Veronica Lawlor

There is nothing like November in New York. I painted this yesterday: it is the view out my back window. It was raining all day, windy and damp. Each rain drop brought down two or three rust or ochre colored leaves with it, hastening Winter’s arrival. There is something so melancholy and also so beautiful about this time of year. The grey overcast mood and subtle colors are lovely, especially when seen through the streaks of rain attaching themselves to my window. Even though I am sad that Spring is so many months away, I still appreciate the beauty of the end of Fall. Sigh… By the way: I also posted this painting on a new blog that I am participating in called Urban Sketchers. It consists of drawings and writings from artists around the world. It’s really wonderful - check it out if you are interested. My fellow Studio 1482 members Margaret Hurst and Greg Betza are participating in the blog as well.

 Last night Margaret Hurst and I drew the annual Halloween parade in Greenwich Village. What a blast! I hadn’t really seen the parade since I was in college, and it was fun to stake out a bench on 6th Ave with Marg and get involved with it. The crowd was the best part of the parade - they were really enjoying themselves. The woman in the above drawing who is sitting on a tree branch for a better look drew tons of cheers and applause as she shimmied up the tree. Here are some of the revelers –There were many women in short, short skirts (good thing the weather was mild!), lots of political costumes - many Sarah Palin/John McCain combos, draculas, witches, drag queens, and even a man dressed as a kissing booth. (I didn’t take the opportunity to get a 25¢ kiss…) The parade featured floats, puppets, marching bands complete with witch hats, and the grand finale - a huge swell of costumed partiers who clogged 6th Ave. and walked behind the parade up to the twenties.The drawing above shows some of the puppets and floats that are an integral part of the parade. One of the puppet artists involved in the parade worked on the Lion King play, I think, can’t remember his name. But the work was wonderful.  Another artist spotted at the parade - my friend Marg drawing, with the pre-requisite glow-in-the-dark head gear:She looked great and got some compliments from the crowd. Next to her was a woman with a Godzilla head who also elicited a ton of praise. The crowd was friendly and full of fun. It seems like Halloween is the only time many people can unleash their creativity, and the Village was full of just that! Everyone walking around laughing, talking to each other, dancing (at times) and generally having fun. Marg’s niece Alison and her friend Trinka were with us as well, and we deliberately walked back uptown through the thickest part of the crowd to get the full Halloween experience! We had a good time, and plan to go back next year. As we sat drawing we attracted the attention of an older man with a long grey beard, an Asian patterned wool cap, and a ton of silver jewelry - in short, a Greenwich Village CLASSIC. He left us with some advice - “enjoy your evening, enjoy your art, enjoy your life!” Words to live by. More evenings of reportage like this will go a long way towards making it happen. Cheers!  

Just returned from Grand Central Station in New York, where I took my class from Parsons the New School for Design to draw. We got into a discussion about reportage, what it is, why it’s so important, why I love it! So, what is reportage? Wikipedia defines reportage as: “the reporting of news, especially by an eyewitness; news or information of general interest that has been reported.”  That’s a pretty good definition to start with, but for me it’s much more than that. Reportage is a way of engaging with the world on a personal, emotional level. When I go on location to draw and paint, I really experience the place in a way that is not possible any other way. I have been plotzed on by pigeons in San Marco,chased by an irate jazz musician in New Orleans,surrounded by curious tourists in the Forbidden City (who were scattered by the Chinese army, no less), spritzed by holy water at a Japanese temple,jostled by excited fans at a bullfight and interrogated by a New Jersey patrolman. Not to mention the many, many personal stories related to memory and place that have been entrusted to me over the years by people as I’ve wandered around the world, sketchbook in hand. It’s a way to understand culture, customs and ultimately, human nature. I’ve met so many people through the language of art and drawing, and heard so many stories, that I am convinced if more people went out and drew the environments they inhabit we could clear up a lot of misunderstandings in the world. The drawing at the top of this post of Grand Central Station is one I did a few years ago, for a reportage campaign of American monuments for Brooks Brothers. Grand Central Station is one of the most beautiful architectural interior spaces in New York City, a fact that is impressed upon me more and more every time I go. It was so much fun this morning to see the expression of excitement on one of my students faces as she looked up at the constellations painted on the ceiling. It was her first time there, although she had seen the station featured in movies back home in Poland. We discussed together the difference between seeing a photo of a place and actually being there, picking up the energy and aura of place that every environment has. The conversation got me thinking about New York, my hometown and favorite city. Every part of New York has an aura, and the interesting thing is how that aura changes throughout the day. Each neighborhood in New York is its own world, and it morphs from morning to night, as though the streets were some kind of giant lazy susan to be spun around until the right mood shows up. The meat packing district - 6 am - is still a somewhat industrial part of town, full of trucks and workers — spin the clock to midnight — now it’s a hipsters hangout, full of high heeled women, well suited men, and brightly colored cocktails with ironic names. You can’t beat this city for variety! So I’ve decided to begin a reportage series of New York with this idea in mind. The many faces of Manhattan. This will allow me to approach my home town in the same way that I’ve tried to approach reportage around the world: with an open mind and an inquisitive eye. Not only that, I look forward to the challenge of creating a different graphic feel for the different graphic faces of the island of Manhattan, faces which vary by neighborhood and time of day. I hope you’ll visit the blog from time to time to check it out. thanks! 

