modern art makes me want to rock out

September 26, 2010Leave a comment

Last Friday I went out to the far western edge of Davis, to the fourth annual Stonegate Art Fest. It’s an exhibition of artwork – paintings, sculptures, photography – put on by the residents of the Stonegate area. I went to see the work of my colleague Rahman Azari and his wife (both are excellent artists), and do some sketching, and also spread the word about the upcoming Davis sketchcrawl on October 16. I met some interesting local artists and spent a lot of time talking, so only managed two sketches. I drew the guitarist (Kit Sodergren), who played an acoustic set; he was playing “If I Fell” by the Beatles as I sketched this. The other drawing is called “Stradipearius”, a piece by Eric Nelson which was part of the ‘box project’ the stonegate artists were invited to do. Each was given a small wooden box and asked to create something from it, with diverse results. Afterwards, I cycled home, through a Davis which is now full of people and new students, past frat houses which are ‘rushing’, and a downtown full of music and the excitement of the new school year. Summer is over*, and Fall is here at last.

(*when I say Summer is over, I say it while it’s like, 95 degrees outside)

beneath a palm tree

September 24, 20101 Comment

We relaxed beneath a palm tree on the beach at Santa Monica, with an ice cream an a mango smoothie. I love it down there, by the Ocean. I’m a big fan of the Ocean Park area. I could live there.

venetian sunday

September 21, 20102 Comments

Have you ever been to the Venice canals? I don’t mean the ones in the actual Venice in Italy, I mean the ones in Venice in California, that you sometimes see in the movies (soppy movies, admittedly). We were there on our weekend in LA (it was our anniversary; appropriate, since we got engaged in the actual Venice) (and honeymooned at the Venetian), strolling about the narrow sidewalks along the water, admiring the houses, wondering which ones we would live in if we suddenly became very rich (I’d have to sell a lot of drawings I think). It was calm, there was no noise of cars, just the tweeting of birds. If we lived there I’d want a little boat.

Speaking of waterways, we stayed just around the corner in Marina del Rey, where our hotel was a block away from the Cheesecake Factory, and our room had an amazing view over the marina itself. I sketched it quickly just before we checked out.

LA galaxy

September 20, 20102 Comments

Part two of my downtown Los Angeles sketches. I slowly went uphill. On another day when I have more time (and I said this three years ago when I last decided not to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art) I’ll go to the MOCA. On this day, I was grabbing as many sketches as I could, and stood outside it (leaning against a newspaper stand of course), and drew the space age Walt Disney Concert hall (I say ‘space age’, I mean ‘the Death Star after a fight with Magneto’), by the legendary Frank Gehry. It’s home to the LA Philharmonic.

I also drew the downtown Public Library. That’s a pretty nice building too, but I didn’t have time to go in and browse. Well, I know what I’m like with libraries, I’d be there forever. A fire hydrant just happened to poke its way into view.

And below, looking up, and looking down. Bye-bye downtown LA.

there’s a door that never closes

September 19, 2010September 19, 20102 Comments

So…more travelling, this time down to Los Angeles, an overnighter for our anniversary. Wow, it’s been over three years since I was there. I like LA. In fact I hadn’t been to downtown LA before, and had a few hours to go sketching. I liked the look of the place above – the ‘Original Pantry’ – as we drove past in the cab: it was colourful, and there were lots of people queuing around the corner, mostly Trojans fans (the USC team, not the, you know). Most had gone when I went back to sketch. A sign on the door claims that The Original Pantry has been open for a very long time: “through a door which has no key you will enter a cafe that has NEVER BEEN CLOSED SINCE 1924“. Which is pretty amazing, if it’s true. And by not closed, I mean actually not closed, like always open. That’s what I choose to believe from their claim. This is LA! Anything’s possible!

Just a couple of hours before, I had flown over these very buildings on our way to LAX. Skyscrapers seen from an airplane above are quite magnificent; of course, I was mindful of the date as well. Flying above LA is pretty cool experience though – you really see the urban sprawl, seemingly endless, broken only by big dusty mansion-filled mountains poking through. You can see the Hollywood sign clearly from the air, and the foggy belt that hangs above the Ocean communities. The only thing – the only thing – I like about flying is the view from the window, if it’s something worth seeing, of course.

I drew both of these while leaning on those flat-topped newspaper boxes you see everywhere in American cities. As I’ve mentioned before, they are perfect for urban sketchers to lean against.

roll out the map, and mark it with a pin

September 18, 2010September 20, 20102 Comments

This drawing of the Silo at UC Davis, done yesterday lunchtime. I’m trying something out. This is drawn in dark brown Pitt pen, in a regular moleskine sketchbook – the same one I started exactly four years ago and abandoned due to my dislike of the paper (my micron pens couldn’t get the hang of it, and it absolutely hates watercolour). But I have a new project, a Davis drawing project, that I want to put into my Urban Sketchers moleskine, the one I got at the Symposium in Portland. It will be a series in the same format as the above, more or less. Should be fun!

