While drawing at the Botanical Gardens, a grandmother stopped and was riveted by my book. She only spoke Chinese, so her teenage granddaughter translated for both of us. She said her grandmother did drawings just like I did. After a lengthy exchange between them, I asked what was up. The granddaughter was laughing and told me her grandma was confused about the angle of my drawing. The granddaughter had to explain to her that my angle was different than what the grandmother was seeing because I was sitting low in a camping stool and grandma was standing up. That mollified the old lady momentarily. They returned ten minutes later. The granddaughter said her grandmother didn’t want to leave me.
Garden Sketchbook
How many flowers can I jam onto a 10.5” X 8” double page spread in my sketchbook? 25.
Bird Flu
“With millions of chickens on commercial poultry farms sickened and dying from a highly virulent strain of avian flu in recent months, it might have escaped notice that some of the nation’s most stunning wild birds have also been felled including more than three dozen bald eagles.” NY Times
Daffodils
This year, the Botanical Gardens planted all types of daffodils. My pal, Stephen Petronis and I sat and drew while pandemic exhausted locals gaped over our shoulders. I gave away a hundred squirrel stickers to onlookers, mostly kids.
Poop
“Every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the United States. 130 times more than human waste.”
Cowspiracy Fact
Pine Cones
The pine cones in North Carolina are quite colorful. I’m surprised I never read about it in National Geographic magazine before.
Charlotte Backyard
This is a drawing of my sister’s backyard in North Carolina that I did last week. It was in the midst of Spring while it was sprunging. She even has one of those plastic owls that is suppose to scare away all creatures great and small. It doesn’t work at all though. There are critters everywhere. Tree frogs are loud as hell by the way.
Ukraine
The statues that stand inside Ukraine.
Russia
The miserable russian army.
Steve Madden
My old Steve Madden ads on accessories.
Ink
My acrylic ink Mona Lisa.
Vegan Life
Meat eating in the United States is at an all-time high. Americans have shifted from eating beef to poultry. In the past 30 years, beef intake has fallen, while chicken intake has doubled. Cost, convenience, and health concerns are the top reasons Americans have abandoned beef. This news is not very good for the most abused and murdered animal on earth, the chicken, which happens to be a scientifically engineered creature that’s the unhealthiest one in the food chain. At slaughterhouses, workers turn the birds upside down to shackle them by their legs to a conveyor. The chickens flap and squawk in terror, and the shackling can leave them with broken legs and dislocated hips. They are dragged through electrified water, stunning them before their throats are slit. But the spasming birds sometimes miss the bath and their throats are cut while they are conscious. Most people don’t realize they are participating in animal abuse when they eat chicken but that doesn’t make the fact false. Here’s a tip, if you secretly get a bit of a thrill out of abusing animals, eating pollo is the way to go.
Ranunculus
You know when a chef deconstructs a traditional dish. They take all the elements and serve it up in a completely different way. That’s how I drew this vase of flowers. I deconstructed the hell out of it. Then served it on a paper plate with wooden chopsticks in honor of springtime arriving. My wife told me these flowers were called ranunculus. Sounds to me like she’s making stuff up to make me look ridiculous by posting that made up word.
