everyday matters sws: sketching while sick

14. what you see in the morning when you wake up.
well, really, what i sort of see all day
when i have the cold of 2011
and can barely hold the pen...

get well wishes
gratefully accepted

spring

i don't know about you
but here in the northeast
we've had just about enough
winter. with more snow
predicted this week
these images from my massive
negative scanning project
are cheering me up

there's no telling what i'll unearth

at my mother's apartment...

13. on the everyday matters drawing list
is 'your telephone - landline? cell? old fashioned?

this one goes way back...
but it gets better...
it's actually

PINK!

this isn't 12. what i ate for dinnner

(from a photograph)

it's lunch at bobby flay's mesa grill

spicy chicken and sweet potato hash
with poached eggs and green chile hollandaise.
yummy!

snow and trees and hipstamatic

at my mom's

my mom has a bad cold
so i'm hanging out with her
making food and pharmacy runs
and trying to force her
to down massive quantities
of liquid
much as she did for me
when i was a kid.

i've been sketching
but have no way to scan the images.
instead i've photographed some of her
clay figures with my iphone.
she made these at a difficult time
and they served as a kind of therapy.

they never cease to amaze me
especially the last - the bag lady...

drawn

from the everyday matters
challenge list
9. draw your hand (or someone else's)
and 10. draw your sunglasses(or glasses)

i used to do the hand exercise in art school.
man my hands have changed
hence the hands holding things.

scanning negs

it's one of those projects
that looms large:
the scanning of
the negatives.
and the sub categories:
editing the negatives and
retouching the negatives
(some of these - not so much)

it has begun. small steps.
in no particular order.

i've been scanning images
from a 1996 writing workshop
i did in tuscany.
note the quaint typewriter.
1996 seems so last century.

i just found of link to the story i wrote
after this workshop. you can read it here

playing with texture

in terms of my photography i'm kind of a purist.

with the (fairly major, agreed) exception
of hipstamatic on my iphone
i like my photographs, free of all but
minor manipulation in photoshop, to speak for themselves.

(they whisper and shout here please have a look)

still, the prospect of a free tutorial in textures
at kim klassen's cafe had me at, well, free.

i took this photo yesterday
for no other reason than
to draw the umbrella...



playing with it using the textures kim provides
it morphed into something that's starting to interest me...



check out the other tutorials and workshops on kim's terrific site

9. organized (???) chaos

last night my mother asked me
what i'd been doing all day
and i told here i was making art.

"there's an art to
cleaning, you know"
was her response.

it is to laugh.

there is no shortage of
chaos in my apartment
and none of it is organized...

here's my computer desk -
the technique meant to complement
the chaos...



and this is the top of my
"dining" table. ha!
really just one side of the
table. the sewing machine
and associated paraphernalia
resides on the other side



i think adding the wacky yet
mellow color
organizes it rather nicely...



what do you think?

two terrific collage shows...

one unfortunately closes
on saturday:
alfred leslie, john chamberlain collage at
allan stone gallery


john chamberlain


john chamberlain


alfred leslie


alfred leslie

and, til march 26,
concrete improvisations:
collages and sculpture by
esteban vicente at
grey art gallery

wish i could have adopted them...

abandoned on a street in soho
amid the garbage and the
frozen slush...



i'm sure they've found a home by now.

i'm a drawing fool...

i don't seem to be taking
many photographs lately
and when i do, as with my
sweet potato hash with chicken,
poached eggs and hollandaise
(below) at mesa grill
i only take the photograph
so that i can draw the eggs
after i've eaten them.
(they were delish)



so here are my latest
drawings from the
everyday matters list, to wit

7. draw a bottle, jar or tin
from your kitchen

when i travel i love to browse
grocery store aisles.
the supermarket in queens
near where my mom lives caters
to a large latin american community
and some aisles make me feel
i'm in another country.
i can't resist the packaging...

8. draw your watch or other
piece of jewelry