This is a piece I did for The New York Times this week. It is running in Sunday’s “The City” section (of the New York edition). The author Thomas R. Pryor waxes nostalgic about a day in 1961 when his father and uncles took him to see the Yankees play the Red Sox. One of his uncles knew Luis Arroyo, the pitcher, and the author got lifted over the fence to hang out in the bullpen, and was awestruck by the pinstriped giants. Art direction by the always agreeable Richard Weigand.
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Read the Essay
This watercolor sketch was created during “happy hour” at Site 106 of the Winding River Resort, just south of the west exit of Rocky Mountain National Park. Corrie and I really enjoyed our stay at this campground. It was the ideal spot to pitch our tent after a long, exciting, but tiring week of high-altitude hiking and trekking. The view from our site was gorgeous. Sitting at our picnic table, we were able to gaze across an idyllic farm scene of grazing horses and bathing ducks, with the Rockies serving as a backdrop. This campground was significantly less crowded than the one we’d stayed at the other two nights, so we felt like we had the view all to ourselves.
We didn’t realize this at check-in, but included in our stay was a complimentary wake-up call. At 6am, just before we’d set our watch alarms, two giant moose came clip-clopping by our tent! They were less than 20 feet away! I quietly crept out of my sleeping bag to get a closer look…you can see photos of the “morning moose” here and here.
I’ve been pretty busy on Illustration side the past few days, but I made time last night to make this thar rug. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages, so I forced myself to put my pencil down and tried it out. It’s available to buy from my etsy shop, but I plan to make a few more in the near future for an exhibition near the end of the year.
(A Rug?! What am I doing with my life…)
It’s fun to draw other peoples sculptures. These were drawn in my sketchbook and tweaked in Photoshop. To the left is a piece by Herbert Ferber titled ‘Homage to Piranesi’ and on the right is an untitled sculpture by Joel Shapiro.
When you look at something long enough, eventually the plan becomes so obvious that you wonder why you didn’t see it earlier. “What the hell does that mean?”
Ideas and plan for arbors and Chinese Pagoda to be built in the Fire Swamp.
See earlier post for an explanation.
About 5 years ago, we purchased the property across the street from our home.
Someone before us bulldozed all the trees and left them in a huge clump and then tried to burn them. Dirt and stumps don’t burn well.
Anyway, we cleaned it up and took 16 dump truck loads of stumps away.
Here is one of the dozens of drawings I’ve done and the plan. It is turned 90 degrees from the panoramic photo below of the site.
In the drawing on the top right is a R.O.U.S. (rodent of unusual size) as my homage to the ‘Princess Bride’ -one of my favorite movies. I’d like to make large topiary rats and place them thoughout the woods some day.
After I do a million drawings of something, I know it intimately, and can proceed with the construction. I culled cedar trees from the property to build the chinese pagoda and arbors. Fall is a good time to start Chinese Pagodas in New York State. Good Feng Shui.
I must have a lot of time on my hands, or forgotten how to sleep. Sleep is for wimps anyway. Stay tuned.
I’m finally done with my latest comic for Mome, thank goodness! The book won’t be out for several months; however, the last issue was just released, and it, too, contains a story by moi. It’s available at classy bookstores or on the Fantagraphics site.
I recently had the honor and privilege to attend a friend‘s wedding in the Loir-et-Cher region of northern central France. During my time there, I stayed in the charming village of Trôo. The village is partly troglodytic, meaning that many of the homes are built into caves in the hillside. You can view photos of Trôo, along with photos of other spots I visited such as the castle at Lavardin and the Chartres cathedral, within my Flickr collection.
