Tommy Kane's Art Blog

Roses Are Red, I Mean White

2012-01-05T10:12:00.003-05:00

Whenever I shoot with the great photographer Craig Cutler, I always draw the flowers in his studio. This is my 5th in a series.

Swamp Thing

2011-12-31T15:32:00.008-05:00

While we were in New Orleans, all of us made a trip to the swamps. It's such a freaky cool place. I managed to do a drawing which was not easy on a swamp tour boat but I did it. I also made a little video of the trip to Louisiana. The section in the swamps is quite beautiful. See what you think.

They're Back

2011-12-31T15:30:00.005-05:00

The great thing about going to New Orleans was to see how well they have come back from Katrina. Every restaurant we went to had lines of people wanting to get in. The bars were packed. We toured the ninth ward and the progress is remarkable. Even the oil spill can't dampen the hopes and spirit of Louisiana. The place is as fun and crazy as I remember it 20 years ago.

Horseradish

2011-12-31T15:29:00.007-05:00

My cousin Eileen married a guy I went to high school with. His name is Mike and he knows what he likes. What he likes is horseradish. New Orleans happens to have lots of horseradish. Really good horseradish. Turns out New Orleans is his kind of town. If you've been there you know you can get oysters everywhere you turn. The tables have what looks like a giant jar of mayonnaise on them. It's actually very strong horseradish. Once we started we couldn't stop. We ate dozens of oysters like they were candy. Mike would even ask for extra horseradish. New Orleans makes people do crazy things. Good thing there was plenty of cold beer to wash everything down with. I'm still recovering.

Martini Time

2011-12-31T15:27:00.009-05:00

There is a very famous restaurant in New Orleans called The Commanders Palace. Yun and I were in New Orleans for the holidays with my cousin Eileen and her husband Mike. We were all reading the lunch menu when Mike noticed that martinis were 25 cents. Say what? There it was in black and white. It seemed like a challenge so we had to order them. We noticed the waiters carrying these tiny little cute drinks so we figured that the martinis were little, like sliders. To our surprise, when they arrived they were regular martinis. There was a limit of 3 per person. We only had 2 each. Later Mike regretted that we didn't go the distance and get 3 each. It was hard to do because we had to survive more drinking later on into the evening. Anyway it was a nice start to our vacation.

Tattoo Artistry

2011-12-07T12:27:00.025-05:00

I have a cousin named Justin Klein. Turns out the guy is an amazing artist. He contacted me out of the blue recently and suggested we collaborate on something. A bell went off in my head and I thought he would be great to film for the sketchbook videos I've been doing with Danny and Jack Gregory. The reason I thought he would be great is because Justin is a tattoo artist. Danny was very excited when I suggested Justin. Neither of us would have ever thought to use a tattoo artist to explore how drawing and sketching are critical to the art of tattooing. Justin's work is very elaborate, so filming him working was going to be a long day. He worked for about 8 or 9 hours straight without taking a real brake. Danny and I were blown away. If I draw for 3 or 4 hours, I'm done. This guy is a rock. Now think about the poor guy getting tattooed. He was Justin's friend and his name was Mike Messick. Justin chose him because of how much pain he would have to endure. He said Mike was as tough as nails and could take it. Justin was right about that. There was some moments of true pain after 8 hours or so. I must say it is not easy to perform while Danny and I are filming with cameras a few inches away while someone works. Justin was such a pro that he never broke a sweat. I'm very proud to have Justin as my cousin and fellow artist. If anyone lives in the tri-state New York area and is interested in a tattoo from Justin, contact him on Facebook. Here is his page. If you don't need a tattoo, you could just give him a shout out there.

New Face

2011-12-07T12:26:00.004-05:00

I have decided to go with the new look on Facebook. Timeline. I designed my new masthead. Here's what it looks like. I think it's better than the old Facebook look. It is a pain every time they change things.

Casting Call

2011-12-07T12:25:00.008-05:00

Sometimes I get to cast models. It's interesting because the models get about 30 seconds to sell themselves. The whole thing happens in an instant. You take a few photos to see how they move and interact with the camera. When the show is over you must decide on who to put in your ads. They are all great as far as I am concerned.

Silvio

2011-12-01T16:08:00.005-05:00

One of the greatest world leaders had to have been Mr. Berlusconi. I'm sure everyone would agree. Finally I can write something that is not controversial. Anyone who can ruin an entire country right before everyone's eyes and still get them to continue to come out and vote for him is quite talented. I think he really only had one idea for the country. Put hot girls in every job on his television networks and fill every empty seat in government with even hotter girls. The people seemed to love it. I once asked my friends in Italy why Silvio was able to stay in power. They said that deep down people sort of liked that he was a crook, on the take, tax evader, spouse cheater and all, because it gave the average Italian citizen a reason to not pay their own taxes. My friends said they didn't even pay their building maintenance. People all felt like they were getting away with something. Over time though, everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Just like everyone before him, at some point the jig is up. Given time, I'm sure the people will miss old Silvio and his bunga-bunga partying ways. For now, they will have to start paying taxes and maintenance fees. Worst of all, the women on television will start to look normal again. Too bad because now everything is in high definition.

Kerstin Klein

2011-12-01T11:48:00.008-05:00

One of my friends on Facebook is Kerstin Klein. She did this great illustration of me. I Love it. The best part is that she did it on a post-it-note.

Ben

2011-11-15T14:09:00.002-05:00

My friend Frankie Vigilante loves the Buffalo Bills and I am a New York Jets fan. He asked me to meet him in the East Village to watch the Bills play one Sunday. There is a bar near him that has satellite television. Turns out the bar is the hangout for Pittsburg Steeler fans. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is dressed in Pittsburg Steeler garb except Frankie and I. It's a funny scene. All the Pittsburg people were very cool and friendly. We had a lot of laughs. In the bar is a giant bobble head of their quarterback. The thing is like 5 feet high. I drew it to kill some time. Frankie was drinking tons of beer but I held off. I told him I wouldn't drink until the 4 o'clock game came on. The Bills beat the Eagles, by the way.

Anita Kunz & Travis Louie

2011-11-09T14:29:00.012-05:00

When I got out of college, one of my heroes was Anita Kunz. Her work was everywhere. She did the covers of every magazine. I was in awe. Another person who is one of my art heroes today is Travis Louie. His work is so unique. He is one of a kind. In the art world, there are very few artists who can rival these two. So you can imagine my surprise when they both sent me invitations to be friends on LinkedIn. I'm shocked these two great artists know anything about me. After all, my work only appears on this dumb blog of mine. It would be an understatement to say that I was thrilled beyond belief.

Sheep And Wool Festival

2011-10-31T17:24:00.005-04:00

I was taken by my wife and her knitting friends to the New York Wool & Sheep Festival this year. Instead of complaining I decided to make a little film for my own entertainment. Here it is for all to enjoy. It's a short one that is easy to digest.

Doodle 2

2011-10-27T11:05:00.006-04:00

Continuing on my theme of doodling, here is an elaborate one I did. This one was actually done over several meetings. I felt the need to do one that had a lot of effort behind it. It looks nothing like my usual drawings except that it has a lot of Robert Crumb like detail in it. Again no deep meaning. Just started a doodle and didn't know where it was going. This is where it ended up. Thank god for meetings.

