Architectural Follies


Zaha Hadib's Lincoln Avenue bike/bus shelter


Lapidus or Lapidus inspired fountain amidst the Lincoln Avenue shopping area. Pretty great? eh?

Day Two: Miami Beach


Detail Eden Roc, Morris Lapidus
We spent the better part of the morning trying to figure out where we were. Then, into the total water therapy moving from the hot tub to the fantasy pool to ending up where we were most happy, the ocean. White white sand. Very salty. Sinus clearing stuff. No real shells. But lots of code and rules around chairs and towels and the like. The swimming pool area have these cabanas that have microwaves(or TVs), little tables for drinks and chairs facing out towards the pool. Families jam into these striped huts with golden finials on the top...hogging all the pool real estate contingent with their rentals. We have no idea of how this thing works...

Then, we jumped in our car for a little drive. We drove down from Bal Harbor to Miami Beach and stopped at Lincoln Avenue for shopping and lunch. We had lunch and enjoyed after--at a terrific bookstore book/cafe with a collection of books that would never have made it through the challenges the big box book stores put them through. Huge collection of graphic novels including a new one from Ms.Satrape (of Peropolis fame) and in Charles Burns book in real life versus "images from". We were delighted to have a walk through of the local Design Within Reach store to see a table that was specced for a job. Next door was the highlight--a store called Base, which is in the small chicshop mode-- lots of well designed decorative arts pieces for the home. They carried fashion show music from Milan (double CD sets), raw wooden, carved animal heads (to size) for your walls, matte porcelain birthday cakes--all white with applied decorations, huge lanterns with light fixures inside (36" tall), cute little side chairs covered in Fornesetti prints complementing black and white striped upolstry or that covered in toile. Old design classic chairs--with their worn leather coverings. Wonderful. We saw the bike shelter/bus shelter designed by Zaha Hadid (winner of many awards including the Pritsker)--basically, a student project. I mean, she had to house a bicycle?

And Morris Lapidus?! Design god. Now that we saw a bit of his work...(the Eden Roc knocking my socks off)-much reading and looking must happen. His work is so of the time..the Disneyland aesthetic, Mary Blair--all the usual suspects--that given the context of entertaining environments to relax, he is the king.

"My whole success is I've always been designing for people, first because I wanted to sell them merchandise. Then when I got into hotels, I had to rethink, what am I selling now? You're selling a good time."
Morris Lapidus

See what I mean? What's not to love?

Lots of MiMo looking. Pink, aqua etc. of bas relief. Terrific. We drove through some of downtown--phenomenal growth--cranes everywhere. Then we toured the Port of Miami to get our bearnings. Interesting. Architecture expressing the boats--big white structures against these perfect skies.

More swimming and a later dinner at La Goulou (same as Manhatten)--and a quick walk through of the Bal Harbour Mall amidst a downpour. All the NYC big brands were there...shoulder to shoulder ready to sell you something elegant and glossy. We windowshopped and ran through the ran back to our snuggy beds.

More later>>

Day One: Getting There

Trip to Newburgh was pleasant and non eventful. Saw a bald eagle soaring over the a river just before Fishs Eddy. Marvelled at all the Kill names (meaning River)--my favorite being Beaver Kill. We lunched at Wegmans in Binghamton and within 4.5 hours we were at the tiny airport JetBlue flies out of in Newburgh. We did a little rubbernecking in Newburgh just to get the lay of the land and was delighted by many scary things...the best being the enormous mountain of mulch available at a landscaper...I mean a MOUNTAIN. Bigger than a warehouse pile of the stuff. They also had this amazing little pile display of pick the color of mulch you want...every earthtone (and beyond) available for you to plant your cannas in. Whoa.

Plane a little late...but with the scale of the airport--the whole security mojo was almost pleasant as there were no lines and plenty of people doing the screening. Flight took off 15 minutes late but we had 3 solid hours of television(24!) and drawing along with the offering of snacks and coffee and water. So, time went quickly.

Fort Lauderdale's airport was still in the swing of things at 10 pm. It is a big, white, "high tech" functional building with potted full sized palm trees in the baggage claim area. Baggage claims were brisk. Car pickup was fun as we had the chance to actually pick out our car. So, we are driving a lemon yellow PT Cruiser. We found our way with mapquest and made short order of getting to our hotel.

