August 26, 2007

That drawing is about my best friend Heather back in Virginia. I’m so thankful she’s only a phone call away…and that she doesn’t mind being my emotional handkerchief sometimes.





This drawing is about holding someone else’s heart in my hands. It terrifies me. Especially, when I have the feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’m going to drop it…especially when I do drop it…especially when I want to apologize but I know that mere words don’t carry any meaning...



So, this year I’ve drawn a lot about being alone. Which is a subject that I’m really tired of, and I’m desperately desperately trying not to let myself get worn down by it. Anyway, this drawing is about one of those nights (For me, Friday night.) when you feel so alone that you’re just curled up and holding yourself pretending that your arms belong to someone else. A flimsy sort of comfort I guess. Anyway...

August 19, 2007

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This gouache painting here shows the view from my window here in Chelsea. In the morning I love how the sunlight hits that blue building and its orange awning--it's a color combination that I'm quite partial to.



This comic is about the unpredictability of my metaphotrical temperature. Because I know that I can switch from running hot to cold in a manner that is far from logical. So is this comic a confession? A warning? An apology? Hmph. Ask again later.

Auqust 5-16, 2007

This drawing was inspired by a scene on the subway when I noticed all these guys writing on their palm pilots, but between them was another guy who was drawing in this tiny little sketchbook with a normal pencil. I loved the contrast! (After much mental debate over coloring in just the guy in the center or not, I decided to leave it a more understated black and white)



Here was the first version of that drawing that I did...in a completely different style!



This next drawing I made specifically so I could donate to this breast cancer awareness/ fundraiser event back in C-Ville next month. I did it in the same style of the My African Eyes piece a while back, because that technique was a happy accident that I wanted to exlore further anyway. I figured that a nude would be a good subject matter if we're advocating breast health, right?



In this drawing all my friends are in picture frames, because none of my close friends live in New York. Which kinda sucks. But it seems normal that over the years people move around and your friends just end up in different cities than you. And this drawing also captures how I feel disconnected from people in general. (Like the drawing I did where I'm with the painting in the Met...)



One thing I love about living in New York is walking by all the little corner markets that sell fresh flowers. And I can smell the lilies as I pass by. Ahhhhhh...lilies. So I started by drawing out a real lily, and then I started exaggerating the colors and elongating various parts.



That drawing was in-spire-d (groan) by my visit yesterday to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. My friend John (appropriate name) was leading a "vertical tour", which just means you climb lots and lots of stairs. I do love gothic architecture, so I thought I'd draw out abstract-quasi-sand-castle interpretation.

July 26-Aug 1 2007

This first drawing is a comic strip about small dogs. Which is trend that is unavoidable here in New York...



I bought this cup earlier, intentionally broke it in the edge of my desk, and taped it together so I could draw it here. It's, um, a portrait of sorts. But not of me. It's metaphorical. And stuff...



This drawing is of me at my part time job, it's an office job at Puccio marble over in Williamsburg. It allows my mind to daydream--so while I'm physically typing or making phone calls I'm really playing records, doodling, or holding imagined conversations in my head. I initially made that background of this piece weeks ago when I painted that green/ coral torn collage (in my "Juicy" blog). That collage made a big painty mess on my desk, which I thought looked cool so I took a fresh piece of paper and blotted it on top, hence making the background you see above.



So, yeah. I tend not to blatently draw about guys and I keep such things to myself, but...sometimes my situations just make me laugh. And I already know what I want to draw about in a follow up strip to this one here, but for some reason I feel like it's only acceptable subject matter after a suitable grace period. So, gimmie a few weeks and you'll see this topic come up again. Hmmm, guys are distracting...



This drawing is about how some guys are only able to give a small part of themselves to a relationship. It's nothing personal against the girl, it's just how they've decided to divide themself up. (Oh, the part of the chart where the line runs into my head is the relationship part) I decided to draw it from my perspective, where I'm seeing my shadow on the screen...



Hmmm, I honestly don't like how this collage turned out. It was suppsed to be about how I've suddenly started having secrets while living here in the anonymity of NYC. Without people I know around, it's weird to keep things to myself. To have closed doors. So this paper is made of cut-out doors, all open but one. But it ended up making me think of a graveyard, like they're open tombs. That's probably because I was finishing up Harry Potter and there was a lot of death. And awesomeness.



This drawing was inspired by...a carton of cherries. Basically I bought them because I was attracted to the combination of the rich burgundy color of the cherries and the bright teal of the cardboard carton they were nestled in. So in the drawing here I played with that relationship. It was bigger, but I didn't like how it looked, so I cut half of it out and it and pasted it on black paper. Simpler.