Doodler

2011-10-27T11:03:00.007-04:00

I am a doodler, as most everyone knows. Meetings are the best place to doodle. That would be where I did this. It does not have any deep meaning behind it. I was half paying attention to the meeting and half paying attention to my doodle. If you haven't seen it yet, there is a website called doodlers anonymous. It's where doodlers hang out.

My First Stop Motion Film

2011-10-20T15:08:00.011-04:00

I own an impressive collection of vinyl toys. They are worth an awful lot of money now. I was collecting way before anyone else ever knew what these things were. My apartment is full of them. The one I drew is an original companion by KAWS. It's one of my prized possessions. One day I decided I would use them to make a stop motion film. Talk about hard work. Doing this was painful. Once I got started I couldn't stop. Some scenes I had to re-film like three times. It came out pretty good in the end. I learned a lot and if I do another I think it will be much better.

Lou Reed

2011-10-12T12:32:00.019-04:00

Recently Yun took me to the Metropolitan Opera House in New york to see The Barber of Seville. The only reason I am familiar with this opera is because it was used on episodes of Bugs Bunny and the Little Rascals. For once it wasn't me who fell asleep. Yun conked out for a good chunk of it. We had amazing seats in a private box on the 50 yard line. After a few Jim Beam's I was feeling good about the performance. At a certain point, I looked next to me and I noticed that Boris Karloff was sitting there. At closer inspection I realized it was actually Lou Reed. I don't bug famous people, so I left him alone. It seemed like he had a few Jim Beam's too. Both of us enjoyed the show. Two thumbs up from Lou and yours truly.

Tomato Lover

2011-10-12T10:09:00.003-04:00

I have an obsession with tomatoes that look like this. There they were everywhere in the French markets. I bought a few to have around to look at. My real intent was to draw them, which I did. Finally I got to eat them and I was not disappointed. I even put a little Cote D'Azur salt on them for a little extra kick.

Where Have You Gone Joe Paterno

2011-10-10T15:23:00.007-04:00

The thing about being King is that when you fall, the drop is very far to the ground. For anyone living in a cave, this is a drawing of Joe Paterno, the coach of the Penn State football team. The guy who didn't tell the police what was happening in his locker room with the child molester ex-coach of his team. Right after all this evil stuff happened at Penn State, I checked wikipedia. Already half his wiki was about being the guy who didn't do the right thing in saving the child who was being endangered. Even though he has a millions wins as a head coach, he'll never coach another minute anywhere ever again. About the only job he could apply for would be at the vatican. Joe clearly has the credentials to oversee the abuse that has occurred under the nose of the catholic church. Just like the monkey who sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil, Mr. Paterno has that extra added quality of taking no evil to the police too. The pope would let him coach in 2 seconds.

French Coffee Via Thailand

2011-10-09T08:27:00.005-04:00

I don't drink coffee at all. Every once in a while if I am in some exotic place like Cambodia or Rome, Yun will tell me the coffee is great. So I'll get one. Monaco was no exception. So each morning when we were in France, Yun would take me to get a cup. We didn't go to a French cafe. Yun discovered a Thai joint. They seemed to have the best coffee and pastries. It's amazing the way immigrants adapt. In New York, a lot of Japanese restaurants are really run by Koreans. If I go to get a slice of pizza, the place is run by Mexicans. It's no different in France. It's nice to see immigrants succeed. After all most of us are descendants of them.

Maple Tree

2011-09-30T09:21:00.003-04:00

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

2011-09-19T15:35:00.005-04:00

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

2011-09-15T09:54:00.006-04:00

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

2011-09-13T11:41:00.004-04:00

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

2011-09-13T11:28:00.006-04:00

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

2011-09-13T11:19:00.009-04:00

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

2011-09-13T11:17:00.003-04:00

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

Streets Of Nice

2011-09-13T10:57:00.007-04:00

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

2011-09-13T10:53:00.006-04:00

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

2011-09-12T14:34:00.012-04:00

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

2011-09-12T14:16:00.012-04:00

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

2011-09-12T13:58:00.014-04:00

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

2011-09-12T10:09:00.019-04:00

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

2011-09-11T11:48:00.013-04:00

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

2011-09-01T16:01:00.009-04:00

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

2011-09-01T14:22:00.005-04:00

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.

Cicada Fever

2011-08-29T02:02:00.013-04:00

Seoul Korea is like a subtropical climate in August. The sound of the cicadas rule the ears during the dog days of summer. Taking a walk in a park sounds like you are strolling through the amazon. At a party, some people were complaining that the cicada chirping has grown so loud in Seoul that it was interrupting their sleep patterns. I on the other hand dig the sound, especially in a city setting. Nature is brought so sharply into focus. Living in a concrete city, one often forgets about real nature. The cicada's singing is a nice reminder that we are invading their space. I read where the sound a cicada makes can be heard one mile away. One day I walked in the park that surrounds the Seoul Tower. It's located at the top of a small mountain. It took me three hours to get up and back. I was really able to concentrate on the music the cicadas were making. At points their sounds were very faint and calming. Eventually they would build to some crazy type of crescendo. Beyond loud. It was all very thrilling. I will have to wait until next year to experience it all over again.

Colonel

2011-08-29T00:24:00.012-04:00

The thing I like about dictators like Muammar Gaddafi is their ability to pretend it is Halloween every day of the year. Their costumes are the best. Most of the look is sort of like when you are a little kid and your mom ties a towel around your neck as if it's a superman cape. Muammar always had some blanket or curtains flung around his shoulders. Then there are the Michael Jackson style, epaulettes military type costumes. I was thinking, if Muammar was so powerful why did he only rise to the rank of Colonel? That's a real puzzle. Someone must know the answer to that one. Colonel Gaddafi was never clever enough to come up with something as brilliant Colonel Sanders did. Fried chicken, now that was brilliant. These dudes all love the hair dye too. Mubarak, Hussein and Assad all use the Just For Men hair coloring. Mubarak and Hussein never even reached the rank of Sergeant. What up with that? If we keep up this ridding the world of all its dictators, who will be the great wearers of costumes in the future? We can always count on the drag queens. Thank god for them.

Apple Source

2011-08-26T00:01:00.009-04:00

As an artist, Steve Jobs has changed my life for the better. I never set out to make the little movies that I do. But just by being around my macintoshes so much, I found myself gravitating towards the imovie feature. Intimidated yes, but I forged ahead and lo and behold I was able to master the stupid thing. Same goes for garage band. Now I use my apps to make drawings on my iphone6 and e-mail it to my new imac at home. I look at the artwork on my blog from my ipad8. Life couldn't be better. Than the bad news struck about God. That's what I call Steve. The Lord himself is leaving Apple. Sad. He will be sorely missed. I will stay loyal to my beloved Apple. Hopefully the geniuses that work there will continue to astound me. As a result my artwork will just keep getter better and better.
I love you, man.

