Color Poem #30

while we wait we converse
briefly about the new fall
coat I’ve previously called
the color of yellow mustard

you say you don’t like
mustard the condiment
and so don’t want to think
of the coat which you do like
as being that color we decide
instead to call it gingko leaf
a gold we agree is a good
honest autumn color

New York Publishing

I was in New York for the very great honor of being a judge of the Society of Illustrators Annual Competition - visiting their headquarters (above) to judge over 1700 images in a single day.

While in town I met with numerous agents, a bunch of my authors, exciting new prospective talent, and industry pals. I also visited heaps of bookstores and other retailers. Here are just a handful of the publishing-related highlights --

I met my author William Wegman and his dogs Flo and Topper,

signed shelf stock of my book at Rizzoli with Iggy Pop's very own silver sharpie,

visited the brand new Chronicle Books New York office, which has this sweet view,

visited the I, Too Arts Collective, housed in Langston Hughes' Harlem brownstone (that's his very own piano in the parlor, and better yet his very own typewriter on the mantelpiece),

visited one of my favorite retail stores on this earth, CW Pencil Enterprise

rescued the wet and somewhat unsuccessful day of the trip (there's always one) with a visit to the Strand,

did editor power poses, at the insistence of my author and pal Julia Rothman, in a restaurant built inside a bank vault and frequented by stock brokers. 

New York, New York

After Santa Fe, I dashed home for Halloween (about which more in due course) then jetted off again for a work trip to NYC. Of course I have much to report this week regarding the publishing things I did there and the art I saw there. But for now, a collection of images of the inspiring side of the city. The bits that made me ooh and ah and smile.

Poppy-Seed Bagel with Cream Cheese

Drew a bagel, drew a bagel, drew a bagel just now. Just now I drew a bagel, drew a bagel just now.

Art in Santa Fe

Ok, get ready, this is an epic-ly long post, but I swear to god it is full of solid gold throughout. Here are the three art things I saw in Santa Fe:

1) The exquisitely beautiful Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

2) Artist collective Meow Wolf's "House of Eternal Return" installation - the trippiest most amazing psychedelic fun house of 70 different artist-created rooms with no set path for exploring them that you are ever going to find on this earth.

3) The Girard Collection at the Museum of International Folk Art - an enormous assembly of things and figures from all over the world, all with so much personality you fully believe they have vast interpersonal dramas brewing among themselves.

Ready to be amazed by art? Here we go!