The South Orange Pool
I’ve got a couple fun stories around this commission, but what are the big motivational takeaways here?
None of this would have ever happened if I hadn’t been putting myself out there all the time everywhere as much as I can.
That’s it I think. That’s the big motivational takeaway. But what does that even mean, specifically? I’ll give you the rundown.
I get myself on a local WhatsApp chat of idiot hipster dads. One of them is Jon Cheese, lead singer of a Dad punk band “Rites of Springfield”. This is a funny name, because Springfield Ave is a main thoroughfare in our town, and Rites of Spring is an 80’s punk band. [1]
I keep making art and posting it. This happens over a period of years.
I did a portrait of Jon & his wife Kelly’s historical local spot, La Palapa for Valentine’s Day.
Jon Mentions me in his newsletter because he thinks I’m cool and this is what friends do. Just like I’m mentioning him here in my blog. So meta.
Jon also mentions Madeline Shaw in the same newsletter, because he also thinks she’s cool.
I sit down at the General Store for coffee one day a month later.
I’d been sitting down for coffee at the General store a lot, and have built good friendships & rapport with the people there, so I can briefly drop in on conversations sometimes.
DeAnna from GoodBottle was talking to Madeline. I interuppted/interjected/don’t really remember how I butted in, but the point is I can because Deanna and I are cool, and I painted a cat for her once.
Madeline and I realize Jon thinks we’re both cool and THAT’s how we know each other.
We chat about building an art business for a while.
Let’s do this in paragraph form!
Madeline and I bro’ed down at the General store one day and really hit it off. We have Jon McKesten and our mutually similar career paths to thank for that. She convinced me to join HeyBigWig, which until a week ago was unintentionally all comprised of women. More on that later, maybe, if I feel like it. But probably, because HeyBigWig, is a great resource that Madeline was fundamental in …founding.
A couple days later, Madeline reached out to ask if I could paint a portrait of the South Orange pool for her, because her husband Jake made an offhand comment about his affection for the hustle and bustle of the pool and how cool it would be if there were an artist’s rendering of exactly that. Madeline, her recollections of local watercolor documentarians firing at the speed of neurons, thought to herself while nodding towards her husband as if this was an impossible idea “holy shit Ken can do this it’s 100% his thing!” Whether or not this is exactly what went through Madeline’s head we’ll never know, but I’d like to assume I’m pretty close. Immediately, she hid herself in the most soundproof room of her house and called me. (She didn’t call me. She texted me. But it’s more dramatic the other way). She called me and whispered “Ken!”
I said “Madeline? I can barely hear you. Why are you whispering?!”
She said “Jake is right outside the door and I’m pretending to do the laundry. I have an idea for you. Can you do a portrait of the South Orange Pool? You gotta get the train in there, because that’s part of the hustle & bustle that Jake loves.”
“I’m sorry…what? I seriously can’t hear a thing. Can you text me?”
So then she texted me everything and off we go.
Challenge 1: I can’t get into the South Orange Pool. It’s not open to Maplewood residents.
Challenge 2: It was not going to be as hustly & bustly as we’d hope during the few times before Father’s Day that it’d be open. Was I even going to be able to get the references I needed? It’s always best for me to be able to sit somewhere and draw from life. (This is why I want to do more live drawing events.) I told Madeline via text that she may need to make a backup plan, because I can’t be 100% positive I’ll be able to get it done. I gave her a week’s notice, just to be fair to her. I even offered to refund her deposit! I was pretty depressed about this actually. I considered it a failure on my part and felt like i had overpromised and was not able to deliver.
Challenge 3: I made some plans to get into the pool the weekend before Father’s day and see if I could get it done. The challenge here was that my connection was the very flaky Joel Jordan, who is absolutely a great guy and brilliant entrepreneur, but super hard to pin down. He will admit this about himself. We made plans to get to the pool at noon on Sunday. He wasn’t there. So I told the kid at the admission window my sob story, mentioning exactly why I was there (to create commissioned art), and that my buddy Joel had questionable reliability. My guess is that the story was long and boring enough for him to just wave me in. Don’t tell his bosses. Thanks, kid!
DETAIL
Joel Ends up in the portrait still. He’s there with his wife Gemma, who is hidden behind a Gemma doppelgänger.
From there, it was all off to the races. All i had to do was pull in the details of the scene, draw as much as I could and OH SHIT THE TRAIN! I looked up the South Orange arrival schedule from Penn Station and set myself an alarm to take my headphones out & get my phone ready to take photos two minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive. Ken: 1; Universe: Also 1, because we’re on the same team.
Here’s how I get two points of genius from this entire scenario. A week before getting to the pool, I was teaching a drawing class at the Baird. I strategically had the students draw the basketball court area, mostly because the train tracks were in the background, and I wanted to practice drawing the train behind the trees. Smart thinking, Ken. Smart thinking. This was actually invaluable practice.
Challenge 4: Clouds. I took a lot of time in a haze of delirium trying to unearth my copy of Savage Dragon vs. Savage Megaton Man from 1993, because the way Erik Larsen rendered clouds in that issue specifically has ALWAYS stuck with me and i wanted to study them. Couldn’t find it though. This is going to bother me for quite some time, but here we are. I watched myself a couple youtube “how to watercolor clouds” videos, and tore through some pages in other sketchbooks, practicing, and I got myself to a place where I like and am not afraid of clouds now. In fact, I kinda want to do more, because they can be beautiful. Also, the same methods can be used for trees. It’s all just a bunch of shadows. I could write a whole blog post just on that. And probably will some day.
Materials used
Van Gogh watercolors (specific colors? A lot of them. Again, I could write a whole blog post about that)
Chinco pens (initial drawing all done with pen. No pencils. Erasers are for the weak)
Carbon ink for fountain pen (waterproof so it won’t bleed if I paint over it)
Princeton brushes. Some day, i’ll get more specific about brushes, but this is the one thing I’m slightly particular about, but only slightly. Everything else is very specific.
Read my guide to drawing stuff and chilling out to get yourself started.
1. Fun fact, i’m also on the Springfield Ave Partnership Board. This gives me some kind of power to … decide things. Or to know about things that are happening or opportunities that are available before most other people do. Which is cool. 1b: I never listened to Rites of Spring. Punk isn’t even really my thing all that much. Rites of SpringFIELD on the other hand: they’re great. I heard a rumor they’re making a float for the parade that’s basically going to be a Mad Max style post apocalyptic float, and Jon’s going to chain himself to the front.
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