Since 2014
Slacker-stud Travis (Breckin Meyer) takes notice of Tai's drawings in the cafeteria (''Nice representation!'') and shows an unmistakable look of puppy love (''You didn't trace these?!''). Cue the Marvin Gaye music!...
Guy Woodard New York, New York
Eric Seaholm Tokyo, Japan
Gareth Edwards Stourbridge, England
''I am always inspired by the signs of human activity/existence. I like the chaos in a room where there is no neatness, only clutter. I find that disorder is more natural than order. And I find more inspiration for good composition from such scenes, as if it easy to eliminate a few unwanted objects in the picture to make it more appealing. Since I started drawing with ballpoint pens about eight years ago, my subjects have mainly been landscapes. I have also experimented with portraits, still life, abstract and more, but recently I am attracted more to the actual human activity on street, people, standing, walking and moving in many directions, busy in their own thought. And I did make a few drawings of this theme. Once I was in the market for some work in the evening and I saw this beautiful scene where there was a evening glow still in the skies and also the street lights and shop glow signs were all ''on'', having their own glow. I immediately captured a few snapshots, thinking that this would be a good reference for my drawing. My drawings have always shown all objects frozen in time. So this time I thought of showing blurred motion in my scene. You can see the motorcyclist zooming out of the scene in the right corner, and a lady walking hurriedly across the street. The more challenging part was to render shadows in many different directions. It took a lot of effort to correctly balance all the tonal variation from brightly lit areas to shadowed area. Working in full color was also really very interesting. I hope it has come out well'' ・
More info: askshirish@gmail.com・Deshpande will be featured in the Octoberedition of The Ballpointer・Artwork © Shirish Deshpande
Pepe Lozano Cordoba, Spain
Dave Warshaw San Diego, California
Matt Rota Brooklyn, New York
2015 PICKS page archive MENU
FEB2015~NOV2015 click the BALLPOINTER graphic (left) to access the full 2015 menu
James Mylne, 1999 London, England
PICK PIECES The Ballpointer staff choose the artwork and let the artist explain it in their own words Vol 3 No 7 originally posted Sept 4, 2016
Shirish Deshpande・Belgaum, India
Evening Glow ・ 2016 ・ 14 x 12'' (36 x 51.2cm) ・ ballpoint pen on handmade, 100% cotton paper
Peter Ross Hong Kong
Sadly, Brittany Murphy died in 2009. But what about those binders; do they still even make them?・
＊Read more K. RieSTARPOINTS on the CULTUREDpage
PICKS PAGE ARCHIVES2016: Read about these artworks in the artists' own words in The Ballpointer PICKPIECE archives. Click on the artwork to see their PICKPIECES.
M.I. Shaikh Mumbai, India
All but the keenest viewers may have missed the many ballpoint pen cameos on screens big and small over the years. Ballpoints are regulars in Hollywood productions, and not just as set dressing...
Back To School Ballpointer
・Clueless 1995・Directed by Amy Heckerling
Early in the movie that made Alicia Silverstone a star (as Cherilyn 'Cher' Horowitz), frumpy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) is introduced to the fashionable students of Beverly Hills High School. She carries with her a certain blue looseleaf binder, which gets lots of screen time to show Tai as an arty outsider clutching it like a security blanket...
Those faded denim-colored, hardcover, three-ring binders were blue canvas for a whole generation of bored students (and future ballpointers) throughout the 1970s and into the '80s. Judging by Tai's binder art she's apparently a fan of the popular Looney Tunes cartoon character Marvin The Martian, whom she depicted on the back cover and inside among other random doodles...
Also appearing in her doodles are six-pack abs on a musclebound torso with a question mark for a head; a beaming peace sign; 'BAM !' in graffiti letters; even a Tim Burton shrunken-head. At the bottom of a page where it looks like Tai was practicing drawing cartoon facial expressions, she wrote: 'Why is it so hard to draw happy!!' punctuated rhetorically with not one but two exclamation points...
Shane McAdams Wisconsin / Brooklyn
Lennie Mace Tokyo, Japan
''Artist explanation'' ・
*Additional information.
Be sure to visit website
Artwork © Artist
A Year in The Pen The Ballpointer Nov 2014 - Nov 2015 PICKS of the Litter 2015
Lennie Mace, 1984 New York, New York
PICKS PAGE ARCHIVES 2015:
Chen Zhen・
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Half of the Heart (一半的心)・
2016・26.5 x 19.5cm (11 x 8'')
ballpoint pen on paper
《一半的心》
蘊藏著不同世界的兩端。
一半的心，一半的世界。
我擁有著兩面的自己。
我與自己對視。
一邊是光。
一邊是暗。
一邊是清晨。
一邊是夜晚。
我擁有著全部。
同時也只擁有，那一半。
''This painting was inspired by
a poem written by myself (above).
It's about the two sides of my heart.
One side is deep inside and the other
is reality. I search myself, sometimes
positive and sometimes negative.
The left and right side of the picture
shows the differences.
The heart interleaved with red and black symbolizes the human sides, the dark side. ''・
Fine print.
Captions and/or credits.
Contact: website or email
Artwork © copyright
Pepe Lozano Cordoba, Spain
Andrey Poletaev Lugansk, Ukraine
Right heart: The heart interleaved
with red and black symbolizes the
human sides, the dark side. There is
beauty in the thorns, and wings fly to
the sky. For your own dreams, even though you can get hurt you can still face it and fly toward the blue sky.
Left heart: Blue and green colors symbolize peace and ease. A peaceful Pure Land is a desirable paradise, and inside of the paradise has exotic animals, lovely, naughty, funny, they truly exist in our childhood memories. Remember, it doesn't matter how old you grow, just don't forget your fantasy world'' ・
Artwork & poem © Chen Zhen website or Email・Artwork © Artist