Digitize this!

June 25, 2011 – UPDATE:  Unfortunately, the book is all out of order.  I’ve notified the sketchbook people, and hopefully they will fix it.  

It’s finally here.  My sketchbook project from last year has been digitized for all the world to see.  Lucky you.  If you want to take a gander, please click on this link:

http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/carolcocoking   Ignore the HORRID photo of me and click on the ARTWORK TAB

You will be able to see my sketchbook along with some paintings I had uploaded to the sketchbook site.   For all of you who also worked on the sketchbook project and signed up to get your book digitized, please let me know by commenting and adding your sketchbook link to the comment.   Thanks.

I HATE HGTV!

Street in Cusco, Peru – sketch

What’s HGTV you ask?  It’s a horrid channel that sucks me in and makes me waste hours and hours of time all the while incredulous at how they are able to do home makeovers for under $2,000 or how 20 somethings house hunt and every 4,000 square foot house they see isn’t big enough.

Makes me want to gag.

I live in an old building.  Ok, maybe not old by Europe’s standards, but old by US standards. Almost 100 years old. (The building, not me.) Nothing is square, plumb or level.  I have lived in the same 950 sq. ft. apartment for 22 years. One bathroom.  Small kitchen.   Me, the Husband and a large dog.  (Not the same dog.)  Change a light fixture?  Takes about 20 years and 3 tries.  One by the Husband, one by the Brother who does not read my blog and one by the Emergency Electrician who had to be called when sparks shot out of the ceiling and we tripped the circuit breaker, not just for my apartment, but for the whole building.

So how do these people on HGTV come in and redo a whole house in 3 days and under $2,000?  One of the mysteries of life I suppose.

Another mystery is will I ever get my sketchbook finished.  It’s due in less than a week and I’m not done.  Here’s a sketch I did of one of the Cusco streets with its unending steps.   I bet none of these buildings has had a makeover in hundreds of years.

Maybe I’ll wait to redo my place too.

Happy MMXI

Another year has passed.  To welcome 2011 I made my resolutions.  Lose weight.  Exercise more.  Watch TV less. Stop procrastinating.

So, as I write this, I’m eating left over lasagna & cheesecake and watching TV. Way to go, Carol!

As many of you may know, 2010 ended with a bang for us New Yorkers.  The Boxing Day Blizzard. (Which is odd, because we don’t have boxing day in the U.S.)  Snowmageddon.  The Blizzacolypse.  Whatever you called it, it was bad…and made worse by our mayor severely dropping the ball on salting and plowing.  Except of course for Times Square.  Times Square was pristine. Looked like the Sahara it was so dry.  Can’t let a little snow get in the way of tourist and entertainment dollars.

Why do people go to Times Square for New Year’s Eve?  You have to arrive 8-10 hours early to get anywhere near where the ball drops.  You’re penned in and can’t leave.  If you leave you are not allowed back in.  And the thing I’m most fixated on…how does one go to the bathroom? Are they all wearing those astronaut diapers?

Here’s a picture of a New Yorker waiting for a train.  (Some train lines stopped running for more than 2 days! Buses were stranded in the snow for a day or more. Unheard of!)

A snow covered car.  

And an inventive New Yorker on the 3 train who clearly did not own snowboots.

I have taken the opportunity of having today off to work on my sketchbook.  Of course, the due date is January 15th and I’m nowhere near done.  Perhaps I will sketch the word PROCRASTINATION and then leave the rest of the pages blank.

Here are two pages I worked on recently, a sketch of a scarf I made and a drawing of Machu Picchu:

I better stop procrastinating and get to work.  I have lots more pages to fill and very little time left.   Lucky for me there’s still lasagna and cheesecake still in the fridge!

Happy New Year to you all!

Subway Profiling and my 2011 Sketchbook…so far

I admit it.  I am a profiler.  A subway seat profiler.  When I saw this article in the NY Times, I thought, ha!  I’ve been doing that since the subway cost a buck!  (Ok, maybe even since it cost 50 cents, but I’m not admitting it.)

Here’s how it works.  You wait and wait and wait and wait for the subway and when it gets to your station there are no seats.  But you are tired and really want to sit.  SO…you look around the car and see who looks like they might be getting off at certain stops.  At this point for me, I think it’s almost instinctual.   Hmmm, that person looks like they are going to change at Atlantic Ave.  I will position myself in front of her.   Sometimes it works.  sometimes you’re screwed and you think, I really shouldn’t have worn these shoes today.

That’s the way it goes.  I just hope the person who had 12 bulbs of garlic with his dinner last night isn’t the one breathing heavily down my neck while I’m trying to hold on and read my book.

I did not get a seat on the subway this day.

The above drawings are a few I’ve done so far for the SKETCHBOOK PROJECT. I was working diligently on my sketchbook until I put it “someplace safe” when I left for Peru.  And then couldn’t it find it for weeks after I returned. Luckily it was found.  Apparently “someplace safe” means shove it into a bag in your closet.   My theme is “A day in the life.”  And now I better get crackin’!  I still have tons of pages to fill.