A Challenge for the Whole Family (text version)
A Challenge for the Whole Family by Jack Tea Gregory It was June 8th of 1995 when the incident happened. It felt like a normal day, nobody expected anything out of the ordinary. My mother was waiting for the 9...
A Challenge for the Whole Family
It's the 13th anniversary of Patti's accident. Jack wrote a lovely essay about how that event has effected him since he was just a baby. Here's a video of him reading it at his school's literary festival. Oh, and...
Blue Skies
From a comment submitted re. my last post. What is creativity? Creativity is the ability to come up with productive, enterprising ideas and work that, at the very least, should have aesthetic, if not monetary value. It's all very...
Why?
Danny, The moment you get up to get your sketchbook to draw, why do you do it? What makes you want to make a sketch your sketchbook? Do you do it for you or does knowing other people will...
The Three Stooges
All too often, I see odd things on my walks home. This is one example, seen tonight. I think this may be the person behind it, one Oliver Walker. I mean, could there be others?...
Beyond the finish line
Jack just made this beautiful piece by making a squiggle and then drawing portraits in each section. Last weekend, Jack had his 'audition' at the art high school, doing three drawings under supervision and showing the portfolio of work...
The Mouse Race
In most normal parts of the world, when children graduate from their local middle school (also known as intermediate school or junior high school), they go onto their local high school. Their school choice is pretty much set by...
An Illustrated Life
Amanda Kavanagh's workspace. From my new book, "An Illustrated Life". I apologize for how long it has been since I last wrote any sort of decent blog entry. It’s not that I’ve been sitting around paring my toenails and...
Making Today Matter
I drew this comic and then, without thinking, filled in the ballons. Some how it seems right to me but it may just be crap. Whatever. I am far away from home and have been for ten days. I...
Cigars all 'round
My new niece, Maggie (8 lbs. 9 ozs), arrived yesterday, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Her middle name, Kate, used to belong to my grandmother. Maggie and my sister Miranda and my bro-in-law, Chris, are all doing...
VD+1
Yesterday was several memorable things: freezing cold, Valentine's Day and my sister, Miranda's 40th birthday. Today promises to be significant too as Miranda is in the hospital in Brooklyn, well-dilated and about to pop out her first child. We...
New Year's Eve
We had a fun New Year's Eve dinner with our friends Julie Salamon, Bill Abrams, Brian DePalma and their various kids. We are making this sort of a tradition and we always go to the same restaurant in our...
2006 in retrospect
How I packed a busy year with art experimentation.
Portrait #615 and some advice
Hey Danny, I have loved your stuff since finding your site. I need some counsel from a fellow habitual doodler. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to do stuff with art. I even got my bachelors in...
Sucking and Idling
I like to draw complicated machinery in the streets. If buildings are my landscapes, trucks are my wildlife. I drew this critter hurriedly and from my uptown balcony. Just as I finished, it pulled in its trunk, stowed its...
Notes to Myself
I've used every sort of journal-book over the past decade, but the one I've returned to the most was the pocket-sized, drawing Moleskine. The paper is a little odd; it has a water resistant treatment designed, I guess, to...
Like father, like son, kinda
My father has been drawing self portraits every day for ages. He just sent me a day's output, drawn looking down into a mirror lying flat on the table. In the accompanying note, he says: "Doing things in pen is...
Through a Glass Brightly
On getting reading glasses at 45
Too hot not to cool down
Life without drawing is bad. And drawing without life is bad too.
Every Hair Matters: a graphic novella
Creeping down the Promenade
The effect of globalization on the landscape and how we draw it.
Home again, home again, clippety clop
God, has it really been three weeks since I last wrote anything here? So much for everyday mattering. Sorry for the absence. I have just come back from Los Angeles to find that the weather in New York is...
Gran
My grandfather had a small stroke last week and now one of his ankles is paralyzed. After a depressing day or two, he got a splint and is, by all accounts, quite happily mobile again. Gran was a doctor...
Meet the Liquid Pistols!