The hotel is filled with stripes. Walls, draperies. And tons of over the top flowers, some spray painted blue as orchids dont come in these colors. There is beach access and a wandering pool fantasy-- a venetian approach with bridges and more stripes on umbrellas as the water meanders into areas of chairs...all pointing the same way for the hoards to claim them for the tanning ritual.

There are endless plants I cannot name. Bouganvilla trees with these poundcake scented clusters of pink flowers. Amazing plantings. Amazing trees. Linked diamond pools surrounded by walkways with topiaries and the bushes cut like balls. All of them amazingly maintained. Bal Harbor is not for the weak...My head is spinning.

going


Bags are packed. Car cleaned out. No more cans and crumbs rattling about. Reservations made. Tragedies averted. Decisions made. Ready. Shady knows it. More snow here. Nothing sticking but none the less..it's snowy in a light, icy sort of way. Down to Newburgh NY to take JetBlue direct to Ft. Lauderdale. Its about a four hour trip with potty breaks to Newburgh but our thinking was with an hour and a half to Rochester, a connnection at Kennedy (at least an hour or so) and the flying time...up and down...with a longer drive and no connections we would be ahead financially and time in...So. Thus, the trip. Plus, another delightful JetBlue experience. The happy land of blue textures and chips. The cute "hi and hello" language on the TV monitors. The delight of landing at a Jetblue terminal..."feeling the love". Worth every red cent. (or is it blue cent).

Rob promises when we get back, it will be spring. I believe him because 99.5% of the time he is right, which makes me right .5% if I am dead on...but I believe I am right even less of the time! There was lots of movie making yesterday here. It was fun.

The lady sketch is another "wish I was Leger" sketch. My plan is to work more with his vocabulary though stylized, it bumps up nicely against the Day of the Dead skull images and could comprise a body of work. Next steps once I have 6 or 8 of them is to scan them in and truly finish them...illustrator, I think. Lovin' the pens. Lovin' the ink. Only had a slight wobble insofar as whether to take pelikan gouache (the cheap stuff in pans that I love) with us. I think line work is enough...plus, I packed two of the more recent "The Believers" to while the time away too.

Maybe A. will let me try his PSP?

Citation for the Rongovian Academy of Fine Arts

Please review>>
The Academy Director responded to this note by announcing our annual celebration which will include Rongovian Folk Music featuring the the Tombulkentian Bouzouki quintet. Our students are busy creating poignant tableaux vivants to be throughout our spacious grounds, commemorating the dynastic families significant to the cultural growth of Rongovia. Regional food and mead will be served along with demonstrations of lace making, pin knitting, dried apple head making, tatting for infant wear, whittling and customary Rongovian-style meat dressing in the Academy's art abattoir. We welcome your attendance and attention for our festival.

Running at it

Packing and organizing. We are eastering with in laws...with lots of candy for everyone today...then on to getting the stuff, paperwork etc. ready for our departure tomorrow. Got on Hotwire again and got some phenomenal prices on 4 star hotels in Miami. More than half the price that is posted for this place. I am always thrilled with Hotwire as a resource for travel. I have always been delighted with the offers we have gotten from Hotwire--even down to 10 Marlborough in London as it was tres cheap, clean etc. Nothing extraordinary...but great price, great location and value for price. You will hear about whether we will be pleased or not with these purchases.

Wandered through the Celebrity Cruise website...trying to navigate all the information need to do preboarding paperwork, trying to decipher what to pack, what to pay for, tipping guides etc. etc. I think I got it...but still am feeling a little out of sorts. I am sure if I read some type of "Idiot"book on cruises, it would be as clear as a bell about how to figure all this out...but sickly, I enjoy the challenge. R. recommended I search Flickr for images of cruises and cruisers...to get the picture fast. Right on! The food thing is wild...hysterical...and all I can think of are the poor devils in the hold making "tell a story" food out of stuff like lunch meat and/or watermelons for a bunch of fat people in sparkly evening clothes. Tables of cream puff swans, faces made of pretzels, creatures made from washcloths. What is with the illustration/life garnishes that happens on boats? Is this elegance? Are these totems to protect you at sea? Does food in the shape of creatures...or hugely colorful make it tastier??or disguise the Crisco edge? Help me!

Stations of the cross in mayonnaise and gelatin glazed hams? The carved ice Easter Bunny? The cake sculpture of the the rock rolled away from the tomb.. with a marzipan angel speaking to Mary? A spun sugar rendition of the last supper?

I need to get to work. Strata and fruit begins to sound pretty pedestrian. What can I do with a poundcake?

AAAch!

