CITY HOUSES: Portland Oregon

Well, I set my task two months ago: NEW DRAWINGS for SPRING, to be revealed in Late April. Time flies when you are working hard and having fun. Today is my last chance at Late April. So I will introduce the new drawings, a little at a time over the next week or so.

Beginning with the CITY HOUSES Series.

(I think I called these "Streetscapes:5 new images" in my initial goal list. Things evolved.)
I love to find the quintessential house type that seems to characterize a city. I am so interested in drawing them to see the similar language they speak, in forms, material and detail - and the individual features that make each unique. I also appreciate the urban context which gives form to these houses; In this case, the Green Yards and abundant Large Trees in many varieties.
When I visited Portland last summer, I got pretty excited about all the Bungalows.

bottom left is Shelley + Mitch's house!

Savannah on npr

Just in case you are interested to know what npr listeners learn about Savannah:
(and wouldn't mind listening to archives while the fund drive is going on...)

What We Don't Know About Sherman's March

Georgia's 'Geechee' Culture Braces for Change

Better Design for Low-Cost Homes

Area Mourns Victims in Georgia Sugar Refinery Blast

For 50 Years, Nuclear Bomb Lost in Watery Grave

Uga: The University of Georgia Mascot

Justice Thomas Tells His Story

Letters: MLK Boulevards

A Hard-Working Neighbor, with Style

Raising Dogs, Fighting Dogs

A City Steps Up: Savannah Confronts Poverty

The Black Gullah Culture of the Sea Islands

'Reconstruction: The Second Civil War'

Charleston TEST Patterns

Swatches of a new Vernacular House Types + Cities Poster: I'm trying to decide which tones best characterize CHARLESTON...
Yes, somewhere between two and three. The child of Charleston Green and Antique English Blue.

LECTURE: Words + Images >>> Ideas

I attended the Michael Kimmelman lecture at SCAD's Trustees Theater tonight where the art critic spoke of his experience asking artists how they see Art, ideas and tangents from his book, The Accidental Masterpiece.

Perhaps students takes these moments for granted. I suppose I did, on occasion. The opportunity to just sit in semi-darkness and Think - not aimlessly, but about one's own ambitions, wonderings, inklings guided by the words and images of, in this case, quite a brilliant voice. To Think, to Record, and ideally, to Act on the Ideas that emerged during the Lecture. It was so indulgent, I thought.

These are some points that stuck and the images Michael Kimmelman's words and images conjured in my mind. (None of these are direct quotes nor images from Kimmelman; rather, they are the ideas conjured in my mind by his words.)


Cartier-Bresson draws at the Louvre (and lives across the street.) He shot photographs in the streets.

(I ran through the Louvre so I could take on the streets and the quays...Guilty.)


Kimmelman's college friend, Alex, a young writer lived in a small New York apartment lined with bookshelves filled with books to the max. When one book was acquired, another was thrown away. Alex's LIBRARY became his SELF-PORTRAIT. When Alex died young, his father moved the entire library in aspic to his own apartment in London.
(Self-Portrait of a City...)


The digital camera robs us of the possibility of mistakes, or accidental masterpieces, such as with double exposures.
(Accident in my darkroom: Ponte Vecchio, Firenze)


Wunderkammer: cabinets of curiosities
The artist finds beauty in ordinary objects and puts them under glass.

Children notice and find delight in ordinary things because they take the time to see them. This is also the task of the artist. The artist is, therefore, somewhat like a child.

(Beauty in the Everyday: A stranger in Paris asked me to take his photo because he was beautiful.)

Regarding the recent earthquakes in L'Aquila Italy, Kimmelman recalled a similar scene following the Umbrian earthquakes in 1998. (I was in Assissi not long after these earthquakes and witnessed the old stone chapels and cathedrals of Assissi in scaffolding. Then, it was a shock to see these iconic buildings as old as the earth were not static and were even capable of being destroyed.) Kimmelman spoke of his travel to the even smaller villages near L'Aquila whose chapels and frescoes were damaged. He was moved by the spirit of patriotism for the local village artist who was the creator of the frescoes; a spirit stronger than being Italian was this provincial pride in the Art of one's own village.

Now - to Think, Record, and Act...

Beginning 10 BLOCK East Jones

Starting from zero at Bull Street, I am now in East Jones territory, Beginning with 2 - 4 East Jones Street. Built in 1853 for Alexander Smets and attributed to another Savannah-architect-household-name, John Norris, it presently houses the Illustration Department of Savannah College of Art & Design. It was one of the first buildings I ever saw in Savannah, under the warm street lamp glow in April 2003.

Here is a 1936 HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) photo of its intricate wrought iron balcony along Bull Street which I have been able to barely gesture in my 1"=12' drawing. Perhaps I should draw it in perspective, receding.

New Muscles_RAW Material

Last Fall saw the Vintage Automobiles postcards. This Spring, it's muscle cars from the late 60s, early 70s. Here are the fresh sketches, pre-postcard.

Mansion Offices

I mentioned in a 4/8/09 post the transition of Savannah mansions into civic, institutional or office buildings throughout the mid-1900s. These photos from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) compiled after 1933 show two Savannah mansions retro-fitted as offices and businesses, revealing interesting juxtapostions like the formica lunch counter latched onto the ornate 19th-century fireplace, the Coke machine and the chandelier medallion. I like to see the sleek mid-century file cabinets and typewriters housed within the Victorian-trimmed rooms. Within the past twenty years, most of these mansions became house museums or again single-family homes, though often not a primary residence.

Library of Congress, HABS: Anderson-Leslie House, 4 West Oglethorpe

Library of Congress, HABS: Abram Minis House, 204 East Jones Street

The significant fact is that, in these cases, good buildings were preserved and made useful during the ebb and flow of economy and cultural values over the past century.