Danny Does Tommy

2011-08-25T01:49:00.021-04:00

From Danny Gregory.
A few months ago I decided I wanted to make a series of films about illustrated journaling. Not a how-to, step-by-step sort of thing but films that capture the adventure of drawing, the discovery, the spirit, the fun. I hope they will inspire you to make drawings (and films, if you want) and to keep an illustrated journal as a regular part of your everyday lives.
My 17 year-old son, Jack Tea, has joined me in this project and together we have worked through lots of technical obstacles to make films that look as good as we can make them on no budget. Our inspiration comes from the Cooking Channel, from Etsy's vlog, and from too many decades of loving movies.
We shoot on our Canon 7D, rent different lenses (in this case we relied heavily on the 100/2.8 L IS Macro) each weekend, use Jack's skateboard as a dolly, and rope our friends in for help and opinions.
Our first film is called "The Art of Breakfast".
Here's the newest film in the series, a portrait of my great friend, Tommy Kane, as he rides around his neighborhood in search of something new to draw. Tom is a great traveller — he regularly posts sumptuous journal pages made on his vacations and business trips. His favorite home-away-from-home is Korea and he has made many amazing drawings on its streets and in its markets.
This time, we decided he should travel through his own neck of the woods, see it anew like a visiting stranger and capture a mundane little corner and fill it with his particular brand of magic. Normally Tom works mainly on site, dragging out all of his materials onto the pavement around his little folding stool but instead we decided to expand the scene and show you some of Tom's home and studio and incidentally some of the wonderful big paintings he's done on canvas.
When journaling, he works in Uniball, watercolor and pencil, sometime in books, sometimes on loose sheets of bond or watercolor paper. He is a meticulous crosshatcher and spend hours on some of his drawings. When we draw together, I invariably start to chafe at the bit and beg him to finish at home as I am tired of sitting in his shadow, my own drawing long finished and yellowing on the page, glazing over as he crosshatches more and more details.
We shot the film in two days — on the streets of Brooklyn and in Tom's home where his lovely wife, Yun, made us lunch and watched our obsessiveness with a bemused smile. It was the height of a baking summer and storm crowds rolled in and out, marring our continuity.
We shot an extravagant amount and it took a month to wade through it all and pare it down. The first cut was twice as long as what you'll see today, but we resharpened our blades and ruthlessly trimmed back to the bare essentials. We tried to retain the essence of how Tom works, the way he layers media and adds detail. It's fascinating to see how his drawing builds and builds — when you see the final result, it's often hard to figure out how he got there. With this film, I hope you'll share in how the journey unfolds.

Poolside

2011-08-23T17:01:00.007-04:00

There are not a lot of pools in Seoul Korea. It's not their thing. The few they have at hotels get pretty crowded. The kids love it. When I'm at the pool I close my eyes and it sounds like I'm at a typical pool in the states. When I open my eyes and look it is very different from America. No one is overweight. The Koreans are the thinnest people in the world. Also everyone behaves. Parents are not screaming at their entitled brats. No kids are crying. The second the clock strikes twelve thirty, the pool empties out completely. Everyone eats lunch all at once. That's when I swim, by the way. The pool at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, is under what is the skating rink during the winter. I like to doggie paddle past the sites where I slipped and fell on my face while showing off my ice skating prowess. Being Irish, I can only take the sun for about a day. Then I've had enough of the pool. Back to the streets to draw.

Top Of The Food Chain

2011-08-23T16:51:00.013-04:00

I'm not really a first class section kind of guy. My whole life has been set in the middle seat with a sweaty businessman to the right and a gassy old lady in the aisle seat next to me. Don't get me wrong, I have flown first class a bunch and could get really used to it. Even when I get the chance to fly business or prestige, I never eat the food. I fly to Asia quite a bit and the flights are very long. What I always do is eat a big meal at home before I fly so I don't have to touch the food on the plane. I don't care if it's first class food. It's still airplane food. I rarely touch the breakfast for that matter. That is my ritual and it works for me. I will have a glass of wine or a Bloody Mary before I pass out for 8 hours. True that.

The Other Tommy

2011-08-17T15:42:00.008-04:00

Tom Friedman of The New York Times is the most rational writer in the world. He seems to know more about the Middle East, global warming and being green than anyone else around. His books are great reads. To be able to write a short column every few days and pack it with so much knowledge is quite a skill. If I'm flicking through my tv channels and come across him being interviewed, I always stop and hang on his every word. The world would be a much emptier place without him around.

Netflix

2011-08-17T11:28:00.006-04:00

The is a fun little blog called, Drawn Netflix envelopes. I thought it was a cool idea. Of course my drawing is on the wrong part of the envelope and done in the wrong direction from everyone else on the blog. That is because I am stupid. What can I say. My drawing is of Natalie Portman even though it doesn't really look like her.

Old Headers

2011-08-16T10:01:00.005-04:00

At the top of my blog is my header. It was designed and built by a young intern at my office. The kid was a genius. Before that I used to make them myself. I'd change them up every few weeks to keep it fresh looking. Once the kid built the one I have now, I fell in love with it and it stays there permanently. Recently I came across some of my old ones. I'm posting them for old times sake.

The Beach Street Boys

2011-08-10T16:27:00.003-04:00

My video of George, The Singing Doorman, was a big hit. The man is a legend. Anyway as a result I did a drawing of the front of my office building. If you haven't seen my video, please check it out. You won't be let down.

The Singing Doorman

2011-08-05T11:52:00.003-04:00

The building I work in has the most unusual doorman. Tenants of the building include a film production company, a film school and tons of advertising art directors. Yet no one has thought to put a camera on this gentleman. So I did. Enjoy.

The Art Of Drawing

2011-07-25T16:42:00.002-04:00

High School student Jack T. Gregory directed this wonderful video with the help of his very clever dad, Danny. The man is a hell of an editor.

Flower Arranging

2011-07-18T15:00:00.006-04:00

I was sitting in someone's backyard looking for someone to pose for me. The potted plant volunteered. When most people draw something like this, they would never actually draw every leaf and stem in their actual positions. An artist would give you the impression of what these flowers were like. They would basically fake most of it. Only someone with severe OCD would actually draw every leaf precisely. That's where I come in. Even when I make my first few pen strokes for something like this, I groan to myself, "what the hell are you doing?" It always seems to come out good but the process is daunting. It's sort of like eating jalapeno peppers, no matter how many times I get burned, I always go back for more.

Pennsylvania Living

2011-07-18T10:24:00.006-04:00

I had something interesting happen to me the other day. Yun and I had to go to a funeral. As we were walking towards our car we both noticed it was gone. They were filming an episode of "True Blood" on the corner. Even though there were no signs posted my car had been towed anyway. That night I tried to track my car down but it was not showing up at any of the pounds. No one at the police station ever picks up the phone so I had to leave work early and go in person. The woman working there said it wasn't showing up anywhere. She informed me that there was a thing called, "relocation." That means you didn't do anything wrong. You didn't park in a place you shouldn't have and you don't get a fine or ticket. BUT the cops can tow your car anyway. They don't take it to the pound. They actually drive around the streets and then repark it somewhere else. The only problem is no one tells you. The cops didn't know where my car was. It should be in their paperwork but it wasn't. They suggested that I walk around the streets and maybe I would run into it. I protested. Then they said I could go to the location and call 911 and report it stolen. I said I am in the police station, why don't I just do it here? They said I wasn't allowed to. I had to go and phone it in. It had to do with some crazy rule. Finally after much persistence, some lazy ass person went onto a computer and found it. It was quite far away on some dead end side street. I got it back but it wasn't easy. It would be nice to have my own garage someday.

