-explained. Damn.

It was Easter and…

I had to put this one in. Someone got this shot of HELMET GIRL attem;pting a dropin on Keith. Nice person, actually.

This is another work by my late sister, Melissa Jo.

It’s meant to be ‘world local-er’ as in, perhaps, just a bit… yeah, you get it; a homeless person who sleeps under the pier is obviously more local than you.

This is a drawing I did for a piece on the World Mind Surfing League

This is an illustration/collage by my sister, Melissa Jo Dence Lynch. She included some pen and ink by me. The two images, below, were also by her. “Troubled Shores” has references to the statue of liberty. She never explained these to me. I have to come to my own conclusions. As do you.

2014

The work below, was done by my late sister, Melissa.

If you found or find this key, maybe you could let me know. I have a replacement key but will probably not ever have a replacement Nokumoi surf company key ring.
Taking off in a crouch, tucking-in, that moment of weightlessness… it’s why we do it… that moment; those moments.
It may say something about me, about my life; that I drew a larger version of this, got it copied in black and white, added the color to the original, had both versions reduced to a printer-friendly size, gave one to my friend, Port Townsend librarian and surfer, Keith Darrock, just as I was finishing up one painting job, rushing to another, and, not for the first time, I threw my thermos into the bin in the passenger seat, only to discover, once I arrived at Beckett Point, that I had coffee spilled on my going-home t shirt, on the original copy of a poster I’d recently finished, and… on this.
Maybe it’s just another line I keep breaking; another reminder that so much is temporary. Or maybe it… I don’t know; here it is, stains and all
There are some surfing power couples I really like: Gordon and Lynn, Cash and Tanya… okay, I’ll add my former surfing trip friend (he has new friends) Jeff and his wife, my daughter Dru’s childhood friend, Ruth, now, since she learned at a Holly Beck-led surf camp in Costa Rica a few years ago, also a surfer.
It seems that more women are getting into surfing all the time. And more are competitive with their men.
That’s all fine. That I find some surfing couples interesting and amusing. An example would be the couple that cruised their mini-van into a parking spot at a spot (non-secret) on the Straits of Juan de Fuca, The woman dealt with the children as the man threw on a short john wetsuit (it was summer, water still cold), grabbed the SUP off the roof, ran out, caught two quick waves, raced back in, stripped off the wetsuit, switched over to watching the two kids as the woman donned the same wetsuit (I’m pretty sure), walked down to the water, picked up the SUP, headed out. “I got to surf Westport last Saturday,” the husband said, “It’s her turn.” When I cleared my throat as a sort of question, he explained, “I was just showing her where to take off.” “Sure.”
Then, like individual surfers I find annoying, sometimes surf power couples (and I have called couples out, they always denying or amused by the ‘power’ part) can have that, “We’re so cool” type of self-conscious/aware that seems… okay, nevermind; don’t want to seem petty. Or, maybe, jealous.
Now, my power woman, Trish, will tell anyone that she actually rode surfboards before I did. It’s true. Okay, I have nothing more to say on the subject. Maybe later.

What really happened is this guy paddled out on a really long long board, a bit closer to dark than when I had. Since it was only Clint, me, this guy, and his girlfriend out, I thought I should ask him something. You know, seem friendly. Not that I am. Friendly. What I asked is, “Go Pro, huh?” What he said was, “Uh huh,” adding, sort of sarcastically, I felt, “And why not?” “Oh, sure,” I said, “You don’t want to miss anything.” He paddled off, caught the one wave I would see him catch, way on the inside, way down the line. I hope he got a good, um, video. I’ve always thought the shots taken from the front of the board, no matter how good the surfer is, how big the wave is, seem to really show someone doing some sort of exercising, maybe with dance tunes playing in their heads. Disco, maybe.
But really, I’d rather add something to the story, like, me asking, “So, you send a lot of selfies?” This would be responded to, with him saying, “Oh, yes, and I use a variety of social media devices.” “Uh, huh, and, um, a little light, waterproof surf makeup might be…” And he’d say, “Oh, I do my own. You never who’ll see my next viral performance, and….”
…And, and, and, and I’m still thinking of lines for him and clever and wicked lines for me, and, well, it gets confusing because then I start thinking about how awesome a go pro dealeo I could make; dropping in late, dropping sideways, free-falling, catching a rail, going highline… you know, not me, just by me of an awesome ride. By me. Me, because I don’t do selfies. Really.

2013

scratchboard wave

THIS WAS drawn in the 1990s while I was working in the sign shop at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS)

2014