April 27th, 2008

More art from Istanbul!

This comic is about a moment when I was at the Topkapi Palace a few days ago. I was takıng pictures of the beautıful tileş and when I turned around I found myself surrounded by a group of Turkish high school girls taking my picture! I guess it was because my hair was all fancy-shmancy. I turned bright red and scampered away.


This was a conversation with Alp that I found amusing. I mean, Istanbul has 1800 mosques! So 5 times a day you can hear it no matter where you are.


I was playing around with some calligraphy here usıng a wooden stylus...these are different names for Allah. (These are like the round signs in Aya Sofya)


This is a larger calligraphy drawing--it's one of the Sultan's signatures. I believe the three vertical flags represent the three continents (Asia, Africa, Europe), the writing under the flags reprent the parents of the Sultan, the broad horizontal swishes represent greatness and power, and the little symbol is that Allah is great.

April 24, 2008

This drawıng I made at the airport while waitıng for my flight to Turkey. It's about the art I made last week about springtıme in New York. Not about Turkey exactly, but ıt was a good way to waste time at the aırport bar.


I wanted to make a painting about the view from the plane of the countryside as we were flying into Turkey...the green patches of farmland in different patches of color. Here is the fırst version, but I didn't like how it turned out.


...So I cut it up and made a different version that I like a lot more. It' more quilt-ey.


Last night I climbed onto the roof of where I am staying and watched this big flock of seagulls flyıng around the turrets of the Blue Mosque. It was sorta magıcal.

April 19th, 2008

With the nice weather outside, it's like everyone has suddenly emerged from their dreary caves. In my head, I picture us all tearing down the grey winter sky to expose the hidden color underneath...like ripping open a birthday gift.



I just wanted to make something pretty with this image here! I started with some watercolor-ey tendrils inspired by the blossoming trees and then kept adding to it until it developed into this.

Oh, by the way....I'm flying to Turkey today! I'll be posting blogs on myspace while I'm over there, but I also set up a separate blog especially for the trip: lauraleeinturkey.blogspot.com

Whenever I take a trip abroad I draw a map of where I'm going in my travel journal (this is Trip #9) so here's my travel plan...one week in Istanbul and the second week in Pamukkale, Konya, and Goreme. Hooray!

April 15, 2008

Hmmm, that drawing turned out weird. Well, it's about how my body felt all sore and tenderized after working on the Foxwoods install last week. It started out on white paper but I didn't like it, so I cut it all out and put it on grey paper instead.


Most of the time when I get a concept idea I can come up with a drawing for it...but with this one I only saw it three-dimensionally. So it'll have to live in theory for now. But I can really SEE it! For example...Amanda's strand would be old beer cans. Diana's strand would be leaves and rocks. Heather's strand would be like macaroni jewelry. You get the picture...

April 12, 2008

Tonight was sadly the first chunk of free time at home I had all week to make anything, so here are the two pieces I made since I got home from work tonight...


This is what trying to make art in New York City is like. Because for me, I have to be still in order to create anything...but lately I've just been moving moving moving. I suppose that's my own fault, letting myself get carried away with all these interesting "life" things rather than simply sitting at home drawing about them.


This was last Friday night....Amanda and I were happily wandering aimlessly around the West Village and came across an old mattress put out for trash pick-up. Without a word, we both promptly ran up and leapt on it like giddy 7-year-olds. After we wore ourselves out and proceeded down the street, we could hear the next group of people discover the mattress and have the same gleeful reaction...

April 7, 2008

I love love this drawing, even though it took simply forever to draw all those little circles! It's a giant switchboard like the kind school telephone operators used to use. And it's about how sometimes I wish I could reach into peoples' heads and move some wires around. Because I'm overly helpful...or I'm a control freak...or overly sympathetic...whichever.


This was what happened the night my coat was stolen a couple weeks ago, on the way home. This guy wouldn't stop talking to me when all I wanted to do was be an anonymous New Yorker...he persisted all the way to my stop and through the tunnel and down 7th Avenue! He was being overly nice and I just couldn't take it.