A few weeks ago I made walnut ink with my son from wild walnuts that we scavenged and collected. I’ve wanted to do it for years but never went through with it. I’m very glad we did it. It was messy and fun. The best kind of activity to do with kids!

Below are some drawings I’ve made with our homemade walnut ink

A project is brewing. Can’t wait to continue and see where this leads me.

To be continued…

The theme at the Society of Illustrators sketch night was The Nutcracker. Having a former ballet dancer play the role of the little dreamer girl was a treat. Here are a few images of my drawing from the night click to see more on my Instagram account.

The other day my son and I went to see, draw and SMELL the famous and rare Corpse Flower at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It was a great adventure waiting on long lines in the 90 degree weather, and squirming through crowds in the humid tropics of the conservatory. I kept calling it an adventure to keep my son from running for the hills. Haha. But once he started reading about it and after finally seeing it, he was impressed.

We hung around the perimeter of the room drawing for about two hours and made a few friends from various media outlets. Click the photo of us below for a link to the BuzzFeed article we were featured in! We got a kick out of that. The NY Post interviewed us extensively but I don’t think we were used for their piece about the exotic flower.

P-U! Striking a pose for BuzzFeed

It was hard to settle down and concentrate with an energetic boy in the middle of huge crowds but I’m glad I got to get in some quick drawings of the crowds and the tallest flower I’ve ever seen.

Just standing around gawking at a huge stinking flower!

Constant crowds with smartphone cameras snapping away

So, the flower is beautiful. But it smells ugly. And it’s scientific name, Amorphophallus titanum, means large misshapen phallus. I kept thinking they should’ve surrounded it with some orchids (meaning:testicles). So, on the lower left, I drew some little balls to go with the large penis. Hey, everyone there was cracking jokes, too! Anyway, besides being X-rated, the drawing is loaded with marks and dirty, “ugly” colors to illustrate it’s most famous feature. Because, in the end, it’s not the size or the rareness or the phallic shape or the 10-80 year bloom cycle that draws the crowds. It’s the stench. All those droves of people basically felt compelled to act when somebody said “Oh God this smells awful! Smell it.”

Here’s another

Here are a few drawings of the lovely Marilyn. I couldn’t help focusing in on her steady eyes and her strong feminine body. She’s great.

While drawing, I couldn’t help thinking about all the news from our African American communities. We are living through a very important time, and it was on my mind. Here, I focused on getting her strong but soft expression.

Every time she changed poses, I had another narrative on my mind. You can guess at what this one was.

It was hard to not think of it for me. Especially in terms of how some people see our differences as scary and some see the beauty in them. And also how our differences are on the outside, not on the inside.

But every time she posed with her hands clasped behind her back I was compelled to think of handcuffs and shackles and oppression. With this drawing below, I was really tempted to draw the cuffs. But my mind went to a more positive place. I drew her head with an exaggerated twist to the right– the future, while her body was facing the left– the past. The sun isn’t setting, it’s rising. Her hands are not tied, they are clasped in prayer and patience. Her strong fearless facial features have traces of African carved sculptures I’ve seen in museums.

And for a break from the looping news reels in my head…Here’s a little late 50’s early 60’s fashion fantasy. She was wearing a pill box hat and I thought of a dress to go with it. Of course it had to be a sweetheart neckline with polka dots. Did the Shirelles wear pill box hats? the Supremes? I know their hair looked like that

And here the prop was a hand-held fan. It’s amazing how the attitude changed with a simple change of a prop. Or did I project this attitude on her? Either way…

Great way to spend the hours. Until next time…

Here’s the only drawing I made in Texas when we went to the Houston Space Center. It’s a view of the rocket boosters from the 2nd stage of the Saturn V. If you ask my son he’ll tell you all about them. But be prepared to stay a while, he is a space wiz! The universe was against me though, and concocted a crazy scheme to prevent me from drawing more by way of an lightning storm that cut our visit short. I really felt like hiding in one of those boosters so I could continue drawing. Houston we have a problem.

