draw things, paint things, write things, make things

I draw things, paint things, write things and make things.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Backwards Burning Star

When artists take ordinary things and try to mash them together into something new and interesting and quite possibly unhinged, this is called *found object assemblage*, because if nothing else art is very good at conjuring certain ramparts of academic-sounding terminology. This is a piece of board with various bits of packaging and wire, worked over with paint and collage. The kind of stuff you’d find in rubble.

On the back it reads —

backwards burning star

if you detect fire sound the alarm if you see crashing stars stop somewhere and think backwards if you can about what has been burned away, and what can be saved.

(Backwards Burning Star; mixed media assemblage, 5.5 x 13 x .75 inches. Shipped for free, with care. Buy real things made by actual people. Escape the dreaming planet … give the gift of original art.)

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

You find a secret chamber. 

The door is locked. 

It is a small door, strangely made, sheets of steel pestled together. All around is a gathering darkness. But you can see through doors, can’t you? So you use your magic powers to see inside, and you see a room in gleaming black tile. A recessed section of the floor, about ten feet across, is shaped like a man, and it gives off a faint glow. Several places around the edge show signs of damage. The ceiling is hammered tin. Black granite statues of armoured knights stand about. One has been badly damaged and defaced. This destroyed knight gives you visions of meadows, the smell of grass and wildflowers, armour scattered by a river bank, and a plume of black smoke in the distance.

Opening your eyes again, you can hear a soft clicking noise. 

The world is still out there. 

You find a secret chamber, the door is locked — two original collages on paper

(5.5 x 8.25 each, loosely tacked to board, in clear sleeves for gift giving, everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise, buy from people, not corporations, buy things made by human hands, not computers, escape the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art)

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

The Mess That I Would Leave Behind

An audiobook of original short stories.

From The Regrets & Endless Nights Series — The Troubles Within Troubles Within Us All

People make messes all the time. What can we fix, what must we walk away from, what kind of horror show. Here's a poem about it, as if that ever helped anything ...

The Committee For Regrettable Incidents

People always want to know why. The unknown withheld in misshapen patterns, iniquitous signals, blazing faces in the night. What are you guilty of, what were you thinking what if you could rank your most desperate delusions? Lost time, lost experiments, Sometimes we rationalize— what can be contained, and carried forward without formlessness swarming, without reckoning. But sometimes just getting free and clear can be a kind of victory.

Still, this audiobook is a collection of stories, not poems. Putting it together was not like a committee at all, was actually kind of fun, reminded me of a mixtape, except the selections are fiction instead of songs. And just like the mixtapes I used to make, these stories are meant to be both connected but able to stand alone.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Sharon—

These delusions are entirely yours. At times it is impossible for me to even understand what you are talking about, let alone agree with you. Of course this has to stop. I believe with all my heart that you can do so, that you can reclaim your thoughts and find the right path forward again. I have seen you in your prevailing power and it is a sight to behold.

You have reached the place where you must consider where this is going.

— Kelly

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Sharon, these delusions — two original collages on paper

(5.5 x 8.25 each, loosely tacked to board, in clear sleeves for gift giving, everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise, buy from people, not corporations, buy things made by human hands, not computers, escape the dreaming planet … give the gift of original art)

OH MY GOD, IT'S A COLLAGE!

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Ruined in London

I could not decide what to do so we did a reading.

You said (the cards said)— misplaced voices places of static and indirect polarity a great small noise, persistent states of amazement and wonder smothering colours experimental considerations slander by wandering enemies certain undertakings will be fruitless a man who is very bad for you left standing at the station — and I did not listen. — and I went to London anyway.

Of course it was the ruin of me every stage collapsing I couldn't wait to go back.

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(Ruined in London — mixed media on cradled wood panel, 14 x 14 x 1.75 inches. Ready to hang — wire attached in back. Varnished. Shipped for free, with care. Everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise. Buy from people, not corporations. Buy things made by human hands, not computers. Escape the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art.)

A great hope fell You heard no noise The ruin was within. — Emily Dickinson

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

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Nicole —

(And here I refer to you in the third person.) 

First there is the girl with the polka-dots blouse and pink cowboy hat, the girl who always leans to the left while smiling, a crooked black lamp in the corner casting just enough light across the ceiling to make her absolutely beautiful, it’s lighting you can’t trust at all, still this is my favourite part so of course it can't last, the door in the corner opens and this time it's a whole crowd of people on the other side and then they are all around and they want answers, what will happen and how long will it go on and maybe we should just give in this time, just give in, things aren't so great right now anyway, believe us when we say that we're really afraid, and it's only when I can no longer see the polka dots or any rational way forward do I turn to Nicole, Nicole in the olive raincoat I loaned her over a year ago I'm sure, and never got back, because Nicole is the kind of person who doesn’t return things, I’m not a material person about these things, she says, why I need to be on her side I do not know, will never understand, but it’s a simple fact that whatever happens, happens, and we cannot be defeated, by polka dots or crowds or even the rain coming through the open window. 

And that is all I need to say to you, Nicole, in response to recent events.

Whatever happens, happens. We cannot be defeated.

