In Sunlight or In Shadow

Edward Hopper, that most American of artists: girlie shows, movie theaters, gas stations at night, that famous diner, strangers glimpsed in windows, the lonely streets, landscapes filled with yearning. Despite the isolation, or because of it, Hopper strikes a chord, touches us, draws us in. His subjects inhabit a world constructed entirely by the artist: lost in thought, still yet searching, his couples sit, stand, recline, sometimes side by side but never quite connected, the artist a master of isolation. I felt compelled to make drawings, this one of the artist and a few of his paintings. At first they were going to be two-minute sketches, but Hopper took hold of me and my pencil just kept going. I even added a touch of color. Of course Hopper is always about light and shadow, which brings me to the book, “In Sunlight or In Shadow, Stories Inspired By the Paintings of Edward Hopper,” brainchild of the legendary crime fiction writer, Lawrence Block, … Read more

Catching Up & Going Ape

Dear friends, It’s been a long time since I have written anything on my website and I apologize. It was a necessary break for personal reasons. But I have been working and will tell you just a few of things I’ve been up to. For the moment I have put aside the book I’d been working on for well over a year, a story about a cop who lost his family, a novel based in part on “Crime & Punishment.” The book was finished but not resolved and it needed time to percolate, so hopefully it’s doing just that while I work on other things. I’ve been thinking… That people often say a writer’s characters are variations of his or herself and I used to agree. Now, I’m not so sure. One’s art—writing, painting, music—is of course always a reflection of the person who made it. But the characters one creates on the page can … Read more