Happy Valentine’s Day!
Last weekend I took part in a drawing rally at Space Gallery here in Portland. I didn’t really keep track of the junk I drew, but here’s a little race car from the evening’s haul of doodles.
rest in peace to the side-burniest mayor of all time
Robinson Crusoe
I’ll be at Space Gallery (Portland, ME) tomorrow, participating in a cool little live action drawing rally, 5:00 - 8:00 PM.
Ian Svenonius in a cloak at Space Gallery, Portland, ME (more at Creative Portland)
"That’s nothing to be proud of, Rusty…"
the milkman of human kindness
Here’s a watercolor based on a old photograph by my pal Brian Maryansky
Here’s a doodle of LaGasa's workstation.
Let’s get all Lyme disease-ey up in this piece.
Built in 1908, The New Amsterdam Maritime Savings and Loan Building on the corner of 27th and Brulard Avenue has long been one of the iconic sights of Manhattan’s Tinfoil District.
After the bank folded in 1962, the building remained vacant until conceptual artist Earl “Carbide” Brookner began hosting a series elaborate installations (which he dubbed “Multi-Feelias”) in the building’s abandoned lobby in the early seventies. The structure remained a focal point for the art scene for much of the decade—most famously, Italian B-movie director Luigi Malatesta filmed his paranoiac freakout masterpiece, The Bloodletters (1972) entirely within the building. The film’s denouement, set inside the bank’s vault, in which Sylvia Zola murders her double-amputee husband by drowning him in a vat of pea soup, is particularly disturbing—Pauline Kael called it “blandly atrocious.”
As the Tinfoil District continued to decline, the building skipped back and forth from one absentee landlord to another throughout the 1980’s. Eventually, the local tennis shoe wholesale outlet Jimmy Spazz began using the upper floors as a warehouse, but the gilded age lobby remained vacant and decaying. It wasn’t until last year when the first New York branch of the Scandinavian clothing superstore Skutla moved into the building that the historic lobby was somewhat restored, albeit in the name of affordable mass-produced fashion.
From Yeti Spotter Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide:
Pictured:
The Oslo Parka with patented “yeti-proof” double-stitched carpathian wool liner. Available in mottled green or engine oil black p. 23
Official “Yeti-Spotter” patch. Canvas, available black on white or black on yellow p. 13
Edmund Hilary “Sherpa Series 5” Snow Goggles p. 56
Gran Paradis 5600 binoculars. Multicoated aspherical lenses will not freeze up in subzero temperatures. State of the art! p. 13
Official Yeti-Spotter Record Book with all-weather number 2 pencil. 225 pages of annotated yeti-tracking, doubles as a weekly date-book! p. 5
Black Leather “Man-Hands” Strangler Gloves. Keeps you warm and fingerprint free! p. 15
The Osgood 16 Oz. thermal coffee cup with removable lid. Made from locally-sourced plastic. p. 53
Ready Steady Go All-weather snow pants. Available in denim blue, delivery brown, or Girbaud mauve. p. 22
Frank Miller Moon Boots. In children’s, men’s, and women’s sizes p. 7
The “MacReady” Military-Grade Backpack Flame-Thrower. Used by Antarctic research expeditions since 1982 p. 2
The SMG4000 Benkovac Distress Beacon and Two-Way Radio. Endorsed by the Croatian Armed Forces. Batteries not included. p. 17
The Official “Yeti-Spotter” Survival Duffel. Smaller than the inside of a taunton, but with its fleece-lining, it’s just as a warm! Also doubles as an all-purpose gym bag. p. 8
Chicken or chicken? For an upcoming illustration project.
This past weekend, Rod McLaughlin from KPAM 860 AM in Portland, OR talked to me about my book, How to Swear Around the World. Here’s the audio of me babbling away.
after today, I bet this tree is leafless.
Well lookey look. The October 15th issue of Time Magazine has a sidebar feature about my silly little swearing guidebook (available from Chronicle Books).
Sketchbook: (after Pieter Bruegel the Elder). Been playing around (about ten years too late) with freehand ink and brush drawings. Don’t think I’ll ever go back to using Micron pens.