teeny tiny horses

Asbury Park Comic Con

2012-02-06T16:59:00.002-05:00

Just signed up for space at the new Asbury Park Comic Con! We'll be shilling book 1 of The Wonder City and showing off the first part of the story's second installment. What fun!

A New Year and New Projects!

2012-01-24T13:30:00.003-05:00

With the new year, I'm now getting into drawing book 2 of The Wonder City! Soon we'll be posting new pages on our website, and in the meantime, readers can delve into Justin's related mystery, which bridges some of the time between the two books.

While all that is keeping me very busy, I'm still mad enough to attempt a new project: a travel and creativity themed website, The Blue Valise. Please check it out!

Don't you wish...

2012-01-24T13:26:00.003-05:00

Don't you wish we could all commute to work this way?

Catskills Colors

2011-10-26T10:13:00.008-04:00

Am now entertaining the fantasy of buying an art cabin in the Catskills.

This turquoise house screams 6 bedroom artist retreat to me. Any takers?

Strolling along Mountain Road

Hudson River Tributary

Main Street Rosendale. I talk to a local posting signs about the election season and the race for town commissioner. Main Street a brewery, a trendy cheesemonger, a playhouse, a gallery and a Tibetan gift store. There's also a seriously creepy Tom Sawyer-esque cave right next to a cafe. What more could you desire??

An Andrew Wyeth-y field on Schoolhouse Hill Road, near High Falls

On golden pond? haha, I know. Lame Henry Fonda joke.

Strange boulders

Branches Against an October Sky, Catskills, NY

2011-10-24T11:32:00.005-04:00

On Saturday, I headed a couple hours north of NYC to the Catskills, taking the afternoon to walk from Rosendale to High Falls, two small towns on a tributary of the Hudson River. It was about a five mile walk through a mountainous area, and I had a chance to crunch some leaves, look at the yellowing foliage, and enjoy multiple hot coffees.

In addition to my DSLR, I like to photograph with the vintage camera app on my phone, not because the pictures are particularly great, but the colors that the camera comes up with as it attempts to replicate old types of film and plastic camera effects make great inspiration for future drawings. Because the detail is muddy and the colors are otherworldly--either super amped, warmed up, cooled down, or muted, they make me think of paintings or charcoal drawings, or at the very least--interesting color combinations.

I've been particularly interested in organic patterns on leaves and things lately. Normally, I like to draw the same sorts of things I like to photograph--people and buildings, signage or other signs of human life, but a printmaking project involving these patterns in nature is percolating in my head.

Bodega Cat Comic

2011-10-11T23:11:00.006-04:00

The following chronicles a recent encounter with my neighborhood bodega cat...

My favorite Wonder City Online Advertisement

2011-10-05T21:21:00.006-04:00

A Mini Guide to Coney Island

2011-10-04T21:30:00.003-04:00

I made this 1 page comic for the Alternative Press Expo last weekend in San Francisco. It's a guide to a nostalgic Coney Island. Order a copy of our book, The Wonder City (www.thewondercity.com) and I'll send along an 11x17 copy of this comic for free!

A Morning in Newport Beach, CA

2011-10-04T11:53:00.012-04:00

The ferry between the peninsula and Balboa Island is $1 for a pedestrian and fits two cars on it. When I was a kid, I had revolving crushes on 16 yr old ferry operators.

Balboa Fun Zone Ferris Wheel

There's always money in the banana stand

Balboa Bar, nostalgic treat

When we were kids, our family used to rent a house for a week every summer on Balboa Island in Newport, CA. My parents packed up the car until my sister and I were up to our necks in sheets, towels, clothes, food, games, our Snoopy fishing poles, etc. We'd take everything we owned 30 minutes down the 55 freeway to our little cottage for the week. Sometimes at night after a spaghetti dinner (I still associate spaghetti dinners with a beach stay), we'd take the ferry (at time about fifty cents, now $1 for a passenger) over from the island to the tiny fun zone and play skiball and walk around and around the same few blocks, out to the pier or to the "real" beach (the one with waves--the ocean as opposed to the tiny harbor beaches on the island).

The Balboa Fun Zone is a small amusement park on the Newport Beach peninsula, first started in 1936. On a foggy Wednesday morning last week, I'm the only tourist walking around the zone, photographing old signs and early morning surfers near the pier. A camera crew films the carousel being taken down. I notice most of the rides I remember from those family vacations are gone--a nautical museum takes up most of the space now. I take the ferry over to the island, and walk its circumference, admiring rose gardens and watching hired men adorn the harbor front houses and private docks with elaborate Halloween decorations. As I walk by one of them laughs and rolls his eyes when I look at him and point at the ghosts he's rigged to fly in circles over the roof.

On Marine Avenue, the sales woman offers me a glass of Chardonnay as I browse in a book store (as I write this I quickly look up Balboa on Wikipedia for some dates, and I learn Balboa Island has one of the highest property values in the country after that of lower Manhattan...the wine and gardeners planting Halloween decor amongst the perfect rose gardens now seems fitting instead of just weird). Anyway, it's a nice spot, but I'm trying to remember a youth spent there, and when you're a little girl at the beach, you're thinking of plastic shovels and soft serve ice cream not property values. I stop for a Balboa bar, even though I'm too full from lunch, and as I stagger a little sick over the little bridge towards PCH to meet my sister at work, I realize I overdid the nostalgia a bit.

Coney Island on Labor Day

2011-09-20T10:44:00.002-04:00

End of summer in Coney Island.

Along with the temperature, the color of the light begins to change in Fall. It's silvery and perfect picture taking weather!