Next was MAUI. My goodness what a beautiful place. What a heavenly beautiful place.

Below are some drawings I managed to squeeze in.

Rainbow Overlook on our Road to Hana

Hula Girl

Old Lahaina Banyon Tree

Old Lahaina Banyon Tree and Boy Who Loved It So Much He Sat and Chatted With It

Waterfall

The Morgan is the last wooden whaling ship in the United States and its recent restoration not only renewed interest in the industry that put Mystic Seaport on the map but also re-invented its mission in the process. The Morgan is now a symbol for Ocean and Ocean Life Conservation.

I was lucky to be present and drawing when the masts were raised and put in place in preparation for her 38th voyage along the Eastern Coast. The voyage was not only to showcase The Morgan in her newly restored state but also to raise awareness and rally support for the cause. To read more about this exciting project visit the Mystic Seaport website.

Below are some pictures from the day of the opening. As you’ll see, my family was and always is very close by me.

My piece is called Currents and Currencies. Through sculpture, painting and drawing, I explored how the oceans have been exploited for profit and polluted out of negligence for way too long. And if we don’t take action, the Currency we make from the Currents will only end up sinking us in the end. So, there is the figure of King Midas as a symbol for greed, with a belly full of plastic, draped in a net of gold that I hand-knitted, and with a crown that I made from garbage I found on the beach during a beach clean-up I organized months prior. In fact, about 95% of the piece is made from litter found at the beach and re-used materials I had in my house and studio.

See my other post for photos of my process.

So, then I created a commemorative stamp in her honor. Happy Thanksgiving!

Whales in the Currents

The first time I ever became aware of Environmental issues, I was in the 7th grade. During a special presentation in science class, I was immediately taken in and volunteered to go on a field trip to study pollution in our nearby ponds and lakes. Since then, I have found myself revisiting this topic in my art over and over through out the years. So when I was invited to join my friends and colleagues at the Dalvero academy in creating a show based on issues involving the oceans and ocean wild life conservation, once again, I jumped at the chance to be a part of something that could possibly make a difference. At the very least, maybe I could inspire someone to take action through my art.

About 15 years go, I created an interactive book titled Talk of the Earth, that encourages kids to learn about the issues facing our planet. Some examples of the art from this project can be viewed here

For this project, I started by attempting to find a thread connecting Mystic Seaport, whales and ocean conservation. I remember I kept reaching a point where I’d just get mad at the state of our oceans and when I wanted to find someplace to put the blame, I’d always find money and greed were the culprits. So I decided to base my project on the idea that if it weren’t for greed, our oceans may be in better shape today. My piece is now called Currents and Currencies, and you can read about it here.

Below is a drawing I made when I made up my mind that King Midas was to be the villain in my story. He turned his daughter to gold during a fit of uncontrollable greed. He represents the insatiable greed that can and will destroy our planet as we know it, if we don’t change our ways. We spill oil, allow fracking, overfish, pollute, neglect. And because stopping this behavior would mean major profit loss, nothing is done about it. No good.

A few months prior, I organized a beach clean up day in New Jersey. The amount of garbage we collected in 2 hours was astounding. It broke my heart. Below are pictures of just a few items I knew I wanted to use in my project.

Before I knew I would be making a sculpture of King Midas, I selected an old rusted can for my stockpile. I liked the texture. Here’s a picture of when I was flattening out and that’s when I saw the shape of his head.

And here I am flattening out a thick piece of aluminum that eventually became his crown.

I decided I would have Midas sunk at the bottom of the ocean’s currents, so next I needed the ocean.

Getting to work on the ocean currents was a whole other process. I dyed old shower curtains and liners and started drawing the frequency-wavelength-like patterns of ocean currents.

I knew I wanted old Midas to get caught in a golden net of his own making, so I went to work making a net out of gold wire using a method that my fisherman grandfather probably used many decades ago in Greece. Gotta love the internet.

