Urban Sketches

San Francisco at its best

| Susan

It’s Tuesday and I’m still lit up from spending Friday and Saturday at San Francisco’s biggest music party, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, a free festival hosted by the late, great Warren Hellman estate.

All the characters come out of the woodwork for this three day festival.
Watching Asleep at the Wheel at the Banjo Stage from the picnic tables
She was rocking the fringe tunic and flower child look

We love this wonderful free festival in Golden Gate Park. I’m always impressed with how well organized it is, from the stages to the graphics to the mobile app; it’s top notch. Over the years, we’ve developed a drill—arrive early while it’s still uncrowded and comprised almost exclusively of old futs like us. I always feel buoyant then as I anticipate the promise of the day’s events.

Friday’s lineup mostly featured bands that were new to us but I’d prepped by previewing them online. Jake Blount’s group played at the friendliest locale, the Bandwagon: an RV outfitted to serve as a stage. The group was smokin’ hot and I experienced the first of many perfect moments as someone blew bubbles through the audience, shrouded in fog.

Jake Blount’s band at the Bandwagon Stage. He’s from Providence, Rhode Island. Yes, those are matching pastel jumpsuits.

Saturday started with another perfect moment as we arrived; Jerry Harrison’s roadies performed their sound check by playing one of the songs from Remain in Light. They executed the piece extremely well and before I knew it, I was dancing at the foot of that stage.

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I further entertained myself by sketching some of the characters and styles at the festival. This guy with the eyebrows…

Other perfect moments

Randomly running into friends

Talking with the dad of Drive-by Truckers’ bassist from Alabama, who was happy to remark that the festival was so “wholesome.” Indeed, babies, toddlers and dogs roamed freely. This year seemed to be devoid of assholes and drunks.

Jim Lauderdale sports a hot blue suit with matching cowboy boots

Traveling light with our backrests to discover new acts; being delighted by Rayne Gellert and Kieran Kane who were great and funny and gob smacked by the appreciation of the audience.

Their music was great and Kieran Kane was very funny

Hearing Elvis Costello clear as a bell from way up the top of the ridge, above the din of concert-going talkers (the many conversations)

Couldn’t see Elvis but could hear him perfectly

A little girl’s unicorn bubble machine showering me in hundreds of small bubbles

And THE highlight dancing madly with those young San Francisco pixies and leprechauns to the electrifying music of Talking Heads and the Remain in Light album, played by Jerry, Adrian Belew and their funky African rhythm band.

We’ll be back again next year. Thank you, Warren Hellman and family for throwing us this kick-ass party each year. You bring so much joy to the City that you loved. XOXOXO

NY/NJ (and Milwaukee)

| Susan

Yep, I went to my high school reunion in Summit, NJ, which was fantastic! I saw people who I knew from nursery school. And some of us have memories from way back then (even though we can’t remember what we had for lunch yesterday).

Didn’t do any drawings from the reunion itself but I have a few from the trip. Here are my doodles and sketches.

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Had a wonderful dinner at Judy and Jeff’s house in Maplewood. This was the pre-dinner wine and cheese.

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And a business trip to Milwaukee. I’d never been there before and it’s a beautiful city, though it was cold and windy. Lots of cool older buildings with ornate rooftops. This was an old Chamber of Commerce building that I could see from my hotel.

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DOODLES

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NYC long weekend to see the Michelangelo Drawings

| Susan

The incredible show at the MET will only be there until mid February. My sister Tobie encouraged me to go since the drawings will only be shown this one time. We jumped on a plane and had a wonderful long weekend in the Big Apple. It even snowed all day on Saturday and accumulated 7″—what a treat!

Of course, I sketched. Here are the pieces I did.

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Found this great bar, the Fat Cat, with live Jazz

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Through the window at Tea and Sympathy in the West Village. While waiting for my old friend, Amy.

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Artifacts from the wonderful National Museum of the American Indian in the old Custom’s House in lower Manhattan

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Please excuse. A doodle to fill my time on the plane.

Family Reunion and Mini-Vacation

| Susan

For the first time in over 25 years, my mother’s family had a reunion. I love my family and we always have great fun together. I’m very fortunate that so many live within 2-3 hours from San Francisco. But I don’t see the rest of the gang much at all.

So, I was excited that our family was getting together in Monterey, CA, only 3 hours from us. I designed the t-shirt and helped with some other details. Pictured below: My great grandmother, Bertha Soloveichik Tumpson and Albert Joseph Tumpson.

I_survived_the_Reunion_webWe drove down on Friday and ran into traffic in Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz, of course. It’s still so beautiful on the coast. We were blessed with incredible weather, sunshine and not too much wind.

The incredible Janet Takahashi taught me to sketch when I’m a passenger in the car. This is a great distraction when traffic is heavy. Even if the work is rough, it’s fun!

