Brooklyn Art Library's Sketchbook Project 2015

Hey out there, are you joining in on The Brooklyn Art Library's Sketchbook Project for 2015?  This time around, my theme is "Ladders."  Here's a little look at the front and back covers.

Front Cover

Back Cover

I really struggled with choosing a subject, and almost went with "Circa."  Gawl darnit!  I mean, I can think of 20 things I would do with that now.  Oh well, one step at a time...Ladders--get it? Ah, ha, ha!

I've been participating in The Sketchbook Project since 2010-2011.  Here they are in order:

My first--I think there were 80 pages in this one and I filled it to capacity.  Sketchbooks after this year had about 30 pages.  This one is called "Coffee and Cigarettes."  I'm not a smoker girl, but I love Jim Jarmusch's quirky, independent film, "Coffee and Cigarettes" SO much, that I was OBLIGATED to make it my theme.  Anyway, up to this point, that one is my favorite.  Super loaded with words and drawings.

"Coffee and Cigarettes"

Oh, and guess what?  Here's my tribute to director Jim Jarmusch within this baby.  I talk about seeing his great film, "Mystery Train" at the Art Theater (where Roger Ebert used to have his annual film festivals. Chaz, his wife, continues the tradition).  Ah, memories.  

And P.S., do you remember my recent painting called "Picasso Baby" inspired by Jay Z's song of the same name?  Well click here and go back to it, and you can watch the video of it.  Jim Jarmusch is IN that video, too.

I completed two more in 2012: "Sandwich (I dubbed it "Sandwich & Sandwiched Between") and "The Last Word Spoken."  A piece from the latter was included in a published 5-volume set called "The Sketchbook Project - Limited Edition."

"Sandwich"

Here's two tidbits from "Sandwich" - "Sandwiched between work and home":

Below: Based on a real sandwich:  The Twinkie Wiener:

"The Last Word (ever, ever, ever, ever) Spoken"

Here's a few selections from this one (I figured I'd include some of the most memorable words every spoken as well. That's the instance of my inclusion of Coco from "Ice Loves Coco."  By the way, where did that show go?)

Below is the Sketchbook Project's "Limited Edition."  I have all volumes. My piece is in Volume 5.

Songs to Draw From - Talking Heads - "This Must Be the Place" (Not Available)

The Brooklyn Art Library's Sketchbook Project always offers so many great projects and challenges (free and otherwise) to inspire the world to make art at every turn.  Today is the last day to participate in their latest offering, in collaboration with Diner Journal magazine, but you still have a few hours to get inspired and get something in the mail.  Here's the link:  songs to draw from.  Check it out to see everyone's outcome.

Here's my contribution to their latest challenge (fuzzy, original 1983 video at bottom)--

My interpretation of the Talking Heads song, "This Must Be the Place."

My first rough sketch--shoot, now that I'm looking at it, I forget to include that love hammer to the head!  Oh well, c'est la vie.

This Must Be The Place

Translation in progress. Please wait...

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me around
I feel numb, burn with a weak heart
Guess I must be having fun

The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground, head in the sky
It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing

I got plenty of time
You got light in your eyes
And you're standing here beside me
I love the passing of time
Never for money, always for love
Cover up and say goodnight, say goodnight

Home, is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home, she lifted up her wings
I guess that this must be the place

I can't tell one from the other
I find you, or you find me?
There was a time before we were born
If someone asks, this is where I'll be, where I'll be

We drift in and out
Sing into my mouth
Out of all those kinds of people
You got a face with a view

I'm just an animal looking for a home
And share the same space for a minute or two
And you love me till my heart stops
Love me till I'm dead

Eyes that light up
Eyes look through you
Cover up the blank spots
Hit me on the head

Songwriters: BYRNE, DAVID/WEYMOUTH, TINA/HARRISON, JERRY/FRANTZ, CHRISTOPHER

This Must Be The Place lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

A Drama in 12 Words - Brooklyn Art Library

I've been participating in projects with the Brooklyn Art Library since 2010 when I did my first sketchbook for them called, "Coffee and Cigarettes."  I followed up in 2011 with "Sandwich" and 2012 with "The Last Word Spoken."  I've also participated in a canvas painting exchange which I blogged about during my 365 day project (Day 235 Be Proud of What You've Got), and also several other free projects that they've offered. 

They're a great organization trying to foster creativity not just among American artists, but artists worldwide.

Last week they offered a change to write a drama in 12 words, then asked you to tweet it or instagram it.  Ever the romantic, here's mine:

Train jolts, eyes catch.

Lost love, now found?

"Truly me," said she.

Click here for other submissions to this project:  12 word dramas.  Fun, huh?  Now join in these projects yourself and keep your creativity flowing!


Day 148. Thanks Ray Manzarek for the Doors and for Patti Smith

Ray Manzarek (2/12/39-5/20/13) died this week.  He hooked up with Jim Morrison after college on Venice Beach and they created one of the most recognizable sounds of the '60's.  I really don't need to write here about Ray's life, you'll find it all over the internet.  I'll talk about how Jim Morrison and reading "No One Here Gets Out Alive" caused me to take off to San Francisco when I was 19...another time, too.

