Buttnekkiddoodles

Two gorgeous days, perfect to draw out in the park. So yesterday I headed out to draw more of the renovations at North Pond. That was my intention until I came across the quirky sculpture by Robbie Barber next to the Lincoln Park Recreational Center. An old shell of a mobile camper/trailer mounted on a rusty outsized wheel rims. Channeling Claus Oldenburg a smidg, this very American, iconic mash up, part Conestoga wagon, part baby carriage on steroids glued me to the grass and out came the sketchbook. I started laying out the basic structure a bit after 3pm. At that point the trailer shell was partially in the sun with the raking light casting zebra shadows on the side. But with the sun moving quickly the whole piece wound up in the full shade of the building behind me. Not what I’d hoped to capture. So I worked on the wheels, background & grass and decided the drawing would be finished at roughly the same time today.
Today I headed out to complete the drawing and arrived at the perfect time. Okay, next up, I figured I head over to North Pond as planned the previous day. Well, en route to said pond, I spied the magnificent Eli Bates fountain by Augustus Saint-Gaudens of boys with scaly fin tipped fish legs (merboys?) wrestling with fish. The light was good, I was game and thus out came the sketchbook and pens.
Fountain pen & Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia notebook.

 
After months of notifications and raising funds, the project to clean the water, deepen North Pond and redesign and redevelop the banks has begun. First image shows the bottom being dredged.


The underbrush and waterlogged trees are being removed, debris is being dredged, the depth of the pond is increased to 8’ in the center.
Below are images before the project got underway.

Drawn on Clairefontaine paper, in Rhodia sketchbooks and the toned Stillman & Birn Nova Series sketchbooks with fountain pen, Platinum Carbon Ink, DeAtramentis Document brown ink, and Pitt Artist Pens.

I’ve returned to court, principally to cover an ongoing case about a gang that has been pulling off armed robberies and carjackings in my neighborhood. One suspect is in custody with the possibility more may be indicted.
I’m also just randomly going in to get the pulse of what’s doing in Chicagoland with corruption cases et. al.

My friend Stuart, hand to head upper left, is a DA who also is a solid painter and teaches drawing and painting, never even got up to argue his case as it was

Because of Covid, defendants are given the option to appear in court, or via Zoom sessions, which many are choosing to and hence I had to go to a “Zoom Room” to watch closed circuit proceedings with everyone logged in. You can see my sketch of the computer, my scattered markers, and my reflection on the screen. It was a great work station as I had the room to myself, but it was also hectic as people often turned their cameras off until the judge called on them. So I had very little time to sketch participants. The judge’s screen was on full time and I got the two sketches of her, masked and unmasked, with her fabulous mane of hair.
Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia Dot Grid notebook.

The month’s gathering of head studies. So, what DO you call a bunch of noggins?
A bushel??
Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a #Rhodia Dot Grid notebook. #uskchicago

So in the spirit of reportage,
re·port·age /r??pôrdij,?repôr?täZH/, many
of my post are drawings which address the features of note made during my near daily excursions from the sanctity of my home.
Some take liberties as to the manner in which I lay pen to paper, to wit: a stain on a floor that I interpreted to be a prancing bull elephant (I did in fact allow my imagination license to conjure said sketch). Others may find me doing my level best to depict, illustrate if you must, that before me with fairly faithful effort in the format most widely know as “realism” or often “naturalism”.
The following drawings would be just such examples, captured in the favored nomenclature of those crafty artists self described as “urban sketchers”. I count myself among the loose affiliation of this cadre.
First drawing, executed just this afternoon, is of a street light on Clark but several yards from my Lincoln Park apartment. En route to a much frequented coffee house with the aim of sketching a collective I’ve nicknamed The Chessnuts, (misspelling intended), I spied the very deteriorated concrete and rusted steel base of the previously mentioned streetlight.
Stopped dead in my tracks, an opportunistic nature insisted I whip out sketchbook & pens. I complied. Thus I present the entitled sketch ….. “chicago infrastructure “.
The Second drawing dates from January 2019 when, descending from the Metra platform at Clyborne and Ashland, I was awakened to a harbinger of Chicago’s aging public transportation superstructure. The rusting rebar bones of a crumbling concrete pillar were glaringly obvious. “Sit your arse down and start drawing young man!”, came the terse instruction. Swiveling my head to find I was “alone”, I complied.
The Third drawing was completed August 2015 whilst I sat in the air conditioned comfort of a pie & coffee shoppe in Evanston. What so captured my attention was the canary yellow steel braces that had been added to the concrete train trestle. Interesting choice of color as the bird in question was often brought in to mines to warn miners of the viability of the air quality or the lack thereof.
Please note in the detail provided in the Fourth image of yet another example of columnar decay. I suppose because the Romans, who made considerable use of concrete, built structures, many of which are with us still, more or less, like, some 17 to 20 centuries hence, we should rest assured as to the durability of these building materials and turn out attention to more, shall we say, “pressing matters”?
Well, prioritize as you most judiciously decide, I just thought you might like to know, vigilance has it’s place. Or reward. For it was none other than that old sage Ben Franklin who quipped,”A stitch in time, saves nine!” I have to give props to one who’s command of language resulted in such weighted eloquence delivered with extreme economy.
I have much to learn dear sir. Much to learn.

 
Drawn with fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on Stillman & Birn Nova series toned paper.