even when they’re almost thirty. And of course he paints it blue.

Oh and check out Shawn’s new apron. We like! Made from a real vintage flour sack, you can get your own one here.

A drawing a day keeps the doctor away. Drawn on our favorite sugarcane paper, in our favorite journal.

Anger, if suppressed, becomes depression. And if you’re a basketball coach, it’s best to let out all your anger on court. Above drawing based on a picture by H. Rumph Jr., of Dawn Staley, Temple U. women basketball coach.

The New York Times reports that the United States Olympic Committee, concerned with the high level of steroids they’ve found in Chinese chicken (they found a 14-in Chinese chicken breast), searched for more trustworthy food suppliers. And who better to provide food for America’s finest athletes than Kellogg’s and Tyson Foods? (Good thing the Olympics sports committee only checks for steroids, and not growth hormones or antibiotics.)

Does it take a 14-inch chicken breast to tell us that there’s something wrong with Chinese produce? Have you not noticed Yao Ming getting bigger each season? And I have always maintained that our honorable, professional athletes would not knowingly take steroids, and now it all makes sense - it’s the fault of Chinese chickens.

This also helps explain a puzzle that has been nagging me lately, regarding Mr. Spielberg’s resignation as an artistic adviser for the 2008 Olympics. There have been reports suggesting that Mr. Spielberg’s withdrawal has to do with China not doing enough to pressure Sudan to end the crisis in Darfur. I’ve always found that a little funny, given that Mr. Spielberg lives in and works for a country that attacked and ruined another nation - he couldn’t have possibly criticized another for, well, not doing enough. In any case, this explains it all: it wasn’t Darfur, it’s the chicken that Mr. Spielberg couldn’t stand.

Robert Todd Lincoln, the first son of Abraham Lincoln, was present, or nearby three (three!) presidential assassinations: April 14, 1845, he was at the White House while his father was shot at the Ford’s Theatre; on July 2, 1881, he witnessed James Garfield’s being shot at the Sixth Street Train Station in DC; and on September 6, 1901, he was at the Pan-American Exposition when William McKinley was shot (McKinley died about a week later).

Judy tells me that whenever we have potatoes, she thinks of the old farmer who sells us vegetables at the farmer’s market. The old farmer once told her that he likes the rounder, thin-skinned golden potatoes, and his wife used to like the darker, longer ones with thick skin.

My potatoes came out like rocks.

Since hearing her speak and reading her book, I’ve been noticing a lot of things Maira Kalman lately ~ this documentary (via swissmiss) and three pages of her illustrations from the cb2 ad campaign in this past Sunday’s issue of The New York Times Magazine. Seeing all this makes me really want to just sit at the table with my notebook and draw all day, despite the mountain of journal orders looming above my head that are waiting to be finished.

“Let me accompany you for as long as it suits. Let us be frozen in time.” 8″ x 10″, acrylic on canvas, October 2007. A painting based on Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty.

A spectacular evening of great books, profound thoughts, amazing music, and to top it off, a marble hallway filled with mocha cream cakes for us to eat. I felt like we were living out one of the pages in Maira Kalman’s stories. She’s at the top of my list of favorite illustrators/writers/absolutely-inspiring human beings.

Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty is the must-own book of the year, in my opinion. The book is filled from cover to cover with her incredible full-color illustrations (most of them are paintings, each in itself a masterpiece), and the writings are her musings (from her year-long column in the New York Times), with personalities like Nabokov, Freud, Lincoln making appearances, in addition to the many ordinary people like the old lady walking down the street and the little girl in the park, who are each special in their own way. It’s the perfect mix of humor and some really touching thoughts on old age and departed loved ones. You can read the pages over and over, there’s just so much to look at and think about.

I’ll leave you with that, it’s a rainy day in Brooklyn and I’m going back to my book.

It seems like these days, everyone has a blog. Like Penelope Dullaghan, the talented lady who put together illustration friday, and one of my favorite artists, Carson Ellis. And flavorpill seems to have a knack for featuring some really amazing work ~ paintings by the infamous couple kozyndan and another artistically inclined duo, Thukral and Tagra. Wow.

Speaking of drawing, with the temperatures soaring over here in New York, it was the perfect afternoon to sit in the shaded and air-conditioned coolness and comfort of my studio, painting away. It’s been months since I’ve put aside time and painted ~ my mind has been really preoccupied (well, obssessed) with work. So I was really surprised at how easily the colors came together, how nicely the brushstrokes blended, and how happy and refreshed I felt as I turned a blank canvas into this new painting.

“These old houses won’t be around in a few years. I love the old rooftop.”

Don’t be fooled by what you see in the photograph. Taipei is a city of department stores and skyscrapers. And one of them happens to be the world’s tallest building.

Elsewhere: Sketchtravel and “Match Day” (via Jason of Rag and Bone Bindery).