Got on the CTA to head downtown for a job and saw this gentleman get off the north bound train at Howard, it’s final destination, cross over to the south bound platform, board the train, and fall to sleep. The trains run all but 4 hours a day I believe and it is possible, if homeless, and cold, to spend most of the day at least warm, and dry. I’ve asked myself how I would manage if I became homeless, and until such a time that I face that possibility I’m speculating. Where would I have parked the belongings such as books, artwork, clothes, other things way more than I could carry around, or pay for at a storage unit, or leave at a friend’s garage. Whatever the circumstances a person goes thru that would deliver them to the state of homelessness, and there are several, loss of employment, debt load, broken family, mental illness, addiction, I personally can’t image the ability to endure that hardship for long. A very good friend of mine did wind up on the streets after a long, slow decline thru poor financial decisions, substance abuse, frustration with career struggles, wearing out the welcome of friends who tried to help him. In the end, he gradually poisoned himself with alcohol till he had a systemic collapse. It was his way of killing himself, of that I’m sure. I would try to see him on return trips to the city he lived in and towards the very end, the loss of will, and his mental and emotional decline sealed his fate.
Now, as my generation gets old and the possibility of safety nets and affordable health care and affordable housing seem anything but certain, this challenge has become too possible for a frightening number amoung us.
My generation became obsessed with how they were going to get their children into good schools and pay for insanely expensive college degrees. Having cleared those hurdles, the conversations will definitely turn to their wellbeing and management of their August years.
Practice. It must be done. I was a weekly regular at area venues for drawing from life. For various reasons, I haven’t pursued the practice of drawing nude figures from life and it shows in some recent sketches. This 25 minute ink drawing in one of my many ledger books, was executed at a time when I was as relaxed while drawing as the model was during the pose. When figures are bundled in clothes the challenge is to indicate a figure beneath the cloth, and I always feel a little leeway in proportions so I tend to attack the page with more abandon. When the clothes come off, if I haven’t been drawing regularly I typically fret the proportions and contour accuracy and the drawings sometimes suffer from self consciousness with evident stiffness. I thought this would be a winter where I would concentrate on life drawing but……..things don’t always work out as planed.
Drawn with fountain pen filled with Iroshizuku ink and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen.
Mid March snow storm that was quite captivating. Stayed indoors glued to my living room window mesmerized by the beauty. At times the curtains of snow were so intense all but the 7-Eleven building in the foreground disappeared into the white out. Temperatures had been in the seventies just days before. This building has been a bit of an eyesore, especially since the canopy of a large Elm that sprawled across my apartment windows was lost when the diseased tree was cut down, documented in an earlier post here at Butt Nekkid Doodles. Even when the temperatures slid down into the skin tingling single digits, I love living in the North for the varied displays of Nature’s seasons. This was drawn in a Tomoe River Paper sketchbook with fountain pens, a Pelikan M215 and a Faber-Castell Basic Black Leather, both filled with Platinum Carbon Ink, and a range of Gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens, including the Big Brush White.
Went to Salt Lake City for my first time in the state of Utah besides the one time I changed planes in the SLC airport. What a location, jeez! I knew it would be dramatic from having flown over it and from images and conversations with former residents but I was jazzed to be there. Had Saturday off so I rented a car with a friend and we drove 2 hours plus north to see Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. And while There are other state capitols that rival Utah’s for grandeur, I have personal favorites, the Capitol buildings in Austin, Texas, Madison, Wisconsin, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Denver, Colorado, the setting of Utah’s Capitol is as breath taking as any to be found. 
Get yourself up to the Utah Museum of Natural History by the campus of the University of Utah. The museum is handsome, the displays are superb and the view of the valley gives a sense why Brigham Young may have said,”This is it boys!” I may have paraphrased there. If you like to draw dinosaurs, this museum is for you.
 
 