Subway obsession on my phone.

Have to apologize for sudden stream of photos instead of drawings (I still do it, drawings, they scattered on my table, unfinished, unloved), it is really hard to get back to normal, when life is so uncertain and many things sort of lost meaning, become almost embarrassingly unimportant.
I kind off turned into eyes only, interesting feeling, when you are seeing, registering and not judging, not giving labels.
So here is about Subway.  In faux finishes world textures plays a big role, and here it is, many of them, interesting water stain on the back with blues and yellows and dirty umber, cascading green.

It is still "N" train station. Pretty amazing composition with arch, metal beam with little pipe, from this pipe water was dripping in interesting rhythm, I was trying to apply it to musical beat, that rhythm and it was so illogical, so spastic, probably very eclectic this music should be. Visually it was interesting, a bit theatrical (could make an interesting set for a movie or a play, so urban with mosaic of windows and graffiti and skeleton of the tree).

Nothing special, just the view through the metal structure, a bit suffocating.

You could see half of the Brooklyn from the platform. Also "N" train.

Here is Coney Island, where many trains start their journey. Feels so many choices you have, illusion of course, but elevating spirit.

Here is Piglet (still about Subway, because on the way to the train station), interesting that his shadow reveals his true nature, pig. You can see a young and perky pig in his shadow. May be I should reverse it and pig would be shadowing a white dog?

Subway sketches in Delta sketchbook and insomnia.

Since I can't sleep from 3 am I may as well post my latest sketches on a Subway.

I miss drawing, few stops on N train is not enough time.

People seems to avoid subway car with homeless people in it, my first intention was also to take the next car, but then I thought, why? What happen to this person who lost his home, his dignity, may be his family and cannot find his place in society? Who am I to judge?

Here is the view at the ocean from the Ocean Parkway train station platform. So calm and pretty, but so much devastation it brought to my neighborhood and many others.

Aftermath Sandy.

This is Brooklyn street, the way I saw it one evening, when I went to walk my little dog, empty, dark, abandoned, sliced by headlights  of cars occasionally passing by, with glistening mud and broken glass under my feet. It use to be full of life and lit up in the evening, with dogs barking and people chatting on the porches. It was flooded by hurricane Sandy.
Sorry, if it looks too abstract. I wanted to show it broken in pieces of light and dark, with fear and uncertainty I felt at a moment.
I used ink, Kuretake pens and salt on Fabriano Artistico paper.

Forgotten Subway sketch.

Sketch I did on N train in Delta sketchbook. Everyone in its own world. Pencil and wash.  The whole sketchbook turn out colorless, when I intended it for happy watercolors.  May be I should wipe my glasses?

Car.

Hard to say goodbye to my car. Not only because I can't  buy a new one like that, but because it was taken from us so suddenly by the black water of the ocean, cutting it in its prime, cutting off the slice of life. Somehow it put a dot on our previous adventures connected to the Car, our happy trips Upstate, our secretive escapades Downtown, my drawing ventures. I miss it dearly. Feels sort of I let it die, like neglected pet. Unfair.
May be it is brought up from the Old World I came from, where things were given a deeper meaning, where it was more connected to people's lives, almost given a life of its own?
We liked that it was big, we like to sit high up, we liked that it was black color and had loud speakers, which echoing electronic beat so nicely, we liked window on the roof, that you can stand, stick out, laugh and let the wind to chew your hair and duck down when see sheriff's car on the road.
I used ink, Kuretake, I used salt, sort of imitating what really happened.

Subway sketches in Delta on the way to Kingston Avenue.

Sketched New Yorkers on the way to the other part of Brooklyn. I really like this ivory color paper in Delta, was hoping to take it with me on small trips and use watercolor, it would be so good for little splashes of color, but life turned the way nobody was expecting and I am filling Delta with monochromatic sketches of subway riders.

I like this water soluble pencil, among the others it is my favorite. Koh-I-Noor Gioconda. It could be soft like on the man in the middle, on the bottom page, or dissolve into puddle. I hope to try it in a few layers, to get more gradation, but in quick subway sketches one layer is the only option, people come and leave on every stop.
I have Derwent Sketching Dark Wash pencil, Staedtler, Derwent Graphitone stick, Faber-Castel Durer pencil and I am always looking for something new.

Sketches in Delta.

Sketches in Delta sketchbook, about and around.

Scribbled in darkness.

On the train. Pencil and wash.

Autumn truck and Liza.

For some reason I decide to try really strange very smooth paper, I have in the corner of my room, probably feeling bad to get rid of it by simply throwing it away, because it doesn't look useful for my ink technique. Instead I was struggling with stubborn surface, trying to move ink, and if felt wet and cold and lonely and I missed my warm car. I used ink and Kuretake.

Here is a photo of Liza Queenie in her charming fat days. She was adorable.

Schnitzel.

We have no heat again and it is freezing in my room.
During our ordeal in the midst of the hurricane Sandy, on one of the days, my husband hiked to the street (no power, no heat, don't remember if also no water, no elevator) and it was  truck on the street with hot food, "Schnitzel & Things", sponsored by mayor Bloomberg. My husband brought it also to my poor friend, who stuck on 20th floor, sick and in pain, forgotten.  It was suddenly a piece of normality, meat, hot, pretty, like it is possible to live again, and somewhere life and other people.
So I drew it.

Disaster.

Trying to climb up from the dark spot, what my life was for the last couple of weeks, when my half asleep-half nightmares of distorted images of struggling people, broken pieces of houses and cars and lives, black water, madе me silent and helpless, madе me feel I can't draw.
We got power back today, some imitation of hot water, it is still cold but light makes it all possible, so I finished this drawing, which I did in short rides to my freezing work room, wrapped in warm oversized sweater with hot tea in my other hand.

Hurricane Sandy.

I started drawing Liza before the hurricane and when it happened and right before my eyes black water start swallowing cars on streets and wind threw pieces of scaffolding downstairs, and everything looked like cheap imitation of horror movie, and then following days of never ending nightmare with fears, candlelight, darkness and cold, piles of sand and garbage, absence of food and water, - I couldn't draw anymore, it didn't make sense.
On 7th day we got cold water, than light, yesterday internet. We still burning gas on the stove range to get warmer, we still don't have heat and hot water, stores around us still remain closed and struggling to clean up after the hurricane, and car is done.  I scribble something on the drawing of Liza, what I saw, what I felt. So here is the drawing.