PORTRAIT OF ABBIE HOFFMAN

 11 1/2" x 8 1/2"  Faber-Castel brushes, Speedball super black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #3 brush in Canson sketchbook

I forgot that yesterday was his birthday (Nov 30, 1936 - April 12, 1989).  Can you imagine what he would have to say at age 80?

FORECLOSURE MACHINE

11 1/2" x 8" Pilot Precise V5 extra fine pen and watercolor in Moleskine sketchbook.
So here is Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary: Steven Mnuchin.
What's his story?
"Mnuchin’s hedge fund also played a role in the housing crisis after it scooped up the failing California bank IndyMac in 2008. Under Mnuchin’s ownership, IndyMac foreclosed on 36,000 families, particularly elderly residents trapped in reverse mortgages. People would go to Mnuchin’s home to protest outside as they were foreclosed out of their own homes. Mnuchin was accused of running a foreclosure machine. The bank, which was renamed One West, was also accused of racially discriminatory lending practices. In 2015 Mnuchin sold a bank for $3.4 billion, $1.8 billion more than he bought it for." - Amy Goodman

BILLIONAIRES BOYS CLUB

11 1/2"x 8"  Pilot Precise V5 extra fine pen, Kuretake Fude brush and watercolor in Moleskine sketchbook

Reince Priebus and Donald Trump met Mitt Romney yesterday at Jean-Georges, a 3 star Michelin restaurant at Trump's hotel.  Romney explained what he meant during the campaign when he said  “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the members of the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat.”

PORTRAIT OF JOSH BRANDT

 18" x 24" Speedball super black India ink,
Raphael 8404 # 3 brush and Faber-Castel brushes on Strathmore paper
Made this for my pal Joshua Brandt, a hard working, fun loving entrepreneur who is a devoted Yankee baseball fan. This is your Topps baseball card buddy!

BRUSH AND INK STUDY

 11 1/2" x 8 1/2"   #2 pencil, Winsor Newton Series 7 #2 brush and Speedball super black India ink in Moleskine sketchbook.  Simon and Kirby panel.

PROFESSOR CORNEL WEST

11 1/2" x 8 1/2" Fude brush and Faber-Castel brush pens in Moleskine sketchbook.

“To be a Christian - a follower of Jesus Christ - is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom.”

THE PROFESSIONAL

11 1/2" x 8 1/2" #2 pencil, Speedball crowquill pen, super black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #3 brush in Moleskine sketchbook

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” - Steven Pressfield

DREAM JOURNAL

10 1/2" x 8 1/2" #2 pencil and Faber-Castell brushes in Strathmore sketchbook
I woke up from a dream this morning and immediately started to loosely draw in my dream journal. This is important since dreams are ephemeral.
In this dream I was about 10 years old and have been caught drawing in class instead of paying attention to the teacher. The drawings were satirical renderings of various teachers and this particular teacher is not amused. He sends me down the hall to the principal's office. Dum, dee dum dum!
The principal is looking at the drawings and starts laughing so hard tears are rolling down his face as he is slapping his hand on his desk. He is beside himself, hysterical. Finally, he pulls it together and he starts the familiar lecture about how I need to fit in, to conform, to be a productive member of society, etc.
I look up at the principal and he has turned into a gorilla! He is still trying to lecture me but has to bite his tongue to try to maintain some sense of seriousness. I tell him " Too bad your Monkey's mad". Then I woke up.
The strange thing about this dream is that it is similar to a couple of incidents that happened to me in real life. I was no stranger at the principal's office, and once a principal did laugh at some funny drawings i did, then gave me "The Lecture". Of course I never talked back, promised to do better, and slid back to class.
I don't recall a time when I didn't draw, and sometimes in school I was allowed to draw something authorized in order to get extra credit to keep from receiving a failing grade. So drawing was sometimes a blessing.
I think it is obvious that the gorilla (or monkey) symbolizes that inner critic we all must defeat as we continue to stay creative.

BRUSH AND INK STUDY

 11" x 14" Speedball super black India Ink and Raphael 8404 # 3 brush in Canson sketchbook

IDIOT BOX

10" x 8"    #2 pencil, Speedball super black India ink, Raphael 8404 #3 brush and Faber-Castell Brush in Moleskine sketchbook

I've finished re-reading Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television, and with all that is going on in the world I just had to add my self portrait version of a sketch originally by R Crumb.

PORTRAIT OF SUSAN SONTAG

11" x 14" Speedball black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #2 brush in Canson sketchbook

"Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech."

JUSTIN GREEN AT THE BOARD

10" x 8"  #2 pencil and Faber-Castell brush pens in Moleskine sketchbook (from photo)

One of my favorite artists and musicians.  His pen and ink work is some of the best around.  I'm re-reading and studying his book Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary which I consider a work of genius and an absolute masterpiece.

STUDY OF CHARLES BURNS

 11" x 14"  Speedball super black India ink and Winsor Newton series 7 #2 brush in Canson sketchbook

I've been studying and copying the work of Charles Burns trying to improve the feathering technique with this sable brush.  It's slow going but I'll keep at it.

I VOTED

11" x 8/1/2" Fude brush and watercolor in Strathmore 500 Series sketchbook

STAGGER LEE

11" x 14" Speedball super black India ink, Windsor Newton series 7 #2 brush and Fude brush in Canson sketchbook

On Christmas Eve, 1895, in a St. Louis saloon, "Stag" Lee Shelton, a black pimp, shot William "Billy" Lyons. Eyewitnesses say Billy snatched Stag's Stetson hat. Boom, boom, boom, boom went Stag's forty-four. You don't mess with a man's hat.

EL JEFE

11" x 14"  Speedball super black India ink, Raphael 8404 #3 brush and Faber-Castell big brushes in Canson sketchbook

TRICK OR TREAT

11 1/2" x 8 1/2"  Fude brush, Faber-Castell brush pens and acrylic in Canson sketchbook

ROY HAYNES ON DRUMS

11" x 14" Ink, Fude brush and Faber Castell brush pens in Canson sketchbook

SELF PORTRAIT AT THE DRAWING BOARD

11" x 14"  Rapidograph black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #2 brush in Canson sketchbook

EINSTEIN

18" x 24" Acrylic on canvas Private collection

I met Einstein in a dream
Springtime on Princeton lawn grass
I kneeled down & kissed his young thumb
like a ruddy pope
his face fresh broad cheeked rosy
“I invented a universe separate,
something like a Virgin”–
“Yes, the creature gives birth to itself,”
I quoted from Mescaline
We sat down open air universal summer
to eat lunch, professors’ wives
at the Tennis Court Club,
our meeting eternal, as expected,
my gesture to kiss his fist
unexpectedly saintly
considering the Atom Bomb I didn’t mention.
-Allen Ginsberg