Our last good shot at summer weather came this past Sunday here in New York City. Fortunately, I spent much of the late afternoon at the park by the bridge in Queens, New York. What a lovely way to end the summer. Damn, I hate to see it go - I feel like taping the leaves back on the branches of all the trees…would keep me fairly busy.It was fun painting the sun setting behind the bridge, with the trees poking up in front. The color was beautiful, and I found myself reaching for new combinations to describe the overall mood that day. Orangey -greeny -grey with accents of salmon. Wow. OK, so the fall DOES have it’s advantages. I’ll tell you though, I am counting off the days until I can run down the street in my flip flops again! Ah, summer….only fifty snowy evenings, thirty-five rainy afternoons, sixteen hundred blustery mornings and eleven thousand frozen days to go until we’re back there!

After years of teaching illustration at Pratt Institute, Parsons the New School for Design and our own Dalvero Academy, the advice to “practice drawing people in the subway every day!!” has come back to me full circle. Above is a small drawing I was commissioned to do for the Columbia University magazine, illustrating a light-hearted story about an older judge who endures the angry backlash from two stylish older women, who compete with each other to give him their seats on the train. The story was cute; he invoked some judicial rule about not accepting favors from the public to get out of his social dilemma. It just seemed so funny to me that after years of telling students to draw people on the subway (and doing it myself) this particular job crossed my board. By the way, I did do it on the subway, and NO ONE - stylish or otherwise - offered me their seat. Oh well, guess I’ll have to get used to drawing standing up!!

 In honor of the anniversary of September 11, 2001, I am posting a photo of one of my drawings from 9/11 on view in the Newseum in Washington DC.  The experiences I had that day will always stay with me. My thoughts go out today to everyone who was tragically affected on that sunny Tuesday. …thanks to Danielle McManus and Rosa Lee, who visited the Newseum and sent me this photograph.

  Ahh, the last days of summer. I remember crying every Labor Day weekend at the thought of going back to school again. When I was between the ages of six and eighteen, Jerry Lewis and his telethon could bring on instant depression. While I’m not quite that unhappy about fall in New York City anymore, the end of summer still does make me a bit blue. So I am going to celebrate it this weekend by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…sounds delicious. To kick it off, I spent some time in Starbucks drinking a cappuccino and drawing my fellow Labor Day weekend revelers. What a motley crew we are…Happy barbecue all! 

Just got home from teaching a reportage class on location in DisneyWorld. Tropical storm Fay made things interesting to say the least, but we managed to get the students out to the parks and drawing and illustrating like pros! I was able to sneak a few little drawings in - sitting between the rain drops - it’s always good to study.  I can’t help wanting to draw in the place where I learned so much as well. Check out our Facebook page: Dalvero Academy, if you’re interested to see more. There’s a photo of Ghila, one of the students, actually eating one of those huge smoked turkey legs. She’s braver than I…

Back to the Bahamas - we couldn’t help returning to that beautiful spot. Greeny blue water, blue skies, billowy clouds; fantastic! We spent much of our trip snorkeling and saw many more fish than we did in the spring. Maybe the fish like to summer there as well. There were lion fish, parrot fish, grouper swimming around like crazy. A huge fleet of good sized grouper hung out with us in the grass near the coral reef. We even saw some live coral, which is a good sign for the environment. Here are some watercolors of fish we saw:       (lion fish)    You don’t want to touch the lion fish, as they have venom in their ribbon-like extensions. Neil made sure to warn me not to touch them and I assured him I wasn’t planning on touching anything!! In fact I did make it a point to keep myself from making contact with fish, rocks, grass, etc. I mean, I love nature - but it is definitely love at a distance. Here are some others - the one with the big spot on the back is called a parrot fish…I think…have to check on that. But I loved how it’s spot looked like a big eye in the back of the head of the fish. Good idea for subways, deserted streets at night, alleyways, and I guess, coral rock formations. Also, we saw a VERY BLUE flat fish, don’t know the name…some pinky ones, some little silver agressive ones and some little black agressive ones. Neil was feeding them cracker pieces and one of them bit his finger to get at it. (Again I invoke my non-contact with nature clause…)   Also saw a stingray - actually I saw two of them. They really are very cool looking, sort of suave the way they glide around on the ocean floor. (The rat pack of the sea.) This larger brown and white one I saw on the last morning we went snorkeling. He saw me right after I saw him and basically froze in the grass until Neil and I swam by. The stingray must have the same non-contact with nature clause as I do… I LOVE doing this underwater reportage, but of course there are wonderful views above the surface, such as this touring sailboat that went by in the harbor: It’s called watercolor heaven! There were several artists and craftsman lined up harborside selling small paintings and bags, whatever they made. I’m thinking that this could be my retirement plan - snorkeling in the morning, painting in the afternoon, maybe a rum punch in the evening. Not a bad working day, maybe I won’t wait until retirement! I’ll leave you with one last watercolor - the ferry to paradise island ticket booth.  Although I think we were already there…  Can’t wait to go back again.

I am very proud to post on this blog the fact that my reportage of September 11th is part of the News History exhibition at the newly opened Newseum in Washington DC.My drawing is featured in the news history gallery in one of the cases in the “Who Controls the News?” exhibit in a section called “The New Gatekeepers”. I can’t wait to go down and visit the museum some time this summer. It’s very exciting and gratifying for me to be included in such a prestigious museum.