The turkey's been gobbled, the pie plates licked clean, and I'm sitting here in my post-feast tryptophane glow, thinking about gratitude. You know how sometimes the universe hands you exactly what you need, even when you didn't know you needed it? That's been my 2024. Let me share my gratitude list with you. First, there's the big stuff — the treasures that make life worth living. My wife, the wisest and most beautiful person I know. My family, who make me proud. Our pugs, who make me laugh...
4 days ago • 3 min read
I love reading and sharing books. Here is my "short-list" of favorites so far from 2024. Arranged in random order. Non-fiction Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker A fascinating journey into the world of artists and collectors that reveals how learning to see art can transform the way we view life. It’s an exploration of creativity, obsession, and the beauty found in unconventional perspectives....
8 days ago • 5 min read
I did a drawing this morning, and, honestly, it was pretty much the same drawing I did in the margin of my tenth-grade Latin notebook in 1977. A cartoon of a dude with a bald head, big nose, baggy eyes. No, not a selfie. I’ve been teaching art for more than ten years, writing online for more than twenty years, drawing for almost thirty years, and making a living using my creative abilities for more than forty. But just now, a thought flashed through my head: “Am I actually any good at this?”...
11 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader: One of my favorite graphic novelists is Ben Katchor, whose work smells faintly of mildew, corned beef, body odor, and industrial lubricants. He tells odd, meandering stories of a bygone era, a world of shoehorn salesmen and cardboard valises, peeling hallways, and faded ambitions. It’s a familiar world but long gone, possibly the early 1950s, probably New York. It’s so evocative and odd, and ultimately, it leaves me feeling washed out and bleak but also inspired. Paul Auster and...
14 days ago • 5 min read
When I was nine years old and living in Pakistan, my grandfather’s chauffeur drove me to school every day. After a year had passed, my grandfather told me that today, he wanted me to tell the driver how to get to school. He instructed the driver to follow my directions to the letter, and we would see where we ended up. Ninety minutes later, we ran into the Indian/Pakistan border. I had guided us out of the country. I shrugged, and the driver turned around and took me to school. Living in...
18 days ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader: I've always loved to travel. New sites, new people, new food, and so many new things to draw. However, my last international trip was somewhat of an exception. I was invited to a 2-week residency at a lovely school in Hanoi. Ordinarily, I would be excited at this opportunity to visit Vietnam for the first time. However, the trip was on the heels of several other long international sojourns. In the previous few months, I'd been invited to Basel, Prague, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, and...
21 days ago • 5 min read
At various points in my drawing life, I’ve had a yen to dial the world back to black and white. I watch old movies on the Criterion channel and TCM — I'm sated by the sumptuous black-and-white of the recent production of Ripley. I fill my pages with black line drawings, cross-hatching, and stipples. Occasionally, I’ll allow myself a lick of Sumi ink or a grey brush marker to add some tone. And then one day, I wake up, ravenous for color. My sketchbook becomes a fruit salad of pomegranates and...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader: Sometimes, I have a tool, but I just don’t know what to do with it. For instance, I have a friend who swears by pocket brush pens and exclusively draws and writes with one. Infected by her enthusiasm, I picked one up and was horrified by the results. In my hand, it was hard to control, crude, an ink-soaked bludgeon. Years later, I tried it again. Maybe it was the paper, the subject, or just the fact that I had changed with age, but I fell in love with it and now swear by my brush...
28 days ago • 4 min read
Two weeks ago, I shared my own reasons for making art and writing essays. Being specific about this turned out to be a complicated business with a range of answers, but it has been helpful to puzzle it out. Knowing more about why I need to make stuff whenever I can has helped me make the best use of my time and energy and to feel better about making art. I now have clarity on the difference between inspiration and distraction. I know when to feel free to play and when I need to be focused and...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read