Swan Lake

2011-07-18T10:23:00.011-04:00

Yun and I spent a weekend in Pennsylvania. There were no swans and no lake. A few geese and some hawks perhaps. I spotted this planter shaped like a swan and figured it would be a good subject. It wouldn't move which is one good thing.

There are times when I have to write but nothing pops into my head. So I just write anything and usually it leads to something and then nonsense just flows out of me. Not this time. I wrote those first few meaningless lines of dribble and nothing happened. No jokes, no funny tales of my weekend, just a blank. So I'll just go with the blank. Being clever all the time is hard. I almost never give up. Today I just don't have it in me. Good thing writers blog doesn't last very long with me.

Kiddie Rides

2011-07-14T17:42:00.003-04:00

I have always been obsessed with those kiddie rides in front of bodegas. So I just had to make a little film. You'll be amazed at how many I found in Brooklyn. Enjoy the ride.

Gabi's Portrait Of Me

2011-07-14T07:49:00.006-04:00

The Seattle sketcher, Gabi Campanario, did a quick little sketch of me when we were drawing in Seattle. Unlike me, he has the ability to capture something perfectly with a few quick strokes of his pen and brush. For me it takes four hours to capture anything. Yun laughed her ass off when she saw this one. He got me perfectly. That's what I look like out on the trail.

Face Of Evil

2011-07-08T15:13:00.014-04:00

One of the ugliest things to happen lately is the revelation that reporters at one of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers had been involved in lots of disgusting activity. I hope it's not a shock to anyone that the owner of FOX News and The New York Post had his people hack into the cell phone of a murdered 13 year old girl. They were also doing it to soldiers who died in combat and victims of the London terrorist bombing. Not the terrorists but the victims. They erased a million e-mails which were wanted as evidence but they got caught. There are also allegations they were paying off the police and at the same time helping two murderers spy on the police. Creepy. This is the guy who propped up Glen Beck, Sarah Palin and the rest of the lovely conservative republican crowd. They're all so nice and trustworthy. The funny thing is that as this whole scandal broke, it was the biggest news story in the world. The days following, I would check the New York Post and Fox news. Guess what? No mention of the biggest breaking story in the world. Those are some news outlets. Really on top of things. Huge story yet no one at those so-called news organizations seemed to notice. Very sad what passes for news over at those joints. Fox news was running a story wondering if Jennifer Aniston had plastic surgery.

Happy Fourth Of July

2011-07-08T09:51:00.003-04:00

Made a little movie about America. Forth of July seemed like the right day to do it. I was at the Jersey shore. No, I was not with Snooki.

Coney Island High

2011-06-27T09:41:00.007-04:00

Coney Island is such a freaky place. Butch Belair and I were sitting in Ruby's bar on the boardwalk. It's completely open right onto the beach. Yet no one looks like they are at the beach. Not even remotely. Everyone is dressed in the craziest get-ups. You rarely see a bathing suit. The fashion is actually more like everyone trying to look like they are homeless. It's very different, from say, Nantucket. There is also every ethnicity present. Hardly any English being bantered about. It's another planet, for sure. The planet of Brooklyn.

A First

2011-06-25T08:49:00.005-04:00

I found my first sketchbook. Here are a few of my first attempts in a moleskine book. These were about 6 years ago. Not bad for a beginner.

Juror Number Five

2011-06-22T16:26:00.007-04:00

Recently I had to serve on jury duty. I was put on a tough case that lasted 3 weeks. The only joy I got out of it was each morning buying all the newspapers to read about each days Anthony Weiner updates. This was before he resigned. I couldn't get enough. The best is that his name is Weiner. The headlines each day were funnier than the ones before. One day I overheard Yun trying to explain it all to her mom in Korean. Priceless. Sorry he's gone. He made for good copy.

Phoney Artist's Statements

2011-06-22T15:17:00.005-04:00

"My work explores the relationship between postmodern discourse and multimedia experiences. With influences as diverse as Kierkegaard and Frida Kahlo, new tensions are created from both explicit and implicit textures. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the ephemeral nature of meaning. What starts out as triumph soon becomes debased into a cacophony of power, leaving only a sense of chaos and the inevitability of a new synthesis. As temporal forms become clarified through emergent and personal practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the possibilities of our future."
I found a great website that generates complete bullshit nonsensical artist's statements. Check it out here and use one for your own art website.

Tommy Kane Draws Seattle.

2011-06-05T23:19:00.003-04:00

One crazy town, Seattle. I must say I love it. The following film will show you why. By the way, fantastic people live there.

Gasworks Park

2011-06-03T12:30:00.009-04:00

Yun and I hooked up with Gabi Campanario one other day while I was in Seattle. He told Yun and I to meet him at gasworks Park. It's a picturesque site right on the water with perfect views of the city. There are also enormous industrial structures that have been left standing. Perfect for Gabi and I to draw. Gabi's kids, Olivia and Alex came along too. This is the drawing I did. The little girl running in the front of the sketch is Olivia. She is a hilarious kid who wants to be involved in all activities. She insisted I draw her. Smart move on her part. Alex is more interested in The Seattle Mariners than drawing. Although he and Olivia did some nice drawings of their own that day. Gabi did some drawings of me sketching that are perfect. Yun and I laughed looking at them. He captured me perfect. I'm sure he'll post them sometime.

Flying Fish

2011-06-03T10:34:00.008-04:00

Seattle has its famous market where they throw the fish around in the air. It's a little less exciting in person. I think when you see it on the travel channel or some cooking show, they throw big beautiful salmon to each other. That seems to be for the tv cameras only. In real life, they throw salmon without the head on. They way you would buy it. Scaled and gutted. People still love the fish flying show though. I sat on my little stool outside, coughing, with snot running down my nose and blood dripping out of my ears. The toughest part of a drawing like this is the people. No one is going to stand there and pose for me. So what I do is see someone I like walk by. I memorize them as best I can and then just draw them from my memory quickly. It makes for a fun cartoony like sketch.

Ear Yeeee, Ear Yeeee

2011-06-02T18:18:00.007-04:00

When Yun and I were on vacation in Seattle, she took me to an island off the coast for our anniversary. It was suppose to be a romantic getaway but I was deathly ill. I had a cold for a week and a half and wasn't improving. this is a sketch I managed to do on the island in the rain. In the morning, I woke up with a splitting ear ache. The worst one I ever had. It lasted 12 hours. Yun got me a prescription for antibiotics from a family doctor. I was going down hill fast. I suffered all day. The next morning when I woke up, Yun looked at me in shock. There was blood on the pillow. It was coming out of my ears. That was a first. We went to a doctor and they assured me I was fine. There is nothing worse than being away from home and sick as a dog. Even in my desperate condition, I did manage to make a few great drawings.