Pre-Irene Ennui - Saturday Afternoon

2011-08-28T14:17:00.004-04:00

Other things accomplished while waiting for the hurricane:

1. Drew the above

2. Drank two glasses of wine and finished off those gingersnaps

3. Did my dishes!

4. Watched 3 war movies

5. Laid on the floor

6. Moved my furniture around

7. Made my bed!!

8. Took "one last" shower

9. Fell asleep three times, twice while reading.

10. Talked to my sis (highlight of the day)

Pre-Irene Ennui - Saturday Morning

2011-08-28T13:50:00.010-04:00

So I got my comeuppance for my west coast eyeroll at the reaction to Tuesday's earthquake in NY because....HURRICANE! So much end of August excitement here in NYC. Jeez. I stopped after work for groceries, I filled bottles of water, I stood in line at Duane Reade for a few extra packs of batteries. I even silently called dibs on the upended shopping cart that's been discarded in the Ocean Parkway bike path, in case things get all "The Road" and I need to cart my belongings along the eastern seaboard.

You know what I learned about hurricanes? That the waiting for the storm to start part is kind of excruciating. No transportation, Facebook murmurings of pre-hurricane parties I can't get to (terrible, I know), hot and sticky in the apartment, impending DOOM awaiting outside. And yet, I spent most of Saturday looking out the window waiting for it to rain and reading news reports that were freaking me out. And I'm sure my neighbors LOVE the singing. lots of soulful horrible singing as I listen to my entire iTunes library.

I guess I slept through the storm last night, with only an occasional disturbing dream about my windows exploding in my face while I am defenseless and asleep. I looked outside Sunday to see what had happened and people were out jogging. Jogging! I'm not really sure what I expected.

So Kensington, Brooklyn certainly isn't ground zero for Irene, and my thoughts are with the people who have serious trouble in the South (edited to add: and in Philadelphia! oh my!) and people who are without power and experiencing flooding and fallen trees and other damage up here. I'm a very lucky girl, my Irene was boring.

Squish!

2011-08-21T22:55:00.005-04:00

I've stepped in gum many times. And have occasionally trailed toilet paper from my shoe. But a half eaten pork chop is a first!

A Portrait of Caden

2011-08-17T22:42:00.001-04:00

I've got my beautiful nephews on my mind this week!

A Portrait of Reid

2011-08-14T21:55:00.002-04:00

Me & My Box Fan - A Summer Fling

2011-08-13T14:11:00.004-04:00

Because I spend all my money gambling at the greyhound track* this summer, I hadn't the money to replace my broken window unit, and come June I had to problem solve using the lessons learned from my days as a very broke recent post grad. Though, in the spirit of full disclosure, I missed that really hot week in July this year--I was luxuriating in my parents' central air. I never would've made it through otherwise.

* kidding.

Brooklyn Signs

2011-08-11T21:19:00.004-04:00

There are many little things I don't notice when I zoom around New York, especially since walking is my designated day dreaming time. But this weekend I was darting back and forth around different neighborhoods in my beloved borough and I tried to keep my eyes open. There are so many things we constantly need to communicate to each other to keep society running (as smoothly as possible). My personal favorite are signs in grocery store windows with their friendly retro typography advertising a sale on ham or eggs.

Subway Chakra - a one page comic

2011-08-06T12:14:00.001-04:00

Gramma and Aunt Phyl - a study in india ink and pastels

2011-07-31T20:48:00.004-04:00

I found this doodle among my sketches--I made it laying on the beach at Coney Island earlier this summer when I was playing around with ink and pastel drawings. I'd been imagining what my grandma and her sister, my great aunt Phyl, would look like as cartoon characters.

Thinking of the Beach from a Hot Brooklyn Apartment

2011-07-30T12:42:00.012-04:00

Summer on Sanibel is really quiet. At 10:30, I'll have the beach practically to myself. The dark green of a tree lined path, large flat leaves and golden sea grapes, sends a light shower of sunlight when the breeze breaks the canopy. A few years after Hurricane Charlie, the vegetation seems to have filled back in. The trees tall enough to provide shade again. The subtropics always at work.

A voice echos from somewhere inside a nearby complex of condos. The dark green thick tapers into a worn carpet of sea grass, then baked sand. Beach, Gulf and sky all sort of bleached like they've been left out on the wash line too long. The water, with its underscape of meandering sandbars, varies in color from jade to watercolor green-grays. In July it's as warm as bath water. By early September, it will be jacuzzi-like. It suits me just fine though--never that shudder and clench of teeth when cold water reaches sensitive areas like stomach and small of back. Out on the sandbar that cushions the length of island's south shore, the water laps at my knees. I can float, my hands groping the soft sand, sending sand dollars floating up momentarily before they settle back into the sea floor.

The humidity of mid summer creates huge cumulus clouds that begin the day high overhead and gradually sink as the afternoon wears on until they appear to grow from the horizon. It's as if they're sponges, gradually weighted down with rain, and then just around 4 when I start to imagine an impending white tile shower and white wine happy hour, the wind picks up and sends the now purple-charcoal clouds flying over you, creating shadows in the surf reminiscent of Jules Verne-sized sea creatures. Over Naples I see lightening, and echoing thunder bounces around the domed sky--now urgent and sudden, now distant and chuckling. There's no hurry--I always make it back in before the rain.

On the Beach

2011-07-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

Sanibel Island, FL

A Wholesome Visit to the Sanibel History Museum & Village

2011-07-27T22:10:00.003-04:00

Sanibel Island, Florida

Anatomy of Ceviche, Tabitanga, Brazil

2011-07-12T21:07:00.004-04:00

Lunch break errand - a one page comic

2011-07-05T21:49:00.005-04:00

One of the skills I worked on in therapy was to stop being so damned nice all the time and learn to say "no" when I didn't want to do something. I am still defenseless in the face of an overeager Sephora saleswoman though.

