Jackson Heights – a little New York City neighborhood, located somewhere between Pakistan and Colombia. At least, that’s how one of my new neighbors described it. As Jackson Heights is the most diverse neighborhood in the most diverse city (NYC) in the United States, a country of immigrants, I would have to agree. Several months ago, Neil and I decided to trade in our East Village rental for a place of our own, and the historic district of Jackson Heights seemed like the perfect ‘hood to do it in. Even though it’s only a short subway ride to Times Square, traveling to Jackson Heights makes you feel like you’d better pack your passport. I did some drawings at the  plaza near the 74th St. subway station, a section of the neighborhood that is full of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and more recently, Tibetan shops.

There are reportedly 167 languages spoken here, and I heard several of them as I drew in the plaza. It’s taking a little while for this to feel like home, but I’m really enjoying my new surroundings. Jackson Heights is in the borough of Queens, across the East River. Those of you who live in Manhattan might understand the feeling of leaving Manhattan after 15 years. Remember the scene in Sex and the City where Miranda moves to Brooklyn? And what a major upheaval it was? The movie was not exaggerating in the slightest. Manhattanites think the world ends at the Hudson and East Rivers, and I was a little trepidacious, to say the least! What about my 24 hour deli? My take out addiction? My need to mingle with people I don’t know, who are moving about in large crowds? I’ve found that I’ve been able to fulfill all of those Earthly needs right here, albeit in a package that doesn’t have any English words on it. And the travel time to Manhattan is fairly short – basically the trip to most neighborhoods takes the same time as when I lived downtown. I keep leaving too early to get there…basically it’s only 15 minutes by train to midtown, but I keep adding an additional half hour or so…seems that going over (or under) the East River is a larger trip mentally than physically.

The shop above is one of many selling multi-colored fabrics. There are many sari shops and jewelry shops full of traditional Indian gold necklaces, earrings, etc. along 74th St. Living here is certainly going to sharpen up my accessories wardrobe. As you walk down the street past these various shops, the shopkeepers speak to you in many languages, trying to entice you in to view their wares. Oh, and did I mention that the whole street smells like curry? That smell greets me as I get off the subway, and is starting to smell like home. Neil and I have enjoyed visiting the Patel Brothers store on 74th, and trying to imagine who is buying the 40 lb bag of basmati rice. Not us, yet, but give us a few more months and we probably will.

This is a drawing of the 74th St. elevated station, and the darkness of Roosevelt Avenue below. The 7 train runs along Roosevelt Ave., which is a different world from 74th Street, even though it’s only feet away. Roosevelt Ave. has plenty of empanada shops (more on that in a later post) as well as bars with taxi dancers, massage rooms, karaoke, cheap 99¢ stores, vendors with push carts selling some of the best tacos I’ve ever had (my cholesterol has shot up from living here, no joke!) and plenty of gay bars. Jackson Heights is one of the earliest gay neighborhoods in NYC. I told you it was diverse! And if you take the 7 train one more stop to 82nd Street, you’ll be in the largest Colombian neighborhood in New York City. Neil is happy, since I have a great chance to practice my Spanish now, although every time I speak to someone in Español, they answer in English. I think I have more work to do in that area…

These 74th and 82nd St. stations border the historic district, a beautiful area full of flowers and trees, along with plenty of old NY brick buildings. It’s exciting to have a new neighborhood to explore, and now that summer is almost here I’m looking forward to drawing, and posting, a lot more.

I was recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Tracy Kaler, for her blog, Tracy’s New York Life.  Read the interview HERE.

I’m really happy with the interview and the way she designed it for the blog; it looks great. It was fun to talk about some of my childhood New York memories, and of course, about art, illustration, and learning. Thanks, Tracy. Any friend of New York City is a friend of mine. :)

PS - One Watercolor A Day, featuring my art and the art of the Studio 1482 illustrators, and written by yours truly, is available now for pre-order! Click HERE for more details. I’m thrilled with the book, would love to hear back from all of you about it as well!

