Two Cholos

El Varrio Little Town, Vickies Town, Varrio Horseshoe, Etc. I would see the names of these notorious gangs on the fences and walls in my neighborhood as a kid in San Jose, California. I lived in a neighborhood called Seven Trees and for the most part was a peaceful place. My memory of the way the older dudes used to dress and hang out by the liquor store across the street from my house inspired me to draw this little vignette.

Meyer Lemons Madness

Of course most of you know I used to work for Chez Panisse and I like cooking as much as I like making art. Here’s a drawing exercise while I am working on some illustration work for a new farmers market opening in the Uptown District of Oakland, California. These are Meyer Lemons. They are the source of acidity for many of the foods we would make when I lived in Oakland because these little fruit grow just about everywhere and practically all year there. I find these in the markets here in New York but never quite as good as when you can pick them off of your own tree in your garden.

Here’s a Meyer Lemon Tart recipe from the New York Times:

Meyer Lemon Tart

TOTAL TIME

1 hour (plus 1 hour for chilling the dough)

Ingredients

• 13 1/2 ounces (3 sticks plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing pan
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 8 large egg yolks
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 12 ounces (about 2 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 pound (5 or 6) Meyer lemons
• 5 large eggs

Preparation

1.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together 8 ounces softened butter (2 sticks) and 1/2 cup sugar. Add 1 egg yolk and the milk, and beat to combine. In a medium bowl, combine the flour with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture, stirring until completely blended. Gather dough into two balls. Freeze one for future use, chill the other for at least 1 hour.

2.

Heavily butter a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a circle 1/8-inch thick. Transfer to the tart pan, press into the pan and trim the edges. Prick the bottom with a fork, and place the shell in the freezer for 30 minutes.

3.

While shell is in freezer, prepare lemon curd: grate zest of lemons. Squeeze lemons to extract 1 cup of juice. In a medium nonreactive saucepan, combine juice and zest. Add remaining 1 cup sugar, remaining 5 1/2 ounces butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Place over medium heat, stirring once or twice, until sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted.

4.

In bowl of a mixer, combine eggs and remaining 7 egg yolks until blended. Slowly add hot lemon mixture to eggs until blended. Return mixture to saucepan, and place over low heat. Whisk constantly until mixture thickens to a pudding like consistency; do not allow it to boil. Remove from heat, and continue to stir to stop the cooking. Strain lemon curd into a bowl. Adjust sugar to taste; the curd should be tart, but may need additional sugar if the lemons were unripe. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it right against the surface of the curd. Allow to cool.

5.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove tart shell from freezer, and bake until lightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Spoon lemon curd into tart shell, and smooth the top. Bake until filling has puffed around the edges, about 30 minutes. Cover edges with foil, if necessary, to prevent over-browning. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Mukhamet Shayakhmetov and Comic Books

As I’ve been working on this comic book I took the time out to make a little illustration from a book I came across called “The Silent Steppe” written by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov. It’s described “the story of a Kazakhs nomad under Stalin”. I really liked the historical photographs of the life and times of the writer. Here’s a drawing I made from one of the photos of the author (standing) and his friend in 1938. I love the clothing, the body language and the boots! My goal for the end of the year, hopefully by the fall I will get a chance to start in on a comic book that takes place in Kazakhstan. This summer I hope to do a bunch of research so I can make the comic look and feel like Kazakhstan.  For now we have this image to think about how it may look.

Comic Book in the Works

I have been working on this comic book for a good part of the winter now. Most of the work has been to research the story and to learn how to make an actual comic book since this will be my first time ever making one. It’s been a steep learning curveand it’s been a wonderful challenge to make this book. The book is about the childhood of my father growing up on a Spanish Colony in Northern Colorado in the 1950′s. I’m also making the book more than a biography, it’s also a mystery with some adventure, a bit of history and mysticism that takes you back all the way to the time of Spanish Explorer Hernan Cortez and the fall of the Aztec Empire.

You can see the blog for the comic book project here: http://artpologistblog.wordpress.com/

Silvio Rodriguez

Tug and Smoke

 

I think I can do nautical paintings for the rest of my life.

 

1953 Mercury

 

The Tropic

Here’s a vector drawing I made of some graffiti letters. Living in New York you get to see so much great graffiti here. In my earlier years I spent a lot of time painting graffiti. I learned a lot about design and color during those years. One of the amazing aspects of working as a graffiti writer was that it created strong relationships with other artists who were painting graffiti. In the days that I painted graffiti the internet as we know it had not become what it is today. We relied on word of mouth, photos, and eventually magazines to find out what other graffiti artists were doing across the country. I’m happy to say that I was a part of this culture in my early  years. I learned more about art painting with a spray can  and hanging out with my fellow crew members over the years than I did in art school.

Tug and Barge II

In between entertaining my parents I rendered this tugboat. I’m not sure what is on this barge but it looks important. From what I can figure is that it  needs to be powered by motors.  Regardless of this I love nautical machines.

Tug and Barge on the Hudson

My parents have been visiting New York from California for the holidays. High on my mother’s list of sights is the Statue of Liberty. Instead of paying the money to visit the island we decided to take the Staten Island Ferry  past Liberty Island. I spotted many boats and barges working along the river. This one was carrying garbage. I’ve been wanting to make a watercolor of one of these boats on the waterfront. When I do I’ll post it. I haven’t quite caught a good enough photo along the waterfront here in New York worthy of a watercolor. The photos I took this day were under a lot of cloud cover so I made this vector image. I did find this lovely blog called Bowsprite on New York nautical culture. It’s absolutely the best blog! The artwork is superb!