Recent Wedding Invite Set

2011-07-05T21:40:00.005-04:00

I designed this set for the 2010 wedding of a dear friend.

2011-06-19T22:05:00.001-04:00

Check out the blog Amusing The Zillion for a review of The Wonder City!

Saturday at the Mermaid Parade, Coney Island

2011-06-18T18:56:00.004-04:00

Coincidentally, last night I had a dream I owned a pair of pasties, and enjoyed wearing them around the house while doing dishes.

We'd love to Celebrate with You!

2011-06-08T21:14:00.000-04:00

The Wonder City is Here!

2011-06-01T11:40:00.009-04:00

The Wonder City: The Great Whale of Coney Island is finally available for public consumption! Visit http://www.thewondercity.com/ to purchase through Amazon or Etsy, and link to Lush for an e-version of the book for Ipad. Or stay tuned for comic con and book party info to purchase your very own copy in person!

Thanks to our supportive friends and families, we were able to create our book, and Justin and I can't wait to tell the rest of the story!

2011-05-31T22:17:00.004-04:00

I've got a little assembly line going on my lap tonight--cutting out these carnival badges, punching holes then tying the string on them. They are The Wonder City version of old Steeplechase ride badges, where holes were punched on the ride you went on. I replaced the laughing George Tilyou face with our heroine, Velma.

Our business cards (which have the same background design as yesterday's poster I posted) also came in. We're just waiting on our fortune teller party cards to roll in, and our carnival promotional materials will be set to go.

Tomorrow's our official release date for the comic book...the ads go up and the books is available for purchase on Amazon and Etsy. I'm not expecting a buzz of activity exactly, but it's exciting to think that the book is OUT there for anonymous eyeballs to view. And it makes me nervous too. But, you can't be too scared to venture out into the world with your offering...it's all about making friends and telling a good story the best you can.

The Exciting World of Poster Design

2011-05-30T22:06:00.004-04:00

Been working this weekend on a potential poster for our upcoming celebration of The Wonder City's release. After playing around with some templates, I think I've settled on this one, though it's far from finished. The background image is the same as on our new business cards, a postcard party invite, as well as the online advertising that's going to start running on The Comics Journal and The Comics Beat starting June 1. I've been trying to come up with a fairly consistent identity system, and this gray-green color and red is all over the book cover too. I'll post all the promotional materials I've designed as soon as they begin arriving from the printer this week. It's been amazing fun designing all this. Those classes I took at Parsons are finally coming in handy!

In a Baking Mood

2011-05-28T15:24:00.005-04:00

Found this amazing and easy recipe for rhubarb cobbler on the blog Smitten Kitchen

I am a rhubarb virgin no more! The only thing I changed was to add strawberries.

Colombia Album 1

2011-05-28T14:04:00.014-04:00

Some drawings from my trip. These are india ink and pastels.

The Amazon River at Sunset

Joey, Afternoon Beer

Red Chair

Japanese Restaurant, Candelaria

Green Plantains

Bogota Bus

Profundidad, 1.2 meters

Corn

Banos Publicos

Bird of Paradise

Love of Empty Spaces

2011-05-26T16:24:00.002-04:00

Who knows why the heart wants the strange things it wants...
for some reason I am obsessed with these forlorn red chairs this week.

...as well as center justification.

Sweet, Simple, Warm

2011-05-25T16:36:00.005-04:00

Isn't it gross when people post pictures of food? I'm going to do it anyway....

plantain with cheese and jam

hot chocolate, cheese and bread

a big bowl of ajiaco

I think I'd fast track to a monastic enlightened state if I started every morning with hot cocoa, a slice of cheese and a roll. And I think I'd never get a cold again if my midtown lunch spot served ajiaco every cold winter afternoon. And I'd certainly give up pretending that fat free Cool Whip is the same thing as ice cream if I had plantains for dessert.

I'm starving, but tonight for me, it'll probably be a slice of NYC pizza and a beer.

Empty chairs

2011-05-24T21:21:00.004-04:00

two empty food stalls, monserrate, bogota

View of the Amazon, Tabitanga, Brazil

2011-05-24T08:22:00.002-04:00

Caden's long shadow at sunset, Sanibel Island, FL

2011-05-23T09:57:00.002-04:00

...with little Reid trailing behind.

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.

-Zelda Fitzgerald

Beth's Bogota Hummingbird

2011-05-22T12:59:00.003-04:00

Here's a video of Barstardilla, a Colombian grafitti artist, talking about her her work.

Butcher, Leticia, Colombia

2011-05-22T12:43:00.001-04:00

Passing Bus, Bogota

2011-05-20T16:25:00.002-04:00

The Wonder City has arrived, and other things that made my week great!

2011-05-20T16:14:00.004-04:00

Yes, folks, 5 years of work and a few intense months of final work on the book, 900 plus copies of the first part of Justin Rivers' and my graphic novel, The Wonder City, has arrived from the printer....and it looks like a real book! We're so excited to start sharing it with friends... http://www.thewondercity.com/.

I also just arrived home from an amazing vacation to Colombia. After much wandering through the historic streets of Bogota, many wonderful people encountered, much good food eaten, and an awesome weekend in the Amazon, I feel like I've refilled my creative stores. I can't wait to do some new drawings and post some of my favorite photos from the trip. Traveling does something wonderful, forces you to feel a bit of discomfort and challenges your senses. I didn't know I'd love Colombia so much, but I can't wait to go back and see other parts of South America too. Signing up for Spanish classes asap.