Last week in New York City we had the special treat of seeing Nick Cave‘s HEARD! horses galloping around Grand Central Station. It was a beautiful spectacle, and the best part for me was that they really geared it to the kids. The raffia horses with the Tibetan/Mongolian inspired headgear were on display all week at the train station. Twice a day the Alvin Ailey dance company wore the costumes and performed for about twenty minutes. I arrived a half-hour before the show, and the place was crowded. There were special roped-off sections for the children to watch the show.

The performers walked out and removed the costumes from the wooden stands and put them on. One dancer for the front to lead, and one for the back end to follow. I loved how the mechanics of the performance were very open. The dancers seemed excited to be there. Once the costumes were on, the horses moved gracefully in a circle to the sounds of the harp, played live for the performance. They lingered by the children’s area, ready for all the little hands that reached out to touch them. It was so sweet to see the happy little faces of the children. None of them seemed afraid at all, they were really enchanted by the animals.

Then suddenly the harp was replaced by an African drum, and the whole feeling changed! The horses broke in two and the back ends, following the fronts up until now, were free to go wild and do there own thing!

Which they DID! There was a feeling of total anarchy as the little straw back ends shook and danced and went in every direction, while the horse fronts galloped around them, containing the energy. It was really fun to watch the freedom of the dancers. The kids loved it, and so did the adults!

BREAK OUT!!!!!

Anarchy and kids always go well together. :)

Then it all quieted down again.

The performers took their bows,
leaving the costumes propped up in a stately way to be viewed.

What a
nice afternoon on a holiday week in New York City. Thanks Nick!

To read more about the event, check out the New Yorker blog post HERE.

My drawing of the Empire State Building was featured in the blog, “tracy’s new york life”. View the post HERE.

It’s always nice to meet another person in love with New York City…and her main guardian, the Empire State Building. thanks!

Today was a taste of spring in New York City – the temperatures were in the upper forties (fahrenheit) and the sun was shining, that’s right, SHINING, all day! I had the good fortune to spend a few hours on the Highline, a park on Manhattan’s west side, and make some drawings of the New Yorkers coming out of their caves. We all saw our shadows – which means spring will be full on very soon. Although I hear we’ll have snow tomorrow…

The Highline has these great wooden deck chairs that people love to sprawl out in. Even while wearing winter coats. It’s like the public living room of New Yorkers and we do get very comfortable. Maybe too comfortable sometimes…this lady was out for the count…

Can’t even see the faces of the women below, too many coats, sweaters, and scarves piled around them.

I love how this lady (below) just slumped down right into the chair. A long, cold, snowy winter will do that to you. The lady to her right just wasn’t ready yet to give up her coat with the fur collar, or her hat. But the sunglasses add just the right amount of “I’m ready for spring” feel, don’t you think?

Of course the ubiquitous New York City water towers dot the skyline like birds in a forest of trees. Wouldn’t quite be the same without them. I liked how the corner windows framed this one in my thumbnail below. And by the way, doesn’t the fashionista on the left look happy? She actually seemed pretty happy but when I drew her this expression came out. Drawing is kind of like drinking – the truth pops out sometimes. “In drawing veritas,” or something like that. Here’s to an end to winter – happy (almost) spring!

Here are a few images from the exhibit: The Unspecific Index, on view at 601Artspace through Feb 2. (http://www.601artspace.org/).

I’m standing in front of the mural I designed for artist Paul Ryan, illustrating his EARTHSCORE notational system, and its applications to environmental issues and inter-personal communication. If you are interested in what the symbols on the wall mean, I would encourage you to visit Paul’s website at http://www.earthscore.org/. Really interesting ideas and art: Paul is an artist who has the idealism and the brain power to make a meaningful contribution to the world. His work on Three-ing was exhibited at documenta this past summer; I was lucky enough to be asked to design some of the graphics for his pavilion.

