LISBOA

I've just returned from teaching a drawing workshop at the Urban Sketchers Symposium-an exciting, invigorating assemblage of 200 people from 23 countries who descended on Lisbon, Portugal for the singular purpose of drawing on location. Music to my ears, the stuff dreams are made of, pennies from heaven, whatever other expression one could assign to a dream of yours- this was what it was like for me. Lisbon is a beautiful city. In betwixt and between the Naples Yellow buildings are tiled roofs for miles and squares, or largos, at the end of most of the cobbled streets, winding up and down hills galore. Most of these drawings are from in and around Largo Rossio, where my session took place and Largo Chiado, where I sat in with the wonderful Frank Ching and Pedro Cabral, who led us up a couple of hills, the reward of which was one of the best lunches that I had in Lisbon.

Some More From Venice Beach

My trip out to LA with my MFA in Illustration class was weird and wonderful in many ways. Though I am always jazzed to draw with my pen, scratching, and splashing away, I felt the need to do something different this time. This is always daunting- heading into something unfamiliar, but oh, so necessary from time to time, to re-discover, re-invent, and reinvigorate. Many of my students took the challenge on, too, with great results! Like I said, for many reasons, this is what the trip did for me. I prepared a few pages with a thin turp wash and then, drew with graphite, gouache and watercolor on top. Still very much a work in progress, but the warmth of the sun and the day is flooding back to me now.

California Dreamin'

I recently came back from teaching two classes on location in SoCal to my MFA in Illustration Class. I couldn't help but sneak in a few drawings on my own-
My love for line usually overtakes all that I do, but when in Venice Beach, how could one not be seduced by the color and the swaying palms???!!!

SHOW TIME!

Please join me in celebrating Women's History Month- and visiting with some of the amazing women that I have seen and met through my travels.

I Want Beach!

No hidden message here- I miss the beach. The tone in these drawings is not the sky, but the ever-present clouds of smoke from the burning of the sugar cane. A contrast and reality check on the beauty of the beach. And this is how much I love drawing- I am willing to let you see me in my bathing suit! Filmed by my mystery man on the beach in La Romana.

Untitled from Memi on Vimeo.

BocaChica Chica

Just back from a month in the glorioso Dominican Republic where, while driving into Santo Domingo, I caught this entrepreneurial mujer. It was a fleeting, but powerful moment for me. I suppose that her thought might be "Sex Sells" as it does all over our globe- but underneath her stance I saw, for that brief minute, great beauty and soulful eyes. Thanks to all of you and your support last year, she will be appearing as part of a show that I am having in NYC in honor of Womens' History Month, Another Woman's Life.Stay tuned-
I will be posting info shortly....

Working Woman

This image is part of the faculty exhibition, Lightness, at the Museum at FIT. It is derivative of a series of drawings that I made of the beautiful Haitian fruitseller on the beaches of the Dominican Republic. You can see that here. Should any of the work be sold, a portion will be donated to the ongoing, but often now forgotten, relief efforts in Haiti.