Angel Melody's Art

I love to see drawings by kids. Occasionally, I get them in the mail. Kids will send me their own versions of the paintings they see in my children's books. Sometimes teachers send me drawings from the entire class who have been reading one of the books.
But I recently came across some drawings that I had scoffed up about 12 years ago and saved. They were done by a local 8 year old girl named Angel Melody and they were packaged as note cards for sale in a gift shop, and I was so enchanted with them that I bought 'em. I had also noticed some of Angel's drawings posted on the bulletin board at a local coffee shop in Lahaina. and I must confess I actually stole a couple off the board because they were so good. I had the feeling she would someday become an artist.

Such happy beings inhabit this little girl's world. The characters interact with each other. Her mermaids take a couple of girls into their underwater world while a well-placed fish tags along.


Angel's Halloween drawing was similar as the girls in costume party together while two of them toss candy and a heart to each other.

I scanned these drawings for this blog post and then I thought I'd google Angel to see if there was any news about her.


Now, I don't know her and I've never met her.
Sure enough, I found a newspaper article that shows a photo of her standing in front of a mural she did at her high school. That was a few years ago. Angel Melody Bode is now 20 years old and shows her paintings on Facebook. She also has illustrated her first children's book, Kalani's Wish.

Hey Angel, I hope you google your own name someday and find this post about you. I'm glad to see you're still painting and getting some attention for your talent. You've got a fan here so keep up the good work!

Revisiting the Reclining Nude Drawing

Johnny H made a great comment on a previous blog post of mine about a reclining nude drawing where he suggested, "...make a version with her in curious situations – on the floor of a grocery store, on the back of an alligator. Or as a "miniature" on a pencil or something."
Knowing John personally, this guy is a creative genius. So I'm running with it.

Now, I couldn't drum up a decent alligator photo, so I did the next best thing... I threw her into a walrus pod. I think she seems very relaxed and fits in nicely, don't you?

But John suggested something else to me... that I could think of her as a 3-dimensional object... like a sculpture.

So maybe she could be made into a nudey guitar...? (easy on those high notes, there, Izzie...)


...or how 'bout some unique bathroom towel hooks...?


Well, I'll never look at her the same now...
Thanks, John. You've commercialized my nudey...
damn creative directors... Hmmmph!

I love to cook musicians

Mick Fleetwood's band baking in my lights

New images have been added to my website portfolio under the heading of "Stage Lighting". Over 50 photos from live performances display a variety of lighting techniques along with some explanations of how I created the looks.
I've lit just about every type of show... rock bands, symphonies, plays, musicals, ballet, worship... everything from whirling dervishes to Chinese circuses. At an average of about 3.5 shows per week for the last 3.5 decades, that's well over 6000 gigs. I reckon I have more show experience than most of the performers I light. But it's all about them, not me. The purpose is to express and enhance what is occurring on stage.

Unless the show is being taped, it's only for the moment. These are snapshots of some of those moments.
See them listed under "Stage Lighting" in the portfolio section.