2010-12-03T08:26:00.002-05:00

My Christmas tree is up. Is everyone's first tree ornamentless? Is this now something new I have to think about now that I've been initiated into Christmas trees, how to acquire ornaments? I did have a James Joyce finger puppet I stuck on the top as a tree topper. So I started thinking I'd have a Dubliners themed tree...snowflakes for the Dead, dandies for Two Gallants, creepy priests....?

Oh Lord

2010-10-26T14:05:00.002-04:00

There is a video of the comic con Kickstarter Panel. I can't quite bring myself to watch it, but if memory serves, it was very interesting and informative!

Psyching myself up for Comic Con

2010-10-06T11:06:00.004-04:00

Now just the book to finish! 2 walking tours under our belt, 60 plus lithos printed and distributed, 30 caricatures drawn into the book, and a invite to speak on a Kickstarter micro fundraising panel at NY comic con this weekend!

A year after our Kickstarter campaign, I think Justin and I agree that using the site to raise the money to self publish was the best decision we've made for our book so far. Accepting small scale patronage from 65 or so of our friends made The Wonder City a reality in our minds. We now have a relationship with a group of people who actually care about the book and are invested in seeing it completed. What a great feeling! By March, I'd finished penciling and now, in October I'm 75% finished with the inking--so much further along than if we'd been left to our own devices, saving money here and there and me working only when the mood strikes.

Of course the further I go, the more I realize I have to do, or re-do, or tinker with, or LEARN to make The Wonder City look as good as it does in my head. Most of the time I am a exposed nerve of self doubt, but then I remember that you don't take a project you believe in so far just to leave it unfinished, even if all your artistic non-knowledge is brought into the light of day. I don't know if I can make it look as good as it deserves to look, but I'll try.

Before starting the book 4 years ago, I'd never had any experience with comics. The scope of the book was overwhelming and I had no clue to start and only a Comics for Dummies book to feverishly grip. When I asked my therapist 'where do I even start', the elusive answer is always the most obvious: 'what's the first panel?...ok draw that.'

Not being from an art school background, or anywhere near seasoned professional status (hopefully, yet), I still feel like a bit of a fraud. But each year that passed with regular sketching and tons of mistakes, re-dos, hours of trying new things, and I can say:

Attention, world, I'm a little bit better.

At least it looks like a comic. I look forward to another four years from now and I'm even a little bit MORE better [said the English major]. I was bothered earlier this summer by a comment about some pages from the book I'd posted on a comics forum about how childish my drawings were and they'd never be published. 'Bothered', actually, is not the right word; I am currently a little bothered when I think about it, but at the time I was pissed. But then again, you get used to that stuff, right? Because there are going to be a lot of people who don't like what you make. And that's ok. I'm learning to take what's useful, which is: don't forget to keep practicing. It's a logical conclusion that if you don't give up, you'll keep getting better, just by virtue of doing it.

But anyway, I've grown to really love the medium--it's the logical combination of the two things I love and would love to be able to make well: stories and graphic art. I've fooled around with so many media, but I hadn't hit my stride. Who knew it would take a friend I work well with, who's a great writer with an insane imagination, to suggest a comic book collaboration one night in a Park Slope wine bar. I think it was even raining out: cue extreme close up of raindrops trickling down a steamy window--a messy haired blond visible inside watching the bartender pour her a glass of red, and nodding, though not quite comprehending, as a bespeckled gentleman talks to her rather excitedly and flails his hands. Add soaring musical score and the tinkling of glass over muffled conversation. Mmm I'm thirsty now.

So here I am, several years later, acting like I know what I'm talking about. Fake it til you make it I suppose. And since we're talking about it: here is a page in progress:

The Wonder City Walking Tour

2010-09-24T12:16:00.002-04:00

http://blog.kickstarter.com/post/1179320732/walking-wonder-citys-reward-a-tour-of-coney-island

The folks at Kickstarter made a brilliant video of last Saturday's tour of Coney Island. Justin took our project backers around the sites Lizzie and Owen haunted in Chapter Two of the book.

2010-09-21T15:06:00.000-04:00

Some new images from The Wonder City

2010-09-10T08:20:00.008-04:00

It's been a busy summer with a move, a couple weddings, a week at the beach and a visit from my parents, so progress on The Wonder City has been less than lightening speed. Still, I've accomplished a lot, but everytime I look, there's more to do, and more that could be better. At the moment, I'm intensely focusing on shading in Chapters 3 and 4. Here are a few images:

In other news, The Wonder City is heading to our first Comic Con, though not in the traditional way as a displayer. We're speaking on a Kickstarter panel about fundraising for self publishing!

Flickr

2010-08-31T14:13:00.001-04:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2010-05-17T22:21:00.005-04:00

Probably due to some naval gazing tendencies of my own, I've always liked autobiography, and was enjoying the memoir fad of the 2000s before it began to trend toward TMI. But now every new confession of a midlife crisis, affair, drug problem or saga of the dating lives of single gals or frat boys is ripe for scorn, it seems.

When I first started drawing The Wonder City, I strove to expand my knowledge of the comics genre beyond Archie, and was naturally drawn to autobiographical stories, which are really enhanced by the comics medium, I think. There are so many wonderful comics biographies from Maus to Blankets to Fun Home.

But I also learned that the same derision that exists in literature for works that over-share, or are too precious, also exists in comics as reviewers bemoan a lack of good old fashion fiction, or artists fear being stigmatized for drawing inspiration from their own lives.

