Domestic Violence – Heartbreaking

Domestic Violence – A Picture a Day Apparently Does NOT Keep the Abuser Away

This will blow your mind.  It starts out as a really neat little montage of a woman who photographs herself daily and records it into a picture montage.  The pictures cycle through fairly quick, but every once in a while you notice a week(?) worth of photos where she’s got a bruise or black-eye.  The expressions on her face some days is downright sad.  Your suspicions of her being a victim of domestic violence become confirmed as it gets further into the year, you see her really suffering some major damage, and it just breaks your heart.   I’ll just leave it at that, but it really is a must-watch.

And it may be part of a clever domestic violence awareness campaign, I don’t know.  I don’t care.  It’s still heart wrenching.  I have nothing but disgust and loathing for a “man” who would put his lass through this even once, let alone on a regular basis.  It takes a special coward to beat on a woman.  If seeing the person you love covered in bruises you caused isn’t enough to make you fall down to your knees weeping and never EVER do it again, then you are hopeless perpetrator of domestic violence and in desperate need of help.

If you really can’t control your temper enough to not inflict this type of pain on someone, then do the world a favor and lock yourself up in a padded room until you can.  You don’t deserve to be anywhere near the mothers, daughters, sisters and nieces of the rest of us.  Seriously this stuff really gets my goat.  I’m not just being a bleeding heart artist type either; there is a really basic code of humanity being broken when a man beats a woman.  In fact, that’s a person who doesn’t even deserve to call himself a man in my opinion.

Should you be or know anyone who’s a victim of domestic violence, please utilize the links here and here.

Victoria Tornado

Whether You Call it a Cyclone or Tornado, Victoria Got It

I’m sure it looked a bit scarier than this…

‘Tis true, Aussies don’t like to admit tornadoes exist here, but indeed people who just  experienced the Victoria tornado may have something to say about that today.

Residents in Victoria, Australia, are recovering after a tornado, sparked by severe storms and flash flooding, swept through the region.

Paramedics treated 20 people after dozens of calls in Yarrawonga and Mulwala, when the storms and tornado came through about 8pm on Thursday (local time). Paramedics said there were as many as 80 ”walking wounded” in the affected areas.

A couple in their 70s were flown to hospital in Melbourne after they were injured when their motorhome was overturned in the wind. Two men in their 50s were flown to hospital, both in a critical condition with head injuries.

As dawn broke on Friday, crews and residents were assessing the damage, with paramedics and State Emergency Service teams working in the dark to avoid trees.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/8459893/Tornado-destruction-in-Australia

There’s not a whole let else that can be as unpredictable as a tornado, that’s for sure.  Maybe it’s like the movie Jaws, where movies like Twister and Wizard of Oz have made the tornado such an incredibly feared phenomenon.

But I don’t think so.  I think these things are scary as all get out.  I’m fascinated by weather, and yet I would never want to chase down one of these bad boys.  The crazy thing about them is that you don’t even have to be directly in it’s path to get hit.  The debris alone can get flung around for miles it seems; this is a really good way to get yourself impaled by the way.

So yeh, I hope the Victoria tornado survivors are ok.  Always hate to see anyone get the bad end of a weather situation.

Budding Artist in the Stempler Family!

New Stempler Drawing Enthusiast? Budding Artist? Let’s Hope!

All I can say right now is wow.  Just wow.  We may just have a budding artist in the Stempler family.  My brother just showed me some artwork his daughter made recently.  He didn’t really get how excited it made me, but then he’s not a drawing enthusiast either.  But now it seems there’s definitely a budding artist amongst us, and I couldn’t be more proud.  I’m always happy to know there’s another black sheep in the family, ya know?  Every family needs at least one sketchbook geek.. lol

Here’s a couple of the sketches the little mini-Stempler budding artist made, so you can see too:

Man, birthdays and Christmas just got a lot easier over here.  Who knew I’d ever have such an easy time shopping for an 8 year old girl?  Haha, classic.   Let’s see, maybe she needs a nice quality sketchbook or a set of pencils, or maybe she prefers pens?   Guess I’ll need to take the budding artist out for a snag and talk some shop.

I would also imagine she needs to be welcomed into my book collection so she doesn’t have to wait around by a mailbox the way I did for so many years when I was her age.  Luckily she’s only a mere 20 minutes away so these exchanges will be easy.  Of course I don’t want to push too much onto her at once and have her shy away.  She might not even know her dad showed me these wonderfully inspired little drawings.  But no matter – I have to at least be there to offer my encouragement and support any way any budding artist would need.

Unbelievable, I finally get to be a cool uncle after all.  Never would’ve guessed that would happen a week ago!  They always say there’s a first for everything, and I finally believe it.

Hello Fellow Drawing Enthusiasts

Helpful Resources for Drawing Enthusiasts

Hello mates,

Do you remember the time your passion for drawing sprang into life?  I don’t, because honestly it came on in times before I can even remember.  Mum always told me I was forever doodling away at one thing or another, even getting in trouble a time or two for not using paper to capture my ideas. What can I say, sometimes we drawing enthusiasts gotta jot down our ideas as they come.. lol

I would say I become a drawing enthusiast once I was old enough to know that was even a thing.  The more I honed into my hobby, the more I wanted to learn.  And nothing was more exciting than saving up enough money to buy a book on drawing, so I could study different techniques and styles from other drawing enthusiasts.  I say I’m a cartoonist, but sometimes I think that’s just a fancy way of saying I like to draw.  I mean, I love to draw.  Honestly.

Imagine how much easier it would’ve been for me as a kid if I had the resources of the internet back then when mowing a lawn only got you barely enough to buy a newspaper.  Now, you can find great tutorial websites all over the place.  That’s the thing about drawing enthusiasts and just people in general who are passionate about what they love – they love to share their knowledge.  I know I’ve had countless “teachers” over the decades, and could only hope to be as insightful as they’ve been.

It’s also true that by teaching, you also learn.  The people on these tutorial sites get that.  There is so much out there for the beginner especially.  And it’s free.  How cool is that?  No more waiting by the mailbox for a book to arrive by your postman.  Don’t you just love the internet?

So whether you’re a budding or seasoned drawing enthusiast, there are plenty of great resources out there to not only inspire you, but to help you refine your techniques.  There’s no reason not to utilize and share them with others.  We all know how good it feels to have learned something new, so why not encourage the same gratifying feeling for others.  And remember that you can more finely tune your own skills by developing and sharing your own tutorials with others.  It’s also nice to link your blog to the tutorials that have helped you in the past, as a thank you to the author.

Good luck and happy drawing!