Cruel humor

How do you like this, for birthday greetings?! The only way I can explain it (yes, I drew it) is that my brother and I have a longstanding the-more-insulting-the-better way of communicating sometimes, common among siblings, for those not in the know. I drew this a longggg time ago, as perhaps you can tell not only by its yellow-y-ness, and its water damage. I think the water damage should be coming from the other side of the page, to accentuate the "as you age" quality.

Henry and Hazy draw themselves as dinosaurs

Need I say more? Enjoy!

For the glove of it

Why do I keep feeling compelled to make weird animal dolls for children? When my sister told me my niece and nephew were going through a stuffed-animal-loving phase, I grabbed this book, a couple pairs of gloves, and before I'd even really given it much thought, these two weirdos were having a chat on my couch.



I kept thinking of the Bolivian women who hand-knit these alpaca gloves for a living wage as I snipped off the fingers and turned them into legs, arms, and ears.



I think the buttons for eyes are the clincher here. It's interesting how important eyes are, on dolls, illustrations, humans, etc. A thing really comes to life with the right kind of eyeball.



It was kind of hard to pack them up and ship them off. But I knew if they stuck around Beatrix would eventually find and eat them one night while I was sleeping.


Spared!

The story doesn't end here. P is going on a trip this week to see this little devil:



Whom you may remember from one of several posts like this. Once again, the book came out, the gloves came off.



And turned into him. I like his stretchy pants.



So, in other words, if you have a pair of gloves, especially ones you like very much, you might not want to wave them around when you see me. Or, conversely, if you want one of these, hand 'em over.

My two new favorite works of art

In no particular order (I love them both equally!):



Hazy was suddenly inspired to draw this one day, apparently, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be the recipient of such an ambitious and optimistic world view. Note: The dog is not only walking his human on a beautiful day, on a planet where the sun wears sunglasses (of course!), he is also simultaneously reading the paper and enjoying a hot cup of joe while he's at it. Impressive.



Yes, I asked Henry and Hazy to draw self-portraits again. How can I resist, when I'm sure to get results like this? Henry is indeed at the age where a wry smile is where it's at. Man. I miss those guys so much already, and they only left yesterday!

Halloween anticipation

This year you get a preview of what my sister has cooking. It's gonna be bananas.

Can I see your license and registration

Hazel told Brook "I look like Auntie Jocelyn with these sunglasses, take a picture and send it to her!" today. So Brook did. Thanks, B!



Apparently, I look like a highway patrolman.


Now I know why I was so drawn to this whistle at Kiosk recently. I should've bought one. Or two, so the next time I see Hazy we can go out and scribble us up some speeding tickets!

Goodnight sweet Bizzy

The green-grape obsessed, tennis-ball-loving, determined and obstinate burrower under beds Bizmark gave up the ghost on Sunday. The central air conditioning vent in the floor of the kitchen won't be the same without his long furry snout upon it. Rest in peace, Biz. We're all going to miss you so much, and already do!



Read more about this beloved canine here.

Teamwork

When Henry's friends heard he was going to be an exclamation point this year for Halloween, they decided to be the letters B, O and O, so they could all spell out

The Cardboard Queen

My crazy talented sister Brook has long been illustrating her heart out, and this week launched her new website. I've been tapping my foot waiting for this moment like the annoying little sister I am. I'm so glad it's finally here. Homey is even blogging. Congratulations, Brook!

Back in the day, she went through a serious cardboard phase. I think it started after she found a huge bunch of it around the corner from her dorm at Parson's, on 17th Street and Union Square West. Correct me if I'm wrong about this, B.

Around then we had some make art/hang out sessions in her dorm. Here are a couple evidential photographs of one such evening.



The (other) foxy blond is the lovely Julia.



I think we probably drank more cheap beer (Budweisers, shocking), smoked cigarettes, and chatted with our artsy friends than made art, but whatever. It was fun.

A few years later, Brook and I were sharing a room back at home when she was hired to do figures for the window of the old Patricia Field store. You can tell how big the figures are by comparing them to the two mannequins in the far right corner.



Those suckers were big! She got them all back when the window was taken down, and I remember often waking up with the redheaded vixen in black in the middle giving me the eyeball.



She did cardboard pieces for magazines, too, like these of Clint and Whatserface. Whatserface's hair is truly a tour de force, especially when you see it in person.



I really dug the whole era, obviously. But much like hmm, say, Picasso's Blue Period, Brook's work with heavy wood-based paper was destined to end. And you know what? This post is making me feel really old. That cardboard era was a hella long time ago!

Check out Brook's more current work at brookmeinhardt.com.

Self-portraits

When kids ask you what they should draw, a good shotgun answer is "Yourself!"



Henry did a rendition of his class picture, he said.

My drawing group hasn't been meeting as often lately so I haven't been drawing as much. A self-portrait would be a good way to keep the pencils sharpened, so to speak. If only I could get motivated!

You made the City happy

I made cards for my niece and nephew to show them how happy the City was about their recent spring break visit. (Hinted about in this previous post.) This one's Henry's:



The idea was to use Bristol paper, which is stiffer than your average sheet of paper, so I could carve a window in the front (above, for Henry's card) that would show the grey city outside, and then you'd open it up to see the colorful city inside (below).



Here's the front of Hazy's card:



And the inside:

(It was supposed to be more obvious the building is smiling, but that was before I plastered it with Hello Kitty stickers.)



They got them yesterday and really dug them. Hooray!

Fashion sense

A page from Nina Chakrabarti's excellent book My Wonderful World of Fashion, illustrated by my niece Hazy.