So in the interest of transparency, here are my two favorite pages from a story I wrote and drew, based on some vacation fun times, that will probably never see the light of day because I could never figure out what exactly I was trying to say. But it was very fun to experiment with painting my artwork (with gouache...though I didn't really thinking out the whole bleeding pen that resulted in putting wet paint on the inked drawings). And working with something I wrote myself was a huge confidence boost.

Note: Also in the interest of full disclosure, I drew myself with long long hair that I've never had in real life!

The last of my loopy Spain drawings

2010-04-18T06:38:00.002-04:00

2010-04-11T18:07:00.003-04:00

A couple more sketches of La Pedrera, aka Casa Mila. My interpretation has changed slightly upon revisiting the subject a few years later. It makes a big difference drawing on site than from a photo. The walls and soldiers definitely look less formal, and more alive. Not that that's necessarily better, but as I get older, I am figuring out my style with the benefit of practice practice practice, and my personality type, drawing ability and attention span all like a loose sketch style.

I recently dug out Saves the Day's Through Being Cool and put it on my computer. I listed to it four times in a row today as I inked a little and then got distracted by some spring cleaning. Even though I probably haven't heard it in four years or so, I still knew every word!

I found some old journals as I was cleaning out some stuff today--rearranging my work space to make it less claustrophobic. Of course I began reading selected entries. The oldest went from early 2001 to mid 2002 and made me feel very compassionate towards my 17 year old self, so in love and trying to find connection with friends, confused about parents, apprehensive about moving away to New York, and misquoting ee cummings every other page. I did find a funny entry where I'd locked myself out of the garden center at the Target, where I was working the summer before Fordham.

Normally I'm embarrassed reading my thoughts from years ago...after plenty of time to marinate in cynicism, teenage earnestness is mortifying! But remember that feeling of knowing there's something more out there, and being brave enough to go out and find it? You don't know where to begin, though, and over time you settle into life, but of course all that terrible, boring, wonderful stuff that happened over the years was part of what we wanted when we didn't know what we wanted, but were willing to go out looking for it, right?

Anyway, I hid all the journals away in a suitcase and put them right under my bed, where I can find them in another few years.

Some Drawings from Spain

2010-04-10T15:36:00.006-04:00

Some of my messy sketches. I like sketching in public places, and since I find myself in cafes and bars so often, those settings pop up over and over again.

Grace Kelly’s Forever Look Features: vanityfair.com

2010-03-30T17:16:00.000-04:00

Grace Kelly’s Forever Look Features: vanityfair.com

2010-03-10T10:53:00.004-05:00

The last 10 pages, I guess like the last 10 pounds of your diet, seem to be the hardest to get through. My progress has slowed to a couple panels a night, but I'm hoping to turn that around during my broke, pre-paycheck weekend coming up. The Wonder City could finally be completely penciled by next week! Then, of course, starts the inking and the inevitable reworking of many of the drawings until I completely love each page. But starting a new phase of the project always feels like approaching it with fresh eyes, so I look forward to that. Some of the new characters, Dottie and Fox and the fabulously weird Madame Lena the fortune teller, are some of my new favorites and enrich the story with strangeness (in Mme Lena's case), and humor and friendship during a dark time (Dottie and Fox).

Mme Lena is a seedier version of Auntie Mame in my head:

In other comics related chatter, a friend sent me the link to this incredibly cool project: Urgent Evoke which combines comics, an interactive game and a challenge to creatively think about solutions to problems facing society. Their tag line is "A Crash Course in Saving the World" where they issue 10 challenges for you to study, think about and act on, and it also allows you to create a super hero identity, tying in the comic book super hero idea. I think I'm going to go sign up for my first mission now!

Snowrricane, Snorreaster, Snopocolyspe!

2010-02-26T12:28:00.003-05:00

Special thanks to the tiny woman who helped me out of the snow drift in front of my building this morning. We had a nice laugh about that.

Found this 1940s snowy photo on a cool website http://www.squareamerica.com/, an amazing online collection of vintage photos!

He of the flowy hair

2010-02-25T08:41:00.002-05:00

I drew and letterpressed these notecards for Dennis' birthday last month! It's hard to tell from this picture, but they're printed with grey ink with matching grey envelopes

My attempt at plein air painting

2010-02-24T08:27:00.003-05:00

My dad loves to paint plein air. He takes out his traveling easel and oil paints, a small canvas, and goes to various spots in Sanibel, Captiva and Fort Myers and attempts to paint scenery OTHER than pastel palms and fluffy clouds. When I visited last month, I got to tag along (but I didn't get a cool easel, I was stuck watercoloring in a folding chair like one of those old men that occassionally sits on a midtown corner recording the times the buses show up at the bustops). Ahem.
Now, I am not much of a painter. I will repeat: I suck. I don't have the patience, and I can't really lay the colors down in a way that makes sense, and I don't handle a brush deftly at all. What I can do is draw and fill in the blanks with paint, like a paint by numbers. But I like the idea of painting. It can be calm and meditative or very passionate and consuming, so I'll give it a try every now and then.

This is what I came up with:

this is what I was facing:

My dad looked over my shoulder as I was painting, and said "Oh sweetie, that's great." And I said, "Daddy, turn around, I am painting the road behind us." He seemed relieved about that.

Call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or any other name you please—it is not a matter of importance.

2010-02-23T19:12:00.002-05:00

"...she took her hand and raised her brush. For a moment it stayed trembling in a painful but exciting ecstacy in the air. Where to begin?--that was the question at what point to make the first mark? One line placed on the canvas committed her to innumerable risks, to frequent and irrevocable decisions. All that in idea seemed simple became in practice immediately complex; as the waves shape themselves symmetrically from the cliff top, but to the swimmer among them are divided by steep gulfs, and foaming crests. Still the risk must run; the mark made." from To the Lighthouse

I'm in a Virginia Woolf kind of mood today (but not a walk into the river mood!). Looking at this photo of my Dad's art studio made me think of A Room of One's Own and wishing for my own true retreat where I can focus and forget the kind of stupid things that have front loaded my week.

