Veronica Lawlor

SNOW DAY!! A day of joy for all the little children who slide down the big hill behind my apartment building. I can hear their laughter drifting through the window as I’m typing this. The snow in New York City is swirling and dancing through the air and the children are slipping and sliding in their giant snow suits. Moms and Dads off from work for the day take their turn down the hill as well, as I sit across the way trying to draw it before my page gets totally soaked. I love snow day.

In response to the earthquake in Haiti, the illustrators of Studio 1482 have each donated art to raise money on behalf of the victims in an effort to support the appeal for funds by CARE, a leading humanitarian relief organization. From January 19 until February 8th please visit onedrawingaday.com to see how you can participate by donating $50 to CARE.

“Spirit”

I created this drawing in response to the images of Haitian people marching through the streets of their damaged city, singing and clapping. It was very inspirational and truly showed the strength of the Haitian people.

To welcome the New Year I’ve posted some drawings I made at the Temple of the Peaceful Dragon, Ryoan-Ji , in Kyoto. This reflects my desire for a calm and peaceful 2010, both personally and in the world at large.

Happy New Year; welcome 2010!

As the days of freezing rain, slush, sleet and snow arrive in New York City, I like to console myself up with memories of warmer climes. This is my interpretation of a mango tree – the ones that hung over the back porch of Marg’s brother Billy. Just reach up and grab a mango for breakfast – no shoes required. Love it! I don’t know how anyone is motivated to do anything but relax down in St. Thomas, with such beautiful weather and mangos literally falling in your lap. This is part of a memory series of paintings that I’ve been working with on and off for a few years now. I figure, if I can’t be in St. Thomas now, I’ll paint me some mangos and wait the winter out! – Veronica

The image above is from a holiday animation I had the opportunity to do this year for RiverTown estates in Florida. I had a ball with it – it’s all hand drawn animation, frame by frame, with a little After Effects magic added in, thanks to my friend and fellow Studio 1482 member Eddie Pena.

Happy holidays everyone! And wishing you all the best in the New Year!

Last Wednesday night, Thankgiving Eve, I traveled up to the Museum of Natural History with Neil to see the annual balloon blow up for the Macy’s parade in NYC.  It really gets me in the mood for the holidays – I try to go every year. I love the surrealism of seeing these giant cartoon balloons tied down like Gulliver this way, with all the Lilliputian New Yorkers wandering around and gawking at the immense spectacle. Sponge Bob is looking a bit weird with his nose sticking into the ground like that, don’t you think? Peek-achoo being blown up below:

I’m sure I’ve spelled Peek-achoo wrong, but I do know who he is! A lot of the balloons were unknown to me. I felt a bit old, as kids were screaming out names – “Weiner-schnitzel!!” – that meant absolutely nothing to me. I did also recognize this one, Shrek:

It was raining lightly and the mist added to the magical feeling of the night. It helped that Neil was holding an umbrella over me as I was drawing – what a doll! Of course I had to draw my favorite balloon, Kermit:

This was so cool: a woman about 15 years older than me tapped me on the arm and asked me who “that big green character” was. You mean, Kermit?!! Man, who doesn’t know Kermit? : ) I felt so young and in the know. At least, until another little girl ran by me, calling out to a big purple balloon that was being blown up – “Sparkle Doll!” Or whatever it’s called. So another parade goes off and another million turkeys feel the pinch of my favorite holiday. Hope you all had a good one!

Friday morning I got myself downtown to Broadway to do some reportage of the Yankees Victory parade up the ‘canyon of heroes’. I hopped on the #4 train and went to the Wall Street station, where this sight met my eyes – - -

The Yankee fans were lined up five deep already! I maneuvered myself into a third row position and held tight for two and a half hours until the parade was scheduled to start. Really though, the crowd was the main event. They were screaming, yelling, drinking (that early?!) and generally carousing by the time I got there. Paper was flying, and when this wayward taxi-cab made it’s way down Broadway, it was greeted with jeers, catcalls, rolled up wads of newspaper, confetti, and rolls of toilet paper!

