Stories from About Town: SOMA
Every place in this book has a story. My story always starts with “I sat there & drew it”. Then I switch to extrovert mode and show everyone what I just drew and they’re all “oh wow this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen can i take a picture? Do you have an instagram?”
Every shop owner, every kid, every vendor, every wanderer & wonderer has a story about each of these places. These are just a few of mine. What are your memories?
Copies of About Town: SOMA are available for a limited time only right here!
A Paper Hat
Moments before stepping in to A Paper Hat to draw, I saw Cat Delett walking across the street. A friend of Cat’s shouted from down the street “hey Cat!” I then shouted from the other side of the street “hey Cat!” And that’s how I met Alyson Levy from Solo Jewelry Shop. Since then, we’ve set up at multiple markets together, she’s bought some of my work, and we’re proud members of BIGWIG too.
This is her daughter in the drawing.
It’s a snapshot in time. Having a kid at the counter is the ideal kind of setting for a local art store. Her shirt in itself tells a story. She just finished up a game of some sort. Soccer maybe? Strolling through the downtown getting some gifts or just stocking up on art supplies. Maybe they got some ice cream after this.
More about A Paper Hat & The Magic Sketchbook that changed my life here.
Honey & Hive Ice Cream
Might as well put the ice cream shops back to back right?
Two stories here. No wait, three actually.
One is that the two kids in the window are my daughter and her best friend Jasper. They were around 7 when I did this. They’d known each other since they were three months old. Jasper insisted that he be able to sit for this portrait. To me, this was flattering. To his mom, this was the longest he’d ever sat still. Ever.
Second story is that the lady in line holding the kid is the wife of the owner of Paper Plane Coffee. Again, unintentional, but I love that his family is immortalized here in one little way.
Third story is that the amazing mural on the wall was painted by Olga Muzician, and it was the 2nd time I had recreated one of her murals on a much smaller scale. The first time, somewhat coincidentally, was at Paper Plane in Montclair.
Village Ice Cream Parlor
It’s easy to come up with a story about the Village Ice Cream Parlor. Summer nights. After School Ice Cream. Hordes of Middle Schoolers. Brain Freeze. My daugher had her first ice cream there. She was bewildered. She’s now obsessed.
The story I’m going to tell here is the two people clearly on a first date on the right side. They were adorable. He was doing his best to do his best, and she was fully dolled up to impress him. They were both so happy. Normally I’d stroll up & show the couple the drawing I did, but I didn’t want to intervene. Not this time.
I hope someday I find them or they find me.
Watch the Time Lapse video
Sabatinos
This is a good one. Sabatino’s Mom commissioned this from me, and I had to pretend I was just drawing for myself (and not as a gift for Sabatino himself). The cool part of the story is that the woman standing in line is a good old friend of mine from Syracuse University - Janejai Sererat. I hadn’t seen her in years, and it turns out she works in the building next door. I knew she lived in a nearby town, but had no idea she worked in Maplewood.
When she stopped in, I thought to myself “oh my god I have to get Janejai into this drawing.” I only had a couple seconds to get draw her before she walked away but I think I nailed it.
She also commissioned a pet portrait from me.
About Town SOMA was published in October 2024
Since then I’ve sold nearly 600 copies! It’s flabbergasting & flattering.
The story of bringing this thing to market is a whole thing in and of itself. How was I going to publish it? How was I going to print it? Would I sell any? Turns out when I did my kickstarter, it got enough attention to immediately hit my goal - so I threw a launch party and brought together so many of the people in these stories. I should do this again. Maybe I’ll make a volume 2. Hmmmmmmmm.
The Able Baker
There’s some magic about the Able Baker. And I don’t mean that it’s a charming wonderful downtown coffeeshop with amazing baked goods and lines around the corner for holiday pies, nestled in a charming wonderful downtown. I mean that there’s some real actual magic or witchcraft or something going on there.
I know this (but I can’t prove it) because when I first moved to Maplewood in 2015, The Able Baker was half the size it is now. Since then, it has taken over the storefront next to it and built a ton more space. But here’s where the magic kicks in. When it was half the size, there was seating inside . There’s no room for seating in there at all anymore! The place is packed! How is this possible?!?! Magic I tell you. It’s got to be magic.
Elks lodge initiation
I’ve already written a bunch about this one actually. Right here in this blog post. But it bears repeating.
There are several parts to this story.
I went grocery shopping .
On the way home I turned back because I wanted to support some new friends being inducted as elks
On my way back to the Elks I realized I didn’t have a sketchbook with me. So i turned back again to go home to get my sketchbook.
I drove all the way back home and may or may not have unloaded my groceries. It’s pretty likely that I left them in my car the whole time and ran in just to grab a sketchbook.
I drove all the way back to the elks for this induction ceremony
Two or three years later I met Lisa Cohen, who I drew in the purple dress here. #unintentional
The Snug
The Snug was a little nook underneath Fox & Falcon in South Orange. While it lasted, it was a very cozy spot to meet up with friends or just sit back & read a book. I’d like more bars like that - where I didn’t feel pressured to socialize and could just read. Like a coffee shop - but with cocktails.
