#9 - Introducing the SneakyArt Podcast!
Last week, I shared some sketches of the magnificent Chicago skyline. In this post, I want to share a unique set of #WFH sketches, a #SneakyArt review of the past month, and an exciting new venture!
ANNOUNCEMENT!
Earlier this week, I launched the SneakyArt Podcast. In this podcast, I have deep conversations with other artists about the practice of drawing on location, also known as urban sketching.
My first conversation is with good friend and incredible artist, Paul Heaston. We speak about Paul’s education in fine art and how urban-sketching entered his life. What motivates him to draw in a pocket-size sketchbook, instead of a large canvas? The conversation winds through Paul’s influences from the worlds of art, literature and pop culture. We deliberate on what constitutes style.
Click below to listen, or use this link for Spotify. You can read a summarized transcript of the conversation here.
SneakyArt of Isolation
In March and April this year, during the first phase of COVID lockdowns, I found myself quickly running out of subjects to draw.
SneakyArt of wife-person
Following conversation threads on my neighborhood FB group, I came across the unique challenges my neighbors were facing under stay-at-home orders, with the new #wfh lifestyle. Some had young children. Many had pets. Some had little space, and some did not even have a desk. There is a fine line between work and home. But COVID had shattered that distinction and upended these lives.
I reached out to people in the group and asked for a pic of their WFH setup, in exchange for a free drawing. I thought this would be a good way to occupy myself in anxious times, and share some good feelings.
Apartments in front of ours
#WorkFromHome
SneakyArt is about finding beauty in ordinary places. And drawing WFH setups was another way to do that - to admire and appreciate Life, and the many ways we conduct the business of living. Here are some of them.
Do you know someone who persevered through WFH times in a limited space? Share this post to tell them they’re not alone!
I drew 50 #WFH drawings over 6 weeks. Each drawing was an opportunity to connect with another person and I was grateful to all of them. Some wanted a desktop wallpaper out of the drawing, while others requested a signed, fine art print to commemorate this interesting time forever.
Later in June, I spoke with ABC7 Chicago about these sketches. You can watch the clip on their IG here!
Last month in review
From the peak of summer, to cooler temperatures, here are my top three sketches of the last month…
We biked up to Lincoln Park and sat on the grass in the shade. While the wife read for an hour, I tried new ways to negotiate trees.
An old bridge on the Chicago River. Reddit tells me it was used to create the opening of the bat-cave in the Dark Knight movie.
A moment of tranquility on a day of strong winds and turbulent waters, by Montrose Beach at Lake Michigan.
Do you know these brief periods when you completely forget that we are in a pandemic? Maybe you’re speaking with someone, or watching a movie. And for a short while, you enter a world where the future is not so bleak, where it is not a pandemic and global warming and authoritarianism all at once. Instead, things are warm and fuzzy. You float, as if on a cloud. Then suddenly, mid-laugh or mid-sentence, realization hits and you come crashing down. Does this happen to you, or is it just me?
Art was made for times like these.
“Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking. Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to ‘walk about’ in a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?”
- Wassily Kandinsky, abstract artist (1910).
Thank you for your attention. I’ll see you next week.
Links:
[1] Some more WFH sketches
[2] Paul Heaston, Instagram
[3] SneakyArt, Instagram
[4] The SneakyArt Podcast, on Spotify and for your browser
[5] My interview with ABC7 Chicago, ‘Windy City Live’