Escape of the Crazy Red Ball (Sunset, Friday, 29 July 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, ESCAPE OF THE CRAZY RED BALL (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

My wife, Laura, called on her way home about 20 minutes before sunset and said, “The sun’s a crazy red ball” – this with the emphasis on red, as in a police drama.

“It is?”

“Yes, it’s a crazy red ball in the sky, all big and red and pink.”

I went right out to see it, but it was gone . . .

Tiger Lily’s Twilight (Sunset, Thursday, 28 July 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, TIGER LILY’S TWILIGHT (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

This is the sky that was left to me by our cat Lily, who died peacefully today in our living room at the age of 19 years + 100 days. Although she had a name suited to her great beauty as a tiger-striped calico (formal name Tiger Lily), she was most often addressed as ‘Yump’, ‘Yumpie’, or ‘Yumpie Chumpie’. These names had more to do with her being sweet and cute. These and, every once in a while, ‘Silly Lily’.

I fished Lily, along with alpha littermate Stokey (still going strong), out of a light blue Ford Fairlane station wagon that was jacked up on cinderblocks in the back yard of a house in southwest Orange County, Virginia, in April 1992. The owner of the house was threatening to hunt down the mother with his .22 – welcome to Ruburbia!

This photo, taken when Lily was about four, shows her very much as she looked today.

Lily. Photo by Laura Owen Sutherland.

Tweets Illustrated: What I Saw At Breakfast, Part 1

William Van Doren, pencil on CVS notepad, 4x6.

News? (Sunset, Tuesday, 28 December 2010)

William Van Doren, NEWS? (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Laura filmed (photographed) the entire process of this painting, as part of a promotion for media about the upcoming show.

Del’s Lion

Ceramic lion, three feet tall, sitting majestically on my front porch. Old, chipped, scarred, something my uncle had in a barn. This lion lets intruders know: Beware of the Housecat.

The Lion in Winter. Photo by Laura Owen Sutherland.

Del Ankers, Photographer, Part 3

Today’s the birthday of my uncle Del Ankers, born 1916, died May 2008. You can find previous posts on Del via the tag index, or start with this date last year, and check out Part 1, the predawn view of the Iwo Jima Memorial, and Part 2.

During this past year I was lucky enough to have in my possession for a while Del’s amazing travel bag, or kit bag I guess you could call it, before it goes off, along with most of his prints, films, negatives and notes, to the University of Maryland Library archives.

Laura Owen SutherlandThe baggage tags tied to the top of the bag are just the start – the bag itself is filled with many more. Many carry notations like this one:

Laura Owen SutherlandAs noted elsewhere, Del was the first film maker and photographer to work with Jim Henson, and here he was off for a shoot starring the Muppet character Rowlf.

There is so much crazy variety, with so many suggestions of history and stories, in Del’s bag, like Del himself they seem almost impossible to sum up and properly describe. However, we did find one tag that almost does the job all by itself.

Laura Owen SutherlandDel went directly from photographing the launch of Apollo 11 to a job involving something summarized as “Atlanta Chicken.” It’s certain that he handled both assignments with the same creative professionalism – and the same wide-open joy in living. Happy Birthday, Del.