The Daily Draw

barbari bread memories

2012-01-24T15:26:00.000-05:00

When we lived in Iran, my mom would have us go down the street to buy barbari bread. The barbari bread stand had them hanging like sheets after they were baked.

Better late than never?

2012-01-03T17:25:00.002-05:00

I was going to make a travel report after our trip to Mexico and never got around to it...until now.

The soup that replaces blood.

2012-01-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

It's Korean tradition to have Ddeuk Guk (rice cake soup) on New Year's day but my mom always made Mi Ok Guk (seaweed soup) instead. Traditionally, this is eaten on birthdays and after women give birth(the seaweed is supposed to replenish the iron lost due to bleeding). In case 2012 decides to bleed me, I will ready myself by eating the soup tonight.

Inapproriate signs

2011-12-21T01:37:00.000-05:00

Folding Ninja

2011-12-08T15:10:00.001-05:00

I saw Shen Wei Dance Arts re-staging of "Folding" at the Park Avenue Armory last week. It was like an outer space opera about a fairy tale.

Cat massage

2011-12-07T12:36:00.001-05:00

* We thought at first it was a flyer for your cat to get a massage.

The Bagel Tasting

2011-11-29T12:22:00.001-05:00

Canada Notes Part 3 - Poutine

2011-11-01T14:35:00.000-04:00

French Fail

2011-10-27T13:50:00.000-04:00

Notes from a trip to Montreal, Canada

2011-10-25T13:11:00.000-04:00

Yes, the fries were that amazing. I still think about moving to Canada.

Bad Luck Show

2011-09-29T11:43:00.001-04:00

Good Luck, Poodle

Why Me?

The Saddest Song in the World

I made some watercolors in the theme of bad luck for this group show:

“Bad Luck Club~13 Female Artists from Brooklyn”
My Plastic Heart Gallery
210 Forsyth St, NYC
Opening on Sept 30th, 6-9pm
Closes October 30th

finally finished?

2011-09-26T12:06:00.006-04:00

Revisiting a sketch from 2 years ago.

Namja (Man) Kimchee

2011-08-09T12:30:00.003-04:00

I want to taste this kimchee.

jjajangmyun

2011-08-05T19:03:00.001-04:00

Poodle won't behave

2011-07-24T20:02:00.002-04:00

I've been working with clay lately.

Drama high

2011-06-23T18:33:00.002-04:00

mind melt

2011-06-07T20:25:00.001-04:00

who what

2011-06-03T11:28:00.000-04:00

mmm hmm

2011-06-02T18:23:00.009-04:00

Things currently sprouting...

2011-05-27T17:27:00.006-04:00

Far away thoughts...

2011-04-18T16:59:00.000-04:00

7 days until Spring

2011-03-13T20:40:00.002-04:00

The best chocolate cake in the world?

2011-02-08T16:15:00.004-05:00

The other day, I got out of the subway and saw a shop called "The Best Chocolate Cake in the World". I tried it right away.

Maybe perfect to someone but not for me.

Masks of Mexico

2011-01-19T17:35:00.000-05:00

Dancing to ingredients

2011-01-14T12:35:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, I saw Maki Morishita's solo, Tokyo Flat. She danced to someone reciting the ingredients on the back of a shampoo bottle in Japanese. It sounds boring but she made it funny and thoughtful.

Hello again to James Thiérrée

2011-01-13T09:51:00.005-05:00

I know I already said goodbye to 2010 but I should probably mention the most magical moment of last year - James Thiérrée turning corny into beautiful with a mirror attached to his hand, dancing around on-stage with himself in a field of audience members reflecting back at him.

Adios Año 2010

2011-01-12T14:57:00.006-05:00

I cured my lack of holiday spirit by going to Mexico and bashing in the head of a Santa piñata. Not really...I did climb some Mayan pyramids, swim in sinkholes, drink a margarita and eat an insane amount of pastries. My favorite part was standing in the waves at night watching the ocean. Sounds cheesy but I really liked it.

No holiday spirit

2010-12-20T18:45:00.002-05:00

This rabbit's colors didn't quite turn out how I wanted so ended up painting over the photo.

Sasha Waltz's Gezeiten

2010-11-10T10:50:00.004-05:00

It didn't all come together cohesively but there were a lot of visual surprises. I suppose it was like watching tides(gezeiten).

