About a week ago, a Sunday night, I went to a Dr. Sketchy drawing session that took place at a location called the California Institute of Abnormalarts. The environment was half circus half X-Files.To say this place was strange would be an under statement. But no doubt, this was the best hands down drawing group I've ever attended on either coast!
The highlight of the evening was the half woman, half robot model. From the waist down she was flesh and bones. But from the waist up she was robotic. Even I had to do a double take at first, lowering my glasses as if my eyes were playing tricks on me. That was a fun evening and I plan on doing again when they have their next meeting there.
I thought I'd share some of the drawings I did there as well as some of the ones I've been doing at the Art Directors Guild drawing sessions. I think my drawing has improved tremendously since I started going to these classes.
Aside from the drawings sessions, I've been working on some personal artworks as well as shooting some You Tube material with some former co-workers. With all this newly found free time, I thought It would be fun to go around L.A. and interact with the people. I will be posting a lot of funny and strange stuff soon.
So far I seem to have manage to keep myself busy though it's only been three weeks since the official end of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. And though none of this busyness is for pay, it's better than sitting around staring at the walls.
Often, people have been asking me now that Conan is off the air what are my plans, am I going back east. Well, on any given day my answer to that has changed. The one thing that has remain consistence for me is that I came out here to work with Conan. You take him out of the equation, what's left I don't know. Though, in the last few weeks I've started meeting some really cool people out here.
So I guess what I am saying is that it's all up in the air at this point. I am really hoping Conan gets an offer and that it will include my working with him again soon.
In the meantime let me know what you think of my artworks.
I know this is late but Happy New Year to all.
As many of you are probably aware, Conan is about to do his last Tonight Show tomorrow, Friday January 22, 2010. What a way to start the year. Spent a lot of money and went through all sort of stress and health issues with relocating to LA and seven months later to be told it's over!
To say all around work people are depress is putting it mildly. Working with Conan for 17+ years has been incredible. It's the reason so many of us committed to coming out here to continue with him. We gave up a lot financially and emotionally getting here. And in the end life takes a bite out of us.
But you know what, maybe I'm crazy or it just hasn't really sinked in. I am worried but I don't feel any depression or end of my life emotions yet. While all this drama was taking place here in LA. An even bigger drama was taking place in another part of the world and it has effected my family directly.
You see while I was in my office and then in my apartment wondering about my future, I have family members being force to sleep out doors because their homes became unsafe to live in due to an act of nature, God, or just bad luck, an earth quake shook their land. Last I heard we made out great compared to other families. Only one family member died... So far.
Life is funky that way. I have fate in Conan and I believe he will do everything in his power to get back on the air and get us all working again in a few months. In the mean time I have an apartment, in which I have the heat on right now cause it's really cold outside. Meanwhile, I have a bunch of relatives sleeping in the cold out doors that I can't directly help cause there isn't a system in place yet to allow me or anyone to do so.
Tons of money is being collected by everyone, everywhere to help Haiti. In the end if they see 10% of all these millions raised, I think they will be lucky. It's too bad Conan isn't running things. Like he's doing for us staff members, I would have more fate that the moines would actually reach the people who need it.
As for me, if my biggest problem at the moment is worrying about my next pay check, things aren't so bad yet... I think.
HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO IS TRYING TO HELP HAITI and ITS PEOPLE!
I am so happy tonight. I'd celebrate but there's so many things I have to take care of tonight before I go to sleep.
So what has cause this great mood tonight. Well, after 4 and a half years I finally finished a new dot art piece. And even as I was wrapping this one up I had ideas for other images which I will start work on shortly. Tonight I found a part of me that I felt was lost.
I credit getting this new start on doing my artwork on my coming out to LA and having someone really special in my life right now who's been giving me encouragement to get it done.
As soon as I have time I will post it. I can't wait to start the next image!
It's been a while since I've blogged about anything. Life is still strange out here in L.A. But I am slowly making it work for me. I've met a number of cool fans and they all ask the same question, will we ever see a Recliner Of Rage again. My answer is, "I don't know". I hope soon. They were fun to do and I do have a lot of topics to go into since moving out here.
Mentioning topics, there has been something that's bugging me. So I thought I'd share it here. This is raw and un polished like most recliner topics that aired. But it's something I care enough about that it has gotten me to post a new blog.
O'k, here goes...
