If I spend this much on supplies, I must be an artist

[avram]

(This was actually Wednesday’s entry, but I held off posting it to watch The West Wing, and by 10 PM LiveJournal’s servers were stone cold dead.)

Dropped much more money than I’d expected on art stuff. Went to Pearl, got three ebony and three waterproof pencils, no prob, those are cheap, also a brass wedge-shaped sharpener, which I really didn’t need, but also wasn’t too much. And a big, cheap, spiral-bound sketchpad for roughs and brainstorming. Then I went to the Excellent Dumpling House, had my usual — curry beef stew on rice, scallion pancakes, a Coke — and five hours later I’m still full. That’s my one meal for the day. Ooof!

On a whim I stopped off at Soho Art Supply on Grand Street, and spent lots. They had Faber-Castell Goldfaber oil pastel sets pretty cheap — from $5 for a box of twelve to $11 for a box of thirty-six! This may not be as great a price as I thought; I’ve been unable to find a list price, and one British online store lists the set as costing £11.10, which is almost US$18. I was expecting something more in the vicinity of $30. I also got some small canvases pretty cheap (good quality, too; the kind with the canvas stretched all the way around and stapled on the back instead of the sides) and pre-gessoed boards. I may try fiddling with the oil pastels and some turpentine (well, Turpenoid, which I’ve got a small bottle of for some unknown reason). Anyone know how long that sort of thing takes to dry? I’m a water-media guy, so these oil-based media are a bit of a mystery to me.

Then up to Union Square, where I got a large-sized Moleskine sketchbook at A.I. Friedman; they only had the small ones at Pearl. I had forty minutes to kill before NYRSF, so I stopped in at Java & Jazz on Broadway for some coffee (turns out macciato is pretty strong stuff, and served in those little cups like espresso) and sketching. I sketched the Japanese woman above, and then a guy at long range, and was in the middle of sketching another woman when she noticed me, and we got into a conversation about Dutch influence on New York, and her travels to Russia and points east, and freelancing, and other stuff.

On the train home I saw a poster for the USA Network’s upcoming movie Rudy, about NYC’s ex-mayor Giuliani, starring James Woods and filmed in Montreal. The poster is dominated by an image of the old NYC skyline, from the south — two years ago it would have been totally unworthy of notice, practically a piece of clip-art, but now it stands out as a symbol, not just of a place, but of a place and time. A metric buttload of semiotic payoff for very little effort.

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about that last bit.

I have the NY skyline as a piece of clipart -- two pieces actually, one a line drawing and one solid black. (.uwi, perfectly scalable clipart, and idea that apparently came and went.) I have in fact used both of them for several different things -- I used the solid black one (with solid black kitten and pterodactyl and tea-cup carefully inserted to appear part of it) as a design on the wedding menu. I'll never use either of them again, indeed I'll probably never look at either of them again, those towers, on one of which I carefully balanced a cup and saucer, would have grown to fill the entire field of vision of anyone looking at it.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

You better watch those pencils, so they don't run off like the other ones. Maybe they're developing a coalition to join--The Pencil Rain!!!

Your discussion of materials is enjoyable to read, just comprehensible but nicely exotic. Makes me glad the materials needed to be a writer are not so complex (depending on whether you include the computer or not).

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Macchiato means "marked", as in, an espresso with a little milk/cream dabbed on. So in a sense, it's sort of thematically related to your art supply binge :-)

I love Pearl. I live about 2 blocks from the one in Cambridge. I usually buy more crafty things though, not hard-core paints and pencils.

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

Before I continue in my intended vein, let me acknowledge the seriousness of your comments on the NYC skyline. I know that I still twitch whenever I see pictures of the old skyline, even more so when I see pictures of, um, the skyline being amended. Indeed, I can't even look at those pictures any more.

With that said...

I'm afraid that the image that came to mind when you mentioned Rudy, the upcoming movie about NYC’s ex-mayor Giuliani, was a football stadium full of mayors rhythmically shouting "Roo-dee, Roo-dee," as an inexplicably short and stocky Giuliani stands on the sidelines, helmet in hand, waiting to be allowed into the last game of the season. Damn, now that I've written that out I see that kind of is what happened to his image.