Jack's band, the Liquid Pistols, played their first gig ever last night. They rocked the house with 'Our House", our boy hammering out a hoof-tapping beat on the drum-skins. (Their set list had originally also included "Let it Be"...
New socks
My mum knitted them and I got them in the mail last night. I am wearing them today. Toasty! Thanks, Mum....
Rat Art
This post was inspired by Brenda. Jack has been working on drawing rats for the last few days (he is studying the Bubonic plague in school) and we have been thinking a lot about them. He doesn't want them...
My Conversion
Dear W_____: First of all, thanks for your note and, secondly sorry, for the delay in my response. Your words were quite important and I wanted to give them some time to think of proper response. I have looked...
Dadhood
A group of us men discussed the ups and downs, ins and outs of being a father. The results were published this morning on The Morning News. Check it out and then be glad you have your own dad....
New Year's Resolution
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world".- Gandhi New Year's Day. It's a good time for stock-taking, for self-appraisal. With each change one makes in oneself, one see more changes yet to be made....
Danny's not got a brand new bag
Thursday, 8:10 a.m. Getting ready to leave the house and start the frigid, two-and-a-half-mile walk to my office, I suddenly realize I don't have the bag I use to tote my pens, paints, and my journal. I feel my...
Childish things
Thoughts on why we lose our childhood creative impulses and love of making art.
A Dawg's Tale
Jack's newest experiments in stop-motion animation.
Chip Off the Old Blog
My boy, Jack Tea, launched Life in LaGuardia, his own vblog recently. If you;d like afull report on Halloweena nd whey he doesn;ts mil in pictures, cjheck it out.
Art class memories
My memories of the art classes I took as a child in three countries
Perfect storm
So far this millennium has been a strained and sweaty passage. As the moorings are loosened, it seems that any and everything could unravel. A terrorist attack a half a mile and four years away, still feels like it...
Wisdom and strife 'nut
The new installment of my ongoing pre-parental saga, Peanut, contains much good advice from my mother and grandfather as well as a description of the first time I betrayed my loyal and swollen spouse....
Proof
I just spent a lovely couple of hours on 67th Street going over the first round pf proofs of my new book with Anna, my wonderful Hyperion production person. There are hundreds and hundreds of drawings and watercolors and...
Releaf
On Sunday, I took the first drawing class I've had since I was eleven. It was at the Open Center, a sort of granola-y place in Soho which offers many new Age classes on creativity, meditation, and other sorts...
Happy Old Me
It'll be my birthday in a few days and this year I'm feeling it. My ankle is still a little shaky and it has made me physically unsure. It gets a little better every day but it has made...
Sunday Notes
It's hot and I'd rather be drawing or watching a movie or eating another cupcake so let me just jot down a number of things. Had a rare time drawing on the Bowery this morning with Tom K. It...
Slow=Know
Basic advice to someone who draws but wants to do it better.
Pile of the Day
The curtain rises on the PS41 Fifth grade production of "Annie Get Your Gun" tomorrow night. Jack has a featured role then appears in virtually every scene as a member of the chorus. It's his first time treading the...
Catch of the day
Joe's second mouse....
Special of the Day
Saturday night dinner at Jerry's on Prince Street. A chance to draw on the paper tablecloth with my squishy Faber-Castell PITT artist pen, a B tip. The coloring comes from fingers dipped in our dinners. A little ochre-toned vinaigrette...
Decision of the day
I have read 448 pages of Wally Lamb's " I know This Much is True" and I hate it and am not going to waste time on another single one. Sorry, Oprah. Sorry, trees....
Surprises
My week has been full of new and unexpected experiences, some pleasant, some a drag. First Patti managed to fall and fracture her leg in a couple of places and, though it's not too dire, she's been sidelined with...
Where the hell have I been?
It has been far too long since I have had the time and energy and inspiration to write anything here. I'll try and jot down some of the reasons here: WORK: The first wave of my ad campaign broke on...
Poor Joe
On Saturday, we took Joe for blood tests and a physical in anticipation of his castration operation. I was a little ambivalent; he is such a beautiful creature and it seemed like it might be nice to breed him...