My sisters, the little version

Before I arrived on the scene, my older sisters Erica (left) and Brook (right) were supah tight buds who'd wake up early to sneak around, try on hats and jewelry, and play in cardboard boxes like a couple cats before my parents woke up.

I'd thought of me and my siblings as a crew of four for so long, it was funny when I finally realized there was actually a sliver of time when these two were on their own, before my brother and I starting harshing their mellow. (Wait. What? Earth spun on its axis and the moon and stars hung in the sky long before I was born? No way!)

Erica was obviously a burgeoning fashionista/stylist and enjoyed choosing maturity-enhancing baubles for Brook, when in fact Brook had little interest in whether her necklace matched her earrings, deriving much more amusement from her secret world takeover plans. Credit for the cool matching pajamas goes to my mom and her sewing prowess.

But see? Soon, I came along and took the p.j.'s right off their backs. As I said, harsh.

Two presents

I know: Christmas is over. Over! But I'm sorry, I can't say toodle-oo, St. Nick, until I tell you about a couple gifts I'm still strutting around, patting myself on the back over happy I got for my brother Wolf.



1. I spotted the spine of this old book on P's dad's bookshelf, and knew I had to obtain a similar copy to bestow upon my sibling. A book about the Wolfman by the Wolfman for the Wolfman. But of course.

I didn't expect him to be interested in reading it, I simply thought it imperative the spine be amongst his many shelved books. (New York's Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subways by Christopher Payne, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Wolfman by The Wolfman, etc.) But crack it he has.



2. A set of towels for his glorious new digs inscribed "Flowism." Flow is Wolf spelled backwards.

Yesssss.

They say it's your birthday...it's his birthday too, yeah

It's my (adorable, super smart, hilarious, handsome, and did I say funny?) nephew Henry's birthday today, and it has never escaped me that January 8th is also the (immensely talented, handsome, mercurial, hopelessly in love with that beanpole Iman) Thin White Duke's birthday, too.


Arrested with his buddy Iggy Pop in 1976 for pot possession

How many people can pull off looking foxy, not to mention cool and collected, in their mug shot? Sigh. It's also surprising he was busted for something as tame as weed possession, considering all the other crazy drugs he was ingesting around this time. Anyway.

Back to Henry.



I threw a finger puppet in with his presents for Xmas. Here it is on my postal scale before I shipped him off to yonder islands. Will you look at this guy? Holy zombies!



But Henry's reaction was a little.... Well, I think it's best expressed by his expression in this photo, taken last weekend when he was on a hike with his buddy Ronan.

Whassamatta kid, you put off by a loose eyeball, an exposed brain, and some dripping brain goop? Well...OK. Sorry, Henry. If I send you another such object, I will make sure its head is intact and both peepers are safely in their sockets.

In the meantime, Happy Birthday! I hope you have a lot of fun and get the loot you desire today!

Little Wolf

My brother has long been a cutie pie in every stage of his life, but he was an Extra Super Deluxe Cutie Pie back in the day. Case in point:



OMG! Look at him in his home-sewn-by-Mom tie in the garden, with blurry big wheels in the background. Gaaaa!!! Cute overload!!!

Today is his birthday. Happy day of birth, my brudder! May many cold, delicious Hefferveisens be hoisted in your honor.

The eternal question and his fiery friend

Brook sailed one out of the park and into outer space again this Halloween. As we've seen in the past, this is de rigueur for this woman. (As an aside, can you believe how much these tater tots have grown since last year? I salute all the historical aunties who came before me and coined the cheek-pinching cliche, "My, how you've grown!")



As a question mark, Henry was frequently asked what the ultimate question was. He'd answer, oh so correctly in my opinion, "It's 'Who am I?'." Burgeoning young fashionista Hazy designed her devil dress herself. Look how proud and "Step off, suckas!" she is in the photo above.



The other side of Brook's impressive craftsmanship of Hazy's Mephistophelian vision. Bwah ha ha ha.



Here they are out on the town, so you can see the three-dimensionality of Henry's costume. I love that little girl in the background who looks like she's confused over whether Hazy's wearing a costume or not. "Maybe little girl devils are REAL!"

Fear! Architecture! Oysters! Family! Alpacas!

Walking and driving around Seattle for a couple days was really fun.



I'm particularly envious of the aforementioned Seattle library designed by Rem Koolhaas. You can take the elevator to the highest floor of the building, the 10th, and walk down in a spiral, noticing how on each floor people are enjoying the space: reading, hanging out, listening to their headphones. One guy was working on a compelling-looking needlepoint art project. Somewhere around the 5th floor the stairway turns into a super saturated, bright red realm that's like a big open mouth. Kids who grow up using this library are going to remember this aspect of it, boy!



Here I am wondering why more architecture isn't as fun, inventive, and useful as Rem Koolhaas'.



Then we took off for the island to visit my sister and the kids. We brought them all presents, including some Japanese eraser characters with removable heads. Don't these guys look like I stopped them in the middle of their adventure so I could take their picture?



From what I could tell, Hazy is always in the midst of an art project. She created this mixed media masterpiece one afternoon while we were there.



We also visited some recently shaved alpacas one afternoon. Alpacas just throw themselves on the ground and fall asleep in a heap, like the one there in the middle ground.



For most of the visit we stayed at a hippie-zen-yoga-hot tubby resort on a gorgeous waterfront location. It felt, in a great way, like summer camp for grownups. A music festival was going on during the last 2 days of our visit and all these music lovers from Seattle (a place teeming with music lovers) showed up and pitched tents on the grass in front of our cabin and in the woods around us.



We sat on our porch and I squeezed (3 small drops on each!) lemon on the 500th big batch of oysters P had just shucked for us. I probably don't need to tell you oysters are where it's at.

Hooray for getting out of town!