I never looked twice at this neighborhood house until I saw it mounded with sugary snow and dripping with icicles. Now it’s a storybook cottage, the home of a cozy cocoa-bearing fairy godmother or a wicked ice witch.
Julia
Shota
Category: Sketchbook
Morning Paper
Man reading contentedly in the Silver Spring library. Libraries, bookstores, and airports are wonderful places to sketch people. They sit still for a really long time and you don’t have to pay them a model fee.
Adam
Jane
Never a Dull Moment
While waiting our turn in Radiology at Georgetown University Hospital, I sketched this man. He seemed discontented with the registration procedure.
Alien Farm Boy
Here are a painting and sketches of my son when he was around 2 or 3 years old, when he could count among his achievements succesful potty training and looking adorable.
Today he turns 26 (!!!) and still looks adorable (still potty trained too). He’s also a more sociable party guest than as depicted in this old sketchbook (although somewhere along the way he lost his Mess Detector). Besides this he is funny and smart and a wonderful writer; speaks Japanese fluently, which is useful in his work for Japanese television; is a cool painter; is sweet to his parents, generous to his friends, and a fabulous big brother to his little sister. Happy Birthday, dear Devin, and thank you for coming.
Devin
Snowed In
The sun came out today, so my daughter and I went to sketch the interesting heaps of snow in the alley behind the house. Well, it may have been sunny, but the wind blew snow continuously and exasperatingly from the rooftops onto our sketchbooks. My daughter had wisely chosen colored pencils; I had a pen, and the ink alternately froze on the tip and bled when it hit snowflakes. I have renewed respect for all painters of snowy landscapes.
Dad
Pray For Us
Another winter, another sketchbook. The Virgin Mary gazing protectively over the snowy Holy Cross Hospital parking lot. It struck me as both funny and extremely poignant.
Matthew
Atalante
Poop-Glo
There are probably other uses I haven’t even thought of yet.
Carolyn
Ireland Dreams
Another page from my Ireland sketchbook, soon to go up on the website.
Corinne
Demons Out! Happiness In!
In the northern hemisphere, early February is the season of festivals of light, spring, and beginnings, because of its placement approximately mid-way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Candlemas and Groundhog Day are but two examples. Another is the ancient Celtic festival Imbolc, named for the pregnancy and lactation of ewes, and celebrated with the lighting of fires in anticipation of the returning sun. In Japan the festival of Setsubun marks the beginning of the spring season, and this year, according to the old lunar calendar, it falls on February 3rd.
Given the numerous Japanophiles in our household, we are moved to celebrate Setsubun. First, we eat special sushi rolls containing seven ingredients—seven being a lucky number—in complete silence, while facing the auspicious direction for the year (in 2010 it’s sort of south-southeast) and making a New Year wish. After dinner we eat one roasted soybean for each year of our lives so far, pondering the memorable events. This alone keeps certain of us busy for some time. Then we toss the remaining soybeans out into the darkness and shout ONI WA SOTO! FUKU WA UCHI! to chase away wicked demons (and wary neighbors) and bring happiness. Some people (not us) also hang a fish head on the front door. Depending upon the kind of demon, I bet this is pretty effective.
Expectant
I sketched this fellow in Politics & Prose bookshop. I was interested in his reading material.