"Sketches From The ASAA Forum"

One is Keith, one is Peggy, one is Mike and the other...

One morning, at the ASAA seminar, we had three or four presenters and speakers. They were all incredible talking about their art, professionalism, business practices, and lifestyles, but the most interesting, and long winded, was the veteran WWII pilot and career Air Force man, Steve Pisanos.

Wikipedia writes...

He was born in November 10, 1919 as Spiros Pisanos (Greek: Σπύρος Πίσανος)) του Νικολάου και της Αθηνάς) is a USAF Colonel (retired) who served successfully as a fighter pilot with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF) 4th Fighter Group in World War II, having been credited with 10 victories and thus considered an ace.^[1] By the end of his career in 1974, he received 33 decorations and distinctions. He is author of the book The Flying Greek, published in April 2008, where he has meticulously recorded all of his personal adventures and detailed war fighting experiences. The book is commented by his friends and renowned USAF aviators Gabby Gabreski and Charles Yeager.

To say this man had a colorful life is to totally underestimate his contributions to our democratic view of the world. What an ambassador for America and all we fought for and stand for. He spoke for almost an hour, with much humility and humor, and he spoke like you'd expect a Greek to speak...

With his hands!

I originally attempted to sketch his large, expressive hands, but he moved them so much telling his story, that I gave up and just decided to put the pen down and enjoy.

Copyright 2014/ Ben Bensen III

"Just Another Coffee Shop Sniper Sketch"...

Reading in the jungle...

Just a sketch of a man in a camo shirt reading like a sniper in the bushes. I did I color sketch from this sketch, but I like the black and white version better. I don't know what exactly he was reading, but it sure made him squirmy.

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III

"Somewhere Else"...

Worried or just somewhere else?

Like a pebble in his boot, are his worries ever gonna leave him be? Can he ever take that shoe off and rid himself of the aggravatingly unending pokes. Or is the Greek omelet that he just inhaled, revisiting him in a different way?

Or maybe, it's the fiery valentine of his youth. You know, the what if's... how did it go so blue, so fast?
It's not like just 'cuz he's elderly or retired that his mind can't drift to the ones that somehow got away... or never really had.

Maybe, it is about that week long trip to the lakes of Minnesota. The one that got away, nah!

"Hotter than a peppered sprout," he thinks. "Baton Rouge, back then, seemed so far away,"

"Hell, it was my fault... I never should've have been so cool, so distant. I came off aloof 'cuz somehow I thought that's what she wanted. Damn plowboy, that's all... a damn plowboy!"

"Damn and I had so many too choose from. Yeh, that's your problem... or was!"

"And you were so close. So close you could taste it. The things I could have done... Ah, just the thought of it and...

"Honey, you gonna finish those hash browns? 'Cuz if you're not, I'll take 'em!"

Then he moved and the moments lost in the blink of an eye and I continue to wonder as I continue to now draw from memory, "Just what was he thinking about?"

But, it was all gone and it was just a sketch!

Copyright 2012-2013/ Ben Bensen III

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream... for Stella!

Giving his best to win, ripped T-shirt and all...

The culmination, each year, of the Tennessee Williams Festival is the "Stella and Stanley" Screaming Contest that takes place in Jackson Square in New Orleans. It is one of the lighter sides of the literary festival that last all week, the last week in March. The scream contest is opened to anyone with an easy to rip t-shirt and a good set of lungs. Contestants play Stanley Kowalski, the character played by Marlon Brando in the movie version of William's, "A Streetcar Named Desire."

You really have to be a desperate dude or pretty pissed to shred a t-shirt like this. I know, I tried and it never rips quite this way, ha!

Copyright 2012/Ben Bensen III