In The Back Pocket of My Moleskine

The little talked about back pocket... In mine I usually keep all the little scraps of paper that make up parts of my everyday life. Here I have plane/train/subway ticket stubs, mickey mouse stickers I aquired in Disney World, some dental X-rays I got in the dominican republic (I was thrilled that they actually give them to you there!),  a leaf from an uva de la playa, a tiny feather, drawings my niece and nephew did (they're awesome artists), menus, a coaster from a resort, a drawing of leaves my wife did, some paint and countertop samples, and sometimes I even keep receipts from places I want to remember. I love opening up books from years past and taking a look at all the little scraps I keep in them. It brings back such vivid memories.
So, what do you keep in that little back pocket?

Disney World Sketches

So my family and I just got back from Disney World, which is one of my all-time favorite places to draw. For me it's kind of like training camp for the sketchbook artist. EVERYTHING you could probably ever hope to draw is there. You have at your constant disposal architectural and design styles from every continent, as well as from the past, the present, outer space, and even the fantasy world. This is one place where you can feel like you're drawing an abandoned 1930's Hollywood Hotel in one moment, and only a short stroll from there you're drawing a life-size Star Wars At At. Different nationalities, styles of dress, foods,  languages, modes of transportation, styles of construction and design, from every locality both past, present, future, and imagined, all converge in this place. It's like high intense cross-training for me as someone who draws in a sketchbook. At times it's a very challenging drawing situation, especially when you consider that the common denominator among all these worlds is the strollered two-year-old. But I enjoy the challenge, and this is the 4th time I've had the opportunity of drawing Disney.

Each time I draw here, I probably experiment a little more with the subject, trying to capture what it is I like about Disney, and not necessarily trying to provide a general all-around tour of each park and each resort. Except for a couple drawings of Cinderella's castle which I drew while waiting for the fireworks, some might not even recognize these as drawings from Disney World. But I drew what I drew most oftenly because these are things which I recognize and enjoy each time I come here. Sometimes I just draw something too because it's convenient and I have the time, I might be waiting for food to come or something, but I almost always fill that time in with sketching, even though that might mean sketching something which doesn't necessarily appeal to me visually.

So without further ado... posted below are some of the sketches. You can find the whole set of them here in my Flickr blog.

A New Book by Danny Gregory!

Danny Gregory posted on his blog this morning a picture of the front cover of his new book, An Illustrated Journey. I'm pretty excited about this one because I'm one of the many artists featured in it. Another book of his titled An Illustrated Life travels with me everywhere I go and has become for me a real source of inspiration. I have no doubts that this one will be equally beautiful and inspiring. I can't wait for it to come out!

You can see Danny's post here and you can pre-order the book on amazon here. Also, you can see some of the beautiful artwork and artists that will appear in the book on Danny's Pinterest page.

Moving to Bayaguana

So we're moving to Bayaguana, for 2 months, if that even counts as a move. As many of you know my wife and I are moving to the US in December, and we currently live in Las Lagunas DR. But for the last two months or so we're going to spend our time with Heydi's parents in Bayaguana. Let me explain part of the reason why.

The other day our water pump at the house was stolen, which made me angry and a little nervous, but it's no big deal and it was partly my fault for leaving it out while we were at meeting. Things like that happen all the time here in the DR. When we were on vacation in the US they stole our washlines. People steal the lightbulbs out of the outdoor lighting fixtures at the Hall. And Heydi's father told us that he once caught them stealing the corrugated metal off the top of his house, literally robbing the roof off the house. This is unfortunately normal here. But then things started to get out of hand. The other day we noticed that the daily black-out was lasting a little longer than normal, so much so that our power inverter ran out of juice. The groceries that we had just bought went bad in our lifeless fridge; the items look so sad in there on the warm shelves with no light. We thought that the electric company had cut our electric again (idiots), but it turns out that the thieves had actually cut our power lines, which is ironically the same thing that you say when the electric company cuts your electric. Sometimes they do that before they're going to rob a place.

So needless to say, that night was a little frightening for us. In all honesty the thieves can take my 4-year old laptop and my TV and washing machine that I'm going to sell anyway in a couple of months. The only material posessions which really mean anything to me is sketchbooks, and I don't think crooks take much time to scan the bookshelves. But I just want my wife and I to be safe. That night we pulled our mattress out onto the living room floor by the big window to avoid the heat (no fans) and so we could hear everything that goes on outside. The bed was so close to the big open window that it seemed like the stray dogs which wander in the night were breathing down my neck. But we made it through the night just fine and in the morning we were able to fix the electric lines and have power once again.

All this is on top of the fact that we have a neighbor who's into some pretty bad stuff. He's been shot a couple times, and all our other neighbors tell us to watch out for him. The other day he came to our house saying that he wants to come to our meetings and wants to know what time they are. This could mean one of two things; a possible excellent experience for the yearbook, OR the shadiest character in our neighborhood now knows the exact hours we're not at home. He hasn't come to a meeting yet... hmmm...

