2015
Fresh Start at 17th St. Public House
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2015
Tag Archives: Beer
Coast to Coast 2: Flying Fat Tire
Here’s how I used my drink voucher from Philly to Phoenix: studying!
Ten Fidy @ 17th Street Pub
Image
Merced Theatre PM Tower
I started this illustration over two beers and under ten conversations last night at the 17th Street Public House. I finished it on my side of our Ragsdale king size bed. I had snapped an iPhone picture of the subject beforehand and used it as a side-by-side reference for a free-right-hand drawing in Procreate; my left hand facilitated the beer delivery.
Mariposa Midnight
Prospectors Brew Co., Smoked Stout, 16 oz.
w/ head?
This evening, while sipping a beer at the 17th St. Public House, I began this drawing. Even though I was half-way through that tasty brew, I added a foamy head on top.
Now, as I post this from home, I’m reminded of a story that always makes me chuckle. Many years ago and in a country south of the equator a small group of us guys would gather at a little bar at the end of the day to blow off steam and just be in our twenties. The short, elderly woman who ran the joint and spoke English as a foreign language would always greet us at our table with a big smile and a wide tray loaded with bottled beer and glasses. As she poured the beer into our glasses, she’d asked each one of us – face to face – if we wanted our beer with head.
We always said yes. We laughed alright, but never in her face.
Miller: Pub Steward and Diviner
It happens now and then. I walk into the 17th Street Public House. Miller is behind the bar. At this point I say, “What am I having?” And, as if she were reading my palm, she diagnoses my brew disposition by handing me a sample of something that pretty much always hits the spot; and that’s what I go with.
However, earlier this evening things were slightly different. Miller was busy with other thirsty patrons, and I got the 1st of two beers for the evening from another therapist/barkeeper.
About thirty minutes later, while I was sketching the image below – an owl in connection with something in wood I’m currently working on – I hear Miller talking to another patron about a certain beer on tap. My curiosity is triggered. I inquire, and Miller says, “I’ll give you a sample, if you draw a picture of me.” Now, I’m not from the Depression Era, but I am somehow accustomed to doing almost anything for beer, even a sample of beer. So, knowing that I need all the sketching practice I can get in general and at least as much Procreate practice in particular, I sip the sample of what I eventually order next, accept that it is, indeed, Miller Time, and I start working on this:
Remember what I said about the owl?
Context: Beer (inter alia)
On our very first visit to Merced, CA in January of this year, while Ann was interviewing and being interviewed, I was engaged in a contextual research project. That’s when I first stumbled into the 17th Street Public House; and, that’s when I began imagining our own potential immersion, our own possible intertwinement in this new context, to honor the texture of this metaphor. Fast forward, and we’re here in Merced, and I’m already making comparisons between my initial research findings and those related to a similar investigation that I conducted at El Bait Shop in Des Moines, Iowa four years ago. At any rate, I’m pleased that we’ll be able to take part in the Great Beer Movement that’s happening here and throughout the country. Kinda’ makes me feel at home.
portfoliolongo 