Above you’ll see two of my students, Chris Brody and Evan Turk, looking at some of Paul’s incredible video work utilizing Earthscore. Many thanks to Paul Ryan for this opportunity, and also to Erin Sickler, curator of the exhibit (and Earthscore enthusiast!) This show was one of the highlights of 2012 for me.

The Empire State Building was blue on Saturday night – I had to draw it. For a good many years of my adult life, I’ve lived within view of the Empire State Building. She has become a kind of presence for me, a guardian spirit. When I saw her shining blue light it made me think of all those people in Sandy Hook – the poor little children and their teachers who’ve left us, and all the grieving families and friends they left behind. I felt like I wanted to send my guardian spirit of the Empire State Building to them, so I made this drawing. I hope they all can find peace again in their lives. And I hope we Americans can solve this problem together.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Spent the night before Thanksgiving drawing the balloon blow-up for the Macy’s parade here in New York City, an annual tradition for Macys and now, me too. This year I went with my friends and fellow artists Si Yeon, Chris, Evan, and Jodi. We had a great time, despite the crowds, and the crowds were crazy. Each year this becomes more and more of a spectacle that the tourists flock to see. The E train between Penn Station and the museum stop is so packed it isn’t even funny. Tons of Long Islanders with their kids, none of whom seem to be sure what stop to get off of. (Is THAT it? No. Is THAT it? No. – all the way up 8th Ave.) By the way, that’s Papa Smurf above. (Don’t think he’s been in the parade before?) I never get over how strange it is to see these giant colorful characters tied down to the street by the Museum of Natural History. Always reminds me of Gulliver’s Travels.

Above is a more impressionistic view of the whole street. People walk to it in droves, drawn by the color and (for the kids) the thrill of seeing their favorite character. Each year I learn about new characters that the kids are crazy about – have to keep an ear open for the kids screaming their names so I can feel in-the-know. :)

Poor Mickey Mouse – he was tied down so tightly, with his face to the ground, he felt like a prisoner! But Ronald McDonald (below) was looking out at everyone with one menacing eye, I think he was getting ready to stage a break-out. Hope he takes Mickey with him…

I love the guy at top right in the drawing above – using his i-phone to take a picture of himself. He was very happy with it, kept checking it out and doing another one. Great stuff.

The last balloon I drew was Sonic the Hedgehog, below. Took me a while to figure that one out – seemed like a bunch of blue bananas. Si Yeon pointed out his hand to me and then it got a little clearer…

We all wanted to go to the other street to see the rest of the balloons, so we followed the crowds (which by this point had become epic) around the corner to Columbus Ave. Where we stood…and waited…and stood..and waited. Took us at least a half hour to get to the mid-point of the block, where we saw the cops were ushering everyone across the street – it was an exit. The thought of fighting the crowds across two more streets and over one, plus our growling stomachs, led us to make a pact to see the flip side next year – see you then, Spiderman!

Tomorrow night, November 15, from 6pm – 9pm the exhibit titled The Unspecific Index opens at 601Artspace in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.

I designed the display for Paul Ryan’s theories called Earthscore, which includes a few of my illustrations along with Paul’s video, his drawings, text, and an illustration of the Relational Circuit. The drawing above depicts the practice of Threeing, invented by Paul.

Here is a link to the gallery site: 601Artspace

If you can’t make it to the opening, hope you have a chance to see the show! Paul’s ideas are very wide in scope, covering ways to live and exist in our environment. He recently exhibited his Yoga of Relationships called ‘Threeing’ at the documenta festival in Kassel. I was honored to design some of the graphics for his pavilion. There’s a great video from the documenta pavilion here: Momenta 100/(055) Threeing

In response to Hurricane Sandy’s devastating effects on the New York and New Jersey area, I and the other illustrators of Studio 1482 have each created a print of one of their favorite New York City images to raise money for the displaced victims of the storm, through the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

For each donation of $50 or more, you will receive a hand-signed 13 x 19 limited edition print from one of the Studio 1482 illustrators.

My contribution, shown above, is titled: Empire State Building, Guardian Spirit of New York.

Please go to www.onedrawingaday.com for more details.

Thank you!