Anthony Bourdain - RIP

This was one of the most heartbreaking of days. As soon as I got up, I looked at my phone and saw the beginning words of a headline, "Anthony Bourdain" it started. Oh no. Before I swiped over, I briefly thought, maybe he and Asia Argento got married. But no, the worst news ever, dead at 61. I thought, heart attack. And then the news did get worse. Suicide. It was a same 1-2 punch as the morning I woke to the news of Chris Cornell. Unexpected death. Must be a heart attack...and then shockingly, suicide. I saw him twice in person, first in Milwaukee and then in Chicago. I've watched him for 15 years. I have his Les Halles cookbook, the great "Kitchen Confidential," and, no bs, just pulled "Parts Unknown" off my bookshelf last Saturday and started re-reading it. I can hear the cadence of his voice, imagine the movements of his body in some of my favorite episodes. It feels so personal, as if I truly lost someone I knew, a friend who took me along to places I couldn't go to on my own. It's a thought all fans are feeling, no doubt. I imagine his best friend, Eric Ripert, finding him. And I'm conjuring up all sorts of reasons in my head. His food explorations led him, and us, to the truer journey of connecting with people, cultures, history, socio-economic crisis or in other words, humanity on the most vulnerable level. He was vulnerable, too. I'm so sorry for your pain, Anthony. Thank you for all you gave us and tried to make us understand.

Lost

I had been feeling disheartened for a few days.  Part of it had to do with the gloomy weather we had been experiencing, which is strange, because I actually love rainy, gray days.  It probably was a combination of things, but that was the background for this emerging portrait I had drawn last night.

LOST

Below, I put the portrait behind the doors of a bookcase, giving it a slightly different story.

Concerned

This drawing was a quick sketch I did before I went to bed last night.  Often I feel like I just have to draw something--anything--before I end the day.  It relaxes me...it's my meditation.  After I was done, I named him after the look I felt he was giving me.

Graphite & Pastel

Day 7 of 30 Portrait Swirl

Are those her teeth?  

Perhaps a long strand of pearls she's biting, 

enticing her partner into a provocative tête-à tête?

This painting is just the kind of freaky stuff I like.   

One where I can see lots of different images floating around, 

swirling, changing into something else. 

I like the shifting.

I intentionally painted in portrait direction (above),

However, when I turned it around in my hands, 

I thought the landscape orientation looked interesting as well,
the way the nose becomes a mouth.