ILLUSTRATIONS
COMMUTER RAIL SKETCHES
As I write this, I am riding the TriRail, the setting for the
subjects of this series of drawings. Right now my train car smells like mildew
and peanut butter, and there is a faint odor of public restroom, made even
more fetid by the faltering air conditioner on this record Floridian hot day.
There are old newspapers dashed on the seats. There are food crumbs between
the seat cushions and pistachio shells crammed into cupholders. The windows
convulse and rattle, and a nearsighted man in a collared pinstriped shirt
with Hubble thick eyeglasses looks at me, froglike. Luggage is stowed on luggage
racks, a man yells loudly into his cell in Creole, a stout brown man man lugging
a 60's vacuum cleaner gets off at the next stop, young teenage schoolgirls
with pink cheeks get on.
There is a sort of hobo charm to taking the rail, even if you are only going
to your desk job. This is where you see the working class folks of Florida
trying to get from one point to another. We are a community of travelers on
our way to school, the office, the auto parts store, the airport, the football
game, the hospital nurse station, our mothers' house, our boyfriends', or
just some other anyplace.
TriRail is a commuter rail system that runs from north Miami to West Palm Beach. I ride this every business day, approximately 30 miles each way. This is a series of ink pen and colored pencil in Moleskine or sketchpad paper I've done over the winter of 2009, and which were used for a full color spread about Tri-Rail in the Sun Sentinel.
CONCEPTUAL DRAWINGS
Micron pens on bristol or cold-pressed water-color paper, colored pencils or Caran d'Ache are used for color.
SCRATCHBOARDS
These are drawings are done on a material called Claybord, made by a company called Amerpsand. They are essentially masonite pieces coated with a layer of white clay, then finely sprayed with black ink. You draw into them by using pointy objects you can buy, or my favorite, the Exacto.
OBSERVATIONS
Rough sketches on paper, bar napkins or Moleskines of places I've been and people I've seen.
