A Woman, A Bottle, And A Dinosaur

A Woman, A Bottle, And A Dinosaur. From the current scraps of an old sketchbook, we've been using the pages to communicate all week.

It was Saturday night, and we were out at a Dutch bar in the middle of Soho with Emel, Deniz's mother who was visiting London from Amsterdam. I drew a picture of Emel because she had drawn a rather nice picture of me the night before. Plus, she absolutely insisted. Luckily, I didn't feel put on the spot at all...

Meral, Deniz, and Emel all speak Turkish. I don't. So, the pad was a nice way to share thoughts. And, I honestly forget half the things I hear, so it's nice to have random bits of conversation strewn about in an unbound tome of juxtaposed thoughts.

The Red Chair and Its Shadow

The Red Chair and Its' Shadow. You may recognize this chair as the one that I found in an alley (the one behind my studio-in-progress). However, I have since painted it red.


I found another chair on Thursday, one hand-crafted and with an elegantly curved back. I can't believe how lucky I've been with finding chairs! This new find has me thinking blue....

Self Portrait in Dining Room Mirror

Self Portrait in Dining Room Mirror. What can I say? It's me in the mirror, the mirror in the back of the dining room cabinet. A self-portrait, me and the chair. Drawn two weeks ago, I no longer look like this. A barber cut my hair last Thursday.

The Spiral Id at the Sunshine Celebration

The Spiral Id at the Sunshine Celebration. Actually, the Sunrise Festival. It was June, 2007. I was camping with Sorph and Bobby. The morning I left, I got up too early. With loads of time, I could finally draw. It was the beginning of the Sunshine. (in between the Necklace and the Lost Summer).

What I can't tell you is that Bobby had just won an award at the Sundance movie festival, that Sorph had written an article for my band, that we were strangers who agreed to meet on the field of a new spring. And I was still trying to shake the weirdo out of me. That there was one sunrise which was more than I had ever known:

"The yellow sun consumed and turned me pink as I floated into everything. Liquid light grew soft and warm across the horizon until one line became an ellipse of my vision. And when my vision could no longer exist, there was no green, only pink. Only energy.

In the overtones of the light I was everything, the primal life, the foundation. In my survive, there was no one, only my own eyes. And my palette changed into true color, depth in dancing transparency.

When form returned, we were clean. In the horizon, beyond the sky, beyond the return, there was no burn, only peace." - from Adventures in an Instant, a postlude to Sunshine

This was the drawing which led me to think of symbols, and the incorporation of an abstract symbolic language of primitives as a method of defining form.

The Speakers in the Corner with Yellow Vase

The Speakers in the Corner with Yellow Vase. Snowing. Then bright sunshine. With hail. Followed by bright sunshine. And wind. Don't forget the wind. I left my window open for two hours. And guess what? Little particles of ice and snow covered a lot. Including this shelf. And the associated speakers, books, and yellow vase. That was yesterday. Today is only white grey. With a little wind. And a little drizzle.

Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank

Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank. Lesson #3. We had to take another look at Man-made Objects, Meral and I, so we made our way to a rather bright pub on the South Bank of the Thames. We got to taste two guest ales, and decided to try one of each. We should have had a pint a bit earlier...

The lights were bright and direct, the bottles both filled with different hues of almost solid red. This lesson was the test. No questions, no directions, only drawing. I like talking to people at other tables when I'm drawing, it's nice to be able to focus on both.

Of course, I never use an eraser. So, neither should my drawing students. Which tends to frustrate people.... I think that I was teaching her to draw like me. Which is also a bit contentious...

Lesson #1: Flowers in St. Jame Park- Organic Forms
Lesson #2: Coffee on Regents Street- Man-made Objects
Lesson #3: Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank- Man-made Objects II

Coffee on Regents Street

Coffee on Regents Street. I was giving art lessons in London. Little did I know that we would have to meet in the middle of a massive ten-thousand strong protest in Trafalgar Square. Nelsons Column had seemed the perfect place to meet.... Finally crossing four rivers of barriers and people, Meral and I met to begin art lessons.

Lesson #1: Flowers in St. Jame Park- Organic Forms
Lesson #2: Coffee on Regents Street- Man-made Objects
Lesson #3: Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank- Man-made Objects II

Concentrating on line, we were enjoying the finer benefits of possessing a complete set of graphite drawing pencils. Back and forth between a chocolate-soft 9B, and an ultra-hard 9H, we marked every iteration of each drawing with a new graphite rating.

Sketchbook: The Necklace Video Trailer

Sketchbook: The Necklace Video Trailer. The week started innocently enough, a Sunday stroll through Camden Markets on a beautiful day. I was looking for a necklace, but wanted the right one to find me... I think that necklaces have to match your internal energy. Needless to say, I couldn't find anything until the right one was mailed to me from Amsterdam one month later. Made by a fairy, and a gift of friendship, I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up to stay for a mere two-day layover in Noodjwick...

Graciously added to this fantastic list of online sketchbooks!

My Hyper-Dimensional Art Project (part I)

My Hyper-Dimensional Art Project (part I). Otherwise known as the G.E.T.

Tom Petty once said that music has become like professional wrestling.

So, I decided to create a character: J-Roq. He's a galactic cowboy in space.

I started a music project around the concept, and our publicist asked for demos.

So, Buddha Beats and J-Roq made 50 demos, each one unique.

I put robots on some of mine. Another aspect of my robot series.

And, we're going to take over the world. At least for a little while, until I can play with Detroit Transit Railroad again...

It's a concept album.

The Band Studio

The Band Studio. Richmond. Virginia. Detroit Transit Railroad. Music.

The boys are recording a new album this spring. Is it an even trade, this London thing? Somehow, I don't think so... hmmm. the album I didn't play on...

You can listen to our first album here ( or, from iTunes).

You can see loads of my paintings on the walls. There's even one of my sculptures (from 1996)...

If the walls of that studio could speak....

Amy in a Chair

Amy in a Chair. As many of you know, I've been going through the pages of the Lost Summer sketchbook. Well, there's loads more of those pages left, but I'm tired of putting them up. This painting is from the Women I Don't Know series.

After Amy graciously agreed to pose for four sittings, I proposed to finish when I found the perfect yellow (see the upper-right corner). Started in October 2007, I still have yet to find that perfect yellow. Which is disappointing indeed, since Amy is patiently awaiting the delivery of this very portrait. I hate to disappoint.

Check out a drawing from the Amy sessions.

The Brick Fireplace

The Brick Fireplace. The corner of the fireplace which rests in the center of the living room, (downstairs to the right) in my house in Hendon. I was sitting on the floor with my back to the couch. You might recognize the color pieces....

This is a still life pencil drawing with gouche (page 14) from the Lost Summer sketchbook.

Happy Mother's Day, Here are Some Flowers

Happy Mothers Day, Here are Some Flowers. My junior year in college (1998) saw me with access to a painting studio. And what better way to say Happy Mothers Day than a beautiful painting of flowers that will never wilt? There was a shell yellow Asian vase, intended as a gift to my girlfriend, and a collection of yellow, green, and purple petals and leaves. I took this picture over the winter holidays at the tail end of 2007. Home for a few days, for the first time in 18 months, I was impressed with myself for leaving so many beautiful paintings. Many, I saw for the first time...