As I rode the number 2 subway line the other day from 72nd Street to Fulton Street, I noticed a guy in a kind of funky white hat with a sketch pad in his lap. Turns out he was drawing the faces of the people sitting across from him on the train. His likenesses were very good, too. I asked him what he did for a living, but he didn't respond to that. When I followed up by inquiring about the sketching, he became animated and said that it was his first love. That everywhere he goes he does sketches and that in a few cases when he has taken the time to refine them a bit, he has even sold a few. I requested that he sketch me, but he declined, almost as if he prefers to do his sketching only when people aren't aware of it. I could tell he didn't want any more attention, so I ended our conversation, but I continued to watch him closely as he filled in the details of a young, attractive woman sitting directly in front of him who appeared not to know what he was up to.
Funny, I also couldn't stop envying him a little. I love to look at people on the subway in all their rich variety. How delightful to have the talent to capture them in the moment. I wanted to tell him to gather up all his sketches and put them into some sort of compilation about the diverse folks he captures on the subway, but I really didn't want to disturb him further. So I sat there thinking very hard about this idea, hoping that somehow what I felt was a wonderful notion for a book would enter his consciousness, causing him to act on it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a very complex post. A subway moment, so typically NY, an artistic encounter, a conversation or sorts with a reluctant companion, anonymous beauty, book idea and telepathy. I'm forced to engage in random response.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to document the diversity of the subway riding population, take a picture. I'm sure you have a camera in your phone.
Sketching is, of course, altogether different requiring the hand-eye and interpretive skills of an artist. I wonder if you knew this guy was taking pictures instead of drawing if you'd have volunteered or been creeped out?
Either way a stranger is 'taking' your image. Why should one feel weird and the other somehow righteous? Maybe because any doofus with a phone can take a picture but only a talented few can take what they see and translate it into an image by their own hand.
Oh, and what makes you think that this guy wanted to hear your thoughts any more than your voice?
I actually saw the same guy today on the two train and he sketched me while I was listening to my iPod.
ReplyDeleteI love this story, due to the fact that my husband and I both have a sketch by him and the first one was one our first date of me, and the pure randomness that two years later on another date night he drew my husband.... and as I have them in order of date our picture faces each other.... I am in love with this.
ReplyDeleteI love this story, due to the fact that my husband and I both have a sketch by him and the first one was one our first date of me, and the pure randomness that two years later on another date night he drew my husband.... and as I have them in order of date our picture faces each other.... I am in love with this.
ReplyDelete