(Here's an older Ray--a more interesting face with 

greater expression because of a lifetime earning lines.)

What I will write here, though, is about Patti Smith.  Because without the Doors, there might not be a Patti or maybe not the "same" Patti.  I guess in my rush to get this post out there, I can feel I'm not fully expressing what I'm trying to say, which is that...in speaking of Patti Smith, I'm just showing one of the 1,000's of examples of the influence of the Doors.  Yes, I guess that's it.  So Ray Manzarek, you can't ever know how that kizmet run-in on a beach kept repeatedly changing lives and music and will continue to do so forever.  Rest in peace, Ray.

From Patti Smith's PHENOMENAL book, "Just Kids."

Below are Patti's remembrances of seeing The Doors:

I had a strange reaction watching Jim Morrison. Everyone around me seemed transfixed, but I observed his every move in a state of cold hyperawareness. I remember this feeling much more clearly than the concert. I felt, watching Jim Morrison, that I could do that. I can’t say why I thought this. I had nothing in my experience to make me think that would ever be possible, yet I harbored that conceit. I felt both kinship and contempt for him. I could feel his self-consciousness as well as his supreme confidence. He exuded a mixture of beauty and self-loathing, and mystic pain, like a West Coast Saint Sebastian. When anyone asked how the Doors were, I just said they were great. I was somewhat ashamed of how I had responded to their concert.

And here I am listening to Patti while I draw Ray Manzarek.  The Doors sang "People Are Strange," Patti sings "Ain't It Strange" live (here) in Amsterdam.  One of my favorite songs of hers.

Here's a young Patti Smith from my 2012 Limited Edition Sketchbook--"The Last Word Spoken"--for The Brooklyn Art Library.

(I just can't get this to load portrait-style.  I've flipped it around a million times, it just won't load correctly.)

Day 138. Goodbye, My Dearest Flip Phone

About a month ago, I was making pasta for the man.  My pots were in the dishwasher so instead I used a deep Calphalon braising pan to boil the water.  As I was carrying the water-filled pan from the sink to the stove, I was simultaneously talking to my mom on my cell phone.  And just as you see a glass falling or yourself tripping in slow motion, my cell phone slipped from where it was perched underneath my chin pressed to my shoulder.  You see, I was using both my hands to carry that heavy pan!  I watched as it slid, slid, slid slowly down my arm into its watery death.  I could still feel the ghost of it's weight under my chin, yet my eyes saw--there it was, looking like an underwater turtle with a snorkeling tube of an antenna.

I did manage to shake myself out of disbelief, grab it, and resuscitate it.  However, it was never the same.  It had already been moving into the land of feebleness.  I knew I had to make the switch to a smartphone.  I had even recently been at an art show in February and another artist said to me aghast, "Are you still using a FLIP phone?  I saw you pull out an ANTENNA.  I can't believe it!"  I mean, I felt like I was holding a Thomas Edison relic in my paws.

Listen, I was the same way with my bag phone.  I know about 2% of the population remember those, but until it was stolen out of my car, it was suiting me just fine.

O.K., so after a month of my phone flashing "car kit connected, car kit disconnected" and constantly dying on me, my husband and I FINALLY made the leap to the 21st century.  It seems there are quite a few dazzling things I can do with this new phone...if only I knew how to do them.  Oh little flip phone, how I miss your ease, your simplicity, your inability to make me frustrated when I just want to dial a stored phone number!

Here's a re-enactment of the ultimately deadly event, followed by an appearance by Mr. Flip on my counter as I was finishing up work on my 2011 Brooklyn Sketchbook Project, "Coffee and Cigarettes."  (P.S. Cigs are props only--you'll find me puffing on an inhaler!)

Day 64 Wang Dang Doodle Koko Taylor Dirties Up a Little Rooster (SOLD)

You know how you can often see faces in things where there are no faces?  I do this all the time...in the bathroom floor, in wallpaper swirls, in the rocks in an alley, in trees...um, you get the drift.  Anyway, I "saw/envisioned" a rooster shape in a printed piece of paper.  That made me want to paint a rooster, but this baby just looked too sweet and cute.

I thought of Koko Taylor singing "Wang Dang Doodle."  Now, I saw Koko Taylor 3 times.  Once in college; once at Kingston Mines in Chicago (2548 N. Halsted, peeps); and the other time at the Chicago Blues Fest. (I am too young to have ever seen Howlin' Wolf rip it up.)  Anyway, I had to interject a little dirty blues onto this thing so I added a few of the songs lyrics and ran my fingers--lightly coated with black paint--over the surface.  I think it gave it a little bit of a letterpress print feel.  Anyway, nothing too complex, but here ya' go--a nice little dirty rooster.  It's cute.

An example of me seeing faces in things--From my 2nd Sketchbook for the Brooklyn Art Library--"Sandwich and Sandwiched Between"

Here's Koko Taylor and Howlin' Wolf servin' up a version of "Wang Dang Doodle."