posted: March 24, 2012

If you're in Paris in April, besides whatever else that idea conjures up, plan to stop in at Galerie Petits Papiers (91 rue Saint-Honoré 75001) and see "La Valise Égyptienne" drawings and paintings by Alain Lachartre.

The drawings and watercolors open a peephole on a whimsical cosmology that includes floating crocodiles, happily suicidal monkeys, elephants that can walk underwater and at least forty pharaohs' tombs. It is quite extensive and full of offbeat philosophical humor and good old play.

He generously sent me a copy of the catalog last week and seeing the paintings as sequenced in the book (I've seen many of them on Alain's facebook albums) has made them seem even more mysterious …and funny.

I found this one at my local library: "Cats, Dogs, Men, Women, Ninnies & Clowns, The Lost Art of William Steig" by Jeanne Steig. Introduction by Roz Chast and an Afterword by Jules Feiffer. Abrams, 2011
Perhaps you've already seen this book. Included are many doodles and rejected items from the New Yorker. Classic Steig moonshine unfiltered. Prepare to be inspired. The chapter intro texts by Jeanne Steig are funny and illuminating.
Sorry for the bad snapshots!

posted: March 7, 2012

Like knitting or quilting, when I have a few minutes and don't know what to do with it, I retreat to doodling these buildings and cutting them out. I like to explore them with a camera. Just messing around.