— G

(Whatever Happens— 14 x 11 x 1 inches, mixed media collage on wood panel, gloss varnished, grooves for hanging in the back; shipped for free, with care; everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise; buy from people, not corporations; buy things made by human hands, not computers; escape the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art)

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Cristian —

I don’t know how it happens. Part of it must have to do with the way everything is too much now, the way everything has sped up. I know there was a time when I felt more contained, more whole. Now everything spills, everything is just disorder and noise. Like living in a storm. I don’t know what I know anymore. As far as our situation goes, the people you were most worried about seem to know everything. Don’t ask me how. Or how suddenly I found myself at the station, buying a ticket, for a train heading west. I’m sorry.

— Anita

p.s. I'll write when I can, I promise.

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(The Spill — mixed media on cradled wood panel, 22 x 28 x 1.75 inches. Ready to hang — wire attached in back. Varnished. Shipped for free, with care. Everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise. Buy from people, not corporations. Buy things made by human hands, not computers. Escape the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art.)

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

An audiobook, although making it felt more like a mixtape. Twenty-six stories describing a miscellany of icons, archetypes and other characters — much like the figures of the Major Arcana of the tarot. Literary fiction in flash and sometimes prose-poem form. Here's a sample ...

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[drawpaintwritemakethings]

One of the (many) disadvantages of being a creative person (leave aside, for now, the more tangible failure and poverty-inducing parts) is the fluctuating brain-noise of seeing, thinking about, being interested in and wanting to do far too many things. Overwhelmed by ideas, defeated by the limitations of time and opportunity. Richard Ford has said that, in terms of writing, having children is an excuse to fail. Yet Toni Morrison worked on her books while on the morning commute to her job. Visual art is both easier and more difficult than the single-minded discipline that a novel demands, in that the world, especially in this digital age, is awash in references and inspiration. Good designs, vibrant palettes, new (to me) mediums and techniques that I’d like to try. Or very suddenly need to try. Often it can make me depressed or feeling a bit mad, like it’s all too much. That I will never finish, never be whole. In a way I envy those artists who find a style and just stick with it, like the conversation is closed, or enough. 

[Image is a detail from a cigar-tin story in this gift box.]

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

I Will Not Disappear, an original mixed media assemblage 

the full title reads as follows

Shayla, listen —  I will not disappear. It is a long and exhausting list, all these things I will not do today. But disappearing is first, always.

the starting point of this work is several pieces of flattened packaging

assemblage is an academic word for a work of art made with found or rescued objects, often completely unrelated, to create something new and unexpected

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

AND THEN MY ASCENT

an original mixed-media painting on vintage book board

9.25 x 12.25 inches

pencil, crayon, acrylic, collage, gel, varnish … 

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

An audiobook about a Japanese advertising executive who disintegrates within dreams and guilt. If the soothing sounds of a mental car wreck put you to sleep, this might be your ticket.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

An audio short story about adventurers on a dead planet. Treasure hunters, seekers of artifacts, people in need of prizes and self-invention. Finders of oblivion.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Are your artworks available for sale ?

Yes, here and here. Thanks!

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Everything is going great, I can’t see any problems.

an original mixed media painting on cradled wood panel

22 x 28 x 1.75 inches

ready to hang, with a wire attachment in back

figurative, expressionist in grey-bone white, powdered ghost, forest lodge brindle, dead ember red, bad-day beige, pitch carbon black

a piece for your favourite pessimist

three quotations come to mind … 

Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity. — Joris-Karl Huysmans

The terrible thing about the quest for truth is that you find it. — Remy de Gourmont

I felt myself on the edge of the world; peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night. — H. P. Lovecraft

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

you cannot unplug a painting — it remains

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

read the essay here

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

diary of a lost astronaut

an original mixed media painting on cradled wood panel

24 x 30 x 1.75 inches

ready to hang, with a wire attachment in back

figurative, in black and white, with spot colour

the astronaut, lost in the universe

bone white, eggshell, fluorescent orange, ghost white, isabelline, ivory, spot red, some cerulean, carbon black, space black

a piece to set the tone for a living room, bedroom or den

three quotations come to mind … 

Space is to place as eternity is to time. — Joseph Joubert

No star is lost once we have seen, We always may be what we might have been.   — Adelaide Anne Procter

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.   — Henry David Thoreau

a static image made to shimmer with texture

varnished: a durable artwork that can be freely handled

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with an extra art surprise

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

you cannot unplug a painting

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art

you can find more of my work at 

Darryl Joel Berger | Instagram | Linktree

I draw things, paint things, write things and make things.

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

sweet william (please, maiden)

mixed media on canvas

22 x 28 inches

the vertical line you see is string, which was used to help lash the canvas to the easel, and then worked into the painting itself

ready to hang, with wire affixed in back

a rich, gothic painting that anchors any room

Try to be of some use to others.

— Joseph Hall

I don't have a short temper, I just have a quick reaction to bullshit  

— Elizabeth Taylor

Without obsession, life is nothing.  

— John Waters

varnished: a durable artwork that can be freely handled

shipped with care

everything from my shop comes with extra art surprises

buy from people, not corporations

buy things made by human hands, not computers

escape from the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art