Over the course of my two days at the Alternative Press Expo I was able to catalog a number of different times of interactions between vendors (like me) and attendees (like the man in this picture). My interaction with this man is best describe as the catch-pass. In the catch-pass the shopper catches your eye, quickly looks away, and then passes you by. Book fairs and expos can be an eye contact minefield, and if you look at a vendor for too long, she’ll wave you over and, before you know, you’ll be making a impulse buy…which, from this vendor’s perspective, would be totally awesome!
Here’s another drawing from my Alternative Press Expo sketchbook. The tall, slim brother in this picture took a good long look at my table, but said little. He gave me a nod of approval and a warm smile before moving on to the comic book sellers across the aisle.
This is the first of a series of drawings from my weekend at the Alternative Press Expo. This man stopped by my table on Sunday morning, curious about the reason I’d chosen to focus on African American men. He was not displeased by my attention to this subject, but he was a little uncertain about my motivations.
This is another drawing from my series of Black men in suits. This is a composite of several drawings of men I saw in the audience when I recently attended the musical Scottsboro Boys.*
Ajuan Mance
*In case you were wondering, the production was done very respectfully, despite its controversial use of blackface minstrelsy. If it wasn’t for the controversy, though, it probably never would have even made it to Broadway. Despite the previous accomplishments of its creators, whose earlier musicals are simply brilliant and edgy, this one felt thin, cautious, and unusually restrained…which a 21st-century musical in which it’s white creators blackface minstrelsy as a visual metaphor probably should be. Nevertheless, the show was not, ultimately, successful. The printed program, however, was outstanding! Seriously.
Inspired by my experiences at Oakland Art Murmur, SF Zinefest, and the Alternative Press Expo, I have created a shop on ETSY. At the 8-Rock Press store you can buy prints of some of the art from this website. I’ll be adding additional items in the near future! I hope you’ll drop by and take a look! Click on THIS LINK or click on the word “shop” at the top of this page.
I’m just coming off a wonderful and exciting weekend at the Alternative Press Expo. During the Expo, I did six drawings of attendees, and I can’t wait to post them. I should, however, finish up one family of pics before I start another series. So, here’s another drawing of Black men in suits, a theme that began to get my attention about a month or month or so ago. I seemed to see Black men in suits everywhere. Here are two more.
Last week it seemed that everywhere I looked I saw a brother with lots of hair. This week my eye has been drawn to Black men wearing suits. It all started on Saturday night. A friend hooked me up with excellent seats at the Andre Ward vs. Chad Dawson fight (at Oracle Arena). The audience was almost as much fun to watch as the fight itself. A lot of the folks in attendance were dressed to impress. Women were wobbling up and down the bleachers in outrageously high heels and men were styling and profiling in suits and ties that ranged from tasteful and understated to outrageous and excessive. Since that night I’ve had suits on the brain, and the next several drawings are composites of the men in suits I’ve spotted over the last several days.
This stone-faced gentleman was among the throng of unhappy customers waiting for service at the Best Buy wireless communications counter late Sunday afternoon. I had no idea so many people could have so many difficult tech questions, purchases, and returns so late in the weekend. It was a marathon queue session that would have been absolutely intolerable without the company of one of my best grad school friends, Michele B., who was purchasing a wireless hotspot. All of that waiting was just more time for us to catch up on each others careers, relationships, and travels. Best wishes to my very old friend! Can’t wait to see you again in November!
At Friday’s Oakland Art Murmur, I was selling small zines of selected drawings from my blog. I had a table at Uptown Body and Fender, and from where I was seated, not too far from the rear door, I had a great view of the attendees entering from the back parking lot of the building, where a local band was playing. I could hear also hear many of their interesting (and sometimes not-so-interesting) comments as they passed by. This man continues my theme of Black men with lots of hair, something I’ve been noticing a lot in recent days. My favorite thing about this drawing, though, is the 19th-century photograph of The White House that I used in his thought bubble. As he passed by my table” this man and his female companion were talking about the current president and his chances for reelection. Just as he was moving out of earshot, I heard him say, “If I was in the White House…”