July 17-22, 2007

I've always been a list making person. (When I was teaching I even made a self portrait out of post-it notes with my real to-do lists scribbled on them...) But I've noticed I now make mental "to think" lists now. Where I'll come up with a concept or issue I want to explore more in-depth. Cooking ideas on that stove of mine with all the backburners, you know.



It's always nice to go visit the bathroom at a bar and come back with a drawing idea! All the women in there were talking on their cell phones. I smiled to myself as I slipped past them...



Ahh...Union Square provides such a nice place to hang out on a Saturday night. You can sit on a bench and it's so romantic, so picturesque, so...swarming with rats!! No seriously, it's quite unsettling. (And I used the same split composition as my Grand Central Station drawing below)



This drawing was inspired by a conversation with Juliet about when you throw yourself a pity party. Oh, how it makes me laugh! (I especially love how the little panda has made a puddle on the table from his black tears...) How could you even think of feeling sad when looking at this picture? Hooray for making sad things silly...



I drew that picture in Grand Central Station this weekend. It started as just the top portion of the drawing, because I ran out of room on my paper for the tops of the windows. But I love those windows, and I wanted to include them. So I added them on the very bottom since there was room there.



This drawing above started off initially as inspired by queen anne's lace, but as you can see it went in a very different direction! I was having fun playing with the unpredictably bleeding markers and watercolor paints..it makes me think of sunshowers.

July 10-12, 2007

This drawing is about wanting to just take in, drink in everything around me. (You can see the skyline in the coffee cup, right?) I got the idea walking around NYC last week, and when it to me I think I was perhaps just really thirsty. ;) The style was purely accidental, I was using watercolor pencils and didn't know what on earth to expect...


This is a drawing of the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville (it's a pedestrian mall, not a shopping mall), which I've never actually drawn before. Strange, considering how much I'm in love with the place! I was sitting outside Rapture, where you get a good view of the Paramount Theatre and Chaps ice cream. Mmmm...Chaps...



Basically, I've noticed that I don't remember my dreams anymore. I used to, back when I had trouble sleeping. (But now I thankfully sleep deeply and soundly...) It's as if I now pluck out all my dreams during my waking hours to enjoy them then, like I'm reclaiming all my dreams from my subcounscious. And by the time I go to sleep at night there's nothing left for my imagination to entertain, I'm tapped out. My mind is a peaceful empty field. Does that make sense? I hope so, because I'm proud of it.



So the other night at Madame Tussauds I was closing, and my about 9pm it got really quiet. So I started drawing with ballpoint pens on the back of restock forms. I know, I'm a bad employee. But actually tomorrow is my last day there, so I guess I feel like I can come clean now. (Yeah, I put in my 2 weeks notice a while back...I'll explain next week when I start the new part time job...) Anyway, here is my view from my post upstairs when I work at "Opening Night," so those are wax figures of Elle McPherson and Elton John there in the foreground. Then Robin Williams, Barbara Walters, Ivanka Trump, and Teri Hatcher are also in the background...



On another backside I drew this one...about the same path I'd walk around and around the room. If you're ever had a job where you pace around, I think you'll appreciate this on



Then I turned it into a bigger version on real drawing paper...



About this drawing...Well, normally I come up with a concept I want to express first and then the image comes second. But this image just popped into my head before I knew what I was trying to say. So for once I'm not sure, it's fuzzy...I just had to draw it out. But I guess I feeling immobilized, stopped in my tracks. I'm letting myself feel things more lately and feeling vunerable in general. My heart is going in so many directions it feels almost at a standstill sometimes.

June 27-July 05, 2007

This simple collage was the result of painting and chopping and tearing up sheets and sheets of paper in an effort to create something beautifully comlex. And instead...I ended up with an extremely simple collage out of all the scraps. Go figure! Originally it was going to be more of a weaving like the one I posted below. (Which I still like, even though it looks like a design-class project) It's just about different elements coming together to create something beautiful and new...



The text says it all. And yeah, I was thinking of Shel Silverstein a bit while making it.



The drawing above is about how lately it's like I've developed these x-ray eyes. (This sounds strange when I try to explain it, but I will anyway!) It's like I can see through everything, illuminating to me what is real versus what is a projection. What matters versus what doesn't matter. But...sometimes these see-through glasses have a different effect and they simply reaffirm how fleeting and temporary and pointless everything is. My mood is what determines how I perceive these things. Anyway, here's the next drawing...



This watercolor is about possibility...hope...anticipation. Because sometimes knowing that the possibility exists brings as much joy as the thing itself. And sometimes I forget how important it is to have a bit of hope sitting there on my shelf. And...oh, crap! I just realized that I forgot to draw in the keyhole in the door! Oops, guess I'll go fix that...