Or, today, I'm like a preoccupied Mrs. Dalloway, chasing one small fact across my day (she just had to get the flowers, I fucked up my schedule for the whole week. grrr). Of course, I won't knock Mrs. Dalloway--she's one of my favorite characters in all literature. (Every so often when I'm feeling a little intense I reread a chapter or two in the bathtub. It's sort of like literary PMS...if I'm really in a mood, I'll scan the last two page of Joyce's The Dead in the bath because I'm melodramatic like that). Mrs. D might at times be frivolous, but she has a capacity for profound unassuming revelation. I always imagine her existing right under the surface--she may not be brilliant or artistic but she occasionally crests to see life as it is before she sinks underneath again. But, although it's slightly murky right below the surface and she can't see a clear picture of the larger world, she can see and feel the light refracted in the water and she's content with that. Somehow, though superficial, she's connected to life in a deep way precisely because she just sort of lets it all wash over her. When she does orchestrate a part of her life, it's generally to provide pleasure for other people. I don't know, this just seems really real to me.

AAAAnyway. Am now going to indulge in a hot shower and some hot chocolate and finish up page 74 (!) of the comic.

Googling

2010-02-18T11:49:00.003-05:00

While drawing The Wonder City, probably the most helpful tool I use (besides sharp pencil, LARGE eraser and bristol board, of course) is good ole Google Image Search. Here is a smattering of search terms that have helped me draw the comic:

1940s women's attire, 1940s New York City, World War II recruiting posters, loose lips sink ships, world war II rationing, 1940s car, playing marbles, tenement, singer sewing machine, 1940s Coney Island, Coney Island Bowery, Coney Island side show, Wonder Wheel cars, Nathans, body builder, ticket booth, Coney Island games, carnival lights, grandma's fortunes, fortune teller, side show signs, carnival barker, beached whale, sperm whale, dead whale, whale eye, attacked by whale, distress, terror, trampled, punched in the face, in pain, carrying limp body, church candles, st. john the divine cathedral, lighting a candle, 17th century handwriting, 1940s western union telegram, packing a pipe, bankers lamp, globe, 2 Pierrepont, Brooklyn Heights mansions, library, view of downtown Manhattan, 1940s skyscrapers, 1940s menswear, lighting a lantern, stairwell, Brooklyn Eagle headline, dropping china, breaking china, fetal position, sewer grate, street urchin, orphan, 1940s little boy, sewer tunnel, cavern, Half Moon Hotel, stenciled letters, steamer trunk, Victrola, bird cage, carousel horse, roller skate, icebox, birdcage, broken chandelier, antiques, famous missing paintings, shoveling, digging a hole, colonial women's clothing, Barbara Stanwyck.

Ho Hum

2010-02-09T19:44:00.003-05:00

Cold night. Just ate my body weight in spaghetti. Waitin' for the snow to come. And listening to a neighbor scream out his window to "shut your dog up!" thus causing about 4 more dogs to start barking too. sigh.

Today I made my first ever visit to the New York M&M super store, about three blocks from my work, and a place I generally cross the street to avoid because the waft of fake chocolate smell out the doors is migraine-inducing. But the Valentine's spirit struck, I was feeling homey and wholesome, and I thought I'd send candy to my nephew to rouse some sugar infused love for his aunty in NY. But all the candy at Duane Reade consisted of creepy cellophane hearts which felt vaguely inappropriate for a 5 year old, so I jaunted over to the Hershey store, found it lacking and crossed the battle line to the M&M store on the other site of Broadway.

Tons of people were just wandering around. Why, I don't know-- there can't be that much browse appeal, it's just a blur of primary colors and escalators, and one probably shouldn't submit to the saccharine smell for long periods of time without consulting a doctor. But once I got through the plush characters and t-shirts on the ground floor, I found tall tubs of all different colors of m&ms! NY themed combinations like "Yankees" (navy, grey and white) and "NYC taxi" (grey, navy blue and yellow). And country themed combinations France (red, blue and white) and Great Britain (red, blue and white) and USA (red, blue and white). You get the picture. I found the giant Valentine's tube and was induced to pull a lever to fill a bag. I didn't bother to weigh my candy, but compared to the giant tubes and the giant bags and the giant levers, and with the chocolate smell causing oxygen deprivation, I figured 1/3 of a pound, maybe about 4 or 5 bucks?

$16.97 later I am imagining the giant eye roll my sister will administer when Caden receives his package of light pink, dark pink, red and white m&ms. And they don't even have hearts on them. eh.

This has nothing to do with candy, but thought this picture matched my nesting mood tonight, a window in Barri Gothic in Barcelona.

2010-01-28T15:08:00.002-05:00

"Seymour once said that all we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next. "

-JD Salinger, 1919-2010

Read his short stories here:
http://http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2010/01/postscript-j-d-salinger.html

A very pink flower for a gray day

2010-01-12T08:44:00.002-05:00

This superflower has been alive for almost three weeks!!!

Feel Free to Post Your Art...

2010-01-11T08:22:00.006-05:00

"That's what art is, he said, the story of a life in all its particularity. It's the only thing that really is particular and personal. It's the expression and, at the same time, the fabric of the particular. And what do you mean by the fabric of the particular? I asked, supposing he would answer: Art. I was also thinking, indulgently, that we were pretty drunk already and that it was time to go home. But my friend said: What I mean is the secret story.... The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every damn thing matters! It's just that we don't realize. We tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, we don't even realize that's a lie."