Check out what the great Gabi Campanario wrote about me on Urban Sketchers. Click here.

Space Needle

2011-06-01T16:48:00.013-04:00

The most famous thing about Seattle is the Eiffel Tower. So I figured, I'm here so I might as well draw it. I even rode up and down in the thing. It's pretty smart when cities build Eiffel Towers. People with cameras love that stuff. Seattle is always overcast so I caught a break that day because it was actually blue skies with a few clouds about. I think an hour later it was overcast and raining. Yun and I have a friend named Howard Lev who lives in Seattle. He's one of these slow food gourmet guys who makes the most incredible peppers in oil you ever tasted. Mama Lil's peppers. We even went to a Seattle Mariners baseball game with him. Anyway he happened to phone me when I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower. I told him where I was and he said they actually use his peppers on some of the sandwiches they sell up there. Just thought I'd give him a plug. Howard is just one of the many interesting and talented freaks who live in that great city.

Seattle Sketchers

2011-06-01T14:43:00.023-04:00

I recently traveled to Seattle. Yun's brother lives there with his wife and son Logan. While I was there, I figured I would meet the famous Gabi Campanario. He is the person who created the Urban Sketchers. I had written to him saying I was coming. He told me that many of the Urban Sketchers who live in Seattle get together and draw on a Sunday every month. He arranged for me to be at one and meet everyone. You can imagine how stunned I was when 20 people showed up. One more talented than the next. A few of them were Mark Selander, Jackie Helfgott and Steven Reddy. Even Yun was amazed at lunch looking through some of their sketchbooks. We all went on the streets to draw together. This is my drawing of a church. Gabi has some art scene going on there. The guy is like the pied piper guru of artists. Gabi comes up with an idea and everyone will follow. Hell, even I find myself following the guy around. He is very impressive and at the same time very humble about it all. I for one am a huge fan of his and I was so happy to meet him in person. Yun and I got invited to his house to meet his wife and beautiful kids, Alex and Olivia. This whole internet thing is funny. Meeting people online and then getting to know each other by your work and blogs. It was overwhelming meeting so many people who knew Yun and I from my drawings and movies that I post. In some ways it's weird but in a lot of ways it's very comforting and rewarding too. My trip to Seattle was a great experience that said to me I'm doing the right things and there are people out there who appreciate what I do.

Battle Of The Blogs

2011-05-19T17:02:00.004-04:00

There is a website called the Battle of the Blogs. great blogs battle for the top spot. I have been named the 2011 winner of the Art and Illustration Blogs. Pretty cool. I'll take it.

The Something Or Other Palace

2011-05-11T17:10:00.006-04:00

Last time I was in Seoul, I went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Man, that's hard to say. I made another little film of my experience. This one is quite funny and points out a problem that is getting out of hand. Let me know if you agree.

OSAMA BIN LADEN PICTURE RELEASED

Bin Laden Picture Finally Released

2011-05-11T15:12:00.005-04:00

After weeks of debate, The Obama administration has finally agreed to release a picture of Osama Bin Laden shot through the head. Not the photograph, BUT the drawing. That's right, the drawing. Most people don't know that there was a drawing done, by yours truly. Here it is. Proof positive, once and for all. The official Bin Laden death drawing. The king is gone but not forgotten, this is the story of Osama Bin Rotten. After our President brought down Bin Rotten, it was sad to see all the demoralized Bush administration folks crawl out of the woodwork and on to Fox news. Each trying to somehow claim they were responsible for Barack's brilliant commando raid. When the Bush people were in charge, they failed on every attempt to get Osama. Their guess that Bin Laden was hiding in some cave cut off from operations was right on point too. War hero, Dick Cheney was crowing about how he practically shot him by himself. I mean he did shoot his friend in the face by accident so we know he can sort of handle a weapon. Although our country tried to draft Cheney into the service 5 times, he chose to say no to all 5 by getting deferments. None of that has stopped him for taking credit for the Bin Laden killing. The Bushies will now spend the next few years attempting to rewrite history. Hopefully my releasing this picture, will make it tougher to distort the truth. Here it is world, feast your eyes, gaze upon his black uniball pen drawn face. Bin Rotten is dead but the truth will not be forgotten.

The North Korean Border

2011-05-08T07:49:00.008-04:00

I made a trip to the border of North and South Korea. One must take a tour group and be escorted by the military. They load you on to a tour bus and off you go. I made a little movie of the experience. There are lots of rules and regulations. No pointing, no handbags, no knapsacks, no phones and on and on. These people really don't like each other. You really get to understand just how crazy the people in the north are.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

2011-05-01T17:44:00.003-04:00

The other night Yun and I had dinner with 2 of her friends in Brooklyn. We ate at a nice place called Saul. During dinner I was telling everyone about a story I read in the newspaper. It was about how the Japanese people were finding money and wallets in the debris of the tsunami devastation. No one was keeping it for themselves. They were doing everything in their power to make sure it gets returned to it's rightful owner. Everyone was doing it, not just a majority of folks. The story really moved me. After dinner we all walked out onto the street. In front of the restaurant is a bench to sit on. I looked down and there was a brand new ipad sitting there. Cover and all. I picked it up and looked around. There was no one to be seen. Obviously someone left it by accident. I showed the group and then without hesitation walked into the restaurant and gave it to the maitre d'. I really hope the rightful owner came back and got it. I'm sure in their Manhattan mindset that they were sure it was gone for good. Luckily for them, I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.

Dress Code

2011-04-29T17:15:00.005-04:00

On the streets of Seoul, people love to dress up like mascots. They seem to be everywhere. I for one, don't like to stand out in a crowd. Therefore I too dress in a mascot outfit when I'm there. That is me in the green one in the upper left. It cost me a pretty penny but I don't care. I'll go to any lengths to fit in.

Home Away from Home

2011-04-28T21:27:00.010-04:00

Since December I have spent about 5 weeks in Seoul, Korea. I always stay at the Grand Hyatt. Love that joint. There is a grand lobby with a beautiful bar overlooking the entire city of Seoul. It sits in front of 30 foot windows. Very impressive. I'm not much of a fancy boy but I do feel right at home there. Barack Obama stays there when he's in Seoul. In fact as I am writing this, Jimmy Carter is staying in the hotel. There are a lot of secret service dudes at the breakfast area. They all have their earpieces in and eyeball me suspiciously. I don't blame them because I am quite ratty looking. It's fun to go to a fancy hotel and have everyone know you. Just like President Carter, I feel like a celebrity when I'm there.

Portrait Of The Artist

2011-04-28T00:24:00.004-04:00

I was playing around with photobooth on my macbook and I came up with these 2 self portraits. I never looked better.

Jason Freeny

2011-04-26T22:56:00.003-04:00

Legendary artist, Jason Freeny has a new book out. You can buy it on here. Check out the preview and have a look at some of his work. He is all over the internet. Jason asked me to write the introduction. I was very honored to to it. If you have time to look at his work, do so here.

