recent musings

Sketchbooks are Time Capsules... Fig.2 Dinon-Ce-Soir; Ballpoint on paper; 1963 They preserve drawings, sketches, notes and ideas which otherwise can disappear. Happily, I am by nature, a collector and since 1963 have saved over 75 of them. They vary in size, format, durability, format and purpose. The oldest ones date from my Junior Year Abroad as a college student in France (1963–1964), and continue to the present. I began to appreciate the scope of the collection two years ago when I laid them out in chronological order on my studio floor. Fig. 3; State of Mind; pen and ink on…

I began collecting books when I was about 13. I had a friend who was already doing it and and I wanted to be just like him. Whenever we came to the city we'd buy books at bookstores in or near the Port Authority Bus terminals at 42nd street (the Book Bar) and uptown at 168th street and the George Washington Bridge. I also mention this because going to a bookstore was very exciting. Unlike the dimly lit public library, paperback books were displayed with their covers showing. Racks and rows of them were a visual delight filled with discovery…