I saw this guy and his family at the Monterey Aquarium. The trip there was wonderful. I was hanging out with my best friend from college, and we had the good fortune to arrive in time to see both of the feedings in the major tank exhibits.
If you haven’t been to the Monterey Aquarium, I strongly recommend that you make a visit. It’s a wonderful facility, and the tanks provide a moving and provocative window into another world. I hope to visit more often, but I was surprised there weren’t more people of African descent there. There were a few Black visitors here and there, but most–like this man and his family–were groups of African immigrants and their children (as opposed to the descendants of U.S. slaves). Indeed, most of the people of color present were family groups made up of immigrants and the children of immigrants. In and of itself, this is pretty cool. Given the demographics of California, I would have been concerned if the only guests of color in attendance were all born in this country. I do, however, hope that more Black descents of U.S. slaves will eventually find their way to this world-class attraction.
Childhood trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art helped me to fall in love with drawing and painting, and somewhere, some little Black kid is just waiting to fall in love with marine biology. All she needs is her very first visit to Monterey.
This is one of two kids I encountered during my last trip to the barber. I went to Butta Qutz on MacArthur instead of my usual Graham and Company. Both businesses have skilled barbers, but on the particular day I went to Butta Qutz, I had a spur-of-the-moment need for a cut, and I didn’t want to wait for an appointment.
This young man was sitting inside the barber shop, waiting for his friend. I have, however, chosen to depict him sitting out on the curb, since I couldn’t quite remember the layout of the inside of the shop (and I haven’t had time to go back in and look).
A couple of weeks ago, I was at Jim’s diner with my mom and my dad and my niece. At lot was happening at our table.
My niece was playing with my glasses, first taking them off me and trying them on and then putting them back on me and then giving them to my mother who put my glasses on over her own; and then she and my niece took turns wearing both pairs of glasses and modeling them for me and my dad; and then my niece spilled some of her milk and then the waitress brought three of our meals but only bacon for my niece because she forgot to bring the chocolate chip pancakes, and then my dad reprimanded her for neglecting to bring food for the youngest member of our party.
Despite all the activity at our table, the man in this drawing was somehow managing to enjoy a very peaceful meal just a couple booths over. He seemed to have a truly mindfulness-based approach to his sausage and eggs, and he was absolutely unfazed by all the action just two tables away.
If you have followed this blog for any amount of time, then you know I have much love for my nerdy brothas. You probably also know that every hundred drawings, I take stock of where I have gone with this series, and I set some goals for where I would like to end up. One thing that I have consistently identified as a goal is to broaden the range of Black men who appear in this series. The flipside of that goal is that I also need to avoid over representing those figures who fall into those categories that, for me, are easy and familiar (like nerds, academics, and men in suits).
As you can see from this drawing, though, I can never completely turn my back on the Black geeks and nerds of the world. They are my people. So, for your viewing enjoyment (and my own artistic satisfaction), I offer this drawing of the sweater guy from Starbucks in the cool reading glasses that he was wearing as regular glasses.
This happy guy had the most interesting head of locks. His hair looked a little like a hat, mostly because he had the type of incredibly low, incredibly full hairline that you rarely see on men over the age of 16. With his low hairline and high beardline, I could only see a small bit of his face clearly, as you can tell from this drawing. His eyes were big and expressive, though, and since he was one of those people who smiled with his entire face, I was able to capture a sense of him with only a few lines.
I decided to contrast the simplicity of his facial features with lots of detail and texture in his locks and facial hair.
This guy was sitting at his open laptop, staring off into the distance. His large and expressive eyes, his bushy hair and beard, his wide tie, and his club collar shirt made him one of the most memorable people in the establishment.