The Brooklyn Circus

2011-04-22T09:29:00.008-04:00

The Brooklyn Circus is a great store in Brooklyn. Obviously it's in Brooklyn. It's a groovy men's clothing shop. Maybe the grooviest ever. They have a nice blog and did a little posting about me. You can read it here. I would love to collaborate with the owner Ouigi on some stuff for him. I love his style and asthetic.

Blessed Virgin Takes The F Train

2011-04-17T15:24:00.005-04:00

Yun and I live in a very religious neighborhood. Italian. I have never seen so many statues on tiny lawns in my entire life. So I just had to make a little film. Enjoy.

Middlecrown

2011-04-07T16:55:00.010-04:00

Her majesty's a pretty nice girl, someday I'm gonna make her mine. Looks like Kate Middlecrown has taken the title. She is holding the lottery ticket. Out of all the girls in the world, she's the last man standing. Way to go. In my mind, I wonder how long it will be before she cracks under the pressure? How long before she is running through the streets naked or drinking nail polish remover? When will she want out of the gig? Might take a few years but we all know it's going to happen. Too bad, little Willy seems like an OK bloke. I predict in 4 years he comes out of the closet. Won't be much of a surprise to anyone though. Maybe the queen will be retired by that time. Then William can become the Queen.

LT

2011-04-05T14:41:00.007-04:00

Poor old Liz. She had a good run. Yun had read a few books about her and really liked the girl. Hell of an actress. Some genius films. What I liked about her was that she seemed like a real broad. The New York Times ran an article when she passed about how she liked to go to a certain gay bar in LA once a week. It's called the Abbey. Liz would hang in the wheelchair and do shots of tequila and drink martinis. She would bring her dog and basically hang with the locals. You gotta love when a megastar is not above hanging with the people.

Australia Mate

2011-04-02T12:33:00.009-04:00

There is a new writer in my office. She is from Australia. I told her I had done some drawings when I visited her city, Sydney. When I looked for them on my old blog posts, I realized I had never put them on. I did them before I started blogging. So here are a few choice ones.

Catherine The Great

2011-03-28T12:26:00.012-04:00

A few weeks ago Yun took me to see an opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I don't know the name of what we saw but it was a clever show. We didn't make it through the whole show. At halftime, Yun asked if I had enough and did I want to go and eat something. I was hungry so I agreed. There is a little restaurant across the street called Berlyn. You literally feel like you are in the real Berlin. The joint was completely empty. We ordered and were waiting for our food when Yun said to me quietly, "that looks like Catherine Deneuve right behind you." I turned around to look, then I turned back to Yun and said, "that IS Catherine Deneuve." She put on her coat and walked past us to the door. Once outside I saw a bunch of paparazzi flashing away at her. She smiled and smoked her cigarette for them. I read later that the Brooklyn Academy of Music was doing a retrospective of all of her films. She must have been there to speak. It's funny that within a few months, Yun and I have run into her and Gerard Depardieu. I'm half expecting to run into Marice Chevalier any day now.

Jin

2011-03-24T16:03:00.006-04:00

Whenever I work in Korea, there is a film production guy named Djinn who takes me around. He speaks broken English and is very quiet and shy. In fact, he is so quiet I can't get a read on him. One night, the entire crew went out for karaoke. There was a dozen of us and we were all drinking. Everyone was taking their turn singing. At some point I saw Djinn get up. He is so shy that I thought, this is going to be boring, I might as well go to the bathroom. When he opened his mouth I nearly fell on the floor. He was incredible. In fact, he was amazing. A regular Englebert Humperdink. I completely misjudged him. It made me think about how else I may have misjudged this guy. Maybe he's a complete superstar. I went bowling with him one night and he's a decent bowler too. He also told me he plays in a baseball league and he's the teams starting pitcher. I wonder what else he has up his sleeve.

Fish Tale

2011-03-22T12:10:00.018-04:00

My mother-in-law Jenny is a Buddhist. Occasionally my wife will ask me to accompany her on a Buddhist mission. These only occur when the moon is full. We mostly drive around poor neighborhoods and toss lots of quarters out the windows. It's actually really fun. My wife said that before we met, her mom had her do lots of other rituals like sleep with all the lights on in the apartment. The most extreme one was when she told Yun to go to Chinatown and buy a live carp. Then she wanted her to set it free in the Hudson River. Yun told her mom she had gone too far. She just wasn't up to carrying a giant wriggling carp around the streets of Manhattan in the dead of winter. Recently I was on a business trip to Korea. I had a weekend free, so a co-worker suggested we travel to Busan. It's a city on the ocean. A sort of beach town. I told Yun what I was doing and she got very excited. She told me her father and grandfather grew up there. Yun knew the place well having visited many times as a kid to see her family. I went with 3 co-workers, all female. One of them is named Joanne. She's my producer. Joanne possesses certain mystical powers. She can sense when things are going to happen before they do, communicate with the deceased, that kind of thing. Anyway, Natalie, who is a Korean girl I work with, took us to eat in these small plastic outdoor tents on the beach. They barely fit 5 people. You sit at a tiny counter in front of a few long fish tanks. Inside are live clams, mussels, crabs and other assorted sea creatures I've never seen before. Joanne started to freak out. There was only one fish in the tanks. The fish was somewhat large. It stayed at the end of the tank right in front of Joanne just staring at her. She couldn't take it any longer, so she had Natalie ask the owner in Korean if she could buy the fish. Joanne wanted to set the fish free in the ocean. The woman said she could have it for 20 bucks. Joanne asked me if I thought it was a crazy idea. At that point, I told her about my mother-in-law's request to Yun. I told her I actually thought it was a brilliant idea. I noticed it was very close to being a full moon. The owner told us we were not the first to try this stunt. She also said the fish would have no problem returning to the sea, although I had my doubts. The owner reached into the tank with a towel and pulled the fish out as water splashed and overflowed everywhere. She placed it in a big plastic bag filled with water. We all ran down to the ocean under the moon lit sky, laughing our asses off. I ripped open the bag and the huge fish jumped out before I was ready. He was flapping about by the water's edge. I quickly picked him up and tossed him into the end of a wave. I saw him quickly swim out to freedom. It happened so fast that I was completely shocked. I half expected him to keep washing up on the shore. I thought I'd have to toss him in a few times but he was alive and gone. We were all laughing and jumping for joy. Joanne took out her camera and pointed it at the moon. Her camera has one of those sensors that detects if someone is smiling. When she went to take the shot of the moon, the smile detector activated. She looked at us in disbelief and said, nothing like that had ever happened before. We went back to our hotel to call Yun and tell her what we just did. The first thing I did was ask her if it was a full moon or not. Yun said it was indeed a full moon, but not just any old full moon. It was a Supermoon, which only occurs every 7 years. What makes it super is that the earth, moon and sun are all in line with the moon being in its nearest approach to the earth. Yun's mother told her that their deceased ancestors had channeled through Joanne to help cause the Buddhist goodwill fish offering. That mixed with Joanne's catholic, telepathic, karma vibrations had made for a very interesting night. Just think of all the wonderful luck it's going to bring us. Yun's mom is always selling me on this Buddhist stuff. I know there has to be something to it but after this event I'm now a true believer.

