Flowers for Mommy

So in an ever relentless and seemingly unimproving exercise of love, the flowers given to my wife on holidays (namely Valentines and Mothers day) are forever recorded in a watercolour sketch. But as I amass more and more of these visual ventures I'm always confronted by my own impatience and shortcomings when it comes to watercolours. So the sentiment is always more sweet then the work, but the lessons remain both invaluable and humbling...

The best bit of it is...my kids watch me do these little labors and they now watercolour, too. Even getting a little paper snobby on me when I try to give them inferior paper. Another cool thing is, for mothers Day, my wife doesn't want me buying flowers...that doesn't mean she doesn't WANT flowers...so my boy and I go the park and pick out what ever we can that will work...not much blooming this year so we got a bunck of colorful weeds and grassy plants. Ha! the memories are often times the product of the skecth!

Airline perspectives

So I have been flying around a bit. I love to fly. Despite the thrill of leaving terra firma and soaring through clouds and looking at the scale of the earth as it diminishes as the flight rises...the extended time in one location, taking in a singular point of view, having to pass time. I don't know about you...but I can read for about 6 minutes on the plane before I'm awkwardly asleep against the window or an unsuspecting neighbor. But if I draw, I stay engaged. Looking for compositions...here are a few of a common theme.

O'Hare layover sketch

Traveling back from Dallas to Syracuse this week,  I had a flight cancelled in Chicago. This gave me an unexpected 4 hour layover. Ample time to traverse the concourses and see the many spaces that link travelers with commerce and flights. So I walked by Wolfgang Puck's restaurant and noticed they had paper atop there linen covered tables. I also saw an opportunity. Since I had the time, I chose a seat that provided a great perspective through the terminal. and so through the course of the meal this drawing was generated.

and then a quick re-peat in the sketchbook.

At the end of the meal the waitress asked if I was going to throw it away. I said it was her table and she could do with it what she'd like. I paid my tab, got up and left. When aptly lost in the many passing by I looked back and saw she had brought some staff over. She loved it and kept it. Funny how a simple sketch can connect with someone...when what they take for granted is elevated to art asking them to take inventory of their location in a new (and maybe inspiring) way.