Here is a cross section of an imagined Las Vegas underground. Difficult to fathom the energy and waste, the money and the varied lives that stream in and out of this city.

A sketch made while sitting at the coffee shop, French Press, on State Street in Santa Barbara.

A pencil drawing.

Made with charcoal, a drawing of colleague and friend Nancy Yaki.

A quickly made sketch along State Street, Santa Barbara.

A profile drawn with charcoal.

A study of Cerberus.

A Solarized image, inspired by the Man Ray/Lee Miller show I just caught at the Legion of Honor in SF.

These are a few of the studios on the Oxbow campus. Each space is committed to one or two disciplines, each has a good deal of natural light and each is rather idyllically aligned on the shore of a slow, serpentine river.

Above is the founding director and head of school (right), Stephen Thomas, working with a student on her Fortune Cookie assignment. This is an assignment whereby students are given a word, revealed to them in a fortune cookie, from which they are expected to produce a work of art.

An anatomy study of a horse; architecture in Santa Barbara and a profile.

An apple and a dude with headphones.

Venice

Fall on the west coast (is not like fall on the east coast).

A bike, a plant and a Kevin.

Portraits

On bikes are how many a good adventure have begun. This past weekend was no exception. I visited an old friend from Prescott College, Pascal Shirley in Venice CA. Here we are riding to the Abbot Kinney Festival.

Matt, in from Toronto.

Venice attracts some colorful people.

And has some amazing light.

We saw a really good performance by the band Nite Jewel.

Here is Pascal taking some photographs. I have been impressed with his work, an oeuvre of lifestyle portraits, for as long as I have known him-you can check out his Tumblr at http://pascalshirley.tumblr.com.

I recently found myself sitting for hours at the Highwire Coffee Shop, in Oakland, impressed by the variety of signs and lifestyles that converged into my field of view. People, not so dissimilar from the animals I have been drawing.

One Eye

I have been talking quite a lot recently with the artist and educator, Nancy Yaki. Our conversations have been all over and ‘line quality’ has been covered, a topic relevant to both of us. Here are several drawings, economical and energetic, attempts at briskly marking movement and salient qualities of each individual.