Honor System

2011-03-22T12:05:00.005-04:00

When you ride the bullet train in Korea, it is done on the honor system. That means there are no conductors checking if you have a ticket. They just assume everyone riding the train has bought a ticket like they should as good citizens. Can you imagine something like that in the United States? No way. No one tries to beat the system in Korea. They are very impressive people. I should also add that the ride I took was about 50 bucks each way. Think about that.

Empty Kingdom

2011-02-16T12:19:00.006-05:00

One of the great artist websites is called Empty Kingdom. They feature great artists from around the globe. The best of the best get on there. It is a who's who of the entire spectrum of the art world. I'm happy to have been put on there. Check it out here. Also you can check the site daily to make new discoveries. It's a good one to bookmark.

Boehner Of Our Existence

2011-02-08T08:26:00.005-05:00

John Boehner is the new republican speaker of the house. In true Republican form, he is a bit of a wacko. I watched his 60 minutes interview. He was constantly bursting into tears for no real reason and in a very demented way. Leslie Stahl was mortified. Why can't we just elect some normal people. Does it always have to be individuals who are a bit off? I'm sure if you met the guy in real life, you would want to leave the room in about two seconds. Here we go again. Meet the new boos, just the same as the old boss.

What I Wore Today

2011-02-03T12:34:00.003-05:00

There is a cool little blog called, what I wore today. artists post drawings of themselves and what they wore on any particular day.

Cambodia Book

2011-01-27T13:17:00.013-05:00

Here are some more photos Yun and I took in Cambodia. There is a great website called Blurb. You can make one of a kind coffee table books for yourself. The quality is amazing. We did one of France and now Cambodia. It's a great way to keep your photo memories. When you look at this book you should click on the little icon next to the blue Blurb logo in the lower right hand corner. It will show you the book full screen.

Flower

2011-01-25T13:31:00.005-05:00

If you hadn't noticed this is my third painting of a flower arrangement. I always do them in my tall format watercolor book. Women love these drawings. I should do some on regular paper and sell them as prints.

Hip Pocrisy

2011-01-25T09:57:00.012-05:00

Valerie Begue was named Miss France in 2008. I guess on her application she failed to mention some of the photos she had posed for previously. There was the one of her laying on top of a giant crucifix wearing a bikini and floating in a swimming pool. I'm not sure how that shot could have slipped her mind. Then there were the ones of her licking evaporated milk or yogurt off a table in a very suggestive manner. I can see not remembering those ones. Her hair and makeup weren't so good in those. Then there was the wet t-shirt, nip showing shots too. Oops, forgot about those. Being truthful has clearly gone out of vogue in the past decade or so. Truthiness has taken over. Alex Rodriguez looks into the camera and says he never did steroids. Then he has to back pedal when his truthiness is exposed. Newt Gingrich leads the way in impeaching Clinton for having an affair. Then it comes out that he too was having an affair while he was saying how terrible it was to do so. Old Charlie Rangel forgot to pay taxes on a few of his vacation homes. That happens to me too sometimes. Forget about the fact he has like four rent controlled apartments in Manhattan. People love to pad their resumes. Add a little truthiness. When I was a kid, I went to Catholic school. There was a clear demarcation when it came to lying. Either you told the truth or you didn't. No truthiness. Now it has become the norm in our society. Everyday politicians, celebrities, and everyday citizens accept the fact, that well, everyone else does it, so why shouldn't I. The only good thing to come out of all this is the fact that I found this funny shot of Miss France to make a painting of. If she hadn't been in some sort of scandal then I would have never come across her photo. Sometimes it pays to fib.

Me Me Me

2011-01-22T11:33:00.007-05:00

I must admit I watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Jersey Shore. The reason I watch is because all the people appearing in these shows disgust me. It's three car wrecks I can't turn my eyes away from. All the people in these shows have one thing in common, entitlement. Each believes they are far superior beings to all others on earth. They are convinced they are on television because there was some great destiny for them. That it was only a matter of time until they were discovered. I know some people who have met the Jersey Shore assholes and they said that they are unbearable to be around. All of these reality shows have become so popular that I think they are spreading a kind of disease to the rest of us. Entitlementitis. Most people today sort of walk around feeling that they too should be discovered and put on a television show of their own. After all, inside they feel they too are better than the average Joe. I notice this in action when I am on vacation. At the great temples of Angkor Wat, there are certain sections that are roped off to the public. They don't want people to cause damage. Yet people have no problem jumping over the ropes and running all over priceless artifacts. They jump and climb all over the roots of the trees even though there are ropes letting you know to please not do that. Parents stand silent while their kids scream and yell and run all over precious objects. Taking pictures of their entitled selves. It is quite shocking yet not unexpected. Being Buddhist temples, people are asked to dress appropriately. No shorts or skirts. Women should cover up a bit more than usual. But no, when you get there the entitled people of the world do whatever they please. After all, they are future reality television stars. Unwritten rules are for other people, not me, me, me.

Kids Love Squirrels

2011-01-12T16:18:00.005-05:00

I have been asked once again by Rama Hughes, to participate in his art school project. He teaches art in a grammar school. For a project, he has the kids each write to a different artist. One of those would be me. I like to send my kid a real drawing that I did. This is the one I have prepared for my student. I also throw a few prints and stickers. There is no way I will let my student down.

The Tommy Kane Show

2011-01-11T17:26:00.004-05:00

I have a new channel on Vimeo. It's really just all my videos stored on the Vimeo site but it looks cool. It's the same stuff I have on YouTube. You might as well check it out. Feel free to subscribe to my channel so it looks like I'm a happening dude. Or you can just post a message saying I'm a hack and a loser. I always appreciate that kind of stuff.

Wild Orchid

2011-01-10T15:50:00.005-05:00

This I did at a photo shoot in Craig Cutler's studio. I've done a few flowers before but this is a new one. It ranks high on my list of flower drawings.

Inspire First

2011-01-06T11:20:00.006-05:00

A great art website called Inspirefirst did a story about me. I am in good company. As you can see in the photo above, I'm with the likes of photographer, Albert Watson and painter, Travis Louie. You can check it out here.

Tommy Kane Draws A Crowd

2011-01-04T10:09:00.013-05:00

This is a short film about me drawing in Cambodia. There is one scene in the film where I am surrounded by a lot of people watching me draw. A whole lot of people. Most artists do not like to perform under that kind of scrutiny. I on the other hand am insane and I thrive on that kind of situation. You can also see that the drawing I was doing in that scene was my best one in Cambodia. That kind of scene happens to me a lot. It only gets filmed if Yun, my wife, happens to be around. Usually she is off doing something else and it is too hard for me to try and set up a tripod and film it myself. At least she was able to capture that scene. It's what makes drawing fun and hard for me at the same time.