Sunday in excrutiating detail
Time for another self-indulgent, all-about-me entry. Midnight to 12:30: Watched a freakishly excellent movie called Five Obstructions (in Danish: De Fem Benspænd). I usually don't have the patience for Lars von Trier, but this film kicked ass. Jørgen Leth...
All I did on Tuesday
Feeling a little la la
I have been holding on to my jet lag quite well while here in LA; getting up early and going to sleep most nights before ten. Still my internal clock has slowly drifted west a little more each day;...
Yesss
Dear Customer Your service request has been completed and your product is on its way. Please allow two business days for delivery. Apple...
They pull me back in
It's a year and a half since I left my last job, left meetings, left acount executives, left downsizing, left that tight feeling between my shoulderblades. For the next year, I managed to do a lot of drawing and travelling....
Aaargh!
After twenty years of using macs, I have finally experienced the ultimate disaster, a massive meltdown of my drive directory. Last night I had to reformat my hard drive, reducing it back to the zeroes. This follows a few days...
More blood
My uncle, Ian, is a great potter and sculptor. In the early 1960s, he was a British film star and had a pop song on the charts. You can read about him and see some work at his website. And,...
like father, like son
A few days ago, this drawing arrived from my stepmother, Sue. It was drawn by my father when I was about three, around the time my parents were divorced. Many of these objects are things of my mum's. I...
One down
I was going to write some big 'how far we've come' entry but I'll just leave it at this: One year ago today I wrote my first entry on this blog. I have thought of chucking it a hundred...
Final '04 resolution completed
Kinky
Far too active to draw! This week, we had a visitor. Joe's twin, Kinky, stayed with us for a couple of days and our house became a one-ring circus. While the two pups are twins, they're clearly fraternal; rather...
The desk clearing moment
Les toits de Paris remind me of La Bohéme. Whenever I am working wildly on many things, I let everything else in my workspace run amuck. It's an ordered chaos and I know where things are in the debris....
Joe report: Still cute
Mo' Joe
I am getting used to drawing our new hound, Joe, a little bit each day. He is a lovely little guy, very affectionate and well-mannered, but I can only draw him when he naps. With time, I'll get him...
Sour grapes and bleeding hearts
At various points in my life, I have not gone with my gut. I have relied on my head exclusively. I am a good talker and so am able to construct rationales for most things and then press them...
Not in the mood
I've just been reading the journalier blogs I go to weekly or so: Andrea's and Keri's and Penelope's and Richard's and I'm not into it. I feel crabby and over-caffeinated. I have been less entranced by these sorts of...
Joe
Here's the newest member of our family. He's a 14 week old, miniature long-haired dachshund and Jack's constant companion. After three days, we all love him a lot. If he ever slows down, I shall try to draw him....
RNC in NYC II
If you missed the carnival and the passion of delegates and protesters and would like to see what I saw, visit this special gallery of photos I've taken around town this week. Warning: liberal bias....
Summer in the City
I have returned to the city I laughingly call my home to find the mercury, humidity, and political instability have soared. Along with uncounted hundreds of thousands of like-minded lefty pinkos I marched under the Sunday sun to welcome...
Summer Time Blues II
After my freshman year, I got a job working for my congressman, the Hon. Fred Richmond. Fred had been arrested a couple of years before for soliciting a young boy but, in a style that would seem very out...
Mon Cherry Amor
Summer Time Blues
Memories of weird summer jobs I've had from the slaughter house to the White House.
Desk Job
It's taken me months to get around to cleaning my desk. I've just chucked things into the back of it, and they've accumulated in tectonic layers. I have a general sense where important things are and can root around...
616
On June 16, 1986, I walked through this door and met the loveliest girl in the world. On June 16, 1991, I walked through it again and married her. Thank you, PL, for putting up with me ever since....
Ten thousand things to draw
Content of kitchen cabinet, fridge, bedside table, medicine cabinet All my shoes, clothes Covers of ten favorite CDs, books Every significant front door of every place I've lived or worked Everything I eat today Contents of my bag, of...