So that's in part why we've decided to move to Bayaguana.  We decided to sell all our things as quickly as possible and then spend our last two months with Heydi's family. At least we'll have nothing to steal and we'll be better protected living with them.

When I drew these pictures, we were at a resort in Puerto Plata taking a little vacation. And would you believe that while we were in the pool we watched as a woman in a blue hat STEAL our towel of the pool lounger! I quickly jumped out of the pool and confidently chased after her, it's easy to keep track of a woman in a blue hat. When I caught up to her I pointedly tapped her on the shoulder and said, "YOU STOLE MY WASH LINES, AND MY WATER PUMP, AND CUT MY ELECTRIC, AND NOW YOU STOLE MY TOWEL!"

No, I didn't really say that, but a little part inside of me felt like it. ;)

Here are my drawings from at the resort...

Laundry Drawings

I recently started drawing in my huge Moleskine watercolor sketchbook. I decided the first page would be an ode to Laundry here in the DR. Laundry lines are to me about the closest things to art galleries as you will ever find here. On any sunny day here in the Dominican Republic you're bound to find the streets lined with an endless gallery display of laundry hanging out to dry. They hang it on regular laundry lines, on barbed wire, over shrubs and bushes, hanging in trees, and even on the roof of the house. A love for color is immediately apparent to anyone who comes here, so it's no surprise that this love is also expressed in the clothing they wear. They're bright bold colors and patterns, often grouped unknowingly into interesting color schemes which never fail to make me wish I were drawing.

I suppose Dominicans are accustomed to seeing wash hanging out on the line like this, but to me it's something I haven't seen much since I was a child. Dryers have pretty much put an end to the "hanging laundry" era of the past. Of course, when it comes time for me to do my laundry I love a good dryer. And if you ask my wife she'll tell you that they're nothing short of miraculous. But even so, at least visually speaking, there is something I miss about seeing laundry hanging out to dry. It has a certain warmth to it, a trust. In the US i guess we're so preoccupied with privacy that the last thing we're going to do is put our undies on display for all to see. But before I go on extolling the virtues of hanging one's laundry out to dry, let me just say that Heydi did the wash on friday night. It's now Sunday and we still don't have dry clothes. RAIN! Hmmm, where's my dryer at.

To see more of my laundry drawings, go here... My Flickr laundry drawings

About Me

My name is Chris Buchholz, and I currently live in the Dominican Republic with my beautiful wife Heydi. Several years ago I was working as an Illustrator and graphic designer for a design company in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, where I had also received my design education in a small community college.

I’ve been drawing and painting ever since I was a child and I’ve always loved it. But while working for that design company something happened to me that would forever change my life and the way I thought about art. I went to a design conference in Atlanta where I attended a presentation by one Danny Gregory. His presentation opened up my mind to, what was for me, a new and interesting art form; the sketchbook. As he showed page after page of beautiful drawings, drawings  of normal everyday objects,  of food, of pants, of public urinals, quick drawings of landmarks and buildings on journey’s taken, I began to wonder what I had been doing for the last 20 years of my life. I had seen some of the world, I’d been all over the United States, seen the Canadian Rockies, I went backpacking through Italy, bought my first house, met new friends and spent time with family; I had experienced life in all its triumphs and trials, but where were the drawings?  I hadn’t drawn anything! I suppose I was doing “art”, which more often than not meant I was waiting for a big idea or concept to come along, which rarely did.  But I had missed out on the good stuff. I too wanted to draw my food, and my pants, and possibly draw a public urinal.

I decided to jump in to my first sketchbook. I decided it would be based on my first house, which I had just recently put up for sale. It was actually slated to be sold in about a month’s time. I decided to use this last month to document everything about the house that I loved, each room, each wall color, each magnet on the fridge, the contents of the drawers, furniture, lighting fixtures, and yes, even the toilet. Although it meant putting off the packing and moving to the last weekend  before  settlement, I can now say that that month spent drawing and painting was one of the most satisfying and enjoyable times that I have ever had.

Anyhow, It’s been about 5 or 6 years since I’ve filled that first sketchbook, and ever since I’ve been drawing in sketchbooks. Drawing has helped me to re-analyze my life at times. I decided at one point to cut back the time I spent working  as a graphic designer to just three days a week so I could spend more time on the more important things in life. Three years ago I decided to quit my job completely, move to the Dominican Republic and volunteer my time as a missionary.

Drawing is wonderful here in the DR, there’s never a lack of interesting things to draw. I like working mostly in moleskines, mainly the pocket sized ones. I use faber castell pitt pens, and recently I’ve been using a lamy safari fine-point, which I love so far. I use prismacolor colored pencils, and winsor and newton watercolors. I hope you enjoy my drawings!

Photo by Heydi German de Buchholz