208. The week's best tiny poems
and a quick re-introduction to sneaky art.
Dear reader,
Last month, over 1000 new readers joined our community. Welcome! In this post, I will announce the winners of last week’s tiny poem contest, and re-introduce myself and my work.
The SneakyArt Post is a publication of secretly drawn art of the world. Every week, I share the latest drawings from my sketchbooks, and the best ideas from my journey as an artist and writer.
If you like having me in your inbox, help me reach more people. Tell others at parties. Be oddly persistent. Make it a whole thing. Amaze. Scare. Baffle. Stand out.
If you live in Vancouver, sign up for my new workshop this weekend at Queen Elizabeth Park. Use code [SNEAKYREADER] for a special discount.
👩🏫 This month, I am also proud to recommend a wonderful course - Sketching on Location - by Melanie Chadwick, in which I am one of the guest contributors. Use code [SNEAKY20] for a referral discount!
Who are Tiny People?
Tiny people are the countless, anonymous individuals who pass through our worlds everyday. They are the people sitting with us in the same trains, walking on the same streets, eating at the same restaurants. For a short period of time, day after day, their world intersects with ours. Even though we do not know them at all, tiny people play a very important role in our world. Tiny people populate our world, just as we populate theirs.
While there are many things to see in a tiny drawing, it is only a bunch of ink scratches on paper until it is brought to life by readers.
Writing tiny stories for tiny people is a way to give them context, meaning, character, and agency.
Last week, I invited readers to write haiku for tiny people. From dozens of wonderful poems, these are the winning entries:
Congratulations, Wendy Mazur, Feasts and Fables, Jimmy Doom and Cris. Please email me - nishant[at]sneakyartist[dot]com - with your mailing address!
But why sneaky?
I became a Sneaky Artist out of curiosity. After leaving a PhD program in Neuroscience, I was trying to become a novelist and make a new life in the US. I found myself in a new world that was at once familiar and alien. Drawing became an excuse to occupy space in it, a reason to closely observe it, and a way to better understand it. Quite accidentally, I became an artist.
“Sneaky Artist is a job title I gave myself. Turns out you’re allowed to do that kind of thing.”
- From my talk at PechaKucha Night Vancouver. [Watch]
🎙 Listen to my interview on the Science Friction podcast with Natasha Mitchell. We speak about the challenge of taking a leap of faith, and how I left an academic career to be an artist instead.
Dear reader, I would love to know how you found my work. Say hi in the comments?
A 2023 Resolution
I am giving away art this year. It is part of my conviction that everyone should own art, spurred by a deep reading of Walter Benjamin’s essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
If you appreciate the work I do, become a SneakyArt insider to help me keep doing these things.
Recently with SneakyArt Insiders, I shared 📚 all the books I have read this year, as well as 🚀 one of the last comics I made as a cartoonist.
Thank you, dear reader, for your time and attention. I am glad to have a space in your inbox.
OMG, thank you! This made my day! I'm smiling and kinda-sorta-humbly-not-really-geeking-out-a bit, lol. I should go with my impulses more often apparently. This was one of the few times I actually didn't over think something. @Nishant, keep the inspiration and drawings coming, love them!
I’m honoured to have you in my inbox, Sir.