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

2010-11-05T14:35:00.004-04:00

Sutra at Lincoln Center

Legs from the Brooklyn Museum of Art

2010-09-23T13:00:00.003-04:00

The Arts of Africa exhibit at Brooklyn Museum of Art has some amazing costumes, beadwork and carvings.

Bunny #4

2010-09-22T14:31:00.006-04:00

I was trying to make it look like this rabbit in the foreground, but it ended up like this.

Collaged today

2010-09-21T17:00:00.003-04:00

Started doing collage with my junk mail inspired by Aya's craft day where I got to see these wonderful collage artists, Ellen Weinstein and Katherine Streeter, at work.

Frame from new animation

2010-09-19T18:44:00.004-04:00

~~Almost finished!~~ Finished!

Seeing verbs again

2010-09-09T12:53:00.002-04:00

Trying ceramics

2010-07-12T20:22:00.003-04:00

Testing...

2010-05-11T13:28:00.001-04:00

Working on an animation

2010-05-10T22:07:00.001-04:00

doodle

2010-04-26T15:24:00.001-04:00

State of the art

2010-04-16T13:42:00.001-04:00

My brain cracked in three places.

Two birds for my vocabulary

2010-04-15T12:18:00.002-04:00

Forest floor

2010-04-14T10:48:00.003-04:00

Bad Habbits

2010-04-13T12:03:00.003-04:00

Untitled

2010-04-09T16:39:00.003-04:00

Cat, Chat

2010-04-08T15:04:00.002-04:00

Pattern Studies

2010-04-07T08:15:00.003-04:00

Conscious stream

2010-04-02T11:30:00.002-04:00

Starting from seeds

2010-04-01T11:46:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to grow plants from seeds for the first time. It's exciting to see the little seeds pop out of the soil and unfurl into these little seedlings. The seedlings are starting to grow their first true leaves. I hope the lavender make it into their full selves, they are looking really weak compared to the indigo and tomato.

Questions to the head

2010-03-30T10:58:00.003-04:00

A piece of something

2010-03-24T12:23:00.003-04:00

A piece of a drawing I did for mandana's fiction blog.

Sweets dream

2009-12-18T00:24:00.000-05:00

Scene from a dance

2009-10-07T20:09:00.006-04:00

Paul Taylor at NY City Center. There were some fun moments though it seemed to last too long.

Detail from watercolor

2009-08-29T13:05:00.002-04:00

I've been trying some paintings without the computer using some art supplies leftover from college. The Holbien watercolors are still quite usable after laying dormant for 10+ years. The only one that didn't survive is Mineral Violet, which became too hard to squeeze out of the tube.

It was a little nerve wracking at first - each step was so final, the path becoming even more defined, the further I progressed. There were only two ways out of a painting, either start over or figure out a way to make it work without all the undos, the time machine or the ability to make infinite variations in composition and color. In a way, that was freeing, I tend to go off in too many tangents. Once the water dries on paper and the colors are fixed, there is no turning back. I just have to build on what is there.

Seeing verbs

2009-08-21T15:51:00.009-04:00

Vous voyez moi? Nous nous voyons. Alors, ils voient nous!

Instead of visiting with the Frenchmen...

2009-08-18T13:16:00.007-04:00

...I've been trying some watercolors for a group show.

Turkish dancing: Zeybek

2009-06-19T12:38:00.007-04:00

As far as I can tell, the Zeybek dance usually involves men dancing in a circle with synchronized movements. They kind of strut around with their arms raised, fingers snapping and do some fancy footwork. A wikipedia entry(not cited) says that their movements are based on hawks. They mostly wear mid-calf black boots with wrinkles/ruching around the ankles but sometimes, they wear what looks like embroidered cloth spats over their boots. Around their waist is some sort of scarf, sometimes with tiled handkerchiefs in front covering their bag belt and a short sword. Their neck scarves have long colorful tassels. Their hats are a mystery to me. They kind of look like flattened fezzes with huge fur trim inserted all around with crumpled felt flowers. I've also seen them adorned with what looks like miniature crocheted doilies. There are also versions where they wear conical red hats with a tasseled scarf tied around it. All those hats are equally amazing.

Here is my favorite video of this dance.

There are two men in my french book...

2009-05-12T21:55:00.003-04:00

...eating pastries and discussing pottery.

Now back to learning French...

2009-05-08T00:52:00.012-04:00

Today I got...

