Sometimes a single look can convey incredulity so clearly and powerfully without saying a single word…

Ajuan Mance

I ran into this friendly guy at the Barnes and Noble in Emeryville. We were both looking at the remainders section. I was looking at a slow cooker cook book and he was looking at a large format pasta recipe collection. He struck up a brief conversation when he asked me whether or not I liked having a slow cooker. It was fun talking food with this interesting stranger who is trying to improve his cooking skills. It’s always pleasant to run into someone who has similar interests. I hope we cross paths again soon.

Ajuan Mance

I was noticed the man in this drawing because he greatly reminded me of someone I knew in graduate school, minus the beard. Although my grad school acquaintance did not have locks, his hair was styled such that his coif had much the same silhouette. And he too had red hair, though the guy I knew was a bit more freckly. He was a nice guy and I often wonder whatever happened to him. He was really smart and funny and talented.

To my old grad school acquaintance: if you recognize yourself in this description (and sort of in the drawing, as well), drop me a note at eightrock@ymail.com and tell me how you’re doing.

Ajuan Mance

This drawing depicts a composite of photo I came across in The Colored American magazine and a drawing of man I saw on a poster for an early Black film. I gave him a somewhat modern shirt and undershirt, but I added the bow tie in order to include an element that could connect him to almost any decade between the early 1900s and now.

Ajuan Mance

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been watching a lot of The Ultimate Fighter reality series. I am a committed and enthusiastic fan of mixed martial arts (especially the UFC), and about three 36 episodes into the back seasons that I missed became obsessed with evaluating the likely UFC weight class of almost every tall-ish and somewhat athletic man that I encountered. For example, while I was waiting for the attendant at the meat counter to wrap my spare ribs, I tried to figure out which weight class each of the butchers might be if they were mixed martial arts fighters. I decided that the man in this picture, would definitely be in the heavyweight class. He was exiting the grocery store as I was walking in, and he was easily the tallest guy I’d seen all day. Even as I write this, I acknowledge that evaluating random men for their possible UFC weigh class might be construed as problematic and even objectifying. Fortunately this obsession passed as quickly as it came, to be replaced by a much more benign interest, in finding the perfect UFC T-shirt.

Ajuan Mance

It’s taken me a while to get this drawing up on the website. I misplaced it for a short time, and then, when I found it, I had to take a short break from posting in order to finish a work-related project. I’m glad that the pace of my job has slowed enough for me to post so many of the drawings I’ve completed over the last few weeks.

This drawings depicts a gentleman I encountered at Zocalo Cafe. He was kind enough to let me get ahead of him in line. I think he noticed how heavy my computer bag was on that day. In this drawing, I tried to capture his expression of quiet dignity and absolute non judgement. He seemed to be looking at me and the other customers with neither curiosity nor disinterest. He seemed more present in the moment than anyone I’ve encountered in a long time.

Ajuan Mance

I spotted this fellow artist at the Blick art store on Broadway, in Oakland. This drawing depicts him gesturing to a container of acrylic gel medium. He was pointing it out to the one of the employees, from whom whom he requested some information about price. We were both on the same aisle and looking at the same thing (acrylic gel medium, extra heavy, semi-gloss), and so I couldn’t help but notice him. And when you run into a fellow Black artist who just happens to have an amazing beard, and you’re trying to create a series of 1001 drawings of African American men…well…was there any question that his image would end up on my blog?

Ajuan Mance

I really enjoy doing father-son drawings. I haven’t included many so far, but I hope to include a lot more in the future. I saw this pair walking down the street in Alameda where I was writing at the Park Street Starbucks. For this drawing, I brought their faces closer together for the sake of composition, and I gave them matching shirts. Then I added a jazzy mid-century version of the logo along the left-hand side.

Ajuan Mance

I love drawing textures, and I’ve realized that I don’t do enough of them. Glad I could make #340 an homage to the coolness of texture and line.

I was recently up in Garberville, California. There are not a lot of Black folks up there, but I was pleasantly surprised to see at least one other besides me and my partner. This guy was chatting with friends on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store. He was wearing an old-school sports jersey, the type of which many people used to wear in high school in the ’70s and ’80s. Even in Northern California, far from Oakland, we still acknowledged each other with “the nod,” and then we each went on about our business.

Ajuan Mance