July 4 on St. John in the US Virgin Islands, is Carnival Parade Day!  I was down there for my class reunion and we were all watching the parade when the Mocko Jumbies appeared!  I felt like I was back in grade school watching the St. Thomas Carnival Parade under the arches across from the old cable office near the Fort.  That was my favorite part of the parade, waiting for the mocko jumbie to appear from around the corner and down the street.  I endured the whip snapping terrifying clowns so that I could revel in the joy of the towering Mocko Jumbies!  Back then there may have been one or two Mocko Jumbies, today there are hundreds, men and women, girls and boys!  Makes me happy…

Margaret

A somewhat odd situation:  an unhappy, angry woman encountering a self-satisfied, smug individual at the Italian Pavilion in Epcot.  There were no words exchanged, just an overwhelming, radiating air of hostility and entitlement growing and undulating between the two. By the end of it I wasn’t sure who was the hostile one and who was the entitled one!  And did it really matter after all!

Voila!

So there you have it!

I know, that’s French, not Italian.

Margaret

No one, absolutely NO ONE, has seen this drawing, or this series of drawings before today.  My very talented friend and associate, Veronica Lawlor, is out in Portland, Oregon, today teaching at an Urban Sketchers drawathon.  She had a conversation with Frank, a fellow urban sketcher who loves drawing, and so I wanted to send  a nod to Frank and tell him that this drawing is for him.

“Frog Sex” thanks you!

Thank you, Frank!

Margaret

Tea Cups at Disney.  This is a ride you don’t want to take on a full stomach!  I thought I could handle it, but I was zig zaging around the park after that fateful ride.  I don’t know what makes me think I can keep getting on these rides that turn me upside down and throw me around like a dishcloth and I think I’m going to be just fine.  I am never just fine.  I’m a wreck!  And I come off the ride vowing never to do that again…until the next crazy ride!

Margaret

Lady Kika strikes again…this time she’s a Cretan seductress!

Totally different feeling in this outfit…sensuous  and all curves.

Delightful!

Margaret

This is a drawing of Wonder Woman, aka KIKA!  What a lovely, spirited and imaginative model to draw!  I was trying out a new medium, some various shaped “tools” with different shaped rubber endings that you smoosh around in whatever color you want, sort of like putting on eye shadow or or a little color on your cheeks. Swoosh, swoosh, lots of fun!

You didn’t know WW wore glasses, huh?  Well she does!

So this is the lovely Kika posing in her version of WW…

Margaret

This is a drawing/watercolor I made when I took a trip out to Joshua Tree National Park in California, one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.  What a challenge to draw…huge slabs of rock, and in this particular scene, a few sparse pieces of vegetation.  It is so monumental that I said to myself, “How do I create anything more beautiful and sublime than what I am already looking at?”  Of course I tried anyway!

It’s National Pigeon Day 2010!  Actually, it’s not National Pigeon Day, officially.  National Pigeon Day is usually celebrated on June 13th, in Central Park, but this year the Puerto Rican Day Parade was held on Saturday June 13th, so NPD will be celebrated today, June 19th!

COO!

COO!

COO!

Pink Mr. Mocko Jumbie makin’ his move!

Margaret Hurst

This Mocko Jumbie looks like a spider!  Have you ever been underneath a dancing Mocko Jumbie?!  It’s a sublime experience!

Margaret Hurst