Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I am a patient boy. I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait...

These past couple months I have spent many hours sitting in the waiting rooms of hospitals and doctors’ offices with Joannie, mostly Temple’s Foot and Ankle Institute. I can only play so much “Angry Birds” before my mind starts to turn to oatmeal. And I can’t bring any large-scale drawing projects with me, because there’s just no room for that kind of work. But I have started bringing a small Moleskine sketchbook. So in between bouts of spanking all of Joannie’s opponents in online Iphone Scrabble, I’ve been noodling around with “throw-away” drawings that don’t take too much concentration. Since January, I’ve been very gratefully gainfully employed at the University of the Arts, and also keeping part-time hours at Advance Newsmagazines. I am happy to be working, but my drawing time has definitely taken a hit. With everything around me being so regimented and work-focused lately, these waiting room visits have actually become a good time to come up for air. It’s been really nice to take this time to escape into quick and tiny sketchbook work, especially while sitting in a crowded waiting room. It’s sort of like hiding in plain sight. These moments make me remember that initial joy of drawing I had when I was four.

Anyhow, this piece was drawn in a small sketchbook while sitting at the Foot and Ankle Institute yesterday. I did it with colored Micron pens. It started out as a guy singing with a cat, but I decided to turn him into a gravedigger once I put the bowler cap on him, and the cat became a gas lantern. Please don't ask why a gravedigger would wear a tie. It seems like back in the old days, a lot of fellas wore hats and ties no matter what line of work they were in.

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