Tree Houses

2011-01-04T09:23:00.019-05:00

Ta Prohm is a temple at Angkor Wat. It is by far the single most amazing visual to see in Cambodia or in the world for that matter. The great thing about drawing is that it forces me to sit quietly and just observe something beautiful for very long stretches of time. I must study every inch in order to make my paintings have all the rich detail in them. Funny enough, I've become like a Buddhist monk communing with nature before me and clearing my mind of all other thoughts. By being here a few hours there were moments when there was quite a few tourists but there were also moments when I was all alone. The only human sitting in front of this incredible structure. By coincidence I did a television commercial for the World Monument Fund a bunch of years ago. The director gave me a print by famed photographer Kenro Izu. It happened to be a print of Ta Prohm. I've had it hanging in my apartment for many years so I was very familiar with this site. Now here I was sitting there. A dream come true. As I was drawing a bunch of Cambodian high school students came by. They were very interested in my show. In the midst of the kids I heard a dude speaking with an Irish brogue. I introduced myself to him. His name was Cormac and and it turned out his friend runs a school in Cambodia. Every year he comes to visit and tours around the country with the high school kids. He told me they were all orphans. Each was so elegant, well behaved and beautiful. They spoke perfect English. So sad that such impressive young adults never found a home. Cormac told me one girl in particular, Maria, was herself a great artist. I showed them all my work. It's fantastic that there are folks like Cormac and his friend in the world trying to make a difference. I shouldn't say trying. They are making a difference.

Pub Street

2011-01-03T16:28:00.011-05:00

In Siem Reap at night everyone heads for Pub Street. It's where all the action is. Cozy little bars and eateries. One night Yun took me to a restaurant because she said Mick Jaggar ate there when he was in Cambodia. All our meals were excellent and cheap. I noticed something about the Cambodians. In most third world poor countries everyone smokes. The cigarette companies practically give them away for free to get the locals hooked. I never really saw anyone with a cigarette. It was somewhat impressive. One day Yun and I went on a boat tour of a floating village. It was on Tonle Lake. Truly an amazing sight but also very sad to see how poor the people are and how hard they struggle. All the homes and stores are on stilts. There is even a church and a school. Then you see some tourist restaurants and souvenir stores. It's a bit nutty. Yun and I had our own boat with a guide and driver. At one point a villager raced up along side us in his little boat. His daughter leaped on to our speeding boat while we were moving. Just like something right out of a Jason Bourne movie. She moved along the outside of the boat until she got to me. There was a plastic bucket in her hand with cold Angkor beers. Even though it was nine thirty in the morning I had to buy one from her. One dollar, of course. Dads drive around in boats with their little kids begging for money. Each kid would have a huge jungle snake around their neck so tourists could take pictures of them. There were little boys floating around in tin wash tubs. It was all very surreal and eye opening. It's too bad they closed off adoption from that country. Yun and I may have taken home a little girl from there to go with the girl we are going to adopt from Ethiopia.

Monkey Business

2011-01-03T15:40:00.007-05:00

I wanted to do a drawing of Angkor Wat. One morning I showed up early and wandered around the outskirts instead of going through the temples with the tourists. Found a nice spot under some trees for shade. Plus it was secluded so the hoards wouldn't descend upon me. After about twenty minutes of sketching I felt something strange. So I turned around to see a monkey approaching me. He was getting very close. Then I noticed some guards came from a side road. They too began to approach me to see what the monkey was up to. The monkey sat quietly behind me and the guards began to check out my work. Before you knew it there were French and German tourists all around me watching the show. I thought I was alone far from the beaten path, but no. After a while they all left and I was truly alone. Suddenly I heard a commotion and out of the jungle came two dozen monkeys, all heading for me. They were all shapes and sizes including a bunch of little babies. Monkeys were parked all around me. Odd feeling when you are all by yourself. After a while they got board with me. Some of them headed for the temple. I watched them shimmy up the columns and run about the rooftops. Most of the people there were unaware. It's cool what you observe when you just sit in one spot and let life take place before your eyes.
I posted a few photos I took in Cambodia on Flickr.

Abe Pagoda

2011-01-03T13:42:00.008-05:00

On our last day I showed up at the Pagoda near our hotel to draw the beautiful alter with the Buddhas inside. There are always landmine victims with a leg missing begging in front of this joint. It is quite heart wrenching. One must take off their shoes to enter. There is also a bunch of monks overseeing the action. In this kind of religious setting I am always unsure of the protocol. Is it bad form for me to now whip out a camping stool and park myself inside and draw? I mingle about for a few minutes trying to read the room. There was a Khmer band playing music and lots of people dropping by to make offerings. I made my decision to go for it. Parked to the right side of the entryway I begin to draw. As the sketch took shape, the monks came over to see. They were overjoyed. Every ten minutes they ran over to check it again. They started to move stuff around the alter because they felt it would make the drawing better. Angling statues so the perspective looked nicer. They couldn't speak English so they would point and nod, "is this better?" I would nod back an approval and they would grin ear to ear. At one point I looked up and it was my friend, Jingle Bells entering the Pagoda with five of her tiny friends. She and her mates were all over me. This did not go over well with the monks. They barked commands at the kiddies to move back and give me a certain amount of room. I tried to explain that it was alright, that Jingle Bells was my friend and it's alright if small children bother me. But the monks would have none of it. I was making a great drawing and I was to be left undisturbed. Jingle Bells was a little sad but she understood the drill. The kids all stayed three feet away while I finished my last hours work. When I was done the monks were so honored. They even offered me food, which I took because I didn't want to insult anyone. I'm sure it was food left as an offering but still it was all they had to give me and it was a lovely gesture. I said goodbye to them and Jingle Bells and went on my merry way.

Oh What Fun It Is To Ride In A Tuk Tuk

2011-01-03T03:54:00.015-05:00

In Cambodia we would do a lot of sightseeing in the morning and then go out for dinner and drinks in the early evening. The middle part of the day got very hot so we would go back to our lovely hotel and swim in the glorious pool. A few times I used this opportunity to go and draw on my own. I would set out from the hotel in no real planned direction. A few streets away I ran into some flower vendors. They were outside a pagoda. The flowers are sold to Buddhist's going to pay their respects at the pagoda. They also sold coconuts that were opened like a beautiful drink. Half their green shell was shaved off and there was a single lotus flower sticking out of the top like a straw. There was also a few holes drilled with some green stalks protruding from strategic points. A very beautiful object indeed. An offering of some sort. The shrine inside the pagoda was full of these coconuts. Anyway I parked my ass down in front of one of the sellers and began to draw. That peaked everyone's interest and they were all over me. Suddenly out of nowhere a four year old appeared. It became obvious I was her amusement for the day. She stayed right next to me the whole time I drew, touching the page constantly. Her mom came by to see that she was not bothering me. She wasn't. Her mom sat on the street next to cages of live black birds. For a fee, she would release two into the air. Some kind of Buddhist thing. The little girl was constantly trying to talk to me. She was barefoot and very dirty from running around the streets all day, making her all the more adorable. After about two hours of trying to talk to me, she had given up and was just standing quietly next to me holding my arm. Out of the blue, she started to sing jingle bells. Without thinking I chimed in and the two of us were singing it together. Suddenly her face lit up like crazy. She had done it. We had achieved a communication breakthrough. Jingle Bells, which was now my name for her was so excited that she made us sing it together another five times. When I was finally done, Jingle Bells gathered a few of her street urchin friends and they gave me a hug. I had made my first true friend in Cambodia.