Nick Cave-Heard

I got to sneak a view of the Nick Cave-Heard before leaving the city last week. It was an impressive display of color, costume, movement and music.

Sketching the Dance: Galloping in Grand Central - 03-30-13

On the way to Grand Central 
I saw a street musician setting up in the morning sunshine. I viewed him from across the street and the most striking thing was the shadows.

60 Alvin Ailey dancers, brought  30 ornate horse costumes to life at an incredible dance piece conducted at the Vanderbilt Hall of Grand Central Station.  Posters have been up in the subway for weeks and the Saturday performance was heavily attended.  We got there early and had prime spots for the event.  

There were lots of kids. 

You could see they were captivated by the colors and the material of the horse costumes

Sketching at the Laundromat - 03-23-13

We sketched at a mega-laundromat in Brooklyn this past Saturday.  

There was a constant flow of people coming in and out, and lots to draw.  In the afternoon we got hungry and found a great place - the Outpost Cafe.  The Outpost was what I imagine the first Starbucks might have been like before they went big-time.  Again, loads of people talking in groups or working on their laptops; - more material for sketching.

Lauren joined us for the first time

Although it was pretty cold outside the cafe's backyard had a constant flow of smokers.  

The backpack sitting next to the empty chair and table reminded me of the NYC Subway ad campaign:

If you See something - Say something

On the Subway

Other people's laundry

Last week was another great sketch date. At the Clean Rite laundr-o-mat we sketched while people did their laundry, napped, talked on their phones and waited.

It was also another opportunity to practice with pencil and liquid graphite.

At the Brooklyn Library, March 16

I could only spend an hour with the group last weekend but it was still worth the trek to Brooklyn! So many characters to draw in the cafe at the Brooklyn Library:







This young man (I think he was 10, but for some reason my sketch makes him look older) stopped to see what we were doing. He ended up taking out his notebook and sketching with us, as we all chatted about Picasso and the Guggenheim -- and then he posed for a portrait.

66th & Madison

Waiting for a legal parking spot, I had 20 minutes to kill, a ballpoint pen, and a pad of newsprint.

Sketching this Saturday March 22

All of Life happens in a Laundromat:

Sixty-one Speed Queen washers and 62 dryers gush and rumble 24 hours at the 5,000-square-foot Clean Rite at Putnam Avenue and Fulton Street.  The Clean Rite is an ad hoc theater, where people flirt, debate, gossip, argue, break up, discover love, loiter, do business and just about anything else that can be squeezed into 27-minute heavy-soil cycles.

Two blocks from the Clinton-Washington stop on the C-Train

1 Putnam Ave. (at Cambridge  Pl.), Brooklyn, NY 11238

Photos and copy from the NY Time Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/nyregion/17laundry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Call Mark if you need help finding us:   973-809-9128