Hrvatska

While in Zagreb for the holidays, I spent a fair amount of time listening to Croatian, and only understanding random words. Since I wasn't fully engaged in the conversation, I'd take out my iphone and do a few drawings.

Grga has very carefully tousled hair. This is seen from the back, while riding a tram.

A smile is a frequent feature on Zvonimir's face. 

This aunt enjoys expanding upon truth to the point of absurd, humorous fabrication, and passing it off as gospel.

Another view of 'Aunt Truth'.

Ana's mother, a woman of great patience, intelligence, and discipline.

Choral Singing in Zagreb

The holidays are over, but drawings still remain in my phone, which I'd like to share. While in Zagreb, we went to a church to hear choral singing. While sitting in the hard wooden pews, I decided to do a few drawings. Working within the limitations of a small screen made it really conducive to a faster, more impressionistic approach. Next week I'll post some portraits I did there.

Pantone K 2013 Exhibit

As announced on Facebook the other day, I have a couple paintings in a group show here in Geneva. One, entitled "The First Red Rose", is based on the story of how the first red rose was created by a nightingale singing through the night, staying awake by leaning against a thorn. The other is a variation from my carousel studies, and I entitled it "The Second Red Rose". Today I was showing a friend around the exhibit, and I took some shots to give you all a visual of what it's like.

The First Red Rose. In the center of a wall, facing the entry to the room.

The Second Red Rose, upstairs, near the entrance.

The First Red Rose. This is a stage before the finish. I added a thorn and a drop more painting. But, this is basically finished.

The Second Red Rose. A carousel 'horse' design, but with a Swiss cow. This is a drop before I finished it, too. The tiny wing became an American flag. The Rose has a little more white. But, this is very much what the finish looks like.

iPhone Drawings

I recently became a member of Urban Sketchers in Switzerland. Urban Sketchers is a community of people who, like myself, enjoy drawing on location. This morning I shared a few of my iPhone drawings with them, and I'd like to repost what I shared there, here.

http://switzerland.urbansketchers.org/2013/11/iphone-portraits.html

Back where it all began

This blog started with an iphone, and my Q train commute to work. The iphone was my brother's old phone, and wasn't connected to a network. It was there only for drawing. On days I didn't bike to work, I'd stand or sit, and surreptitiously draw my fellow commuters. I was briefly back in the states last week, and again spent some time on the subways, drawing on my iphone. This time, it was my father's old iphone, and it's been unlocked so it actually now is used as my European network phone, too. 

NYC is notorious for not feeling sacred or sentimental about structures. I'd say that in the picture of NYC, the structures are the frame, and the people are the content. Here are a few faces from the NYC subways, the people that are the brick and mortar of NYC, drawn with thumb and iphone.

Dresden

I recently was in Dresden for a few 'partly sunny' September days. It seems that means 5-10 minutes of sun breaking through moody shrouded skies. Maybe I'm overstating things a little bit. One day did have an hour of sun. Maybe this was all appropriate, though. Dresden has a rich history, known for many years as the "jewel box" along the Elbe, rich in cultural and economic life, adorned with rococo joy underneath heavy wide skies. More recently, it's known for the Allied bombing in the final part of WW2 that destroyed the city and its mostly civilian inhabitants in a firestorm of destruction. Most Americans became familiar with it through Kurt Vonnegut's book 'Slaughterhouse Five'. After the war, this city became part of Eastern Germany, and had its old town reconstructed to look mostly like it was before. So, what's old is new, and what's new is old. Often one old block next to a new one, upon dirt that includes the incinerated bones of former inhabitants. So, for them to say a brooding day is 'partly sunny' is quite optimistic of Dresden. That Germany is now again the strongest economy in Europe also helps the sun shine on this quiet city.
Here are some drawings I did while there. To see more, please visit my Viewbook album. http://nathanielmiller.viewbook.com/album/dresden

Dresden Frauenkirche and its hushed open plaza.

Dresden Frauenkirche, from the other side. The sky always felt like it had a gravity, pressing against the darkened stone.

But then go inside the church, and this is what you see. A joyful rococo celebration!

See that light patch in the sky? That's called 'partly sunny'.

The memory of the past, and it's inclusion into every day life is cemented into the structures, where old dark blocks are pressed against new, lighter ones. 

But then go back out, and you are reminded of the past. Here, in what was a Jewish part of town, they record the past before reconstructing a new building in the old style.

Beer. Small dogs. Rectangular glasses. Outdoor festivals. Welcome to Germany.

Carousel of Transformation

For the first time in my life, I have a real studio, separate from my home. In a converted factory in the Jonction neighborhood of Geneva, surrounded by public transport bus storage, gypsies under a bridge, fellow artists and and the converging waters of the Rhone and Arve, I paint and draw and think (and occasionally hunt for jobs online with wifi). After joining the Atelier Act-Art and getting the space, I then had to think about a project to fill the space and time.
Carousels.They are like time machines to me, spinning to the past, to the possible, to the now. I remember the carousels of my childhood. There was one in this little mall on Old Georgetown Road in downtown Bethesda, a country fair style carousel. The Dentzel in Glen Echo Park. And then, when I was in college and began studying with David Passalacqua, a rekindled enjoyment began. I then also understood its rich history, how it was a war machine that became a child's plaything. How immigrants from Italy and Germany and other parts of Europe, mostly former cabinet makers, came to America and then carved carousels. How the first carousel is dated back to Babylonian times. And then, years later, I encountered the Alka in Croatia, a living history tournament of knights, a real, true carousel.
I want to create something that is both personal and reaches out to others, sparking enjoyment and fascination. What better vehicle than a carousel. These low-res iphone pics below show the first steps of my ideas for a carousel. Whether it will ever be actually built does not matter to me. Right now, I just want to play, to enjoy, and hope that others enjoy the fantasy of what I'm creating, a carousel of transformation.

A transformation mask for the head of the carousel: the horses heads open to reveal a human head.

The rider is the element that completes the carousel animal, that brings it to life.

A cube, symbol of the modern age, around the horses head. 

A horse with birds heads, opens to reveal a human head.

A horses head opens to reveal two birds and a human.

A birds head wrapped around a human head.