At Cinders this past January, Rich Jacobs curated a show called These Bagels are Gnarly. All artists in the show(there were a lot!-me being one of them) had to make a drawing using only ballpoint pen and an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. It was really amazing how well the drawings came out. There was such a diverse range of style, from highly rendered realistic drawings to cool comic styles. Some of my favorite artists were in the show- Jordan Isip, Melinda Beck, Anders Nilsen, Edie Fake, Matt Leines, Caitlin Keegan. Liz Zanis, Taylor McKimmens, Calef Brown, Marc Bell, Eric White and Caroline Hwang(many of which I’ve written about before) This little zine is the drawings from the show xeroxed and reduced. They did a really good job of juxtaposing the drawings in the zine. They really picked drawings that worked well together to go next to each other creating a kind of dialogue. I thought mine-of chairs and chandeliers- and Liz’s -of the facades of small houses- were a perfect match. My only complaint is I wish they had somehow kept the drawings blue. Not sure how they could have done it cheaply, but it sort of ruins the ballpoint pen feeling when the images are all black and white. You can read more about the show and see some pictures from the opening here or here. Pick up your own copy here.

© Julia Rothman 2007