A little boy hurled a roll of toilet paper clear across Broadway and the crowd was cheering so loudly for him that his dad lifted him up to receive the adulation! Everyone was getting into the act. When a man appeared in one of the office building windows wearing a Mets shirt, the woman next to me yelled out, “look at that Mets fan – give him the finger everybody!!” Which they promptly did! I even saw a Grandma encouraging her grandsons to get into the act…

The man at the left was stoic through the whole episode.
Finally, the floats started to show up. Many floats with un-identified riders, causing the crowd to shout out, “Who are you? Who are you?” but finally, the MVP – Matsui – came up Broadway, looking cool and reserved, waving to the crowd:

The crowd went crazy for him!! A personal favorite of mine was Mariano Rivera, also looking cool and quite suave in an overcoat and silk scarf. He rode up the Canyon of Heroes waving an American flag:

But as quickly as it began, it was over, and the last float went it’s way up Broadway, showered by a storm of confetti and emotion…

Great season – looking forward to another one like that next year with the Bronx Bombers!!
Go Yankees!

(all drawings are copyright 2009 by Veronica Lawlor.)

Some drawings and observations from a recent concert I attended at Carnegie Hall in NYC:
The full scale of it all.

The conductor conducting wildly and the harpsichord player with the baroque beehive.

The singer steps out for her solo.

The battle of the vocal egos.

A box seat.

The diva.

With a nod to my great inspiration, the artist Daumier, who taught me that the best way to get to Carnegie Hall is, indeed, practice.

I spent the last *unofficial* weekend of the summer in Chadds Ford, PA, home of the Brandywine school. The drawing above is from a jazz fest/wine tasting at the Chaddsford Winery. Wine from Pennsylvania – I never really considered it. I was at this winery two years ago and I do think that the wines have improved. The whites were really nice – a clean and not too oakey Chardonnay, which I appreciate, and a few other good offerings. The reds were mixed, the Pinot Noir was not great but the Shiraz was pretty good!

The winery is very close to the Brandywine Museum, which Neil and I love to visit. I always loved NC Wyeth’s work, and the last time I came to this museum I also fell in love with Andrew Wyeth’s early watercolors. This time I was totally taken by his drybrush and tempera paintings. There was a quote at the museum in which Andrew compared his painting to a weaving of brushstrokes – I love that! These works really did have that woven quality and although tiny brushstrokes layered one on top of the other is usually my nemesis and NOT my taste, I fell in love with these paintings. We also had the opportunity to visit the Kuerner Farm where Andrew painted so many of them. Again, it promoted my thinking that you’ve got to be who you are and paint or draw what you know and love – A. Wyeth’s personality was all over that farm. Lovely. I was inspired to try a different sort of watercolor painting than I usually do – found it very peaceful to sit by the river and go after a color “weaving” of my own:

On the last day of our long weekend, Neil and I went to the Longwood Gardens – a Dupont family project. Yes, I’ll take the house – it had a courtyard inside. Wonderful! There were tree houses around the property, and even a bell tower, where I think Robin Hood must have visited at one point. It was so enjoyable to sit in the sun and draw it, marks everywhere. What a great ending to a great summer. I’m sorry to see it go, but the fall is beautiful as well, and I’ll just have to make do until next year!!

Remembering September 11th, 2001. As I listen to the reading of the names of the victims at Ground Zero this morning, my mind goes to one woman that I will never forget. I was drawing the events that day, trying to make sense of what was going on. Both towers of the World Trade Center had fallen and the streets of downtown Manhattan were filled with lost, frightened and confused people.  I saw a mother and her child sitting on the stoop of their building, and heard the mother tell the young child that they would wait there for Daddy to come home. I don’t know the woman, I never saw her again, but remembering her right now makes me cry. So many lives were altered that day, and it can be easy to put the experience into a file called “9/11″ and forget the moments like this that were so, so hard to bear. Seeing the faces of all the people observing a moment of silence at Ground Zero this morning brings it all back, sharp as a knife. I can only hope that Daddy came home to his family that day, and pray for all those people who never did return.