DR. SKETCHY'S ANTI-ART SCHOOL

What a fun event this was. In a small town like Ashland, everyone knows everyone, and since there's a ton of super talented artists here, it was a very festive and creative evening.

I originally was going to go by myself, but at the last minute a friend of mine, Julia, came by my house to play backgammon, and I told her about this. It was surprising she didn't already know, as she's an artist and way hooked into the art scene here. But it was more fun to show up with a date than to show up solo, even if she does have a boyfriend.

It was tricky drawing in bad light, with multiple shadows of my pencil all over my drawing pad. But being up front helped a lot; most people were much further away from the stage than I was (I was sitting on the models' couch).

I was really glad to get this one drawing out of the event, as the rest of the ones I did weren't that great. This is the girl you see in the end of the video, nearest the camera, who's talking. She was by far the hottest model there, and this portrait of her was done while she was posing with two other models, but I didn't have the time, or inclination, to draw them with her so near at hand. One thing that was difficult was drawing the makeup she had on, which was a big blob of red on her cheek and some heavy eyeliner.

PHILLY GRAFFITI

My brother just sent me this link to a graffiti artist whose work we used to see back in the day in Philly.

http://215hiphop.com/interviews/first-element-interview-with-credit-xtc/

The writer's name was Credit, and I remember seeing his work all over Center City, where we lived. This was in the early 80s, and it was so cool to see graffiti evolving from bubble letters to wildstyle as it was happening. I remember I moved to Oregon in 1983 and was wearing an adidas running suit and suede Pumas with fat laces, and no one, and I mean no one, had ever seen anything like that before in Oregon. It was pure culture shock for the locals, and for me and my twin brother as well. Moving from inner city Philly to the homogenous, white state of Oregon was a trip. I remember being way into graffiti, even though I was only 13 and had never really done any major pieces anywhere. One time I worked up the courage to go out and do a full color piece, and I got caught by a cop walking the street. My brother was standing watch, but we weren't prepared for how much noise the can of paint was going to make. It made it hard to hear anyone approaching.

I think that's what I really miss about the early days of graffiti. It was still raw and unpopular among the masses, and it involved a great deal of risk, which made it a great adventure. It's one of those things you think only you and your friends are into, then all of a sudden it's mainstream.

(Kinda like 420. 21 years and counting, but now it's to the point where the Comedy Channel makes a nod to it on their programming—at least that's what I heard they did this last Sunday).

Anyway, reading this link above was like a missing piece of a puzzle that finally turned up after 25 years. I really wish I'd taken photos of some of Credit's killer shit, like the piece that was up on McCall school on 6th and Spruce, next to Jay Cee. Credit's piece was this killer wildstyle I'd never seen anywhere before, and Jay Cee's was the old school bubble letters next to it with the blue to white interior. I can't remember who went over it, but I do remember seeing Met and Espo up there after that.

I don't think this link mentions Bucks as part of the XTC crew, but I could swear I remember seeing XTC next to a couple of Bucks' tags near 10th and Spruce.

Taking the train to see our dad (whose birthday is today, happy birthday Dad!) in Germantown was always an occasion to look for new work by Credit and Jay Cee. We'd leave Market Street station on the Conrail, and there were a few years there where we kept seeing new pieces like every week. By this time graffiti had mostly moved to walls, though I do remember the days of riding the old Septa subway cars covered with bubble letter graffiti, with the insides completely covered with early writers' tags. People thought it was ugly back then, but I remember being a kid and being fascinated by the lettering, and trying to decipher what it said. I've loved typography ever since.

SENSITIVE ELECTRONICS

Talking to my friend in Bangkok right now on iChat. Weird seeing bright sun at 9 pm. We were just talking about the new passports and the chip that's in them, and I wanted to show him the writing on the passport that said it contained sensitive electronics. So I held it to the camera and the background noise, which had been constant and bad the whole time, completely disappeared. It was suddenly perfectly quiet, the best connection. Don't know if there's a connection there, but it sure was strange.

Here's a photo from my trip to Eugene this past Saturday. I saw these signs all over town, with different phrases filled in on each one.

NUDES

I was going through my sketchbook just now and I figured I might as well post more of these images from my Monday morning figure drawing sessions. I mean, what good are they doing anyone just sitting in an unopened sketchbook?

A LIKENESS

After missing the past couple of weeks, I attended the Monday morning figure drawing session this morning. The model was a woman in her mid to late 60s, and she had a lot of detailed lines in her face that I wanted to capture, but the drawings we were doing were mostly gestural, with a couple of 25-minute sessions at the end. It's amazing how fast twenty five minutes goes by when you're super focused on something. This is all I was able to do in the last 25-minute session, but I really captured a likeness of the woman. It's the first likeness of someone I've managed to capture (their face, anyway) since I started doing these workshops.

HANDS AND FEET

In yesterday morning's figure drawing session, I wanted to concentrate on the model's hands and feet. Most people don't spend enough time practicing drawing hands and feet, and I learned in art class a long time ago that it's easier to fake an area of the face than it is to fake accurate looking hands and feet.

In this particular pose I was most concerned with the model's left leg, in particular how it firmly weighted her to the ground. I wanted to convey how much of her weight she was putting on her left leg, and also how relaxed her hands were. She had very large, mannish hands, and I had to check several times to make sure I was seeing them correctly.

LEST WE FORGET

The other night I got home from a day at the office (thankfully a rare occurence) and my friend called to tell me it was Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. I found some purple beads—couldn't find the green and gold ones to go with them—and headed downtown. No one was out celebrating, and I couldn't figure out what was up. Then I walked into a bar with a TV and realized that not only was it Fat Tuesday, it was also Super Tuesday.

The nerve of the networks to override a real and tangible holiday with coverage of an unreal and intangible non-holiday. As if the election process means anything anymore, if it ever did.

New Orleans deserves better.