My Napkin Dad Work World
I have a reporter coming over tomorrow so I have been cleaning up my office and studio. I realize I have never shown the Napkin Kin what my work space looks like so here you go. This is my office, where I do most of my work.
When you walk in my office, this is what you would see first.
Office with Cat
The painting over the futon is an acrylic painting, a self portrait from the 90’s called ‘Man of Color with Black and White Vibrations’. It’s an old foosball game table I appropriated for the painting. The drawing in back to the left is from the 80s and was done in Prismacolor colored pencils. The table and lamp are both 1950s era furniture I inherited from my parents. The futon was my ex-wife’s and the cat is Mayru, found by my daughter Chelsea way back in about 2002 or so.
Office Space
Turn around once you are in the office and this is what you would see, my desk and work area. I actually do my drawing in my office, not in my studio. My studio is for larger projects in drawing, photography and photo-collage while my office is perfectly arranged to allow for the drawing, scanning, researching, writing, social media and publishing that I do each day.
My dad’s roll top desk
I have had my dad’s roll top desk for many years. It’s one heavy mother to move but luckily it comes apart. Obviously I can’t close the top with the monitors on the desk but that is ok, I never did even when they weren’t there. To the right of the desk you can see a small dresser. It was my grandfather’s. If you look right above the keyboard you can see a gray pad. That is my Wacom tablet. I have had one for about 20 years now and can’t possibly imagine doing any of my computer work without one. Note that the monitors are up on volumes of the Encyclaepia Brittanica, 1985 edition I believe. My desktop computer is a Mac Pro, about 5 years old now. It’s my 3rd Mac. The first 2 each lasted 7 years before I retired them. I have had one problem in that entire time and it was resolved immediately. The scanner I use for the napkins is off to the right. On the left (where the napkin is) is where I do my drawing.
Drawing Area
Here is what my drawing area looks like after I am done. By the end of a drawing the pull out is covered with between 15-30 markers of various sorts. Today I used 3 different makes of markers, plus two different black ultra fine sharpies, a newer one for the actual drawing then an older one that is has less ink in it for the dots and thinner lines for the wings of the butterfly, the knuckles of the hand and the freckles on the face.
The test napkin with random marks on it was new at the start of the drawing this morning. By the end of the week it will be filled to the gills with marks and I will start to turn it into a new ‘Bodyless ghirl ghosts’ drawing, finding faces and a background then writing a short story that goes with it.
My quote and reference books
Behind my monitors are my quote books. I use them most every day. I do also find a lot of quotes online and have a number of favorite quote sites, but I like the books best. The first one on the left is from the 1930s and is one of my favorites. I find a lot of quotes that can’t be found anywhere else in that one. If you ever find an old quote book, get it for me, ok? The photo is of my 3 bio daughters, Connie, Chelsea and Rebekah. The card next to the pic is from the ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. It is always a good reminder (not read often enough) of how to stay on task and moving towards my goals.
Here are my markers. I first started drawing the napkins for my daughters with simple thin black markers. When I started adding color I just bought consumer grade markers, Sargent Art and PaperMate Flair, that you can see at the top on the right. Eventually I moved on to the Bic markers on the right. I used them exclusively for a while, slowly adding in the colored Sharpies you can see on the left with the gray barrels and the colored tops. Over the last 2 years I have increasingly turned to Prismacolors (in black, on the left) and Copic Sketch markers (the white ones immediately above the Prismacolors). I line the drawings with the ultra thin black Sharpies. I sometimes use SRX Metallic ColorSharp markers for shiny images.
My napkins are typical store-bought lunch napkins. I have been using the ones from Target the past few packages, they have a certain stiff or starched type of feel that I like, absorbent but not as absorbent as others. I store them in plastic bins, by year. In the pic you can see the bottom bin is filled with files but the one above that is years 1998-2004 (the years the girls were in school and I was drawing the napkins for them). Above that is 2008-2009, then the top 4 bins are years 2010-2013. As you can see I have thousands of napkin drawings by now. And yes, they are for sale!
Small Bookcase
Here is one of the bookcases in my office. You can get a feel for what I like to read (mostly non-fiction) by reading the titles. Most but not all the books I have read. The bookcase was originally made for ‘The Great Books’ that are now owned by Chelsea. I sanded, restained and varnished the bookcase many years ago.
The Big Bookcase
This is my big bookcase. I have had it for 30+ years. It’s filled mostly with art books. There is also a smattering of reference & history books as well as stray non-fiction books that didn’t make it into the other bookcase. The prints on the wall are Matisse cutouts that I got in France at the Matisse Museum in Nice. The little ‘Bless this Mess’ rock on the left was my mothers, always above the sink at home. The newspaper is a mounted version of the Tulsa World Living Section article about my Velveteen Women exhibition at Living Arts of Tulsa in January of 2012.
And there you have it, a little look into my space! Any questions?
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