Lester Afflick was one of my best friends, and before his untimely and sudden death January 2000, I considered him my best friend. Lester was a poet, and while he seemed to live on the fringes of society, and on side jobs and family help, he was sought after by many for the parties and good times surrounding him.

It was weird how Lester Afflick passed on - he had a twin brother who lived in England who died the day before he did - he had been out, partying, as usual, right after the turn of the century and all of a sudden - he was found dead in his bed.

And I went to his funeral about a month later in Queens, and many people came to it, even on a cold, snowy February night - hundreds came.

I was at a reading tonight for I Dream About You Baby - Poems by Lester Afflick and I bought a copy - I also had dinner with a few friends; there were about 30 or more people who attended the reading tonight - here’s two videos I made from the Lester Afflick reading:

After leaving the reading I went to another parted on 5 Spring Street - for Wired Magazine - briefly connected with a few people at the party, and then left and came home, eager to blog about all of this.

Been sketching a lot - and enjoying mixing in different pen work and pencils - though I do notice my drawings often get very dark, like this one that I did of a garden nearby from where I live in Brooklyn:

I worked hard to try to get the color of the paper drawing as exact to my notebook as I can, and often I compare the two as I’m editing the settings.

I also did this larger sketch today in a larger sketchbook I bought recently.

Lately, I’ve been aware that I don’t need to cover the entire drawing, that I can leave some things out (see below):

It’s just deciding when to stop.

I also did a quick drawing of a model who I liked today at Brooklyn Artist’s Gym (but it was too hot to work much):

I have more drawings to post, but I’m ready to collapse - been a long day, and a hot one as well.

It’s Internet Week in New York and there’s a lot going on - and I’m doing some of it - and I wrote about it on The Analytics Guru in a post titled The Internet Marketing Conference and Diggnation Party - A long day!

I’ve also been sketching a lot and trying not to make my drawings too dark, leaving light within them - I think it helps to have others around to get feedback while doing artwork - maybe that is what school really is all about.

BTW, here’s a movie I made of today’s events: