Crealdé School of Art is updating their gift shop and so I dropped off 5 of my books, Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques. I signed each of the books and they are on sale in the Crealdé Gift Shop for $20. I realize now that I should offer the books on my website as well. They can be found in any bookstore around the world in many languages, but some might want to get it from the source. I need to get used to distributing books to bookstores and gift shops and get used to keeping track of the inventory. After signing the agreement the Crealdé agreement form, I decided to get lunch at Mellow Mushroom which is just a block away from the school.
Kathy Blackmore who hired me to work at Full Sale University years ago, used to take her animation teaching staff to Mellow Mushroom once a year as a treat. I used to always order a Cosmic Karma pizza which had a delicious spread of pesto.
Kathy passed away suddenly this year and so I felt the need to go to Mellow Mushroom in her honor. Kathy was an incredible children’s book illustrator and art instructor. I am still shocked and devastated that she is gone. We worked together at Disney on Brother Bear and then I helped her at Full Sail.
In Mellow Mushroom there was a new section of mural depicting the Beatles. I think it was done by local muralist Andrew Spear. I recognize his bold line work and crosshatching style.
In college I studied painting with Gill Stone who was known for his 1960s themes illustrated album covers. When I was a student, Gill was working on a 7-foot-tall painting of Rachel Welch for Playboy owner Hugh Hefner. All the flowers, rainbows and sunbeam patters reminded me of Gills work. In Gills freshman year painting class, easels were circled up around the perimeter of the room. he simply told all the young art school students to sit at an easel and start painting. There was no technical instruction, we just did the best we could and made marks on canvas. I learned as much from my fellow students as I did from the teacher.
An artist friend has been doing a good job of convincing me that it would be nice to study at something like the Florence Atelier. Even at my late stage of life, I have much I need to learn.
My Cosmic Karma Pizza was delicious. I tend to eat too fast while I sketch. I wolf down bites so that I can lean back over the sketchbook and make more marks. I got a large chunk of cheese stuck in my throat. It wasn’t a complete blockage. I could still breathe but I felt the lump in my esophagus. I couldn’t eat or drink any more. This had happened before. It sometimes helps to raise my hands over my head. I knew that I just needed to relax and the lump should slip down my throat. I sketched to distract myself and relax. The waitress came over and asked if everything was OK. That was a loaded question. What she meant to ask was if I wanted a box for the remaining slices of pizza I wasn’t eating. Dear God I didn’t want to choke to death on a Cosmic Karma. I considered going to the bathroom to jump up and down and try and dislodge the cheese. Just as I was about to exit my booth, I felt the mass slip its way down my throat. Thank God.
I had another slice of Cosmic Karma but took much smaller dainty bites. I also kept sketching, but not as furiously. People kept entering the restaurant and I debated about who I could get in my sketch. I did get a box for the last slice which would have stuffed me like a tick.