Sunday funnies, though maybe that's not the word

 

Things are a bit of a mess over here at clerkmanifesto's headquarters in France.

In France! 

What the hell? How did we get to France? Wasn't I working at a library in Minnesota for like, forever?

Sorry, I get a bit disoriented occasionally.

Anyway, there are all these art posters and drawings scattered in my computer and I have cartoons of Doris the super intelligent alien everywhere. I've got to get some of this organized so I can tell you more about France eventually. It's very interesting here what with the baguettes and, er, um, with the, uh...

Well maybe the bloom is off the rose a tiny bit, but it's coming back! We're even going on a trip to Montpellier to see the oldest botanical garden in Europe. So hang in there.

In the meantime there are a host of physical ailments I'm dealing with that I don't want to talk about, and there are all these delightful Doris cartoons to share, which is an especially appropriate thing to do on a Sunday, for those of you who remember newspapers.

Don't be silly, there aren't any newspapers anymore.

Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me that outside of the most fanatically devoted clerkmanifesto readers (I'm one, it's a very unusual hobby!), many of you, despite seeing a fair share of Doris over the last several days, might not be fully up to speed on just who this diminuative alien is.

So I have prepared an introductory cartoon poster, personally approved by Doris, and suitable for framing. Though it covers the basics mostly, I think even Doris experts might find a tidbit or two of new information in it. For instance, even I, a longtime friend and associate, had no idea about the dogs!

Oh, right, and I said there would be regular sunday funny cartoons today too. Though mostly now they'll be reinforcing what you learned above.

Here are two:

A special clerkmanifesto post just for you!

 

This one is for you. You know who you are.

And even if you don't think it's you, it is!

My art career takes off in europe!

Maybe seeing all my interesting artwork you were wondering, like that one guy with the long grey hair always did at the library, why am I not a successful professional artist?

Or as he put it "You should do something with your art!"

I know.

I really should.

Mostly what I do is make art, and then occasionally I dip into thinking that a lot more people should like it. But I haven't gotten a ton further than that.

Until now!

Check out my exciting upcoming shows!!!!

When words fail

 

Sometimes words fail me. 

So I do something else, and then I have a lot to say about it.

I have been working on a self portrait today. And after creating, drawing, and designing many layers, I found myself having a hard time just being finished.  Perhaps this reflects my currently unsettled feelings? So I have ended up with many different versions of this same image. Do I show you one? Or do I show you many?

I managed to get it down to four. I've arranged them into something that looks a little like a progression:

Alien spotted in the South of France

 

Perhaps my recent obsession with pictures of Doris here has its roots in the truth that...

I am an alien. 

I am now an alien in an alien land!!!!

Thus our bond.

No, I am not a visitor, not a tourist, nor even an expat.

Just an alien, far from home. So far from home I don't know where it is.

Well, so it has always been really. It's just that now it's at a whole other level. When understanding that someone just said the number "85" to me is a moment of actual pride, I think it is fair to say that whether or not I belong here is beside the point.

Maybe none of us belong here on the Earth, anywhere. Maybe we are all a mistake, but here we are and everyone must deal with it. Mostly everyone and everything else.

I apologise, I didn't want to get in too deep. I just wanted to show you some pictures of Doris up to stuff around town.

More foreshadowings of doom, but in cute cartoons

 

As promised, Doris the super intelligent alien has come for another visit. Like most advanced lifeforms she prefers to communicate in cartoon panels.

Doris the super intelligent alien

 

With the inadvertant discovery that humanity only has a year left in existence, beloved and founding member of clerkmanifesto, Doris the super intelligent alien, made a somewhat infrequent appearance here. And I was so glad to have her here that I started making more plans for her. But I wanted some more reliable images of her to work with.

That's what I've been working on today. But alas, sometimes the broader projects here make it hard to get to the regular timely daily post of clerkmanifesto!

Which is where "work in progress" comes into it.

Work in progress is so fun! It's like a taster!

Okay, maybe it's not as fun as a taster.

Actually, what is a taster?

Anyway, here are some images I am working on of Doris. Soon there will be more, and cartoons, and great revealings of the secrets of the universe!

Or I'll just move on and never mention it again. It's a wild ride here.

We get around

It can barely have been a week since I was here telling you about the best place we have been to in all of France; Saint Paul de Vence. But lately we are crazy with all the train hopping, and off we went again today. 

And where did we go?

The most confusing town in all of France!

Today's historic village was the home of Picasso for many years! He loved it there! For awhile, I guess. Then he left.

Yes, you of course guessed it...

Vallauris.

Oh, you didn't guess Vallauris?

Are you sure?

Well, I think you guessed Vallauris so we can just agree to disagree.

And what, you wonder, makes Vallauris the most confusing town in all of France (or the most confusing town out of the maybe 35 we have been to here)?

It's hard to explain. It was beautiful and scuzzy. It was run down and extrememly well taken care of. It was a thriving old town full of interesting ceramic shops and yet vaguely abandoned. It was an expensive Cote d'Azur historic town rich with history and art where aimless men, singular and in groups, wandered about with nothing to do. 

I have to organize my thoughts and get back to you on this, but I took roll after roll of pictures (figuratively) of Vallauris, all trying to work out how to show you just what was so peculiar, so we'll start there with these four images, unprocessed out of the camera, and get back to the subject later:

Inadvertant news about the future, a cartoon

 

I don't know where this one came from. But I saw a bench in the old city today, in a tiny and sort of oddly magnificent park shoved a bit aside from all the tourists, and I knew that there was a pleasant little scene I could somehow put together for you. So I took some pictures, came home, waited, and....

Here it is: