By Danny Gregory

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Recent Adventures and a New Venture

April 15, 2006

I have had several interesting drawing experiences over the past month and neglected to share them here. The first was soon after I had arrived in Los Angeles and attended a sketchcrawl arranged by the SoCal Drawing Room, a group that was initiated by Karen Winters and grew out of the Everyday Matters Yahoo! Group and has been a lot more active than anything we've managed to hold together in New York. If you live in the area, I urge you to get together with this group.
We started out in Union Station; the weather was a little unpleasant but we managed to do some drawing in the courtyard and then headed over to Olvera Street, the oldest part of LA where, wrapped in several sweaters and a cap, I found a patch of sunlight and drew the old market. We concluded by lunching on French dip sandwiches and sharing journals. It was amazing what a variety of lovely work the group members have produced and I left happy and inspired.

The following week, I visited the Drawing Club on San Fernando Rd. The Club was started in 2002 by Bob Kato who is also teaches at the Art Center in Pasadena. Bob had been giving workshops to a lot of the animators at Disney and Universal and decided to create a place where people could do life drawing and share their work. Each Thursday and one Sunday a month, a model dresses as a character and poses to a story theme. Scenes have included Jedi Knights, Borscht Belt stand up comedians, comic book heroes, divas, and the morning I attended, a boxer in training. It was an interesting scenario and during the three hour poses, I made a half dozen photos in ink and watercolor. Other artists worked in pastel, charcoal, oil, and even on their laptops. It was a blend of polished pros and complete beginners. I do love that buzz that comes from a room full of concentrating brains; time flies and suddenly you realized you are dehydrated, exhausted, and utterly satisfied and three hours have flown past.

Last Thursday, back in New York, my pal, Tom Kane told me we simply have to go to the Drawathon in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I had seen posters around for the even atnd it certainly looked, well, unique. Up to a dozen models in bizarre poses with specially composed music deep in the heart of New York's artistic hub. And the event is hard core: from 7 pm to 3 a.m. We arrived at The Flux Café on Bedford Street at 8:00 under a full moon and the room was hot, steamy and packed. The music was intense and blasting and at least fifty artists were at work and not a stool or a chair was available. Fortunately, our pal Butch had wrangled us a seat and so we fortified ourselves with Pabst Blue RIbbon and got to work. The theme of the first pose was 'Graffiti' and the models, one a buxom babe, the other a withered old man posed with spray cans. Next three three models posed with fabric straps and shrouds interpreting 'Elasticity'. At 10 PM, a model dressed as Van Gogh, complete with a red cardboard beard, painted another model in the nude, and an hour later, two women, one apparently with scoliosis, created 'Tango gestures'. At 12:30, after members of the audience were invited up to pose for various prizes, we left, sated and spent. It was one of my wilder drawing experiences, part art class, part rave, and I can't wait for the next one.

This has been a rough week for me but I appear to have survived it. One of several sickening things that happened was the total death of my trusty 17" PowerBook. Earlier in the week, it absolutely refused to start and then I discovered that, because it's three years old, my AppleCare contract has lapsed and can't be renewed. I worked on it for three days, using every bit of software and friendly advice I could assemble, but it seems like the motherboard (its second) has gone south. My old PBook helped me write two books, five hundred blog entries, dozens of articles and billions of emails, and I'm sad to see it go. But I do love this spanking new Macbook Pro and it seems to write blog entries just fine (and man, it's fast!)

Finally, I have the first Podcast ready to go. You can get it here. I urge you to subscribe and look for this symbol (probably in the news column on the left) for all future PodCasts. You can get it fed to your ipod like any other podcast (it may appear on the iTunes stores in the next few days) or just listen to it right there on the webpage.

Comments

I have just finished listening to your first podcast. It is great to hear your physical voice after experiencing so many of your other voices over the past few years. I use my iPod for audiobooks rather than the more usual music so this is a new experience that suits me well.