opposite ends of the day

September 16, 2010September 16, 20102 Comments

Now this is an actual sunset. I love watching the Sun go down behind Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, as i often do when waiting for the Amtrak bus to take me back to Emeryville, and from there back to Davis. I say often, I really only go to SF three or four times a year, but I feel like I know it pretty well now. I like catching the early train to the Bay Area, when the Sun casts long shadows across the Delta and the grass is golden and the hills are brown. Actually I really like it when the Delta is covered in thick early morning fog, but it’s harder to draw things when it’s like that. Anyway, the sketch below (the now common sketch of the Pepsi Max can and train window) was done on the way there, the sketch above was done on the way back.

inner sunset

September 14, 2010Leave a comment

“Inner Sunset”… i like that phrase, like a good way to describe slowly turning to the dark side, or perhaps a piece of you inside of you that is always calm and golden and peaceful. Actually, it’s just a neighbourhood of San Francisco, but an interesting one that I’d never really been to before (and one which has a park side). I was there for the Zine Fest so I took the time to draw some of the area. The above was drawn in the morning, while the Farmer’s Market went on nearby, and a woman played three different tunes on a violin, over and over and over again. When I was done, I went and bought a load of zines.

a change of zinery

September 9, 2010September 9, 20109 Comments

After missing it for the past couple of years, I went on Sunday to the San Francisco Zine Fest. I like zines – I came across some a few years ago in a comic shop in Berkeley and was hooked, but I don’t find them very often. It was at the SF County Hall building, by Golden Gate Park. I arrived early (taking the longtrain journey down from Davis) and did some sketching around the Inner Sunset area, which I’d never explored before. I’ll post those sketches later. In the ZineFest, I took to some people sketching.

This mohican/mohawked zinester just needed sketching. I don’t see mnay of those haircuts these days. There used to be loads in London years ago, now they are just restricted to postcards of Piccadilly Circus. It must take ages to do each morning. What if part of it flops down to one side at some point during the day, do you need to keep checking it in the mirror? These things would be on my mind, that’s why I could never have one (that and the curly hair). I didn’t ask, but thought it would make a great zine. Well, maybe not that great.

As I sketched, another woman starting sketching (she wasn’t sketching the mohican though), so I sketched her. Sketching is contagious.

I spent a lot of time flicking through zines, talking to the zinesters who created them, and eventually avoiding this after I realised I just kept buying zines and my bag was getting heavy. I liked a lot of the stuff which was personal and drawing-based, and funny. Not all of the zine world my cup of tea, of course. Overly wordy zines put me off a little, and some of the anarchist stuff wasn’t really my thing. Some which I thought might be good turned out to be not quite so good, while many others were real gems and revealed some everyday creativity, which inspires me so much.

I have a phrase which I wrote out on a post-it note once and kept on my desk, “Every story is worth telling. But not every story is worth listening to.” and I thought of this often while flicking through the racks of zines. Actually, I prefer to transpose that sentence by saying, “Not every story is worth listening to, but every story is worth telling.” To me that makes more sense, and I like the attitude that even if there are those who aren’t all that interested in your story or picture or what you do, it is your story and if it matters to you then it’s worth it. Make what you like. Maybe someone else will relate to it. That’s why I appreciate zines, as little tangible hold-in-your-hand (and importantly, independent) pieces of someone’s personal story, mode of expression. (Yes, even the anarchist ones where they are describing kicking some BNP guy in the head at the train station.) One of the zines I bought that day was called ’31’ and described 31 things the author (Marissa Falco) liked (in drawing and photocollage), to celebrate her 31st birthday. I think I bought it simply because I related to the idea (and also because one of the ‘likes’ was a uniball vision pen).

I went to a couple of the workshops, one very interesting one on zine-style bookbinding (I am getting more interested in the idea of binding zines, and sketchbooks, as many of my fellow sketchers already do so nicely). Another of the workshops was a presentation by some fellow Brits, a group of zinesters who are touring the US zine events with their work under the title ‘Zines on Toast’. They are involved in the organizing of the London Zine Symposium, which looks great, and were recently in Portland (snap!) which as I discovered is like a mecca of zinery (Reading Frenzy being a highlight).

One zinester I was particularly hoping to come across was Joey Sayers, whose zine/comic “I’m Gonna Rip Yer Face Off” is what got me interested in zines in the first place, picked up at Comic Relief in Berkeley several years ago. Unfortunately I gave it away to my nephew and then forgot who wrote it. I was pleased to come across Joey selling her latest work, and I could only buy one (her latest collection of ‘Thingpart’ called “I wish you were dead”) as I’d spent most of my money on other zines. Her comics are ridiculously funny, after skimming one page I was cracking up where I stood. Without a doubt the best thing I got that day and I’ll be getting more; you should check out her site.

Will I finally come out with zines of my own? Yes it’s in the pipeline, I’ve long been thinking about converting my already-made little drawn serials into zines, and also writing others, zine-format specific. I’ve had a few ideas. Post-Portland I’m more serious about getting this done and out there. If I do, next year I might bring them with me.

dig it

September 7, 2010September 7, 20103 Comments

machines

Construction Machines are an eye-turner for me these days. That’s because I tend to like drawing things I know my son will like. I was speaking to other parent-artists at the Sketching Symposium and they said even though their kids are grown up they still do the same. These machines have been outside my work doing some sort of building work for some time now, so I perched beneath the shade one lunchtime last week and sketched them, from the best angle I could find.