Definitions of Day

The Pond

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 2 May 2011 23:26:00 -0400

Sketch for Biology Class

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:44:00 -0400

Starbucks Sketch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 3 Dec 2010 19:16:00 -0500

Not sure whether this classifies as a sketch or a drawing, because it took quite a while. Nor am I quite happy with it, but I suspect it might grow on me. Something about having no organic form to draw in a three-hour drawing (except for the people of course) made it a little bit less lively an experience than what was actually going on - people working, ordering, chattering, drinking their coffee. It's an interesting idea - that building an accurate environment can take over the drawing so much that the "vibe" is not translated all that accurately... I would like to know what vibe you get, looking at this...

Home. Some thoughts on technique.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:27:00 -0500

I drew this in the summer, and it actually took two days. I must say I'm in love with gradual building of form with hard pencils. It lets you have a steady control of texture and to look very closely at your subject. And unlike working with a pen that quite quickly constricts your use of gesture, every time you step up to a softer/darker pencil you have another chance to work gesturally. It would seem two days on a small sketch like this would suck the life out of it, but to me this looks quite alive.

Maybe it's simply that I had such a soft spot for pen and line work all throughout college that I finally exhausted my use of it of course, but I think there really is something to line drawing process that is stifling. And it's the overbearing contour. No matter how much you try to build sculpturally, you get this containment effect. I still use contour of course. After all I think like a draftsman, not really as a painter: contour line is here to stay. But I am much more welcoming of it, when it's in 2H or 4H graphite. It lets the things you draw breathe.

Gunston Hall

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:29:00 -0500

Chinatown, Washington DC

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:21:00 -0400

This weekend for some reason I got to see the Chinatown in DC, Manhattan and Brooklyn... This is the view from a Starbucks where I was waiting for the bus to Big Apple, overhearing people at business lunch confessing to each other their fear of computers and an idle Bible-repeater mumble on with feign care in his disdain that all the people passing by need to discover just one name.

San Lazaro District, Arequipa, Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 7 Sep 2009 21:11:00 -0400

The only observed drawing I produced on this trip. But it was a pleasant couple of hours of unrushed meditative doodling on a day when life gives you what you want for a few hours, squeezed between uncertainty and frenzy of surviving without direction on some arbitrary spot on the globe that has solidified into your habits and fears in an imprint that's hard to wash off. Sometimes life gives you a restful morning, an embrace of sunshine, a destination for the flailing strain of survival. This rare calm is in this piece. A privilege to simply breathe and draw, without that dire need to express anything in particular, to capture, to define, to expel, to conquer. I happened to be on a street of a South American desert town in the summer of 2009. How long will this town stand? How long will the street stay unaltered? How long will I? I may have gone out of an unreasoned turmoil that a beating heart can cause in a meticulous mind, but what I have to show for it all is just this sketch of a few moments of tenderness I shared with the harsh Arequipan sun. An achievement somewhere in between dedication and an accident.

Watching Hot Dads at Virginia Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:48:00 -0400

The Urus living on the Lake Titicaca (Final)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 15:20:00 -0500

The Urus continue the same lifestyle they had for many centuries, with the exception of recent additions of solar panels for electricity, televisions, radio and bright nylon thread they incorporate into traditional textiles over Nirvana T-shirts. They have always maintained trade with the nearby city of Puno. The islands are constructed from layered earth and cane, and are anchored down. Otherwise, they say, they will float away to Bolivia, and they don't have Peruvian documents to be accepted back.
When a family does not contribute to the community and work, they're not asked to leave their homes. Instead they can take their home with them, cutting off a piece of the island.

Richmond Sketches

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:55:00 -0400

Night Alley by Shafer Street.

On Stuart Circle

Before Mars Volta got on stage at Rams Head, Baltimore.

Yuko Shimizu giving a lecture at VCU.

Back in the States

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:07:00 -0400

Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu and Cuzco

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:04:00 -0400

Arequipa, Cabanaconde

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:01:00 -0400

The Lopez Family

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:58:00 -0400

Lima, Nazca, Arequipa

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:55:00 -0400

Around Huaraz

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:52:00 -0400

Lima, Trujillo, Huaraz

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:50:00 -0400

Miraflores y los Olivos en Lima, Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:47:00 -0400

Miami to Lima

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:38:00 -0400

Tarusa

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:49:00 -0400

A digital painting of a little town Tarusa on the bank of the Oka river in Russia, very close to where I'd spend my summers as a kid. The church in the background had been destroyed during the Soviet rule and has been under reconstruction for as long as I remember.

Portraits of My Russian Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 02:44:00 -0400

These are the portraits of my friends I drew right after I got back from my trip to Moscow. It isn't a complete series. They need some more work on shading, and there are a few friends that are still left out.

One thing that has happened as a result of this series is that I want to combine it with the old love-lorn drawings I did for the book "Anima," which was intensely personal and revolved around my internal states and visions, so to speak. The Russian series started my experimentation with attempting to show my take on the person's inner world, or at least their energy in their relationship to me. I am now continuing my work on "Anima," expanding it to include these portraits, many more people and more dream visions.