California is about to pass a law to ban recycling symbols on things that aren’t recyclable. In fact companies will have to prove that the material they use is recycled AND used to make new products. How about them apples, plastic of course. People spend so much time recycling all their plastic bottles and containers, wrapping them in blue recycling bags. Placing them in their nice blue garbage cans, thinking they’ve done a good deed. Few realize 91% gets thrown into landfills or blown into waterways and out into the ocean. Finally a bit of truth in advertising might become law. Hopefully this spreads to other states. Sticking it to the man instead of all of us. The Petroleum man that is.
Truckin
one. The driveway. Making the illustration look interesting was easy. I just pulled a squirrel out of my hat. Works every time.
Caddy's Ice Cream Shop
One morning while I was in Maine, it was cold and rainy. So I drove down the block to draw this quirky old ice cream shop. I sketched it while sitting in my car which I never do but I needed to block the raindrops. As I was drawing, a bee flew into the car and landed on my drawing thumb. He really attached himself and had no intention of leaving. I stayed calm and watched his striped lower half bob up and down slowly. It seemed this would go on forever so I eventually stuck my hand out the window, blew on him a little and shook and off he went without incident. I got back to the gruelling task of trying to make a store appear on a blank piece of paper using a ballpoint pen and a few colored pencils.
Roller Skating
A friend of mine told me he had taken up roller skating. I didn’t think much of it until he showed me his new skates. They looked so cool. I was a bit shocked. So I took one outside to draw in the sun. I could see myself skating but I’m sure I’d break my drawing arm in no time flat. So I’ll stick to moseying around town.
Omar
One of the greatest television roles ever created was Omar Little on The Wire. I did this drawing of him years ago after binge watching. A performance of a lifetime made to look effortless by Mr. Williams.
Seeing Is Believing
Yet another drawing I did while in Maine. I spotted a little red guest house across the street from where we stayed. You could say I juiced it up using my imagination but that wouldn’t be the whole story. It’s mostly because I can’t see well anymore. So all kinds of craziness end up in my illustrations due to visual impairment.
Flowers
There should not be any florist shops in Maine because all you have to do is step outside and pick any kind There should not be any florist shops in Maine because all you have to do is step outside and pick any kind of bouquet you desire. I made this drawing by combining flowers in 2 different vases around the house. First I drew this vase and only the flowers in it I preferred. Then I swapped out that vase and drew the few flowers I dug in that second vase. I selected the ones I felt made my sketch groovy. That makes me a groovy selector.
Lake Ossipee
My wife and I just returned from a trip to Maine visiting our groovy friends, Michael Snow and Pate Eng. Of course, a lake house is always involved whenever we go there. I drew this to show off in front of a few seven year old girls. It seemed to work. One never knows though. Seven year olds love to tell you how great your drawing is coming out, then they swim out of earshot and joke to each other about how the old guy stinks when you get close to him and his teeth seem to be slightly green. That would explain all the laughter.
Maine
Sometimes I open my sketchbook and think, “how the hell did this get in here?” Then I remember, “oh yeah, I did this.”
Time Warp
My instagram posts are not really synced up with my life. This drawing is from my trip to Massachucetts but I’ve been back in Brooklyn for two weeks now. Next I’m headed to Boston and then onto Maine. You won’t see those drawings for weeks though. It’s an artisitic time warp.
Day Lilly
A Day Lilly.
Pink Hydrangea
I’m a clueless botanical illustrator. There is not a flower on earth I can name. I stroll around the garden and say stuff like, “maybe I’ll draw that thing.” This one was so big and heavy that it was bent over and resting on the ground. I didn’t think it would last another day so I clipped it and stuck in a homemade vase. I found out it was a hydrangea days after I drew it. Made me feel a little smarter. Because it has rained more than any time in history this summer, there were mosquitoes everywhere. They were no match for my zen buddhist, meditating, concentrating, empty-headed focus while I drew.
Circumstance
Circumstance. That is the reason I drew all these flowers. My wife and I were buried so deep in the woods of Massachusetts that getting to civilization was a bit too much work. The flowers were the easiest visual in reach. Getting lazier in my old age.
