newyorkette » art, literature & other distractions

“recipe comix”

NYkette — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:14:05 +0000

I had my “recipe comix” moment at saveur.com! Click on the excerpt below for the full strip (and recipe)!

Tags: recipe,, food,, soup,, modeling,, cooking,, carolita, johnson,, saveur.com

“The Bir’s”

NYkette — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:19:26 +0000

My quirky, haunting story about a unique kind of friendship between a man and some birds.
(click on the drawing, for the story!)

The Adam Wade from New Hampshire show

NYkette — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:16:56 +0000

I did this little strip to help promote Adam Wade’s wonderful, exquisitely funny show. Go see it, you’ll laugh a LOT. He is a sixteen-time Moth storytelling slam winner, and was my teacher this summer at the Magnet Theater. After seeing him, you might want to take a class with him yourself.

My “Aha moment” on Studio 360

NYkette — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:05:45 +0000

This weekend on Studio 360’s “Aha moment” segment you’ll hear me! I’m being interviewed about my own “Aha!” moment. The work of art was the movie “Holiday,” with Cary Grant as Johnny Chase, the idealistic young man who wants to “retire young, work old.”

I’m very grateful to Britta Conroy-Randall and Jenny Lawton at Studio 360 for patiently helping me remember not to bump the microphone, not trip over my words, and not repeat myself unless requested to. One little correction to the intro, the discussion with my dad happened when I was a really little girl of about 8, not when I was a teenager!

Click here for the interview.

illustration by carolita johnson

Fox News, funded by terrorists!

NYkette — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:52:44 +0000

I try to avoid the topical, but sometimes I come across something that’s too good to keep under my hat.

www.thedailyshow.com

At the Met: The Barber of Seville

NYkette — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:46:30 +0000

Go see it, it was GREAT! Here’s some drawings I did in the dark from the seat that was so kindly given to me by a friend who couldn’t make it.

Ariadne auf Naxos

NYkette — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:42:38 +0000

Hey, lady, there’s three giant dames standing behind you trying to give you sound advice, but you’re feeling so sorry for yourself that you’re going to settle for Bacchus on the rebound.

But seriously, if you can make it to the Met for “Ariadne auf Naxos,” by all means go see it. It’s a beauty. And Kathleen Kim’s Zerbinetta gives a way better performance than Nina Stimm’s Ariadne. She’ll make you laugh, just like she promised, and Ariadne will put you to sleep a little (just like Zerbinetta promised, too). I very much disagree with the Times’ review, particularly on the subject of Kathleen Kim and Sarah Connolly, who as far as I could hear, both outshone Nina Stimm that night. I wonder if my ears aren’t cultivated enough anymore from not hearing enough opera lately to appreciate Stimm. And if so, I don’t see what’s wrong with it. Maybe opera singers should appeal to less cultivated ears a little more.

postcard from new york: happy 4th!

NYkette — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:05:52 +0000

Rough sketches with my new brush pen:

Above, the George Washington Bridge as seen from one bank of the Hudson River (the bank that’s popular with geese).

Below, a broader view:

The New Vampire’s Handbook

NYkette — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:05:28 +0000

I spent February packing for my move and doing these illustrations for a book called “The New Vampire’s Handbook: A Guide for the Recently Turned Creature of the Night” by Joe Garden, Janet Ginsburg, Chris Pauls, Anita Serwacki, and Scott Sherman. You may already know Joe Garden’s other work (done with the same or pretty much the same team, and another brilliant illustrator, Emily Flake), The Devious Book for Cats, and The Dangerous Book for Dogs, and The Dastardly Book for Dogs.

Here are a few of my favorite illustrations, based on how much fun I had drawing them, or how much better they looked when they were done than I expected!

Below is the classic vampire stance: arms thrown up in the air, fangs bared, pure intimidation meant to freeze you in your tracks. Used mostly to buy time when pursued by vampire slayers.

Below is a sequence, in which the small, dainty vampire bides her time, taking advantage of a lunar eclipse in order to get herself a little werewolf blood. The werewolf is wondering, “Me no feel so good! Did me eat something bad?”

(I liked basing my characters on people I know. The idea was that anybody could be a vampire, not just surprisingly goodlooking teenagers, or scary, Bela Lugosi types.)

Below is a very happy, bloodthirsty vampire who really believed in vampirism as a lifestyle.

And here is why you should be super careful in the subway, ladies!

To see more, here’s a public link to a folder on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80636&id=726599530&l=8d819c5c58

Ingenious DIY X-mas tree self-watering system

NYkette — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:01:43 +0000

The idea is that if the water levels are at equal levels (from the floor) at the outset, the tree will drink the water from it’s reservoir, causing the water level in the reservoir to lower, which in turn will cause the tube to suck in more water from the number 2 reservoir automatically. It’s basic physics! All you need to do is check the water level in the reservoir doesn’t get too low for the trick to work. Put a mark at the good high level. My tree seems to drink it down to about a quarter inch below that marker a day.

The hardest part is getting the water to go through the tube and into the tree reservoir’s pan without an air bubble. To do this, suck the water from reservoir 2 into your mouth (just a little, no need to chug it), then quickly block the end of the tube with your thumb without allowing an air gap, then insert that end into the water in the tree reservoir’s pan. Pin it under the tree trunk if there’s a little space there, the opening needs to be in the lowest part of the reservoir.

Check on the water level every now and then.

UPDATE: it works! the water level in reservoir 2 has gone down by a quarter inch. Success

NEW UPDATE: put the tree trunk in a bucket of water the first night—it really drinks like crazy the first night or two. Then put it in the tree stand.

ALSO: if you notice the water is not moving in the tube once the water gets to a certain level, put a towel under the tree stand, and fill the reservoir to a point a little higher than the tree stand. This will cause it to overflow very slowly onto the towel. By slowly, I mean you won’t be able to perceive it if you watch it. Go take a shower or something. When you come back, just skim off the excess, and it should be sipping away fine for the next few days.