Cherry Blossom Festival

A few months ago, when spring had just sprung, I visited the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It felt like walking in a fantasy garden. The trees were laden with pink and white blooms, and every time the wind stirred the trees, pink and white petals would float past. It was magical.

It was also nice to see New Yorkers of all kinds, usually known for our "rush-rush-rush" approach to life, gathered to appreciate something as simple as a garden. Many were sprawled underneath the trees to contemplate the beauty of the blooms.

And of course, there were plenty of children. These three girls were posing to have their picture taken by their father (in the plaid shirt at the left).

The trees themselves are so much fun to draw, with their twistings and movements in space. They are *almost* as satisfying to draw as people, and they certainly move around less!

A Picture for 1000 Voices

My friend Evan Turk has a blog called A Picture for 1000 Voices that seeks to" create a dialogue about the individual hopes for the LGBT equal rights movement through the medium of illustration." I've submitted an illustration you can see below. Hopefully, you'll be able to see it on Evan's blog soon:

My illustration is about trying to quantify and weigh an abstraction like love. How can the law say that someone's love isn't valid and in some way not equal to someone else's? I think it's pointless to try to weigh them on some kind of scale. Anyone should be able to have their relationship legalized, if that's what they want. Please check out Evan's blog, and if you are an illustrator, definitely submit a piece!

Figure Drawing

My first love was figure drawing. Before I wanted to do anything else, I always wanted to draw people: their expressions, their gestures, their body language, I wanted to capture exactly what it is that makes each person different from anyone else. I've had the chance the past few weeks to work with some amazing models. Below is one of my favorites. 

La Guli

As some of you may know, I have quite a sweet tooth, often baking my own treats, and just as often sampling the toothsome delights of New York bakeries and cafes. At the end of 2008, my friend Jen and I went out to Astoria to the La Guli Bakery to draw their adorable shop.


Not only are their baked goods top-notch, but they were very nice about letting us take up a table in their tiny bakery for few hours. They had so many amazing-looking sweets, but I thought the Baba Rums deserved some special attention!

More from Mystic

One of the high points of the weekend in Mystic was a meeting in the blacksmith's shop. It was a gathering of (mostly) men who are interested in blacksmithing. I appreciate the interest in bygone ways of doing things and lost arts. It's refreshing to find people that are still interested in crafting things by hand, as these people are, in our increasingly digital world. The physicality and the labor intensiveness of the work seem the exact antithesis of our digital present. At the same time, while so many of us are making out livelihood away from it, our physical being is still tied to that world, we still need, will always need things. Ships still need to be built, and not everything can be done by a machine, at least not yet. So here are two of the head blacksmiths, who host these meetings at the Mystic Seaport Museum, and teach others the craft.

Harlem

I spent some time drawing in the fish market, and this little boy and his mother were two of the highlights. He was excited to be in my drawing because he loved to draw himself. He showed me a number of pictures on his cell phone that he was planning to draw at home. He got so excited, in fact, that he sat down next to me to draw the lobster tank right there.

Chinatown

There's always something exciting happening in Chinatown. From the fish markets to the bakeries, there are a million people bustling around, jostling, shopping, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and more. Here's a view through a bakery window at some egg custards and coconut tarts, yum!