If I had come here on a different day, I may have captured some of the same people in the Osteria Del Corso image below.
The guy with the Macbook in the background actually tracked me down when he saw this on my instagram. I sold him some prints. It may have been the first time I made prints of this work. Making those prints forced me to figure out how to photograph my sketchbooks. And forced me to make a decision to keep the sketchbook itself in the photo. Which then led to a series of decisions that ended up in this book being exactly the way it is.
Osteria Del Corso
This place came in as fast as it went out. It was a fancy place, but possibly doomed to fail. The story of how the restaurant came about is VERY dramatic in fact, and involves tens of thousands of dollars being stolen from servers at a different restaurant and an owner being run out of town.
That’s a story for a different day though.
The story I’d like to tell here is that I didn’t really get a good spot to make my drawing here. And while I only captured this tiny sliver of the bar, I really like the snapshot of of working a bar that I captured.
Couples flirting, bartender pouring, other bartender cashing out. And me, implicitly in the scene, tucked away introvertedly behind the bar taps.
The Maplewood Pool
It’s almost too easy to come up with a story about the pool. This is the place where childhood memories are made. Like the time my sister cracked her chin and had to get stitches when she was a toddler. We were with the babysitter at the time. And sure, that’s a bad memory (for my sister and probably the babysitter too) but it’s a memory! DRAMA.
None of that happened at the Maplewood pool. But I bet someone out there has a story just like it. And while my sister & the babysitter had a pretty bad day, I bet that babysitter (maybe it was Jennifer Jones?) could look back on that day and say to herself “I was very responsible and that was awesome. Wait…wasn’t there another kid? Ohmygod what happened to Ken?!?!?!”
The Maplewood Concert Band at the Gazebo
My favorite part about this story might just be that I went & drew this with Fred Zorn. My other favorite part about Fred Zorn & the concert band is that the concert band rehearses in the room next to SOMA Figure Drawing on the same nights. For four years now, they’ve been providing a soundtrack to our drawing nights, and it’s been such a charming & wonderful inadvertent pairing of community.
True Salvage
When I drew Silver’s face here I took a step back and said to myself “huh. This looks like him!” At that point, I was still sorta green with this whole “drawing” thing. And the fact that I could render a person’s face so clearly with just a couple pen strokes was a pretty big achievement.
I also had no idea that the older man sitting in the chair was Dave Heffernan - the father of the cook and owner of the building.
Another story about this is that later on, the guy at the counter asked me to paint a portrait of his fiancee Signe, the cook in the back. At the same time, Signe asked me to paint a portrait of their dog. These were wedding gifts to eachother. I loved that I had to pretend I wasn’t sneakily texting both of them for a while.
Garubo Salon
One day when I was working on my Map of Maplewood, Janine Garubo came across me as I was perched up across the street. She’s in this video in the background saying “oh that’s awesome!”
It’s quite likely that it was that very moment that convinced her to ask me to do this portrait of her shop.
Home Sweet Home Tattoo
Magie swapped a tattoo on my leg for a drawing of her shop. I love this tattoo immensely. It’s an octopus battling three luchadores. Those luchadores are El Bueno, El Malo, and El Gigante. Those luchadores are LOS MARCOS and this video will explain a lot and also raise so many more questions.
Magie is responsible for the best entertainment I’ve ever seen in Maplewood, when a half dozen people almost barfed up Corner Slice Pizza and kids stapled cash to a clown.
We’re doing a fundraiser to buy the movie theater. Each of us have $8 and if we can just scrape up one million other people with $8 we’ll be able to do this. Venmo me.
Botanica Boutique
I wrote all about my Botanica Boutique story here but here’s the gist and the takeaway. Not in that order.
The takeaway is that Botanica is a wonderfully open & honest space where Kris can share her expertise to help with a tremendous array of complaints & maladies - none of which I can relate to.
Why can’t I relate to them? Because they were very intimate women’s issues. Kris apologized to me at one point, hoping that it wasn’t freaking me out. I was fine, I said. Kris’s teenaged new employee on the other hand? She looked so much more uncomfortable.
Wildly Floral
Josi Stone is another BIGWIG founder, just like Kris Haas from the previous story.
Wildly wasn’t the first flower shop I did. Maybe the third. Once I ran out of coffee shops, I had to expand. What I loved most about Wildly was the neat looking chandelier hovering above the entire shop.
Plants & florals are still a challenge to me. But I’m trying everything.
I made a very funny video about getting lost in the woods on my way to Wildly too.
Brave Floral
Whenever I walk by Brave, I stop in to say hello. Just because I like the people there.
Valerie - the owner - commissioned me to paint a portrait of her employee at her wedding. The plan was to do a live drawing & finish it that night. This didn’t work at all. FIrst of all, the ceremony was five minutes long. I didn’t even have a chance. Secondly, I had set myself up in a way that both the bride & groom were looking away from me, towards the officiant. Everything was going wrong. The only thing they asked me to do was to not be in any of the photographer’s shots. I had also set myself up wrong for that. It was so awkward and I wanted to leave.
