ooblog

When I moved to New York three years ago, the Metro fare for an unlimited monthly pass was 76 dollars which made it about 1.27 per ride.  Today when I renewed my metro card it came to the sum of 89 dollars.  I’m not saying that 89 dollars is a steep price to pay for the over 60 rides I use it for making  the cost around 1.48 per ride.  On the contrary, it is cheaper than the amount I would pay for gas and a number of things my car would require, but it is hard to ignore the contradiction I am faced with.  Ads which state that more people are moving to NY, making trains more crowded than they currently are alongside posters stating the fare in 1986 averaged 1.17 making it only a 30 cent increase.  I cannot make specific accusations as I realize train maintenance, facility upkeep, employee benefits etc. have to factor in, but something is wrong with what is going on.

Today, the cart I was riding in had 52 passengers.  There are 8 carts on a train and I’m averaging a train stops at a station every 8 min. There are 18 train lines (ACE, 456, 123, JM, LG7, NQRW, BDF) I’m not counting the Z of V lines .  

To keep the math simple I’m thinking of a 30 passenger average on 8 carts every 8 min at 1.75 since many people pay a higher fee per ride instead of monthly.

240 passengers per train x 7.5(times per hour) = 1800 x 24 per day = 43200 people at 1.75 = 75600.00 x 16(each train) = 1,209,600.00 vs 877,824.00 three years ago.  Keep in mind this is per day and I’m sure it is a conservative number.

Another example:  52 passengers  x 8 cart per train = 416 every 10 min (x6)=  2496 per hour = (x24) per day = 59,904  x 18 each train line = 1078272 at 2.00 per ride = 2,156,544.00 per day.

Below is the progression on a piece about the underground counterfeit handbag world.

In Orwell’s 1984 there were moments when language was being destroyed.  Books were being burned.  Information was difficult to remember because it was constantly changing. Loyalty was only as new as the current information given.  So the questions lies.  What if we don’t have to burn books or paper because we no longer print on it? 

If the paper states something happened, there is no way to alter the contents once its been printed and distributed.  If our only source of information is media which can be changed universally and instantaneously, how will we know or remember what actually happened.  New media has already altered our memories, attention spends, and the way we feel about things.   The death of print will only promote this behavior.

Below are the stages for a piece I made specifically for a show about travel that is current on Exhibition at Destination near the High Line.  I have four pieces on display for the month.  If you are in New York, stop by Destination and check out the High Line.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned my passion for the sketch book and one of my inspirations as being Barron Storey.  Last friday, I attended Barron Storeys opening at Society of Illustrators.  It reminded me that no matter how much work I get done in my own books, it won’t be close to the amount that Barron does in his.  One of his sketch books which was started in the middle of one November was completed by the end of that very month.  At least 60 pages were covered front to back in less than two weeks.  When words are added they are thoughtfully typographic (like works of art in themselves).  I plan on going back as it was impossible to digest the amount of work on display in the few hours alloted.

Last friday I made the art below as a study of a location shot.  The reference was taken from a photo of  a trip I took to the Philippines back at the dawn of the y2k situation.  I pretty much inked it straight and plan on adding color to this when I have time. 

Jess Ruliffson, myself and eight others are going to be in show about transportation at Destination Art Space on Wednesday June 17th at Little West 12th St. from 6-8pm called “Torapote – ride it! “  Hope to see those who can make it there.

The Mocca event was a ton of fun.  If you could hear my voice right now you would think I had gone to a rock concert.  There were a wide range of creative influences and talent along with great products to walk away with.  Gregory Manchess, Barron Storey (who will be at society of illustrators on Friday for the opening of his show),  James Jean, David Mazachelli, Tomer Hanuka, Greg Ruth, Gary Panter. . .   How could you choose to be anywhere else if you had a choice?  I’m exhausted and hope to sleep peacefully through the night, wake up and process what happened and put something down on the drawing table.  Kind of a  free-form drawing experiment.  I thought I would finally post my piece from the Who Dunnit Event in Richmond.  I call it influencing the influenced which is something I’m sure I will blog about at some point. I’ve been wanting to show this for some time and plan to do more images in a similar style when time permits.  I can only say that there are a number of loves I have in the art world which are all worth exploring.