Maple Tree

I had a bit of time to kill so I drew one of the most cooperative models to sketch. A tree. This was one well behaved maple. The maple trees in Korean seem different from the ones I'm used to seeing in the states. These are indigenous to China and Japan as well. What I like about them is that they look like giant bonsai. My mother-in-law has the same fascination with trees as I do. Recently I took her to The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. There was a bunch of trees from Korea scattered about the place. They made her nostalgic for her homeland. After our little jaunt to the Gardens I was even more aware of the trees in Seoul this time. As fall approaches, I dread the end of summer. I don't like when the leaves go away. Autumn is beautiful and all but it still makes me sad.

The Scribble Project

I got an e-mail from Lisa Currie who runs a blog called The Scribble Project. You get a page with a few scribbles on it and then you have to make it your own. This kind of thing is easy for me to do because I am demented.. Take a look at her blog and then you can see how others did versus what I did. There are some talented people scribbling over there.

Sunny's

I never had a chance to post the drawing I did that was in Danny Gregory's video. Here it is so you can get a good look at it.

High Tech

I'm so bored of drawing on planes lately that I decided to take some chances and do something completely different. So many drawings I look at online are of the same old thing. I pushed the envelope and look what happened. Actually came up with something I really like. Even Yun was impressed when she saw it. I will surely be doing more of this type of thing. I have a few flights coming up.

Stuffed Animals

Yun and I recently spent a few days in London. Seems like I'm never in New York City. As expected, it rained one day we were there. We decided to duck into the Museum of Natural History. I love the one in New York and London's was just as amazing. Yun left me there alone while she went to look at royal jewels at another museum in the area. I drew this in the room with the life size blue whale. In one room they had a display with drawings done by museum patrons. You could draw anything you wanted in the museum on to a little slip of paper they provided. The ones on display looked like they were all done by 7 year olds. I wanted to submit my own, like the one above, and blow their minds. In the end I chose not to. I did it in my moleskine book instead.

New Book

Yun and I had a friend stay with us for a while. Her name is Rhea Krcmarova from Vienna. She is quite an interesting person. As a gift she gave me a drawing book that she custom made. It has fabulous paper and is bound in leather with my initials carved on the cover. I gave it a test run on a flight to London. Looks like there will be a lot of great drawings to be done it it.

Kane Draws Cote D'Azur

I've done it again. A new flick about urban sketching. This one is short and sweet.

Streets Of Nice

The great thing about being an artist is that you can capture the great sights you see when you travel. I'm not big into photos. What I do seems more personal. I'm lucky to be married to Yun Lee. She appreciates my talent and gives me the time to be by myself and do my art. This is a great gift to me. Take this drawing for instance. Yun and I ate lunch and then Yun said she was going to shop. She suggested I find a spot I liked and she would meet me there in a few hours. She came by after about 2 hours and I was basically done. Both of us were happy. Everyone should be so lucky.

Training Grounds

One night Yun and I were in Nice and needed to get back to Monte Carlo. We didn't realize that the buses stopped running at a certain time. The train was the only way to get back. We made it to the station and boarded a train. The only problem was there were no announcements. At each stop there were no lights on the platform. It was pitch black outside and we couldn't see a thing. Talk about being lost. Finally a girl got on at a random stop. She noticed right away the puzzled look on our faces. She told us it was like this all the time. No conductors, no announcements, no signs, no nothing. The only way we found our stop was by her telling us where to exit. She said that every once in a blue moon the announcements actually work. "It's like a fun little surprise for all the locals," she said. We laughed but only because we knew where we were. At least the ride was free because no one came by to sell us a ticket.

Red Hook Film Festival

Just got this mail from the Red Hook Film Festival:

Hi Danny – Just a quick update – we are planning to open the Red Hook Film Festival with your film! (Red Hook-A portrait of Tommy Kane). It will screen on Saturday October 15th at 1pm in our opening block.

The schedule is up at our myspace page right now, and will be on the website tomorrow.

Our MySpace page:

This year’s festival will take place on October 15th and 16th, 2011 at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition (BWAC) screening room, which is located at 499 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, 11231. That’s at the very end of Van Brunt Street, across from the Fairway Supermarket.

