I forget that a blog is not like a friendship: you don’t have to catch up on missed time. You just dip in, dip out, leaving your random thoughts (at least that’s what I think a blog is all about). So now that I’ve released myself from the burden of “Oh Man Now I have to Catch Up on Two Months Gone By”, I feel free as a bird to drop the latest seeds.
Right, so here’s an illustration for a forthcoming whimsical book (about grammar, if you can imagine…I can, because I dig grammar) that I’m illustrating to be published by New World Library. I’ve been getting into drawing these bugs, so now that the work is done, I’m sorry to no longer sit down and draw flies, ants, and fleas in clothing. This one looks a wee bit like a military dictator, don’t you think? A benevolent one. What a coup in the world of bugs would look like, I just don’t know.

I continue to enjoy cutting things out of paper - the latest is included here. I did the cutting, and Salma, age 7, did the coloring. I’m including her age just to prove that, yes, despite the fact that sometimes my drawings look like a child did them, this one actually was colored by a child. I call it “The Dog Walkers” with a corollary narrative, “A City with One Less Mouse”. I dare say spring has arrived to New York City (despite the crapola weather, the dogwoods, tulips, and dog walkers are bursting out), and I dare say that all the mice are amped up and ready to invade.

In other random news/thoughts, I ate Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village and nearly passed out it was so good. And I think Jonathan Franzen’s latest piece in not quite the most recent (my subway riding almost keeps me caught up) New Yorker is gorgeous. I’m thrilled to have a brand new (to me) writer to get excited about, and even better, he’s living!

On my to do list: go to Maira Kalman’s exhibition at the Jewish Museum. Sigh. She’s a genius.