Because of my past experience with Direct TV I've decided not to get cable service any more. Instead, I now watch DVDs. And since I have a decent size library to choose from, I never feel like I am missing anything.
When I heard about the new Stargate series though I thought I might need to change my stand on getting service. But that has now quickly faded. A few weeks ago I was one of the many who sat through that 2 hour commercial that they called SGU. I say 2 hour commercial cause every 8 to 9 minutes they broke for a 3 to 5 minute commercial run. I saw more produce then I did series. But what little series I saw, I got that gut feeling this wasn't going anywhere fast.
So today, during my lunch break, I turned on the Sci-Fi, no wait, the SyFy channel, and there's these teen girls in a club arguing about some boy and I think to myself, this must be one of those crappy, low budget Saturday evening SyFy movies they are repeating during the weekday. Since I was eating I didn't want to touch the remote so I watched a little more. I must of stepped away for water but when I came back there were two people having sex. Usually that the cue that someone is about to get killed. Imagine my surprise when a few scene later I see a Stargate. This freakin' thing I've been watching was Stargate.
Is someone on crack?
What the hell happened to Stargate? How did a great series that ran for 10 years go from SG1 and Atlantis to this?! I'm looking at a F'd up Battlestar Galactica remake with a stargate prop. I knew they said it not your old Stargate but really... What is this?
Someone needs to send these guys box sets of both shows cause it's obvious who ever created this show has never seen an episode of the classic stuff.
All I can say is thank you Amanda Tapping for staying true to Sci-Fi fans and giving us something worth watching in Sanctuary. It has action, adventure, funny and most important, it's different.
SGU... are they kidding?!
And on that note I am now going to go watch some "REAL", classic SG1 action on DVD!
So just when I started seeing the dark side of the world suddenly I had a week like the one that just past. First off, I really have to thank Howard Shum. Not only is he a great artist but a great person as well. His friendship during this adjustment to moving to Los Angeles has been extremely appreciated.
Thanks to him, I was introduced to the Drink and Draw group out here. An incredible group of artists and non artists all sharing one common thing, creativity. Since I started attending their gatherings, a fire was lit in me, a drive thats been sleeping for the last few years.
After not doing any dot artworks for over 8 years, this past weekend I did a portrait. I actually filled some of my Koh-I-Noor pens with ink, put on some of my Howard Stern tapes from 1998 and created art. It's a simple image but a huge start for me. To actually be excited about creating art again, what a great feeling!
But the weekend was just part of this fantastic week. Tuesday I went to a drawing class, no instructor. This was about the 3rd time attending this class. There was a model doing various poses.
Wednesday was Drink and Draw. Spoke with a couple of really interesting artist there.
Then there was Thursday. I went and discovered downtown LA Art Walk, thanks to someone name Vanessa who works at the Martin Lawrence Gallery in City Walk. She had mentioned this one time per month event to me a couple of times in the past but I kept missing it.
This month I made it... And all I can say is WOW! Approximately 39 galleries open all night showing all kind of artworks. I've never seen anything like this. The only thing more impressive than the number of galleries taking part in this is the crowd of people. It was one big party of people appreciating art and socializing. And my luck, I was there with two very knowledgeable people on art. Talk about an evening of discovering and learning.
And to wrap up the week, Friday. After work I attended a 4 hour drawing class. 3 models dressed in Hawaiian outfits, with music, and food. I've never gone to a class that went on till midnight. This was a lot of fun.
Hand down this has been the best week I've had since moving out here to LA. I feel so connected to art right now. This was what I felt was missing for me back in New York. Back there it was an occasional hit and miss. Out here, creativity is everywhere. And I am taking it all in like a sponge.
But if all this incredible exposure to creativity and art wasn't enough to put me in an amazing state of mind, I encountered Susie Wednesday night. A really cute girl who happened to be a fan of Late Night and the Tonight Show. I met her on the way home from Drink and Draw on Sunset Blvd. Some light flirting went on. And while taking a picture together, my butt cheek was squeezed. This cute, hot girl squeezed my butt cheek! She made my night.
I can only wish that everywhere I went in LA a different girl would come up to me and take a squeeze while we take a picture. What a life that would be. But that fantasy aside, being able to draw every week and be exposed to this much art is just what I needed. And I know there is so much more to to discover here.
I've included some of my drawings from this week and a few from previous weeks.
What a great week!
