Four Things

Am working away on the very big and special project I mentioned the other week. And here are the latest four drawings for it: car stereo, sweater, bike, flowers.

Artists Take Action Holiday Auction

I was way far on beyond honored to be asked to participate in Artists Take Action's one-year anniversary holiday auction, which is going on right this very minute over on their Instagram feed.

You bid live in the comments of the images of each artwork; and if you win you donate your bid straight to Americares who are doing great work to help with recovery from the hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico, and the wildfires in Northern and Southern California. We've raised over $2000 dollars so far, and the auction goes until 6:30 pm Pacific Time this evening (Friday, Dec 8th).

Here are the rock-star artists (plus me) whose work you can bid on (from left to right, top to bottom, above):

@watsonpayne
@poopingrabbit
@molly_c_meng
@alliemaykiphuth
@jenhewett
@entropyalwayswins
@mineralworkshop
@wendy_crabb
@ccerruti

I'm not going to post all their images big (though mine is at the bottom of this post as a matter of record). You have to go over to Artists Take Action to see them. Because I know once you're there you'll mostly be unable not to bid. God speed!

Color Poem #31

browsing online street fashion images
of brilliantly colored and color combined
blazers, pants suits, blouses, trousers, socks

kelly and russet
lemon and aqua
carnation and scarlet
lavender and apricot
ochre and aubergine

nothing here says oh don’t mind me I’m
just some weirdo you don’t need to worry about
here we’ve got hues saying go ahead mind go ahead worry


image source is here

Speaking at the Book Manufacturer's Institute & Catching a Glimpse of Miami

After New York I went to Miami (where you really do find coconuts just lying around on the ground!), for all of about eighteen hours, to speak at the annual conference of the Book Manufacturer's Institute. This is a professional organization of printers, paper-makers, book-binders and other folks who manufacture books. I talked with them about being an art book editor at Chronicle Books, about the powerful alchemy of the book as physical object, and about the values and creative magic it takes to achieve that alchemy. Not only were they a delightful audience, but they also put me up in the extremely swanky hotel where the conference was being held (seriously, you could have fit about five of my nyc hotel room into my Miami hotel room! see below). Before I had to hop back on a plane for home, I had an afternoon to look at some art (coming soon to an Art Friday near you) and see a tiny smidge of the city.

My Sketchbook Skool Klass!

I'm super honored to be teaching a video "kourse" on How Art Can Make You Happy with amazing online class purveyor Sketchbook Skool. You can register for it here, or watch the trailer below!

Half a Dozen Things

Back at the start of the Fall I took a one-week-long mini-sabbatical to work on my writing and drawings. Here are a few of the things I made then: F-Car, colored tights, kitchen knives, Saltwater sandals, coffee, spoons.

The Studio Museum

I'm realizing it will take me a number of weeks to get through the art I saw in NYC. And that is just fine. First up, the Studio Museum In Harlem. What a great museum this was. The current show that most captured my heart was “Fictions”--a new iteration of a series of shows the museum has done, celebrating emerging Black artists with work around a particular theme always beginning with the letter “F” (so past shows have been “Freestyle” “Frequency” “Flow” and “Fore”)--I loved it.

My favorites were the two pieces, above and below, by Amy Sherald.

Coming in a close second favorite were these next four pieces, by Deborah Roberts:

Krista Clark

Texas Isaiah

Allison Janae Hamilton

Christina Quarles

Jazmin Urrea