I also used a thinner gold and silver thread to embroider a path of gold from the whale at the top of the ocean to the sunken Midas at the bottom of the ocean. So I figuratively and literally made the connection between the victim and the villain, using the gold- the currency that is mined in the currents… hence the title of the piece.

Here’s a glimpse of Midas in the ocean:

These next images are of more patterns of currents that I painted onto large sheets of plastic.

Here’s Midas almost ready to take his place at the bottom of the ocean

And here’s a picture of his insides, like when the beached whales are discovered to have a belly full of plastic.

Finally, here’s a picture of the piece that was taken during the installation process. You can see more on my next post about the show’s opening night.

I love creating line drawings so this job was a real pleasure to work on.

Here are Easter eggs illustrated with the images of orchids- a symbol of fertility.

So excited to announce that I will be showing my work at Made in New Jersey, taking place at Gallery 51 in Montclair, NJ. I will be alongside fellow Studio 1482 illustrator Greg Betza, and 8 other  illustrators who all live and work in NJ.

The show opens THIS SATURDAY, APRIL 19TH from 5-10pm so please come out and meet the artists and see their work!

Here’s a write up about it in Print Magazine.

Special thanks to Chris Gash for putting it all together!

Hereâ€s a drawing I made while in the main entrance at the Museum of Natural History with Dominick. While he was seeing birds in the bones, I was getting lost and confused in the them. It was fun! I think I have more I can post soon. Sometimes it’s nice to just go and draw for the sake of drawing. And it’s a great exercise to get lost a little.

Today was a sunny day, but it started out pretty gray. It even snowed in Long Island. Here’s a drawing of the rhododendron in my yard. Not blooming YET. but soon. SOON.

First, I made some line sketches. Followed by the color versions. Sometimes I like to manipulate the sketches in the computer for the thumbnailing/sketching phase. I like the happy accidents that happen, and welcome the change of pace.

I think I like them better than the final. Ssh… Sometimes that happens.

But the craziest thing about this job is what happened a week before I got the call for an illustration of  “a jungle scene that HAD TO include vines, a monkey, a bird, a snow leopard and tropical flora”.  I was at the Museum of Natural History with my son. We sat in the Rainforest room that’s right next to the room with the whale. So, RAINFOREST and JUNGLE are basically the same thing, right? Anyway, we sat in there for a long time. And we drew, and I made the following drawing:

Crazy right?????

At the New Museum in NYC for the Pawel Althamerâ€s “Draftmenâ€s Congress” exhibit with Dalvero Academy yesterday, we had a terrific time! The artist invited people to draw and paint everywhere and anywhere in the gallery space. What fun. Spontaneous drawing at itâ€s best. Great sense of freedom, it made us feel like kids. Above is a collaboration between a strangerâ€s painting, my son James and myself. The stranger laid down the splattered background, I filled in the cat shape, and James made the face. Oh and of course I couldnâ€t help scratching some marks into the paint, kinda like a cat would.

I also made this painting of a little girl walking her dog under a peace sign. I didnt notice until I got home that it was a Mercedes symbol! Would’ve changed it for sure, but I still like how the painting came out. I’m inspired to do more work like this:

Snow is NOT white. Trust me Iâ€ve seen enough snow this winter to last a lifetime. But amidst all the whining and complaining about the snow, every time I look out the window, or as I walk or drive through town, I am overwhelmed by how beautiful it is. Iâ€ve seen lavendar snow, orange snow, perwinkle snow, even GREEN snow. Iâ€m setting up my easel by the window, I hope to get in a painting of the colorful snow before it all melts away. I tried pastels today, but itâ€s not cutting it for me. ~Despina

Yesterday we had so much fog in our area. It was remarkable. We couldnâ€t see the houses down the street, driving was a scary task and parks became a horror movie directorâ€s dream come true. My family and I took a walk through one of our neighborhood parks to take advantage of this rare sight by running around in the fog and taking photos. I made this drawing when we got home and my son said it looks just like our foggy adventure. We had a good time getting lost in the fog. Iâ€m glad we found our way back home! ~Despina