'The Love Box' ?

Last week was spent on a business trip working at a trade show booth in Las Vegas.
I've been there numerous times both on business and on pleasure trips and still can't get over how surreal the place is.
Although I was really tired from working everyday, I still had to get the room sketch out of the way before I could really rest. After 8 years of drawing every hotel room I stayed in, it's almost engraved in me to get the sketch done. It does feel good after completing it though.

Out of the items that stood out in the room, 'The love box' was a small black box on sale along with other things such as snacks and drinks. I was curious on what was inside but was scared to touch it since all these items on display were on a weight sensor and touching it causes the item to be charged to the room.
The room was a little dated but was fairly nice.

Quick weekend in NYC

My wife wanted to go see a musical with her friend so we drove in later Friday night and drove back Sunday morning - a real quick trip. It's been a good 6 months since we last visited New York City so it was nice to visit.

Saturday was a bid windy but sunny and my urge to want to sketch was much stronger than going to see the musical - so I hung around the 42 st/ time square area for a few hours. The first 2 sketches were from Bryant Park - a small but beautiful park right behind the public library.

Warm up sketches of the NYPD car, 3 recycling bins and a statue.




2nd sketch is looking at the back of the public library facing the east side. They had a really nice comfortable rocking chair perfect for sketching. While sketching, I had a small conversation with a man cleaning the park that came over and complimented my sketch. He also mentioned that I should go draw Times Square and if I could do that, I would then be really good!




I took up the challenge and walked over to times square :)


It felt funny walking around times square looking for a subject to sketch. There's just so much going on in this place that it's just an overload of information. I just picked a spot and started to sketch the buildings looking North of Broadway and 7th Ave. In the beginning, it was pretty boring and uninspiring. After a while I noticed 'Naked Cowboy' walking around - a muscular guy in underwear, cowboy boots playing a guitar. He was quite popular with girls/ woman of all ages having pictures taken with him. Then I noticed there were more Naked Cowboys and a few Naked Cowgirls too - the guy had started a franchise! Clever.
There were tons of other people in various costumes too - Elmo, Mickey, Minnie, Buzz Light year, Dora, Spider Man, Iron Man etc... you name it, they were here. Being in times square for an hour was more than enough for me - I was exhausted.

That night we went back to my fathers place in New Jersey and went to an all you can eat Korean BBQ place. Since he lives in a town with one of the highest Korean populations in the US, the quality of Korean food in restaurants is absolutely amazing. This place had an amazing Kalbi BBQ and was hard to believe that it was all you can eat for a fixed price.


I personally like the Kalbi shown in #2 where they would cut it off of the bone as a long meat rather than the #1 where there are smaller pieces of the bone left inide. Once cooked, the server would come over at a perfect timing to cut the meat in perfect sizes using a scissor.

We were stuffed. It was a fun trip!

Samurai exhibition @ MFA (Boston) starts tomorrow!

Since I'm a member of the museum, the other night I was able to take a sneak preview at the Samurai exhibition starting tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts.  http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/samurai

This was by far the largest and the most impressive exhibition I had ever seen.
The 2 hours I was there surely wasn't enough time and I plan on heading back to capture more artifacts.

My very first Solo Exhibition in Boston!

I'm super excited to announce my very first solo art exhibition in my hometown Boston!
My work was selected at Gallery 263's curatorial proposal series and I'll be showing 80+ original Hotel drawings I've done over the past 8 years.

If you're ever in town (or better yet during the reception) it would be great if you can stop on by!

Rendered Rooms - Hotel rooms drawn on location by measuring

On view: March 14–April 6, 2013
Reception: Saturday, March 16, 5-7 PM
Gallery hours: Th/F, 1-6 PM; S/Su, 12-5pm
www.gallery263.com

Press Release 1
Press Release 2


Sample images of what will be shown.

It's hard to tell from this scene but Pen Pen our cat would usually sleep by my wife's feet. In the morning my wife would rotate and twist around 180 degrees so she could go cuddle and sleep with Pen Pen. This is the scene I would usually see in the morning when I'm preparing to go to work.
This year I had president's day off from work so I finally got my opportunity to sketch my favorite scene.

T-Rex Restaurant

This was probably one of the places I enjoyed the most while I was in Florida for a few days.
It was a restaurant called T-Rex in downtown Disney - a dinosaur themed restaurant and every 20 minutes there would be a meteor shower projected on the ceiling and the dinosaurs would start to move and roar.
The drink I ordered was called a Coronarita - a Frozen Margarita with a full bottle of Corona beer placed in the drink upside down. What a drink!! Sketching dinosaurs while having a mega frozen cocktail is like a dream come true! :)

Disney - Beach Club Hotel

I don't travel on business as much as I used to in the past but recently went out to Florida to attend a conference for a few days. Strange, but I expected Florida to be really warm so 60º F (15º C) felt really cold when I was out there. I'm back in Massachusetts right now and the temperature is 15º F (-9º C)  which actually doesn't feel that cold! (Because I expect this place to be really cold!)

The room felt a little dated but I liked the little Disney themes happening throughout the room - especially with the Jiminy Cricket illustrations used for the evacuation map and the Mickey Lamp which casted a beard like shadow!