Roberto Bolano, Dentist

Yum!

2010-01-09T20:22:00.007-05:00

A photo and my drawn version of lunch at Mundial in El Born, Barcelona.

A Few Thoughts on Meditation

2010-01-08T08:20:00.009-05:00

Another photo taken in Barcelona (near Parc Guell), though neither bullfighting nor flamenco are traditional Catalan pursuits. I think one was adopted a little less enthusiastically than the other.

Anyway.

I wonder how many hours of my life I would have back if I was a little more organized. It probably shouldn't take me 15 precious a.m. minutes to find a shirt because there are 8 possible places in my room where it could be.

But as I told someone recently, I keep all my disorderliness outside myself so that I can keep my inside a little calmer. Whether or not this actually works is a different story. I've been adopting new methods to keep my mind clear while I try to power through my projects. Sometimes when I'm working on something(s) (for instance 55 lithographs to print, 60 more pages of a comic to draw, and a freelance project that keeps popping up with changes needed), normal motivating stress can easily turn to anxiety and despair as I imaging disappointing all the partners tied to my projects. And then my anxiety turns to disdain for what I'm working on, which is terrible. I enjoy art and drawing because they make my life so so so much better.

So to abort the cycle before good stress becomes the anxious kind, I've been trying to create a consistent and interesting meditation and yoga practice. I am currently looking like a lunatic practicing yoga trance dance meditation, wherein I prance, dance and sway around my room, and then fall exhausted into deep meditation (read: asleep sitting up). Time will tell. If nothing else, after all this pretending to be a leaping tongue of fire, I will surely have a great ass, which will bring a certain kind of inner peace. And I'm not ambitions--I really think I'd make a terrible Buddha.

Some New Years Thoughts on Travel

2010-01-07T08:45:00.005-05:00

This photo is a shop front in the medieval Born neighborhood in Barcelona. What used to be a district of textile guilds and jousts in the middle ages, now quarters the workshops of artisans, crafters, and fine artists within its puzzle of narrow streets.

It's difficult NOT to imagine my own little workshop hidden behind huge graffiti covered medieval wooden doors along some alleyway. Of course in this fantasy I am adept at Spanish, friends with all the neighborhood's old ladies (who ramble around corners followed by mangy terriers), and eating croquettes with my Estrella and a novel at lunch every day. I'll live on Montjuic's hillside in Poble Sec.

I guess everyone imagines their alternative lives in the cities they visit. I think I do because it's a way of feeling like I could fit in--not because I'm unhappy with what I have. But it makes me wonder about the thousand possible versions of my life that could unfold, but for happenstance's meeting with a few key decisions so far and creating this New York life instead, imperfect and interesting, sometimes terrifying, sometimes boring, but pretty cool overall.

I'm thankful I have so much comic-relating artwork to juggle at the start of the New Year, because otherwise, with the end of the busy holiday season, I would be going through some down-in-the-dumps, mopey travel withdrawal. I'd forgotten how happy it makes me to experience a new place, and I'm going to make sure I take myself someplace cool as often as I can.

Some drawings

2010-01-06T12:15:00.024-05:00

It's so cold in NY, how about some beach pictures, or is that cruel?

Over the summer my camera was on the fritz, so I purchased one of those brush pens and a pad of bristol board and did some drawing over the Fourth of July weekend in Cape May, NJ. Here are a few of my favorites. Consensus: very messy, very fun to use.

I tried this again in Spain. It's a fun way to record a vacation.

Spain and a new camera

2010-01-06T08:46:00.004-05:00

I took a trip to Spain in November, armed with a new digital SLR! I can barely work the thing, but was still able to get some amazing pictures. I tend to think my photos are much better in black and white...either my darkroom roots or low photo self esteem as I get back into a medium I used to love. This is a shot of various goods at a stall in La Boqueria in Barcelona.
I felt a little guilty making the switch to digital, until I see the 30 undeveloped rolls languishing from a trip in 2003.

Things are exceedingly busy, which is a good thing in my case. Justin and I have raised $5000 to self publish the comic and I am flying through the penciling, I'm just about to the halfway point! Taking more time is working on the rewards for the pledges, print by print I am working through a large edition of lithos for our generous donors. The weather has put me off, but I'm just about ready to send out the first of the prints. I'll post one here when I'm finished. As well as some comic pages, more Spain photos, and some letterpress I've been working on.

I dreamed I was moving back into my college dorm last night. Shudder.

Circles Are Good

2009-12-27T15:35:00.004-05:00

Along with several yoga videos I just ordered, one post holiday resolution is to start posting new images to my blog again. Here are three drawings I did a couple months ago. I did them with a brush pen on some discarded printmaking paper, Arches I think. I don't know why I'm so into circles lately. Maybe too much figure drawing in the comic has stimulated some abstract recess of my noggin. The one on the left is my E.M. Forster drawing: "You can transmute love, muddle it, ignore it...but you can never pull it out of you."

Kickstarter Countdown

2009-12-04T13:04:00.003-05:00

2 days of fundraising left! Consider donating a dollar to make, The Wonder City, a reality!

http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/224129525

Help Us Self Publish!

2009-09-08T11:12:00.003-04:00

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224129525/become-a-citizen-of-the-wonder-city

Please check out our Wonder City fundraising site. Justin and I are raising the money to self publish and any help, even a buck, is greatly appreciated.

2009-04-01T22:52:00.002-04:00

another recent letterpress project

Letterpress

2009-03-29T19:49:00.004-04:00

I worked on two new letterpress project this weekend. Here's one of them, a graduation party invite...

2009-01-22T11:53:00.002-05:00

There's hope yet!