Here's a quiet simple drawing that I personally reallly like. It expresses my desire to set down roots and attachments...somewhere. This theme has been coming up a lot recently! It's like I'm dripping anchors...



This little cartoon is about my first platform shoes experience. I found them on a clearance rack and wore them for the first time last week. I walked out of the house feeling so cool, and wearing them made me feel like this tall gazelle...or a deer...or a fawn...you get the picture. So while I was walking and smiling to myself...I completely tripped and fell on my face on the 6th Avenue sidewalk amid the rush hour commute. And I was snapped back to being Laura Lee again.

June 15-23, 2007

Yesterday I went to the Rubin Museum of Art, which is a jewel of a museum that features art of the Himalayas. (And is just 3 blocks away from where I live!) I soaked up some good reminders from the art concerning compassion and impermanence. But I particularly loved the style in which clouds are drawn, so I tried my hand at it in the watercolor pencil drawing below...



So I was in quite a "blehh" mood the past couple weeks, but thankfully I'm back to my chipper self again. I just fall apart sometimes and have to wallow in it for a spell before I want to put myself back together. It's like...legos. Part of the experience of legos is putting them all back together after you had taken it apart. It's like this constant cycle of breaking down and reconstruction...


I am just in love with this drawing...looking at it just puts me at ease. I got the idea one night while sitting out on the ledge by my fire escape and watching all the happenings below. I guess it was initially rooted in sadness, but by the end it became something beautiful.



When this image popped into my head, it was like having a one of those dreams that reveals some subconscious thought that you would normally avoid or refuse to entertain. Basically I saw that little white flag being raised on my internal flagpole and thought, "Oh, no! I can't be giving up!" I felt betrayed somehow, but it undeniably spoke a truth. This week I have been feeling down, and part of me has thrown up its hands in dismay. But I know I'll get back on my feet, I always do. Luckily my conscious always likes a good fight.



In the same vein of the white flag drawing, this next cartoon is about wanting to give up. But specifically concerning relationships...and, I don't want to talk about that here. Basically, I pictured this scene below and it made me laugh. So here you go!



This next drawing is about getting myself ready in the morning (or evening) to go out into the thick of things. I'm tying everything in, all nice and secure...



This was a fun collage to make--it's made of different patterns of paper but then I went in with colored pencil to add some more dimension. It's of a bird flying over the ocean---but to me it has a much more melancholy association. (Melancholy? Oh, my...) It represents how I feel like basically I don't have anywhere to land. I'm flying around and around without any prospect of landing, without any location/profession/relation where I really belong. I'm sure other people can relate to this typical notion...but if you want to just enjoy it as a pretty picture of a bird, go for it.

June 7-11, 2007

This first drawing is about my desire to develop relationships (both plutonic and romantic) with people, but then the inevitable complexity and vulnerability of the whole thing sometimes scares me. It's like that metaphor of the ocean--you know, how people are drawn to it yet they are frightened of it at the same time. So here I'm approaching the ocean...then running away...then slowly making my way closer....



This next drawing came out of a conversation with my friend Jason over the frivolity of this elaborate skywriting above Manhattan that was promoting...a new TV show. How silly and over the top! And we thought it'd be funny if the government started to control the shapes of clouds as a form of propaganda. So here is my super-cute-shape-fun-make-people-happy-cloud-machine!




I love this drawing, but I left it so abstract that it requires an explanation... Basically I finally saw Pan's Labyrinth the other day and I loved the concept of the chalk doors that magically open up for the main character Ophelia. For me, I have the same experience when I make each work of art. Because I start with a thumbnail, and then here is this hesitation before I can commit it to a larger piece of paper...because I'm scared it will not do the original idea justice. So I always convince myself to simply pull out a ruler and draw the border of the drawing on a clean sheet of paper. After that...I'm fine for some reason. So to me, that square on the blank paper is like my magic chalk door. If that makes any sense...



This drawing is about those silent conversations you have with other people on the subway. It's always funny how you can feel when someone is looking at you, but when you look up they look away. And vice versa, because I totally do the same thing. Like a nonverbal-eyeball-tennis-match. This exchange here took place Friday night at 2am...when I got off the train and looked back I caught him looking at me. So I waved. Breaking the rules.




I call this next one here Kissing Booth, keeping up with my habit of portraying kissing using silhouettes. The text coming out of my mouth in the third panel is so tiny it doesn't show up, it reads "but he's not mine..." It's tinged with negativity to me, and I'll just keep my real interpretation to myself...



This last comic here is about my persistent allergy induced nose-blowing. Ick. With all the stuff coming out of my nose I just pictured other things coming out, as though it was Mary Poppins magical bag. It made me laugh. But maybe it's just weird...it's up for debate.