Danny Gregory

I have spent the last six months or so working on retooling various parts of my apartment, most notably my study. I have spent a lot of time sorting art supplies into little boxes and baskets and things.  It’s very exciting to my anal self to have a neatly pigeonholed studio, with clean surfaces where I can leave half-finished projects an dt have to clean everything u each time I finish for the day. I still have to do some work on the lighting and continue to clear out some clutter, but it’s all very satisfying and a long-term goal and fantasy.

Anyway, this morning, I managed to knock out a drawing with the Safari, and then cracked open my neat wooden box of Doc Martin’s and got busy painting. The whole thing took about 20 minutes or so and I got to work a half hour early. It’s  great feeling to have made something, day after day, before breakfast.

Today’s  EDM Challenge was a collaborative event. I was sitting around with Jack, my niece Morgan (who just got her Master’s degree in disability studies from Ohio State last month), and her friend Julie who was visiting from Philadelphia. I insisted that they join me in drawing a bottle of bourbon from my brother-in-law’s liquor cabinet. While I brandished my Lamy Safari, the young ‘uns selected from a jam jar full of Sharpies.

The girls grumbled a fair amount about their results but I think they’re terrific. It’s so interesting to see how different eye and fingers record the world around us.  When we were done, we drained the bottle — which made things look even more different.

Sleeping dogs are a great subject and mine spend a lot of time posing. These two lumps sleep with me every night, almost aways in the same configurations, Joe curled up a foot or so away  and Tim nestled right up against me, clamping down the cover so I can’t move with out flipping him across the bed.

I drew this minutes after I woke up, my trusty sketchbook and finepoint Safari by my bedside. Something about the scene made me  want to capture the feel of my favorite old book  illustrations and engravings. I like the way the lines curve around Tim’s back. It’s easy to get completely micro-involved with cross hatching the folds of a sheet but I managed to keep that impulse under control. First thing in the morning, my eyes are still bleary so I draw almost by feel.  It helps to keep things loose.

I don’t much like bags. I try to carry what I need in my pickets. If I risk looking like a kangaroo with bulging, tumorous trousers, I begrudgingly pick up a backpack or one of the many bags Patti used to sling on her scooter.

This particular bag looks like a dark blue, exploding chicken. It has been hanging, more or less untouched, in Patti’s bathroom for the last 839 days.

I drew it sitting on the cool marble floor, Joe leaning heavily against my side. My composition is a bit lopsided and there are some splashes of ink on the right for some reason but I like what I made. It was easier to draw than it was to haul myself up off the floor.