The Morning News today features a gallery with 15 spreads out of my Moleskine Subway Sketchbooks. To make more sense of the drawings there was an interview, which turned out to be about drawing, subways and some points of view on New York. Some of the drawings in the Gallery have not been previously published, as they are a sample of work from various sometimes relatively recent sketchbooks.
The feature (interview and Gallery) is called "Seeds for the pen." (thank you Rosecrans Baldwin for putting up with me.)
If you happen to be a visitor coming from the above mentioned feature and do not really know what to expect here on witoldriedel.com, there are two complete Subway Sketchbooks with comments (about 75 pages each) buried in the archives of this blog. You might want to use the search function and look for "Subway" or "Moleskine"...
If you do not want to read much and would just like to look at some stuff, then just take a look at the shamelessly incomplete Catalogue section of the site. (And those with especially short attention spans, might want to take a look at the drawings; those with even shorter attention spans probably never made it this far anyway.)
Thank you so much for visiting the site. It amazes me every day how many people (and robots) choose to do so. (yey!)
Wonderful, Witold! I enjoyed that interview and seeing the images (again, in many cases). I also feel like a fool for always having been under the impression that you are German, when your first name should have given away that you are, in fact, Polish. I blame the lack of an 'about' page ;-)
Posted by: marrije on January 5, 2004 10:28 AMAwesome, and congrats! Did you pick your favorites, or did they pick their favorites from the ones you've posted in the past?
Posted by: Bill on January 5, 2004 10:50 AMOh, yes Marrije, I am originally from Poland... hmm... I wonder how long it will take for us to just consider ourselves to be from Europe... : )
Bill, we created a pool of favorites and I then added some of the ones never before shown and put them in an order...
There were originally two versions of the gallery, a 30 spread version and this 15(+1) spread version currently up on the Morning News site.
I stumbled across The Morning News this afternoon (I'm not a regular reader) and what should I see but an interview with you! Congrats, it's very cool. I'm sure you'll break your hosting limit... ;-)
The subway experience (the day-to-day experience, not the tourist experience) is difficult to understand for those out there in automobile land.
Posted by: Todd W. on January 5, 2004 05:19 PMNice interview and gallery. Do you ever show your work to any galleries? I know a lot of artists/curators/gallerists...
Posted by: barry on January 5, 2004 06:29 PMThank you Todd, you are right!, the subway experience is very special. : )
(My hosting people seem to be very kind to me, they just upgraded my account recently... which was very nice.)
Barry, hmm, you are mentioning three very interesting topics. : )
Posted by: Witold Riedel on January 5, 2004 07:10 PMThanks Witold for the wonderful site! I live in sunny (and stinking hot!) Australia and have visited New York twice now. Your site and your your wonderful words remind me exactly what it is that I love about New York: the small, simple details that often get overlooked in the daily hustle and bustle of the big city.
~Banky (aka. Kasia)
Posted by: Banky on January 6, 2004 11:47 AMI've been enjoying your site for probably about 5 months now... I got into the rhythm of checking out the drawings and writings, and it reminds me of my time in New York several years ago.
Before you become so rich and famous that I could never afford your work, I wish you could draw an album cover for one of my independent music releases... :)
Best of luck!
Posted by: roddy schrock on January 6, 2004 12:03 PMgladly or sadly, there was no burberry plaid designs...
and fancy that I just got a Moleskin for Xmas... inspiration? yes.
Posted by: jesse on January 6, 2004 08:06 PMKasiu, dziekuje... : ) Jest tutaj momentalnie niestety bardzo zimno. : )
Posted by: Witold Riedel on January 7, 2004 12:54 AMroddy, let's email each other about this... where can I listen to your music?...
Posted by: Witold Riedel on January 7, 2004 12:55 AMjesse, a moleskine for x-mas... sounds perfect...
i think the best gifts are beginnings...
sounds wonderful!
Witold, congrats on the feature/interview and thanks for letting us in on more of the process behind [some of] your work.
The New Year's off to a great start for you. Cheers.
Posted by: resonance on January 7, 2004 02:32 AM(I am truly amazed by what is happening, of course...)
Posted by: Witold Riedel on January 7, 2004 07:34 AMCongratulations from windy Wellington, New Zealand (back in Tokyo over the weekend). It's fantastic that new audiences are getting to see the work of such a gifted artist :-) I look forward to continuing to share more of your daily observations from New York.
Posted by: lil on January 7, 2004 03:29 PMCongratulations, Witold! I enjoyed reading the article in the Morning News and hope to see you in other pleasantly surprising places more often...
Posted by: Matilda on January 7, 2004 03:37 PMSweeeet! Congrats!
Posted by: Pat on January 8, 2004 03:32 PMyes yes! i gather that you've already seen how excited i am for your morning news coverage on my blog. treats abound!
what are your thoughts on a moleskin tea party?
perhaps one in which a handful of enthusiasts look through each other's tidbits and afterwards do a little sketch mission?
lover'ly
Posted by: Emily on January 9, 2004 10:23 PM