Miami bound


We are off on another excursion on the ever wonderful JetBlue to Miami for Spring break with the team. We will be flying direct from Newburg NY (direct on JetBlue read...affordable...and off peak, darn well cheap). We figured, if we have to drive to Rochester NY or even Syracuse and get a double hit with money and time...spend the extra hour and go to Newburg and save with time and money. We will see if that pans out. Lots on the plan...but no big plans. Hope to see a little of Little Havana and the shops, to take in coffee and sun and the surf lifestyle, Miami style. Also, dig into the museum art thing in prep for possibly coming back in December for Art Basel Miami. Whoa! Then, later next week, we are going to experience what a cruise is like--traveling on Celebrity Cruiselines to go from Miami to Key West and Cozumel and back (four days all in) and your chatty friend will be porting the powerbook, buying the minutes and filling you in on the biased view of this delight and all the others. To be honest, the concept of cruise has never really been in my vocabulary or even within the realm of possibilities...somehow the idea of a floating hotel seems kind of funny...but if not, why not...and a wonderful opportunity has happened for us to dig in and see what it's like--short amount of time, limited exposure and who knows? Now...evening clothes?? I don't think danskos count...unless I can rustle up some grosgrain bows and pretend they are mens dancing slippers? What do you think? The cruise thing and fashion is, for me, a frightening thought on all sides. I fear sleep could be lost over this.

I talked to a friend of mine of similar views and expectations about her cruise experience and her idea of what worked formally is totally concievable. So, my finding a dress to make me look like some sort of fairy princess nightmare, some adult prom fantasy, some psycho wedding halllucination is not necessary. Phew. The boys are set and Kitty has parts and pieces that she can look like the little matchgirl in one moment and Queen for a Day the next. She has it all...and it works. And so, we move forward...for today. I wonder if, in addition to the spa treatments that are offered, psychological counselling for the anti-fashionistas might be available. Wait a minute. Wait a darned minute. Basic black? floor length? phobic? Got it.

Burka. (maybe with gold shoes?)

In the spirit of travel, I am boning up on my Leger and have a stack of little drawings I have begun...that I will torture you with. Instead of his gradient, I am trying the tigerteeth to see if we can get a similar look...but still keep it solid black and white. I will graduate to black, white and grey at some point...but the pure reduction approach is hard...and thus, the real work.

Snow predicted.


New tools in action. Kitty asked me if I was going to talk about my pens this morning on the way to school. I guess I am getting tedious--so much so, my daughter pinpoints exactly what is working this week for me. No, I answered her, I talked about them yesterday. URg. My plan today was to point you to this cool blog "comic tools: snooping into cartoonists' toolboxes M-W-F". MK Reed asks illustrators about their tools, inks, pencils, etc...down to the weensie details and a discussion on working technique. She links to the artists' websites, cites their training and expertise. Its great, affirming and opens up other techniques/materials. Overall, everyone adores the faber castell Pitt Pens (which I have praised as well). I love Neil Swaab's entry (he is blogged here at the RFA) and Matthew Bernier's detailed information on slow lines and fast lines, high carb--down to the watch out on how to buy a brush. Bernier's blog is illumninating too>> Here is Bernier's advice--

"Advice: Don't become like me. No, really though, good tools do help. It's true that a great artist can make good comics with the worst pen available. But- I could never get the exact kind of line I get out of a good brush with a bad brush. Bad tools slow you down, break your rhythm, harsh your mellow. I pay good money so that I can know for certain that any problems I have at the drawing table are my fault and not my tool's."

Right on.

>>another interesting looksee at different brush pens. I love my fellow bloggers as they share the wealth and opinion. >>

new tools


I love art supplies and am constantly looking for omphalos, the center of the universe, in this wonderful area. I am digging working with ink, as I have mentioned before. I guess its a throwback to ink stained hands in high school and college with my studies in calligraphy with Arnold Bank. But, now its the same idea...but new! I get to draw what I want to, versus copying forms and putting them together so as to be able to replicate what people without printing presses had time to do. Seems somehow anachronistic with our technology transcending movable type ten fold. I mean, we can output, scan, put things together "on the fly", we have electronic delivery, we have the internet. Where does calligraphy (ink on paper) belong? If you view calligraphy as the study of the "art of beautiful letters"--it is then a different story. But to my mentor, it begins and ends on a blank sheet of paper...

Calligraphy is the autographics of alphabetics. . . . Calligraphy is simply the art of writing,or of sketching and drawing transferred to the use of letter design, on the beautiful blank of a fine sheet of paper. . . . Now in doing it, it has to be clear and it has to be beautiful."
Arnold Bank (1908-1986)

But, I transgress...