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The reunion was cousins galore! I caught a few:

The answer is, “At the Louvre.”

Following the big event, we got some needed R & R on the Central Coast in lovely Cayucos, north of Morro Bay.

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We caught some FUN waves.

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And on our second day, visited Morro Bay.

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The sign says, “Death from Drowning happens once in a lifetime. Undertow of surf can make return to shore impossible.” The waves were churning and there around 30 surfers were catching rides.

The rock itself is impressive and beautiful. On the other side of the spit, there were two dozen otters lazing in the water. Not shown here are the towering smokestacks of the power plant; an odd imposition on an otherwise picturesque location.

Back in Cayucos, we assumed the position.

Mitch

Sad to end our wonderful mini-vacation, I could only muster a weird doodle in the car.

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More Sketches of 2017

| Susan

A few new sketches from Spring of this year.

 

March and April were busy. I went to the town hall to hear my Congressman Jared Huffman answer questions. I made calls to Georgia voters for Jon Ossoff in Georgia, marched for 45 to reveal his taxes, went to a climate rally and a Mill Valley Community Action Network (MVCAN) meeting. Sketches were created.

Down in the Baja

Año Nuevo State Park.

We saw a few of the famous Elephant Seals. They’re pretty funny looking. We learned that the Grizzly Bear and the Elephant Seal have a common ancestor. Pups are “weaners.” Elephant Seals spend most of their time way out at sea (3000 miles) They came to Año Nuevo Beach in California, to shed their skins and later, to give birth.

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And we hosted a birthday party at our house for our friend Seth.

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One Week 100 People 2017

| Susan

I have become a big fan of Instagram. Through that app, I’ve found wonderful sketchers, illustrators and artists and I’ve been sharing my work (@susanstanger5995—when I picked the handle, I didn’t know you were supposed to pick something more descriptive—I’m still learning). In early March, I learned about a challenge to sketch 100 people in a week. You might have noticed that I love to draw people so this was a no brainer for me. But it wasn’t easy. It was really 100 people in 5 days and by the end of the week, I was pretty much burnt out on drawing people.

On the other hand (so to speak), my drawing became more facile and quicker. I also started using other media, like a sharpie pen and colored pencils. One day, I banged out several sketches that way in just half an hour. Really quick and half from memory as my subjects moved through and out of eyeshot.

I posted on Instagram every day but the drawings were out of order and sometimes incomplete. I knew that eventually I would post them here so I could show them all in order (somewhat—though it seems that I’m missing a couple) and write more details about what I was doing, if I wanted to. So, here they are, my sketches of 100 people…

These first few sketches were done at the Mill valley Community Action Network meeting

These first sketches were done during a meeting of the Mill Valley CAN (Community Action Network) meeting. A group that is doing fantastic political action!

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The ferry is a wonderful place to sketch people because they seldom see me drawing them. Most are reading something, as this sketch shows.Number19-23

 

Here’s where I start doing those really quick sketches with the Sharpie pen and colored pencils. These were created in the lobby of the building where I work, 201 Mission St. on the corner of Beale in SF.

 

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Number49-52A few of my colleagues:Number53-55

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More quick sketches with a sharpie. I sketched first and colored in later.

 

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Finally doing a few just with paint. It was really fun and interesting to mix it up and do things a little differently.

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At the Water protectors rally in San Francisco

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Voila!

Art day at Robin’s and Pier 39

| Susan

This is the place that Robin called the “Murder Shed” because it’s a dilapidated shed behind her house that looks creepy in the night. But there’s also this tree that’s blooming with red and pink flowers right in front. I thought it was beautiful and cool!

murdershed

The next day, I went with my folks to Pier 39 for “Tulipmania” which was basically no more than a marketing campaign and several planters full of tulips. I was more taken by the seals/sea lions. They are pretty funny.

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El Sketch Fabuloso

| Susan

I miss my wonderful former colleague, Dominique. She’s a talented illustrator and we used to go out to sketch in the financial district of San Francisco at lunchtime on Wednesdays. She’s freelancing now but I’m trying to keep the tradition going on my own.

coittowerThis week, I did a quick sketch of Coit Tower (minus the traffic, trolley lines and streetlamps) from the Embarcadero.

Grand Newsstand and Robin’s Studio

| Susan

I just spent a day with Dominique and Robin in Oakland at Robin’s. Her house is beautiful and her studio is every artist’s fantasy – wonderful light, space, and all kinds of fantastic supplies. I couldn’t resist drawing one wall of the space, chock-a-block with treasures.robinsstudio1

I am also fascinated with the Grand Newsstand on Market which sells a variety of ZINES. It’s such a cool kiosk type of thing and of course, I love zines!

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