W&J | portfoliolongo

“Impermanent record,” occurred to me as a vague notion. When I mentioned it to Annyth, she suggested that I do a cartoon, and the notion remained a velleity until now.

The title of this post can be attributed to the late Dr. Owen Dukelow, Professor of Philosophy at Washington and Jefferson College. As an undergrad in the mid to late 1970s I took a couple of his classes. I also worked in the college library all four years, and Professor Dukelow would show up now and then and place a stack of his newsletters/bulletins on the front desk for people to take away and read for free. The informal series was entitled, Pardon Me, My Mind Was Wandering. I remember finding his short essays amusing, but I wasn’t mature enough to recognize the themes of equanimity and impermanence. I do now, at least to some extent.

A rough, very free-hand, and quick sketch of Old Main on the picturesque campus of my alma mater, Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA drawn on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil in an app called Paper 53 and another called iColorama and based on a personal photo. Just below it is another digital painting done previously on my iPad in the Procreate app of the Washington Trust Building and surrounding cityscape, a view that repeatedly caught my eye whenever I’d sit on the hillside in front of Old Main as an undergraduate from 1974 to 1978. (See related post related to Jefferson College and Washington & Jefferson College.)

I drew Old Main on a visit to my hometown, Canonsburg, PA while sipping an 1802 Cream Ale on nitro at the Rusty Gold Brewing. I was sitting at the bar painting on my iPad, and the curious bartender asked me if I was carrying any prints on me for sale. I was; a little paper print of this image from this post. She bought it and put in on a shelf; see below. Awesome, eh?