Back to ink. I have extolled ink and the possible new medium, Noodlers. I am now a proud parent of a wonderful Rotring pen and a Pentel Pocket Brush. The Rotring is nice...very smooth and semi flexible. It is nice in the hand and has a nice black ink that comes with it. The Pocket Brush was picked up at the british art supply store I mentioned last week on the fly...but I figured, 1. It was refillable/check; 2. It could run up against the fab Faber Castell Black Pitt Pen...and not need a slew of them at various levels of being dried out; 3. was affordable. I plugged in the cartridge today and wwooooooooowwwwwww! Black black, smooth, kind of wiggly brush so I can get points and flats, thins and a thick about 1/2 wide. Then I did a little look see on the web to see what others say:

To summarize: The Pentel Pocket Brush pen is one of the greatest sketching tools that has been discovered. Sadly, this pen is scarce in North America, and those lucky enough to have found it are revered as holy men. Read more (this guy nails it)>>
Buy them at Wet Paint>>

phew!


Someone forgot to tell me that today was the day that the world goes crazy. I forgot today is the day before the day before Good Friday which is the day everyone remembers they need thus and so done by "the end of the week"..which, depending on their vacations, could mean today. So...nice thing is that this sort of thing forces me out of my corner. I had to figure out how to work the web thingamajig on my marvellous epson 4800 printer. And with a little "jiggery pokery" I got it to work and have output my first 17" x 75" print. And..it looks terrific.

More later>>

Harmonic


Am messing around in the moleskine...with lots of ink drawings just to see what pops up. Scanning them in this morning, I had the brilliant (no duh!) thought that I could mess with them in photoshop with the ole selection, fill, new selection, fill...shift the whole mess..merge and twiddle with the filters...So, the race is on to make more pictures, and mess with them. Not getting credit with SU on this one, but in my bones, it feels like I could go down another channel of the "make it look like a print">> and see what happens. More to come. Busy here with the paying work.

Jim Reidy, Stefan Sender and (for a well informed source)--the best fiddle player around...gave us some beautiful music at the Pourhouse last night. They all seemed to be genuinely happy to play together. We chatted with Chad Crumm, another fiddler extrodinaire about his growing up, music and how he came to our plateau. It was enlightening and inspiring...particularly in his talking about a particularly talented pair of brothers as having harmonic genetics. Kind of puts things on a new slant. They are tuned to each other and intuitively feel for the other's art/music. Chad said he thought that that was like the Bach Family etc. Is it true across the artistic board? or with science? Im not sure. Somehow it makes sense with music. Need to think about that.

More later>>

I attain the pinnacle of mechanical symbolism”



“The machine has become more than a mere adjunct of life. It is really a part of human life...perhaps the very soul...I have enlisted the machinery of the modern world, and introduced it into my studio.”
Francis Picabia
Totally forgot about Francis Picabia (January 28, 1879 - November 30, 1953). A longtime favorite of mine! I love his graphic paintings...and the little dadaist messages he weaves in. His work when it bumps up agains M. Marcel Duchamps assemblages (the chocolate grinder related work) is similar (the blue gears in Machine Turns shown above--in tone, line weight and use of the everyday to make a lovely composition disecting the machine, it's work and motion). He is recognized for mechanical portraits after his defined Dadaist period. There was a huge Picabia of a silhouette (I will give examples in next post)--about 9' tall at the Tate Modern along with an assemblage similar to that I have posted above. I just love these pieces. However, Picabia did some pretty dreadful drawn, overlappy, gouache images in the late 1920s...that do not measure up to the wonderful work done earlier...albeit in the same types of happy color palettes he seems to use.

Interestingly,around 1911 he joined the Puteaux Group, which met at the studio of Jacques Villon in the village of Puteaux. There he became friends with artist Marcel Duchamp. Some of the group's members were, Apollinaire, Albert Gleizes, Roger de La Fresnaye, Fernand Leger and Jean Metzinger. I am currently adoring M. Leger as well...so maybe there is something there...by studying both artists at the same time.

Blue Sky Day

I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own. -- John Bartlett

The above quote really sums up where my head is after the illustration fest for the wonderful band I am doing a little spec work for. Later last night, I sent them 2 directions to pick from...and I hope, no chinese menu'ing of the designs will happen. They are so different from each other, it would really push it to merge the two. We'll see.

