s k e t c h b o o k

I thought the idea of being a kangaroo was just so. original.  I could receive candy and collect it in my pouch. No tacky plastic pumpkin for me!

I did not consider making the costume myself. I wanted it to be a professional job.  My mother, while talented in many ways, was not big on sewing. A classmate’s mother used a pattern to craft a sort of tawny-colored faux fur tunic. The front displayed the equivalent of an over-sized loose pocket and a giant stuffed tail with white trim on the underside hanging from the back.  I wore brown tights and a brown turtleneck underneath it.  The look was completed with a pair of ears attached to a headband. Oh, how I awaited that clear and crisp fall evening where I could bounce from door to door collecting candy in my marsupial pouch.

Central New York had other plans for that night of trick-or-treating. It rained and hailed and probably snowed and it was so cold that my mother, like any good mother would, made me wear a winter jacket while making my rounds. I was so ticked off. I could no longer easily access my pouch and people handing out candy could not recognize - and appreciate - my ensemble. One simple minded neighbor had the nerve to ask if I was a cat. The final blow was when I discovered that my tail, once full of bounce,  had been dragging in the muddy snow puddles for some time. It was, as I remember, a small tragedy.

New York City: Hold your morning cup of coffee like a champion.

New York City: Why walk one dog when you can walk four?

According to certain mythology there was a time  when humans and bears were not so different from one another.

last night w/ Hurricane Irene. We came across some baby squirrels today in the park that didn’t make it.

No hearts. No animals. Still nice.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

I’m wicked happy to be included in a beautiful show with some incredibly talented artists taking place this month at NYCoo Gallery. I entered two pieces, an etching and a monoprint, both done in Bruce Waldman’s class at SVA. Many thanks to Bruce and Miki Nagano. And thank you to everyone who came for the opening. Summertime + intimate space + many people = sauna gallery.

My parents came down from upstate !

Jonny Ruzzo, left, will be wrapping up his undergraduate studies at SVA this fall as a senior in the illustration department. (He is one of those illustrators that are rock stars before they’ve even graduated. But he’ll never admit it. He’s very modest.)

Brad Soucy has some beautiful pieces in the show completed during his first year in the  MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program at SVA.

All images are from NYCoo Gallery’s Facebook page.

Lindsay Sanwald ( below!) is an incredibly talented musician who asked me to make a T shirt design. Sales from the shirts are helping to fund the final touches on her new album, Heart & Lung, due out this summer.  Click here to take a listen, see when she is playing live, and buy a shirt to support!