Friday, March 25, 2011

Mark Twain


Here's an illustration I did of Mark Twain- one of my favorite authors, and one of my favorite rides at Disneyland, the Mark Twain Riverboat.
Fun fact: A recording on the other ship that sails the Rivers of America, the sailing ship Columbia, explains that they shout "Mark Twain" to let the crewman know that the water is deep enough to sail through. Anyway, enjoy!

3 comments:

magda in queensland australia said...

Hello Justin Parpan,
You truly are a fine artist. The Portrait of Mark Twain is wonderful.

Mark Twain, I keep discovering is held in high esteem in America, and his books are much loved.

Seeing this beautifully done Portrait you've done of him, I've decided it's time I did some research to learn more about Mark Twain. Photographs I have viewed of him indicate he was a warm hearted man.

Thank you for the inspiration, and for sharing another aspect of your creative talent.

Best wishes to you from Magda(Australia)

Josh Parpan said...

mark's mustache looks like it would be itchy.
Great work as usual. not sure what kind of magic brushes you have. Wish I had them. I just use the first one on the list. laaame.

Brian Russo said...

Excellent depiction of one of our greatest social critics!

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand might just be my favorite Twain quote amongst his gems. From politicians to debate, the notion that our position is so risible as to warrant a bodily guffaw is tantamount to Clarence Darrow being laughed at for teaching evolution. Twain understood better than anyone that laughter has the power to make and break government policies -Reagan would always laugh off any faux paus (including "Trees produce more pollution than cars" careers.

Laughter, specifically my own towards the entire US scientistic pluralistic model of thinkin, rampant with dualities and assumptions go unheaded. Just as Twain did in hiw way, we must recover the power of laughter not to ridicule per se, but to expose the dangerous flaws of our system, so that the common sense of 20 years from now, which will be a lot more sensitive to environmental concerns and international issues, can laugh sooner about how wayward our people and government has been.