Living well through bad drawings
When some people see an illustrated journal, they say, "Wow, that's great. I could never do that." With some coaxing, they may be persuaded nonetheless to give it a try. Others say, "Wow, I'm going to do that." And...
Seeing the Site
I was riding my bike down the West Side yesterday afternoon and passed Ground Zero. It's a big construction site these days and, like a typical New Yorker, I just breezed past. For some reason, this time I noticed...
Hellhounds on My Trail
"Context is everything that isn't physically contained in the grooves of the record. It includes your knowledge that everyone else says he's great: that must modify the way you hear him. That he was a handsome and imposing man,...
Why do I do it?
The story of how and why I started drawing again and starting this blog and writing books and all that stuff.
Childrens' books
This morning, Jack's class had a publishing party. Every couple of months, we are invited to his classroom (Patti can't go as the 4th graders are on the 4th floor and the school has no elevators) to share pieces...
Just add water
I'm no Archimedes, but I’ve had a disproportionate number of good ideas in the five minutes or so of my day I spend in the shower. I’ve explored a number of possible explanations. My shower pressure is fairly powerful for...
Electron Fast
I have not posted or visited this site for a week. I have been on an "electron fast", forsaking all activity on the computer and television (except for those things absolutely essential to my business). The rest has been liberating....
Deaths in the Family
When I picked my Mum up from her trip to Africa three weeks ago, Fred was shockingly thin. Last weekend, he was much more subdued than normal and grew irritated and snapped at our hands when we petted him...
Class 5H
Dear Class 5H, Hazelwood Junior School, London, UK: I am so very happy to hear that you enjoyed my book, Everyday Matters, and that you are now keeping journals of your own. I was blown away to see how...
Happy Valentine's Day, PL
Feast your eyes on the most beautiful girl in the world. I hope your day is as full of love as all of mine are....
How are you?
Today my hypochondria is in remission but I never know quite when it will flair up. I was a little light headed yesterday and assumed I had internal bleeding, a cerebral aneurism, a tumor. Today, I feel fine but I've...
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
Two years ago, the manuscript of what was to be "Everyday Matters" was lying in a drawer. At the time, it was pretty much like the book that's in stores today but it was called simply "A New York Diary"....
A martini memory
This is a photocopy of a watercolor I just made for our friend, Cynthia. It commemorates the night I introduced her to Patti, four years ago. We went to the Pierre, had too many martinis and, upon leaving, Patti...
Patti's problem
Patti and I were discussing her journals and scrapbooks a few days ago and, for once, I was able to give her some useful advice. Her dilemma: she collects all sorts of clippings and pictures and cards and souvenirs and...
It's not easy being chartreuse
I start most days by choosing a palette. It's often a fairly subconscious process as I flip through my pants, shirts, sweaters, etc in the semi-darkness of my closet. I have a lot of drab, typically male colors: khaki,...
To Jacqui
Illustration by my favorite artist, Jack Tea GregoryIt is hard to be perfectly imperfect. I am having a helluva time struggling with it today. I want to be approximate, patient, comfortably flawed, and yet I am afraid that I...
The Good Book
So what is this journal business all about? Is it narcissism, a vainglorious attempt to turn one's life into some sort of keepsake for posterity? Or is it about commiseration, "Dear Diary: today sucked..."?, a wallowing that lets you turn...
All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Drawing:
Always carry a pen. The best way is to be still. Everyone can do it, except those who say they can't. Forget your eraser. There are no mistakes. Only lessons. Don't do it for fame. Do it for you. Don't...
Crippling Anxiety
I was telling Patti this morning that I woke up at 5:30 and started worrying that what if I was to try to make a living as an "artist" and I develop arthritis and can't hold a pen any...
A record of my exploration into all aspects of drawing, illustrated journaling, creativity, and the inspiring aspects of art. By the author of "Everyday Matters," "The Creative License", and "An Illustrated Life" and other books.