Twin Lakes Beach, Santa Cruz 2006
Twin Lakes Beach, Santa Cruz 2006
Ink on paper (sketchbook)
Category: Artwork
Bus downtown, Santa Cruz 2006
Bus downtown, Santa Cruz 2006
Santa Cruz is a beautiful town. It seems also to exist in its own parallel universe, slightly out of sync with everywhere else. Almost everyone is a bit eccentric. Sometimes in ways that would be an instant jail card in the rest of the US.
The bus, however. No one told me it was crazier than anywhere else. I loved the bus! This drawing is on my first trip to Capitola Mall…
Welcome to LA
No one walks in LA. I went for a walk. I actually regretted it. I hated LA the first time I went and left later that day. LAX security were assholes, the taxi driver was an asshole, the concierge at my hotel (The Biltmore!) was an asshole, the room was shit (smashed window, broken glass on the floor unmade bed with dirty sheets). I was moved into THREE different rooms (at 3am). The Biltmore lobby was beautiful, but the hotel is a fleapit! Everyone was an asshole in LA, except the day manager who booked me cheap flight THE FUCK OUT OUT OF LA, booked a taxi, and sent a bell hop to get my bags. That was the best bit – leaving LA.
I liked it a lot better the next time, thanks Novica! 🙂
75 Lark Lane
Just been sent this by a friend. It’s a drawing I did in Lark Lane, Liverpool, in a flat above Balbero’s Bakery – which is still there 21 years on.
The drawing is circa 1997. We are trying to establish when the TV (look how antiquated a Cathode Ray Tube set looks now!) was still in the central room position, to the corner later. All I remember watching on it is footie, Lars being football mad, and Father Ted. The rest of the time we played music. That’s a 12 string guitar there. I recorded some early Car Wreck Chicken songs on it. Lars says the guitar went missing in a move from Liverpool to Brighton. Hopefully someone is getting good use out of it.
Cats loved big tellys because they were warm at the back and the top (if not covered in photos – I think that’s maybe George and Ringo up there) was comfortable for cats to sit on. When did you ever see a cat sit on a flat screen LCD? The TV is propped on a washing machine drum
Everything about this drawing seems antiquated. CDs, CRT telly and massive stack sound system. Welcome to the future.
Life drawing
Just found in an old portfolio. It’s a conté crayon life drawing from classes in Liverpool. I was 19 at the time.
Sometimes you imagine your old work not being very good. I’m definitely better at drawing now, but I’m pretty proud of my 19 year old ability to proportion a human body as good as this.
I can’t remember the model’s name-apologies, this is rare for me. In the drawing breaks, she’d walk around in a floral dressing gown critiquing everyone’s work – a real character. Those weekly classes were a lot of fun.
Two girls chatting, Café Tabac, Liverpool 1994
Café Tabac. This is the old Café Tabac. Diagonal tongue and groove backed highlight strips in deep red, table tops finished in cork that was always a bit sticky. French Onion soup with a massive chunk of dried bread by way of a crouton. There’re ghosts. It was a communication hub before we had mobile phones. You popped in after a day in town (usually cold and windswept, if not always saturated with rain) and there’d be someone you know with a story to tell.
I have drawn this café and occupants a thousand times. I have probably consumed more cups of coffee here than any other café anywhere. I just found this picture in an old sketchbook. There’s more to come.
It’s been done up now. They moved the counter/bar to the other side. The walls are bit bare and there’s definitely something lacking. Not knocking the new staff, but at that time, the staff were pretty full on characters and not hiding meekly out the way behind the counter – but somehow, it sort of is still the same Tabac too.
Mother’s Day by Robert Miner
Mother’s Day by Robert Miner on Quartet Books.
My first book jacket commission (aged 5). I came home to a brand new set of Stabilo felt tips (those lovely striped tubes!) and a brief for this picture. The football is one I actually owned and the handwriting is mine too. My only disappointment with the final product was that they changed my multi-coloured lettering to red.
Proud to see it showing up on German Amazon:
http://www.amazon.de/Mothers-Day-Robert-Miner/dp/0704322277/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8