Furman Street by the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) on 140lb Arches rough

Mostly I haven’t posted because I’m tired.  Really, really tired.  Physically tired. Mentally tired.   The tiredest person that ever lived.  But you know that already.

Stephen Quirke had a wonderful description of how he felt one day after being super busy, which was “interaction fatigue”.   I LOVE that phrase.   I have interaction fatigue all the time.  Just riding on the subway everyday gives me interaction fatigue.  Apparently I am not the only one.  In the Gothamist this week, they had to post yet another story about pole hogging.   HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TELL YOU PEOPLE THE SAME THING?

It’s tough when you get on the subway and there are no seats and you are 5’3″ (ok, 5’2″ but I’m not going any lower than that) and you can barely reach the bar where the straps used to be.  (Even though they still call us straphangers.)   So I try to hold onto the pole.  But when you have a pole hugger and no place else to hold on to while the subway is lurching you forward to the next stop, it can make one fatigued. Very, Very fatigued. I shared the article with Charlie, which of course was a mistake.   It got him started.  Which got me started.   After pole hogging we discussed how other things would make our list of things not to do on the subway.  Don’t pick your nose.  Don’t ride naked.  Don’t clip your fingernails (or toenails).  Don’t eat sunflower seeds and spit the hulls on the floor. And this was only what we could think of in the first two seconds.  Nowhere near a complete list.  We could go on and on. In fact, we did. (and yes, all of these things have happened to us.)

Although, I am very lucky in that I live in a somewhat decent neighborhood.  It wasn’t always nice.  We had a crack dealer a few buildings up and the weed dealers in the bodega on the corner.  Now we have crime like this: http://parkslope.patch.com/articles/police-blotter-two-crooks-steal-over-a-thousand-dollars-of-teeth-bleaching-strips.  (I’m not complaining…just saying.)

The city scene above is Furman Street by the BQE.   It’s still a work in progress.   Watercolor on 140lb Arches rough.  First time I used rough and I liked the texture.  I did this in a 2-day workshop I took with Tim Saternow whose paintings I love.  And he was a great teacher.    I think I will do a subway scene next.  But fair warning, there will be no pole-hogging in my paintings!