2009-03-06T13:44:00.002-05:00

so disturbed, I forgot to post this.

Winter keeps punching me in the face

2009-02-26T23:46:00.003-05:00

My face is raw, my muscles ache and all I can do is sniffle. Today, it finally let up enough for me to post something.

Dumb drawing

2009-02-08T21:05:00.006-05:00

Experimenting with Painter X brushes.

New Year Wishes

2009-01-06T00:01:00.002-05:00

My first cat

2009-01-05T23:52:00.005-05:00

When we were young, my mom would make posters for learning English. Now I need posters for learning Korean.

I'm so cold...

2008-12-02T19:08:00.004-05:00

...but if some dondurma* appeared before me, I would eat it.

* Means "freezing" in Turkish and is also the name for ice-cream. It is chewy and stretchy and churned with a long-paddled handle. The stretchiness is from the salep (ground orchid tubers) and/or mastic (resin from a relative of pistachios on Greek island of Chios).

Underpass

2008-11-29T13:06:00.001-05:00

Tall trees

2008-11-26T11:22:00.005-05:00

Topkapi Palace in Instanbul. The trees that lined the walkway to the palace were very thin relative to their height.

This post is part of a series of drawings from Turkey, thanks to the Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant.

Istanbul street

2008-11-25T14:31:00.009-05:00

Woman walking dog

2008-11-24T22:51:00.006-05:00

Devoured

2008-07-27T00:01:00.004-04:00

I don't have the energy to capture the energy.

The herbs in my life

2008-06-18T15:59:00.002-04:00

The sage gets fried and crumbled into everything. The basil makes the pizza. The mint joins my tea. The cilantro is too weak at the moment to do anything.

Garlic scapes are in season!

2008-06-18T00:00:00.004-04:00

A Pattern

2008-04-28T21:48:00.003-04:00

Out of the Woods II

2008-04-01T18:17:00.003-04:00

Out of the woods

2008-04-01T03:09:00.001-04:00

A sick drawing

2008-03-13T14:25:00.003-04:00

I am sick again. It's been happening a lot this year. The drip is coating everything, even my thoughts becomes smeary as soon as I think it... was that what I was just thinking?

Something from something I'm working on...

2008-03-08T14:21:00.002-05:00

Invisible massage or invisible message?

2008-03-06T13:57:00.006-05:00

I'm not sure which one of these I got yesterday. Because it was, as they say in french, invisible.

The french me

2008-02-20T12:58:00.002-05:00

The weather is so nice

2008-01-29T22:40:00.001-05:00

Translate the words alone and it says "It makes so beautiful". But together, they make the weather nice.

Learn French with me

2008-01-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

Sad dogs

2007-12-06T18:43:00.000-05:00

I've lost my momentum for posting about Krok. Maybe I will finish it all in 1 go later. At the moment, I have to research sad dogs.

The boat's music for leaving

2007-10-27T13:38:00.001-04:00

The first time I heard the music of the boat leaving port was during a nap. The loudspeaker came on and blasted a song I couldn't name but felt familiar. It sounded like a song about missing things or maybe I was just missing things - it was my 2nd night on the boat. It turned out to be an instrumental version of Aranjuez, mon amour.

Letters from Odessa

2007-10-18T23:09:00.000-04:00

And at the market:
Frilly aprons over sweats
Dried fish on lace

The boat

2007-10-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

T.G. Shevchenko

On the boat

2007-10-13T07:40:00.001-04:00

Sailors in their emergency suits.
09.26

Odessa arrival

2007-10-12T15:55:00.000-04:00

It was the autumn equinox. The moon was full and there was a fire and some soldiers at the airport. The lady at customs gave me the perfect look to complete the evening.
09.25

Turkish delight

2007-10-11T10:55:00.000-04:00

My first stop was Istanbul - an eight hour layover filled with beautiful eyes. Everyone had them.
09.25

2007-09-23T22:38:00.000-04:00

There will be no new drawings while I'm in Ukraine for Krok Film Festival but hopefully will have some stuff from the trip to post when I get back.

2007-09-21T11:11:00.000-04:00

2007-09-19T12:13:00.001-04:00

2007-09-18T11:34:00.000-04:00

The Drawing Resumes...

2007-09-17T21:03:00.000-04:00

The Daily Draw has moved into blog format. Hopefully, this will mean there will be more drawings.