2009 365 Ball Point Pen Drawings Complete

It is now 2010 and the last ball point pen drawing was made on December 31st 2009 in New York City.
The book of one a day drawings happened spontaneously when my dear friend Stephanie Faul presented me with a 96 page book of very nice drawing paper a few days before the turning of the year in 2008. She found the book in her house and she had no idea how it came to be there. A former roommate must have left it behind. So this unplanned endeavor sprang from her discovering the book and then thinking of me.
When I first looked at the book, I counted the pages and realized that 96 was divisible by 12 and that each month regardless of the number of days within the month could be allotted 8 pages.
The next rule was that all of the drawings were to be made with black and or blue ball point pens. This ubiquitous humble instrument is not precious or refined in any way, and that is why I chose it.
The most important rule though, was that these drawings were to be made with a rapid response to the page with as little thinking as possible.
Not thinking is not always easy, but with practice, especially daily practice, the emptiness that ensues allows a wonderful freedom for the creative force to flow.
There were days when I did not feel like making a drawing, but I would plunge in anyway and the result would be very surprising. Some of the best drawings were made on days like this.
While in New York, a couple of days before New Years Eve, I went into Barnes and Noble with my brother Larry to look at books. I saw a rack of moleskin drawing books and picked one up to look at it. It was a book of grids. I bought it, and yes I am at it again every day.