My cousin David asked me to draw a picture of him with his special-lady-friend, Ashley, wearing a diamond ring. He gave her this drawing as an anniversary gift, then got down on one knee, offered her a diamond ring and asked her to marry him.



She said yes.


This is the drawing of the week for February 3-9, 2008.

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Drawings of the Weeks
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I don't remember drawing this but I found it on my fridge and it's got my signature on it - though I usually can spell my name right.

Billy is most awesome, in his way.

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Friends
Portraits

We're considering hiring Marcus Rios for an event, so he came over to our kitchen to give us an example of his cooking. Marcus is all about the ingredients - he made a platter that included Drunken goat cheese and quince paste and presented us with a scrumptuous array of other delicacies, all served with pleasant foodie conversation.

This is the drawing of the week for May 6-12, 2007.

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Dennis Kelly is the president of my union, the United Educators of San Francisco. All the teachers I know were quite happy to elect him as president as the previous union leadership had been just a bit too cozy with the administration.

He spoke at the substitutes meeting about the current contract negotiations, which had just officially reached an impasse. The next step is mediation followed by independent information gathering which will then leave us with the possibility of a strike.

He can also draw. After seeing this picture, he did his own spot-on caricature of me drawing him.

This is the drawing of the week for February 5-11, 2006.

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Teachers
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Drawings of the Weeks

We (all of us in California) executed Tookie Williams today. As a citizen, I must take some of the blame. Williams was one of the founders of the Crips gang in Los Angeles before he was convicted of four gruesome murders which he may have not committed. While he may be innocent of the crimes he was punished for, he was not, by any account, an innocent person. He was a cruel thug.

Then he changed. He became a force for peace. His history gave him a unique position from which to encourage children to avoid gangs and to help gangs form truces and find peace. He has certainly saved lives, but now cannot continue that work.

Williams claimed his innocence until the end, even though an admission of his crimes would have significantly increased his chance at winning clemency from Schwarzenegger. If we suppose that our criminal justice system is seriously flawed, and Tookie was convicted for crimes he did not commit (rather than the many he likely did commit), than it seems we killed Tookie for his innocence and his integrity. The Governator added insult to this injury by using this case to control the news cycle for two weeks before making his obviously political decision to regain the favor of the apparently blood-thirsty Republican base.

Being a party to this killing is disturbing, but I recognize that this is only one of many thousand deaths that I share some guilt for. While Bush recently estimated that 30,00 Iraqis have been killed in the US invasion, the number, according to people who are actually experts at this sort of thing, is more like 100,000 - and that does not include the massacres in Fallujah. This American Life episode 300, does an excellent job of discussing this topic.

This is the drawing of the week for December 11-17, 2005.

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$10 Drawings
Political
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Drawings of the Weeks

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Galileo High School
Portraits

Back when we lived in Clarksburg, circa 1976.

This was a gift for my dad on his 60th birthday.

This is also an example of a painting I can do from your photograph.

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I met Valerie when I was working as a tutor with the USF Upward Bound program ACCESS class. I drew this portrait (I've got to give credit to Fly for this format) of her and she told me about some of the impressive activities she's been involved with including her theater experience under the tutelage of her great great aunt, Mary L. Booker. I was able to give her this drawing after her dance class at the African American Culture Complex in the Fillmore.

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USF Upward Bound
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Geoff took this picture I drew of him facilitating a studio member meeting at CELLspace. Check out Geoff's altars and mobiles some time.

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Art for Voters
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CELLspace
Portraits

A portrait commissioned by Brandon and Jill.

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