Monday, December 23, 2013

iPhone Drawings

The fall semester is over, grades are in, and I am taking a little mental break. It has been a while since I posted any iPhone drawings, but then I hadn't done many in a while. Here are a few recent ones; I guess these constitute my purple or violet period, with some more filled out versions of very fast line drawings. (I do the filling out mostly in real time, though.) All are my usual life sketches/portraits, on the various forms of public transportation I take (light rail, PATH, NY subway, etc.). I have yet to sketch anyone on the Newark light rail/subway, though, perhaps because my trip is so brief. I'll have to take it all the way to the end of the line(s) and draw some of the people I see. Newark doesn't lack for interesting subjects for portraits. I also have to return to drawing on the iPad, which has a larger screen. The software for it changed, though, so it's less agile, at least to my fingertips, than the iPhone version.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Random Photos

A few photos from the last few weeks, including some of our recent snowstorm.
On Broadway
On 5th Avenue, looking north
Santa Con participants, Brooklyn
Some of the Santa Con revelers, in Brooklyn
Santa Con, Brooklyn
The march of the Santa Conners
A phalanx of Santa Conners
Santas trudging through the snow, in Brooklyn
Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn
Cadman Square, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Historical Society
Brooklyn Historical Society
St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn
St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn
Courthouse, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Borough Hall, Brooklyn
Subway vendor
Subway vendor
Snowy Freedom Tower & St. Paul's Church, lower Manhattan
Freedom Tower and St. Paul's Church in the snow
The new PATH entrance, WTC, NYC
The new PATH station entrance, designed
by Santiago Calatrava, at World Trade Center,
slowing coming together
Snowy Jersey City
Snowstorm, Jersey City
Holiday lights, Jersey City
A holiday light display
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" preview at MoMA
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" at MoMa
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" preview at MoMA
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" at MoMa
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" preview at MoMA
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" at MoMa
Madison Square Park at night
Madison Square Park at night
The line outside J. Crew's sample sale
J. Crew sample sale
A hawk, Union Square Park
Hawk, in Union Square
The prowlike Flatiron Building
The Flatiron, like a prow in the night
Cheryl Clarke, delivering this year's CLAGS Kessler lecture
Cheryl Clarke, this year's CLAGS
Kessler Lecturer and honoree
Yoko Ono's Wish Tree, Chelsea
Yoko Ono's Wish Tree, in Chelsea
Yoko Ono's Wish Tree, Chelsea
Ono's Wish Tree, up close

Photos: Santa Fe, Part 2

More photos from the trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, including a few photos inside the superlative Allá Bookstore, whose collection of Latin American literature has to be seen to be believed. Enjoy!

New Mexico from the airplane
New Mexico from the air
New Mexico from the airplane
Approaching Albuquerque from the air
On the road from Albuquerque to Santa Fe
The Sandia (?) mountains, on the road from
Albuquerque north to Santa Fe
On the road from Albuquerque to Santa Fe
The New Mexican landscape
Bataan Memorial Building (Old State House), Santa Fe
The Bataan Memorial Building (the Old State House)
Bataan Memorial, Santa Fe
The New Mexico Veterans Memorial, Santa Fe
Chilis and other wares for sale, Santa Fe
An outdoor market, with chilies, serapes, and more
Pueblo-style architecture, Santa Fe
One of the newer adobe-style buildings
Outdoor sculpture, Museum of Contemporary Native Art
A statue in one of the courtyards at the
Museum of Contemporary Native Art
Tisa and Thomas talking to an artist
Tisa (center) and Thomas (right) chatting
with an artist selling her work
Sharan Strange, approaching
Sharan approaching down the colonnade
Major Jackson
Major, checking out some of the work
Santa Fe Plaza, with the American Indian War Memorial in the foreground
Santa Fe Plaza, with the Native American Memorial obelisk in the foreground
The Plaza, Santa Fe
A bandstand in the Plaza
Thomas holding up a painting at Allá
Thomas, holding up a work of art by Álvarez Moran,
as Jim, the owner of Allá, an amazing bookstore, looks on
James & Major at Allá
Jim, the owner of Allá, looking through artworks,
as Major looks at one of the prints he's examining
In Züger's window, Santa Fe
Various sculptures in the window of Züger

IMG_1835
New Mexico Museum of Art

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Photos: Santa Fe, Part 1


With the end of the semester, a mountain of final papers to read, and a bit of recent travel I haven't been able to blog much lately, but here are some photos from a recent trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I'd always wanted to go to New Mexico and visit Santa Fe in particular (as well as Albuquerque, Taos, and some of the Indian Reservations, though I'll have to wait for another trip to explore these and other parts of the state), and things worked out such that the Dark Room Collective's 25th Anniversary "Nothing Personal" Reunion Tour concluded with a reading at the Lannan Foundation this past week. Many thanks to the Foundation and all involved with it, to my fellow Dark Room members who made the trip possible and who read, and to all the people who packed the Lensic performance space this past Thursday to hear us. Photography was prohibited at the event, so I was unable to get any photos of the reading, but here are the first of a few photos from the trip.



After recovering from the effects of altitude sickness (which included feeling like I was having a heart attack; nausea; lightheadedness; and exhaustion), a redux of my visits to Boulder/Denver, I spent one morning strolling all around New Mexico's capital city's historic downtown area, chatting with people and looking at all the art on display, admiring and photographing the adobe-style buildings, old and new; popping my head into galleries, museums and bookstores; and walking towards the various, ever-looming mountain ranges, none of which, thankfully were in range. It took a day to acclimate, but I finally was able to say that 7,200 feet above sea level wasn't bad at all (i.e., enough for me). Now I can't wait to go back!






Native artists lined up along the Palace of the Governors' arcade
Native artists and vendors assembling along

the colonnade at the Palace of Governors




An outdoor sculpture, Santa Fe
A bronze sculpture at the Signature Gallery




Museum of Contemporary Native Art
The Museum of Contemporary Native Art

(which has an excellent current exhibit

of emerging and established Native artists)




Arcade looking south, Museum of Contemporary Native Art
The south-facing colonnade and arcade

at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art




Arcade looking north, Museum of Contemporary Native Art
The north-facing colonnade and arcade

at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art




Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Santa Fe
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi




A street in Santa Fe (with the Lensic Art Center at left)
Looking east toward the mountains (the Lensic

performance space, where we read, is visible at left)






IMG_1846
A closer glimpse of the Lensic




An old pueblo-style building at left
A very old pueblo-style building, with colonnade
and arcade, housing restaurants and other businesses
at left; Cathedral Park at right, the mountains
straight ahead




Beautiful old building, Santa Fe
A older adobe-style building

with a beautifully adorned side door




A beautiful wall drawing, Santa Fe
A Native painting adorning a wall

along a Santa Fe street