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My family likes to take cruises together now and again. On one such cruise to the Caribbean, the weather turned gray, so I began sketching notes for this drawing. I was fascinated by the clamshell covering over the main pool area, and the fact that my parent’s stateroom was directly underneath, while my sister and niece bunked in one inside cabin and my nephew and I in another. The naval architecture of cruise ships is a funny combination of perogatives—diversion within a sometimes harsh environment. Glitz and steel plates.
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MY HOUSE IN UTAH
Feeling pretty good about working with pen-and-ink, I embarked on this drawing to commemorate this mid-sixties house I bought in Utah. Very Wightian in its own way, the house was clad with Roman brick and painted board-and-batten on the upper part, and cedar shake shingles that had been there so long, these wonderful mosses were growing on them. A stream ran through the back yard. . .
Drawing this house was super convenient, because if I lacked a detail, all I had to do was get up and sketch it, then return to my drawing board (see just beyond the garage). Alas, I had to move on from here. Having this drawing made it a lot easier to leave it.
This is where it really starts. The next five drawings are the beginning of the architectural explorations, and are a combination of direct observation and Idol-worship via published photos.
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This drawing was mostly done while visiting an actor who lived in New York City. Terribly handy to “the day job” in the PAN AM Building, it proved to be only 320 square feet. That is a loft for a bed in the center of the room, with storage for costumes and such underneath. The drawing was finished later in LA, then sent to the Actor, who enthused about it so much that I thought “Ah-hah! I am onto something here.”
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While thinking about a small house to build for myself, I began to focus on the Sturges house in Brentwood, California, a long-time favorite. Working only from architecture books, I did this drawing as an introduction to its current reclusive owner. While not agreeing to allow me a visit (poor health, too many uninvited snoops, it seems), he did say that the drawing reminded him “of flying over the house as if in a dream.” Perhaps one day, I will be able to draw it from life.
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While working in Utah, I rented this apartment for $500.00 per month. Since many people in Utah are descendants of the British Isles, they build these two-story row houses with huge lawns out front. Knowing that I would buy a house some day, I did this drawing to document my humble digs while working killer hours at “the day job.” I had (have) so much junk, I had to set up storage shelves in the kitchen to hold it all. Draw what’s there, I say.
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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ALICE MILLARD HOUSE, “LA MINIATURA.”
While familiarizing myself with Los Angeles architecture, La Miniatura in Pasadena, California, has long stood out in my mind. Impossible to visit, and difficult to fully comprehend, I have always wanted to know this pivotal design better.
While nominally a tower, the design seems to center on the circulation system of the stairs, hidden behind the firplace. Many more photos have come to light since my doing this drawing, so my guesswork has resulted in gross errors, which will be corrected someday, as the current owner has agreed to have me do a new drawing of the house.
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My 102-year-old Grandmother was living in this dingbat house in West Los Angeles and refused to move, so the family moved me in to look after her. She kept the place so warm that I was forced to seek natural air-conditioning. She would also wake up at 5:30 in the morning in order to catch the early showings of “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke” on TV Land. We always used to watch “Jeopardy” together. She would say to me, “You get so many of those answers—you should go on . . . that show with the three people. . .” Don’t ever room with a 102-year-old.
BEGINNINGS
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VICTORIAN HOUSE
It seems as if I have always been attracted to architectural subjects and documenting them. Growing up in Los Angeles, I became aware of the Victorian houses being pulled off of Bunker Hill, and they must have inspired this fanciful, if overgrown house, done during my Junior High-School years.
I recall being sent to a child psychologist shortly after doing this drawing. The doctor looked at it and said, “I zee zatchou have put gates on zee entry doorz und the vindoz iss black. You do nott vant anyone to be ablto come into your room or zee into your schpace, und thiss makes you reservt. . .”
I always thought that was funny. Victorian houses sometimes have gates on them, and exterior windows on a bright day are usually dark. . .
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TWO VIEWS OF THE PANTAGES THEATRE, HOLLYWOOD
Being a movie buff, I naturally became interested in the movie palaces of the 20s, of which, Los Angeles has many fine examples. With the encouragement of local theatre historian Terry Helgesen, I began to produce drawings like these of the Hollywood Pantages. They have faded terribly, but what does a 16-year-old know about archival ink?
I did many drawings of theatres for Terry, with some of them being published in the theater historian magazine, in whose vaults all the originals now lay.
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Some time later, I began keeping a diary of sorts. While visiting New Orleans, I did this drawing of the bed and breakfast I was staying in. I used the less-satisfying black to fill in the cut-through walls. I think light colors read better, but I have seen it done either way throughout architectural history.
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The 380
Willard, Ohio, Date unknown
Bird’s-eye view
1996
41” x 10”
Ink on paper; Xerograph copy
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THE 380
While at a presscheck at the RR Donnelley printing plant in Willard, Ohio, I had so much time on my hands that I began to draw the web-fed press on adjoining pages in my diary. My employer at the time had it scanned and did a silk-screen poster that we gave to all the printing crews.
There is a page on this web site devoted to The 380. Click here for more!
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Meyer May House
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1909
Exploded view
2009
54 1/2” x 34 1/2”
Ink on paper
May House provided by Steelcase Inc.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S MEYER MAY HOUSE
I have long been a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright. The incredible cunning of his forms is something that has always been a source of delight to me, and for a long time, I had felt that my doing a drawing of one of his early Prairie houses would be the Mt. Everest of drawing. I cannot imagine a more challenging subject.
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I began by looking for an example of this period of Wright’s career that was in prime condition. The Meyer May House in Grand Rapids, Michigan had undergone an extensive, exhaustive (and expensive) restoration in the early 80s by Steelcase Inc., and it is open to the public.
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15 May House provided by Steelcase Inc. |
So I collected all the pictures I could find of the house in books, then began my Preliminary drawing. I sent this to the heads of Steelcase, saying that I wanted to draw the building from life. They allowed me to do just that, and one fine Saturday, I showed up there, and they gave me the keys and said, “We’ll be back in three hours. Have fun.”
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17 May House provided by Steelcase Inc. |
I figured the best way to get all the photos I wanted to work from in so short a time was to videotape it. So that is what I worked from. By forwarding and rewinding and still-framing my way through the three hours of footage I took of every single nook and cranny in the place, I know the house pretty well. I could even can tell you how many dust bunnies are under the bed in the Master Bedroom (there aren’t any). I did paint chips for the wall colors, all the courses of bricks are accurate, I did pencil rubbings of all the stained glass windows—everything. I even got core sample notes taken from a well in the neighborhood from the Geology Department at the University of Michigan, so I could tell you what each strata of soil under the house is (well, I have it written down someplace).
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Studies for Meyer May House
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1909
Plot plan with trees; Color workbook for trees
2009
14” x 10 1/2” each
Ink, pencil on paper
May House provided by Steelcase Inc.
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A WORD ABOUT THESE CYLINDRICAL MOUNTS However, when the drawing is mounted on a concave surface, and when the viewer places their eye in the "sweet" spot (at the center of the concavity, and where the horizon line is in the drawing) all the distortion disappears. It's weird, but magical. |
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17 May House provided by Steelcase Inc. |
