Grotesques from Last Night (Patreon)

Downtown LA art walk. It was a slow night. So I started off with Choir Member Tia. she sent me a photo a month ago. I started with her to practice and just kill time.

Then I got one customer. She came in and sat right down and said "I want one."

She mentioned something about doing two faces because of being a gemini or something so I just went all in on that.

I sold a few prints.

Again slow night, but...

Happy May 3rd Everybody

Last night was a slow night at the art walk. I didn't make much money.

But there was a guy who was there with his kids. His daughter was showing her work in a gallery for the first time. He was taking her around to different galleries and getting her to talk with artists. Which, honestly, coolest dad ever?

 She was 14. He asked me if it was okay if she talked to me about my art.

I put my watercolors down and said, of course.

I spent probably half an hour talking to her about being an artist and looking at her sketchbook (A physical paper sketchbook!!)

She was totally into the darker stuff too. The first drawing she showed me was a pencil drawing of the Corpse Bride and some other Tim Burton Characters. Then she showed me some of her originals, which I wish I would've gotten pictures of. There was a really good figure drawing with a girl's face turning into a cloud. There was a really good giant ghost/demon that was pulling the puppet strings of a person. A demon princess. That type of stuff.

This was the highlight of my night. I'm so used to the kids I teach not caring at all. I've become a jaded old man about kids.

There's that scene in the Godfather where Vito Correleon dies in the tomato garden symbolizing the death of an era, and his grandson continuing to play and laugh, symbolizing a new nihilistic generation coming in.

I think about that scene every time I'm around kids.

So the fact that I met one who was really in to drawing, showing her work, working in a physical sketchbook (!), and really trying to do something with her art was just what I needed to calibrate my cynicism.

Honestly I probably got more out of the exchange than she did.

I gave her one of my little sketchbooks and a bunch of stickers. She was so stoked.

I told her she's doing the exact right thing. To keep making art, keep coming out to meet other artists at shows, and that there's no way it won't work out for her if she stays on this path.

Have Fun

Goodnight Sweeties