But before I left, I chatted with the photographer and told her my whole situation. She was super cool about it, and by the next morning, she sent me plenty of shots to work from. I always show up to gigs with a backup plan or two, but this one wasn’t even on my radar at all.
N&K Butcher
Spending a couple hours in N&K sketching the place warmed me up to it pretty quickly. Customers came in from many different backgrounds. Young, old, European, American. Everyone there seamlessly switched languages and personalities based on who it was and what they needed. It was a really warm, friendly environment. It felt like the kind of place that had been there for decades and knew all their customers deeply, and treated new ones just the same.
South Orange Pool
Maddie Shaw - ANOTHER BIGWIG founder + owner of Shapes For The People - commissioned this from me for her husband Jake’s birthday. The reveal video of Jake opening the gift is one of the most charming, heartwarming things I’ve ever seen. I’m not allowed to share it (because Jake is a private person and would rather not) but it brings me joy just to think about.
A story from working on this: I very much wanted & needed to get the train in there. NJTransit periodically blasting by the pool is a big part of the vibe. I needed photo reference. So I checked the train schedule and set an alarm for 3 minutes before it was supposed to pass by. Just so I’d be ready to take snapshots. This worked like a charm (but I almost forgot to do it, which brought me a great deal of anxiety during an otherwise very relaxing summer afternoon).
St. Joseph’s Church
I woke up at the crack of dawn one morning to get the morning sunrise illuminating the church’s gorgeous stained glass windows. (They’re gorgeous. You should go in just to see them some day). The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon at 5:45 in the morning and I hustled the 6 blocks over to take some photos. Turns out there are enough trees across the street so that the whole church would be in shadow for quite some time. Unfortunately for me I was already wide awake and couldn’t catch up on some more zzz’s. Went back at 7:30 or so & got what I needed.
Also, Father James Worth is just a great dude and it was so nice to meet him.
Watch the time lapse video
Liberty Tavern
Liberty Tavern, while not in Maplewood or South Orange, is one of the best local spots. From the street, it looks like you’re not supposed to be there. Like you’ll probably be chased out if you try to go in. This is not the case. Liberty Tavern is everything I expected from it. Nothing more, nothing less.
One time, I went there with a group of bros, and one of them basically whipped out a spreadsheet to explain that getting a bucket of mini Miller High Life’s was the cheapest way to drink the most beer. This is a story. Thank you.
Perch Home
I was not invited to the Grand Opening which I captured here. Pretty sure it was an invite-only kind of thing but I showed up anyway, banking on the social capital that I was starting to build. It worked, and now they carry this book and invite me for pop ups.
Several local luminaries are in here. Dean Dafis, former mayor and possible future congressman. Fred Smith - a guy who’s older than time but goes out to more events than you do. Deb Engel - town councilmember - is in here twice because…I needed to fill space? I made her dress a different color at least.
Bunny’s
One time I went into Bunny’s during my kid’s flag football practice, but it was MLB playoff season. I, being the nerd I am, did not know this, and sat in a corner doing laptop stuff. Very very drunken acquaintances of mine heckled me from across the bar when they weren’t heckling the Yankees on the TV. It was awesome, and the world needs more of this energy.
Elevated by the Cannaboss Lady
Jill Cohen has run this Cannabis dispensary in Maplewood for two or three years now and she’s one of the town’s most successful women entrepreneurs.
The person at the counter here was my daughter’s piano teacher at the time. It’s not important that they’re in here, and we didn’t plan it that way, but it’s another example of community intersecting in places all the time. There are connections between all of these.
Rugburn at Coffee Box
When I stumbled upon this trio of Rutgers grads playing at Coffee Box in Rahway, it’s like I had stumbled upon decades of stories in confluence at one point in time. And I left with the impression that that’s what it’s like every day at Coffee Box.
My daughter had been dropped off at a bouncey house birthday party up the road. It was too far from home to go back & forth, so I looked for a spot to get a cup of coffee. “Coffee Box” sounded like the best alternative to Dunkin or Starbucks, which I couldn’t imaging killing an hour in.
I walked into this tiny spot and it was comfortably crammed with more people than it should’ve been allowed to comfortably accomodate. Shoulder to shoulder, couples enjoyed drinks, groups taught chess, and a jazz trio absolutely ripped.
I’ve been following this band ever since.
Rugburn at Fox & Crow in Jersey City
These two images close out my book. Neither of them are in SOMA, but both of them are great and both of them are loaded with connection.
The mother of the guitarist in the previous illustration had reached out to me (because I tagged the band on instagram) and asked if she could buy a print and if I’d be able to draw them live some day.
Yes to both obviously.
We met up at their next show at Fox & Crow in Jersey City. I had planned to draw the band there, but what I hadn’t planned at all was that I would draw the Mom & Dad into the composition. Mind you, this wasn’t something they asked me to do. It would’ve been fine if they had, but it was much much better that it happened by accident. Pure happenstance had me sitting across from them. Getting them in the shot made this snapshot in time even more memorable & meaningful.