News story of today is about a burka clad woman who was percieved as being 'strangely fat'. I wonder why>> A nice quote from the article states:

"The policewoman screamed and ran out of the room, and then women began screaming and panicking when they heard," Telleria said. But when the hysteria died down, she said, "everybody was admiring a woman who is able to tie crocodiles to her body."

New fashion accessory thought. They have really nice little crocodile and or armadillo pocketbooks in Arizona...complete with tails, feet and heads (centered on the front flap of the bag) that are quite startling that would look great with the bustier of taped crocodiles around one's midsection. And shoes? Do you think an izod shirt might cap the entire look? Imagine!

Snow projected for the end of the week. Happy easter egg hunts amongst the icicles.

Hello Sunshine!


>>for more details>>
Illustration by me. Product design by Peter Drobny. Price: $11,000. I think its a limited edition. This was a piece that came together relatively quickly last summer with Peter and Steuben. It is an engraved piece, meaning my line drawing and a specially shaded drawing was provided to an engraver who carves the illustration out of glass with spinning, sharpened copperwheels (backwards, of course) to create this type of rendering. Splashy!

Get one for your nearest and dearest.

Make Us Pockets


Pockets were cited regularly in song and words by Peter Pan, performed by Charlotte Sender to great success last night. Somehow pockets are made and sewn by mothers--and in the case of Master Pan, this is one of the more significant things that can be done for young boys. Forget food. Forget carpools. Forget itunes. Pockets.

Charlotte Sender was luminescent. She is charged and is one of those people that can truly "turn it on". She has "got it" and is winsome, sweet and determined. Without Charlotte's hard work, energy and presence, this presentation would not have hung together as well as it did. Her Peter Pan was puckish with twinkle--confident and yet still insure. We need to keep an eye on this young actress. Big things to come. We saw musical theatre and theatre people (who have really made it) at Carnegie Mellon and Charlotte is one of those people. Stellar.

The house was packed. The moms were selling $2 and $6 bouquets for parents to give to their children (I don't get it). There was the baking spree, candy and water concession stand. There were tee shirts and tapes of the play for sale. Retail was busy. And a cast party today. The kids all seemed to have a great time. Lots of running in the aisles, up and down steps etc. Lots of well made up indians. And glamorous pirates. There are going to be some tired kids this week.

More later>>

random coincidences


A doll made to celebrate the year of the pig from Shutterstock

Who could imagine flattery in the mail? I got a letter from a man yesterday who refers to himself : " I am 54 years old, work as cook and I love to visit museums and to view the illustrations in children's books". He goes on to tell the story of inheriting his grandfather's collections of autographs of actors, singers and politicians. He knows he has a good collection and is not going to sell it or get rid of it--but build on it with autographs of painters, illustrators and cartoonists. He sent me a postcard with my name on it, a folded dollar bill, and a self addressed envelope with this letter covered in rubberstamps and stickers depicting pigs. He asks very nicely if, in addition to the autograph, a "very, very small interpretation of anything "piggish""....as his wife Ulricke is a pig fan "since many years". How can I resist. I might also send him a recipe...or a pig seasoning...

Then, if I wasn't big headed enough, we went to the Pourhouse and sat at the bar. R introduced himself to the bartended and then introduced me. The bartender was surprised that I was the "Q" he had seen on the web via the Ulysses blog by the loquatious and insightful, Jonathan Cook. He even went so far as to say he liked my work! Imagine!

Oh, the kindness of strangers!

Todd Edmonds and Mudbone played last night at the Pourhouse. They were great and to see Todd in a different venue other than design was fun. We ran into our real estate agent and had a wonderful talk about her up and coming 50th (and her husband has one too this year). They refer to themselves as "a hundred". Cute. They also told us all about the Donna the Buffalo Cruise that takes the herd throughout the caribbean with DTB rocking out at night. For more info on that>> You know, from the way they describe it...it could be really fun. Kind of grassroots without the camping and concession stands. And did I say with working toilets too?

Peter Pan tonight. It was a big hit last night.
More later>>

They're Here!


The Turkey Vultures are back! Shady and I were taking a dewy, early morning stroll by the big pine trees in the side yard and we startled about 15 turkey vultures in the treetops. The din was amazing--and then silence as they sailed around in big wide circles with their meaty heads bearly identifiable. I found out that the vultures have these clean, red heads so they can dig further into carcasses when feeding. Urg.

They do come home every spring and sometimes the fall. Maybe baby vultures?