I find that first moment of art making - being faced with a sheet of white paper - the most scary part of the whole process. If I could be so bold, I would love to hear you speak about that moment from your perspective. Looking forward to your next podcast.

Cheers,
Robyn

Posted by: Robyn | April 15, 2006 08:31 PM

I'm glad you had a good time, Danny, and thanks for the plug. As a matter of fact, our sketchcrawl group has two upcoming get-togethers planned - one for mid May and one for early June. There's just no such thing as too much drawing, is there? And doing it with like-minded friends just sweetens the experience.

Posted by: Karen Winters | April 15, 2006 08:31 PM

The Drawathon sounds awesome-I am envious! This is when I really wish I lived closer to the city.

Posted by: Tracy Helgeson | April 15, 2006 09:01 PM

Danny,

After hearing your interview with Jennifer Louden, I wanted more - and here it is! Like Robyn, I too think it would be very interesting to hear you speak about that horrifying white page syndrome all artists seem to face at one time or another.

Susan

Posted by: Susan | April 15, 2006 10:26 PM

I'm with Susan. I didn't discover how convenient podcasts were until downloading and listening to your mp3 interview with Jennifer Louden. I really enjoyed the premiere podcast.

I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on drawing and creativity, as wells as some chats with Tom Kane, d. Price, and all your other wonderfully creative friends. Actually, I would like to hear from your son sometime. I’m in the process of introducing my young son to drawing, art, and creativity.

Posted by: Ryan | April 16, 2006 12:49 AM

Great podcast. You have a nice voice and in sharing your story, you provided some interesting insights that were well worth thinking about when it comes to one finding their own creative voice.

Posted by: kristine | April 16, 2006 11:03 PM

I know how it feels when a hard drive dies. My G4 tower did the same thing to me. I was lucky that they fixed the logic board, but now I can't rust it anymore. It's only a matter of time. I love your sketch crawl events. Quite interesting. I liked your podcast also. I am envious of your macbook pro purchase. Congrats on your new book!! I've looked forward to your posts these last few days. Been kind of bummed.

Posted by: Lainey | April 17, 2006 05:17 AM

How good are you??
Thanks very much. Great work. I've listened to it four times already. Happy Easter by the way.

Posted by: dave | April 17, 2006 07:45 PM

I really liked your podcast, Danny. I found it very soothing. It seems like you're in the process of ever-evolving discovery. If I had a podcast topic request, it would be to maybe talk about seeing, and how you're seeing something as you draw it, and the choices you make (e.g., color, style of shading, pen, paper, etc.) based on what you see. I think that's the scary part for me, I don't know how to start because I don't know how to translate what I'm seeing (yet).

Posted by: hannah | April 17, 2006 08:04 PM

I greatly enjoyed listening to your podcast. I have often thought of renting studio space, but I think the day-to-day chaos I live in at home helps me find my creative impluse. I think that, like you, i would find a whole creative space (the ultimate blank page) a little intimidating. Also, it's important to me to model to my daughter that art needs to be a part of everyday life - not something you go somewhere special to participate in. Your voice is lovely - exactly how I thought you'd sound after reading your books. I look forward to the next podcast. Kia kaha, gabriella

Posted by: gabriella | April 17, 2006 08:55 PM

Wanna RSS feed for the podcast?

Here ya go:
feed://rss.mac.com/dannygregory/
iWeb/Everyday%20Matters%20-%20the
%20Podcast/Everyday%20Matters%20
podcast%20by%20Danny%20Gregory
/rss.xml

Posted by: Danny Gregory | April 22, 2006 07:12 PM

Danny,
Love the draw-a-thon blurb and sketch! Glad you had a good time and hope to see you this Thursday.

Michael & Diana
www.michaelalanart.com

Posted by: Diana Gurfel | May 15, 2006 11:11 AM

i was the female model in the van gogh hour...

Posted by: sabrina | October 18, 2006 06:54 PM