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/polaroid-fans-new-film-old-cameras/?hp

I took my Rollei down to DC early this week to capture some innauguration festivities. I'll post some pix as I get them developed.

More Edward Gorey Illustrations

2009-01-09T11:54:00.001-05:00

http://community.livejournal.com/found_objects/3699822.html?page=1#comments

Found this on the web. Handy advice for any situation.

2008-12-05T09:40:00.002-05:00

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/how-helvetica-took-over-the-subway/

2008-12-02T23:02:00.004-05:00

1/4 of my Sanibel letterpress project...

Stationary for Justin

2008-11-10T20:20:00.002-05:00

Progress

2008-10-25T19:31:00.001-04:00

I'm an Auntie. Again

2008-10-25T14:47:00.003-04:00

The design for Reid's birth announcement, which I'm carving on a linoleum block as we speak:

2008-10-22T11:15:00.005-04:00

Artist
Jason Kernevich & Dustin Summers

http://www.designforobama.org/

http://www.30reasons.org/

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/this-elections-poster-child/?ref=opinion

Check out these sites for some amazing election posters from various graphic designers.

oh no! i forgot about my tinies...

2008-10-21T14:27:00.015-04:00

There are too many tinies. I'm sick of them. I need to move on. Here are the rest. Z is my favorite. Happy Halloween!

Oops! Got these tinies out of order!

2008-10-16T12:05:00.004-04:00

Ready for Halloween Yet?

2008-10-15T10:06:00.004-04:00

More Tinies

2008-10-13T14:01:00.004-04:00

C & D

2008-10-10T09:42:00.003-04:00

In Honor of Halloween....13 days of Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies

2008-10-09T10:16:00.008-04:00

2008-10-06T15:22:00.001-04:00

Edinburgh, from some long lost vacation film.

The Wonder City

2008-09-28T22:19:00.001-04:00

A very detailed page 7.

2008-09-23T23:31:00.004-04:00

Some little note cards I printed recently from a linoleum block. I made the inserts for the envelopes out of some lovely paper from Nepal.

Little Outfits

2008-09-07T22:51:00.003-04:00

I am watching the most disturbing show about little girls in beauty contests. hair extensions, fake teeth, airbrush make-up, bathing suit competitions. gowns, beauty walks. to each his own i guess. one tiny little girl keeps interviewing about how when she wins she's going to get her own cow. what the...?
i dunno, i don't buy that baby beauty contests are amazing confidence builders.

anyway, since i'm watching a show about kooky costumes, I'll post my costume reference for the first chapter of The Wonder City.

My Trip to California

2008-09-03T23:09:00.008-04:00

a cutie pie at various intervals

It felt good to be back in Orange County for Labor Day weekend. Driving past my old house, reassuring myself that I still knew "the back way" as I navigated familiar streets, I had to laugh at myself that I had this melodramatic notion that everything was going to look different. It doesn't really at all.

I think I've recently been turning stuff over in my head the same way I did the summer before I moved to New York, wondering what direction my life would go in, scared and kind of excited for phantom opportunities lurking ahead. I'm catching on that constantly wondering is becoming a little self indulgent. But, now that I'm a little older, I'm also a little slower moving when it comes to things that scare me. The idea of taking a risk and turning my life upside down because I'm constantly searching for some perfect place where I belong is appealing at times, but doesn't feel adventurous anymore, it feels like running scared. I feel like change will happen more organically than that. Hopefully it'll sneak up on me before I get a chance to get too freaked out.

I've been preoccupied with the idea of what home is. I probably wouldn't be thinking this way if I wasn't uncomfortable and ready for change, but I keep asking: is it California, which I a miss when I need an antidote to NYC? Is it Florida now that my parents live there? Is it where my family is, because they're all over the place now and kind of have their own lives? (Is it possible to kidnap Caden and keep him in my purse?) Is home New York? Because no matter how hard I try, I can't make New York feel homey. That was never really important to me before, but it becoming more so. Is it demented that I'm even thinking about this stuff, or is it a normal crossroads?

Anyway at least I can cross O.C. off the list--it's wonderful in an nostalgic way to visit. I get to relive those pieces of teenage years spent stuck in traffic on the 55 with a half eaten (Del Taco) burrito on my lap and nowhere to be. But it's not for me. I knew that when I was 18, and am glad I still do.

I wish I could translate these totally deep thoughts (sarcasm) into some sort of opus. anyway, the only solution to my mopey thoughts is to just keep my head down and keep working. For the first time in my life I'm developing an all American work ethic: If I try my hardest even when it's not going so well, I'll eventually be successful.

And besides, when I start to take myself seriously, or get freaked out about whether I've gone offtrack, I have a weekend with my nephew who puts me in my place with his 4 year old perspective of life.

The Wonder City - Several Inked pages

2008-09-03T23:06:00.001-04:00

2008-08-13T22:58:00.002-04:00

This is the plate for my next lithograph. A little different for me. It's about creating and breaking patterns.

I like patterns that are sort of organic shapes that might occur in real life--a crowd of people, windows, stuff like that.

I haven't decided on color yet.

2008-08-12T11:22:00.000-04:00

Love this...

Sweeny's Mtg Co Below Brooklyn Bridge by Kenneth Rush.

2008-08-09T12:00:00.003-04:00

My recent letterpress work--some wedding invites.

2008-08-06T21:26:00.002-04:00

loved this street art on 3rd Street

A String of Beautiful Moments

2008-08-05T20:28:00.002-04:00

On a Sunday stroll through Carroll Gardens.

My Dad!

2008-08-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

http://www.floridaweekly.com/news/2008/0625/arts_ent/070.html