Butch Belair In Action

One of the best artists I have ever seen is Butch Belair. Everything the man touches turns to gold. Sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and 3D rendering. You name it and he does it. Usually better than anyone else can. I get to watch him work all the time. It is always an amazing magic trick. If you watch this film by Danny Gregory and myself, you'll finally get to see him in action too.

Sal's Mustache

Something interesting happened to me in France. Yun doesn't even know about it. I told no one. We took the bus from Monte Carlo to Nice with all the other peasants. It only costs one euro. The bus was pretty full so we didn't get seats next to each other. I was sitting next to a really old dude. Looking closer, I realized it was Salvador Dali. Most people think he passed away in 1989 but that is not possible because there he was. He had shaved his wacky mustache but that didn't fool me one bit. He was slovenly dressed in khakis and a plaid short sleeve shirt. No one else noticed but I knew it was him. He was very aware that I was aware of him. Sal was looking all around in a very curious manner. Checking out the windows and searching behind him. He wouldn't acknowledge me at all, which was fine because he's insane. I got off the bus without an incident. Most people don't have such cool things happen to them but that kind of stuff happens to me all the time.

Jason Bourne Or Just Little Old Me

I race along highway A8 out of Nice headed for Monaco. The blinding sun reflects off my dark Rayban sunglasses. I'm a bit beat up from the days I just spent in Seoul and London. My inner clock is way off. The GPS is not working in the brand new silver Mercedes S550 sedan. In fact, I brought another GPS with me just in case and that one is on the fritz too. So I just wing it. I don't really care as I cruise towards Monte Carlo. The first thing I'm going to do is go to the casino. Is this a scene out of a Jason Bourne movie? No, it just happens to be Yun and I on vacation in our rental car. We spent a few days in Nice, eating good food and buying salts and spices for cooking. There were a lot of great meals and sunny days. I did a few groovy drawings that I will post in the coming days.

Family Ties

This summer my niece Megan came to visit me. She brought along four friends. The unfortunate thing was, they came during a 100 degree heat wave. Being southerners it didn't seem to faze them much. Megan is just out of college and she works as a teacher. She also happens to be an incredibly impressive person and so are each of her friends. Their names are Travis, Taylor and Tiffany. One of their parents was smart enough to not go along with the naming their kids with a T thing. His name is Ross. They were so polite and well behaved, unlike the hipsters of Brooklyn. How she is related to me I do not know. My sister sure knows how to raise kids. As a gift, they sent me these amazing drawings as you can see. I didn't know they had it in them. Check out the squirrel they did. It has to be the best squirrel ever and the best gift ever. Actually having great family members who come visit is the best gift ever. They also sent me 2 CDs of their favorite band from Raleigh, North Carolina. The Avett Brothers. The gifts were very personal, sharing things with me that they all love. Now I love them too.

Korean Stall

I had a few hours to kill before I had to head to the airport and back to the big apple. I wandered the back alleys of Itaewon. There before me was one of my favorite things. A Blade Runner type food stall. As usual, no one spoke English. When I was done I found some old lady who spoke a little English. She helped me get the address of the old lady who ran the stall so I could mail her some prints. The only thing missing that would have made it more Blade Runner, was the rain. Apparently they had rain in Korea for a month straight before I arrived. Monsoons, you know. Actually i"m glad I missed that stuff. For once, I didn't get dumped on.

A380

I recently got to fly in the new A380 airplane. What a joy. It's sort of like the first time you ride in a new car. Everything is clean, fresh and smells good. The takeoff is amazing. You don't really feel any thrust. At some point you just happen to be in the air and you wonder to yourself, how did that happen? The plane feels very tight and put together. There is none of the rickety squeaking like the older planes. There is incredible lighting. The lights turn blue and purple and fade ever so slowly. Even the exit and bathroom signage is groovy and sleek. The TVs are brand new LED screens. Nice. The only setback I had was once the flight was over, I overheard someone talking about the bar in the back of the plane. The bar? That's right, there is a friggin bar in the back of the business class section. I didn't know about it until it was too late. Oh well, next time I will check it out. Maybe even do a drawing of it if there in no turbulence.