What a strange day I had yesterday. What a world.

First I got caught in the worst traffic ever - all the way from my place in Wantagh to my Caricature gig in Short Hills, NJ. The web said the trip would take 1 hour and 15 minutes. But it took me 5 HOURS ! From the moment I got on the parkway in Wantagh until I got over the George Washington Bridge, the traffic was so heavy that I was glad when we were able to creep along at 5-miles per hour. (Things like this remind me that I don't have to answer for myself because I'd charge a travel-fee or that I factor in 'fluff-time' between gigs.

And Bloomingdales - cross my eyes! My section at Bloomingdales had 'rap' music! At Bloomingdales! Turned out that they were testing a new line of products.

Here's a photo of my set-up. I like how I incorporated the mannequins into my setup (the blue backpack is usually hidden under a table or behind a curtain, but this time I made it look like a prop for the mannequin:

Then I was surprised. When I'd stray from doing straight faces, I actually got good responses from the fun Bloomingdales customers. Turned out that they were just nice wealthy people - WHO WERE OUT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME ! Just pleasant people who were open to having fun:

Then, tired from the long day (after not sleeping much the night before - last-minute Studio pieces with outrageous deadlines), do I go home? No. I had been invited to see the Arkhams at a bar in Brooklyn. Just a personal outing, but as usual, I occupied myself studying some ideas for Caricatures. And that meant that I ended up drawing some of the people there. In the dark bar.

Will the Fun never end?

Well, kind of. Last weekend I worked for the Montel Williams Foundation. It was an event in which people walked in the Park wearing t-shirts that said something about giving 100%.

When I arrived, I recognized the famous tv personality. He was very approachable (and busy with other people - I had to respect I had been hired to draw the guests. To do a job.) So we just passed a few words. And his Frisbee landed right near me while I was setting up. I tossed it over to him, and could have swooned when he said that I did that very well.

I wish I would have the sense to take photos of the famous people that my job brings me in contact with. This time, though, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Montel Williams in the background of one of the photos I took of my Artwork:

Actually, though, I was a litl disappointed with the pictures I drew that day. I was tired and they stationed me right in the hot sun. I got decent likenesses, but I wasn't as wild and showy as I would have liked:

I love how Art is so in the moment. Like life. The decisions that we make, the things that we do or say - all in the moment. My Artwork is always affected by my Reality.

Finally going through a pile of papers here that have been on my floor since I went to St Louis and California. (That was months ago!) I like what I was into then - gotta get back to it. Instead of focusing on Quickness - how fast can I get something that works - I was focusing on 3-dimensionality and exaggeration.

Here's a man that I saw in the airport. I drew him one time - it's good. Then I exaggerated more. More:

I also found a set of 4 pictures. The first one - the plainest, most 'realistic' one (as though a picture could be 'real' - It's just a real picture. The person is the real person!). Anyway, here it is:

Then I took a simple step at exaggerating her more:

Made the mouth area bigger, but to make it look even bigger, I decided to smallen-up the eyes/cheeks. You know, comparison. Something only looks big if it's next to something that's small:

I didn't like that one. Losing something in the likeness of the woman. I even remember her now.

It's because I made her too angular. So I had drawn her a 4th time. And this one was goooood:

At least in my opinion. In my opinion, I think that that 4th picture is the best of this group. But it depends on what you're looking for. It's been my experience that some people like to see the big exaggerations because they want to have fun. But other people prefer the first one (which is easiest for me to do) - because they want to look 'normal'. Plain. Like everybody else - where nobody has anything different (as though that was possible - how would we recognize each other??). Or they prefer the first one because that's all they're up to in their Artwork. They remember trying real hard to make a picture look realistic. And not having pursued that goal, they don't know how easy it is to simply apply the techniques - things like shading and basic face proportions.

But to people who know how to do that already, to us, it's so easy it's almost academic. So we are more interested in seeing the artist's interpretations. Sometimes deep statements, sometimes just fun because we don't honestly know the people that we're drawing.

So just for fun, I'm also posting this other picture that was in the pile:

When you stop and think about it, we see the wildest things! We all do. But we're just so accustomed to it that our eyes don't just pop out in disbelief. I mean like the drooling slobbering person who was sitting in front of me (ohnly a baby, but he is still a person). Or or when we watch a kid whine and have a tantrum. Or hide her face by squashing it in to her mother's body.

And it's not just children who do outrageous things. Lol - one day I was even talking to an immigrant (grown-up) who was working on the street with me. I knew he talked English just fine. But when I started talking about licenses, permits, taxes, etc, he literally bent down and hid his head in his balloons. Conversation over.

What a thought train this entry is turning into. The guy with the balloons - that reminded me of some pictures that my friends recently sent to me. Because they recognized my pictures on an immigrant's display on 42nd Street. (He's currently displaying old stuff that I drew years ago.) When they confronted him, he, lol, said that "if he displayed his own work, nobody would stop."

Here's a picture of him drawing beside samples that I had drawn for myself:

To Hire Alison Gelbman, the real Artist whose own pictures attract people's attention:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

Thank you Elgin. Thank you Kenly. I feel like my friends in NY know me and look out for me.