Drawing from the “what the hell is it?” series

I haven’t yet mentioned this series but the phrase “what the hell is it?” could easily apply to many of my drawings. I don’t mind and this next one definitely meets that criteria. Without giving away “what the hell it is”, I’ll just say that I drew it on the bus down to New York on Thursday. See if you can guess. (Sadly I ended up cutting my weekend short and returning to Boston on Friday. Something about a hurricane.)

P.S. I swear I’m working on my color correcting skills in Photoshop but it’s annoying how scanning the same notebook in the same scanner yields such different results. Ugh.

A rare exercise in restraint and making the best of a sharpie at the end of its life.

From the “crazy” drawing series

Sometimes I’m unable to finish a drawing in one sitting and that’s when things can get “crazy”. (Although, that doesn’t preclude drawings completed in one sitting from being crazy as well.)

In the example below, I started drawing a reasonably normal car, parking lot, and plastic traffic thing but then I had to stop part-way through when Dan got out of class. Next thing you know, there are lines and designs all over the place! But what can I say? That’s half the fun.

Who knew sitting in a parking lot could be so trippy?

Drawing from the “Chair” Series

Bonus post. I must be getting back into this blogging thing after my summer hiatus. Anyway, this next drawing fits squarely into the “sitting in the same chair all the time” category (another example here) that I mentioned last time. It also happens to be one of my less “crazy” drawings. (I’ll post something “crazy” next.)

A rare sight: a bathrobe actually hung on the door

Another drawing

Something interesting I’ve noticed about drawing vs. photography is that I much prefer drawing mundane things whereas I feel more inclined to take pictures of “new” things. This next drawing is one of a series of sitting in the car while waiting for someone/something. It reminds me of my sitting on a bus/airplane series or my sitting in the same bedroom chair series or my sitting on the porch series. Notice a theme? But it’s fun to try to find something different to focus on each time.

I started drawing this while waiting for Dan to get out of calculus class.

How I spent my summer vacation

The short answer: studying Spanish and French, drawing, reading, walking, running, yoga (I can now do controlled headstands in the middle of the room!), listening to tons of podcasts, and occasionally applying for jobs when so motivated. Since arriving in Boston two months ago, I’ve pretty much stayed put but I can feel the old wanderlust starting to rear its head again. But for the time-being, I’ll just have to channel it into traditional vacations as opposed to epic two years-long wanderings.

Here’s one drawing from the past few weeks. I’ll post a few more as I get around to scanning things.

It's tricky figuring out the best way to scan drawings from my notebook so I'm taking the easy way out...

Supporting a Friend

Danielle in the great outdoors

I recently found out that my friend Danielle suffered a catastrophic accident while rock-climbing and is lucky to be alive. Right now, it looks like she’ll be paralyzed from the chest down for the rest of her life. On top of that, she was uninsured at the time of the fall and I know she would benefit tremendously from all the financial and moral support she can get. If you have a moment, donations for her care are being routed through the National Transplant Assistance Fund & Catastrophic Injury Program.

I met Danielle at Gallatin in a class called “The Existential Imagination” (hard to get more Gallatin than that!) and I have always been amazed by her warmth and kindness, not to mention her incredible optimism. I can’t wait to attend her “Danielle is alive!” party once she settles into her new life. And if anyone can cope with such a debilitating accident, it’s her.

Here’s wishing her the very best!

Taking a break from glowing rectangles

I’ve found myself in a rare situation: for the moment, I don’t need to be glued to my computer for hours each day. It’s amazing. And I’m going to take this opportunity to enjoy a much-needed break from glowing rectangles. I’ll be reading, studying Spanish, and maybe even relaxing. Once in a while, I’ll put something up here, but for the moment, I’m on vacation.

Here are a few pics from my most recent road trip, taken from my brand-new phone. (Now that I’m back in the States for the foreseeable future, I finally got a “smart” one and I love it.)

Did you know that eastern Nevada has a well-established Basque population? We enjoyed garlic soup and beef tongue at The Martin Hotel.

My great- (or maybe great-great-) grandfather's dairy farm in Illinois.

Thinking this was still in California, right before the Nevada border. Or maybe Utah? There was a lot of driving.

Trying something new

It’s been a hectic month to say the least and I haven’t felt remotely inclined to sort through photos or reflect on anything. (Not that I’ve really had the time or Internet connection to do so anyway.) So this is just a quick hi from Southern California before I hit the road for my fourth cross-country road trip in two years. While I’m not looking forward to the driving, it’ll be fun to hang with family, listen to audio books, and appreciate the absence of people, potholes, and cows in the road. Also, I imagine the roads will be lit at night and there will be a median in the more-than-two-lane highway and fewer crazy taxis and trucks. Now that I think about it, I hope I don’t get bored!

Floors in my vicinity and a common sight these days:

How many times does a dog wag its tail in a day?

Um, 10,000? That was my guess after several minutes of dancing around the question and making up calculations. Dan had a much better reply:

“I would mount a small 9V battery on a doggy sweater, attach a coil to a rod on the dog’s back, and attach several small magnets to the dog’s tail. Next, I would insert a simple digital counter circuit and read it after 24 hours. Although I anticipate that this would alter the dog’s tail-wagging behavior in accordance with Heisenberg, I don’t really care since now I have a charged 9V battery. I would like to add that during the holiday season, the 9V battery would be used to power a little red light on the dog’s face.”

Damn. Wish I had thought of that. Anyway, I don’t have any pictures to illustrate this post but here’s what it looked like in Howick, South Africa last week. Enjoy!

From a recent relaxing weekend in the Midlands

Final Posts for Kiva

My focus is a bit impaired at the moment but I just wanted to share my final blog posts for Kiva. I’ve really enjoyed contributing to the Kiva Fellows blog and I look forward to seeing how it evolves in the hands of the next class of Kiva Fellows.

Last Update from the Field

Last personal post for Kiva