#4 This Looker’s Tokyo Drawing Book
My friend Trevor keeps a gorgeous white tee in his rotation. At the breast pocket, “My Tokyo Drawing Book”, and an adorably sized taiyaki. On the back, a “Man Looking At Records at Big Love Harajuku, 12.20.2016”, decked out in winter wear. Not too much seems to happen in these drawings by Jason Polan, save for doing enough to let one know it was cold then. Yet, Polan makes me feel that everything beautiful was happening, in just so many lines. This was his gift. He brought a tenderness to looking and recording what made life warm, and people smile.
‘Man Making Taiyaki at Naniwaya Cafe’, by Jason Polan.
Source: Uniqlo
Nevermind that my dear friend might not have been privy to Uniqlo commemorating Polan’s life, which ended too soon at 37 years, to cancer; he had already been a part of the deep poetry of returning Polan’s work to the streets from which they were drawn (aha). Just Imagine Polan sketching people donning his work on the Tokyo Metro or the New York Subway! It must have happened before. Many certainly wish it would happen again.
To be sure, I am no connoisseur of Polan’s work, which, by the way, includes thousands of scrawling yet intentional, simple yet dynamic sketches. Some of these had been gathered in The Every Piece of Art in the Museum of Modern Art Book (2009), and two volumes of Every Person in New York (2015, 2021). Yes, he set himself the ambitious task of drawing the 8.5 million individuals who go about (and enter, and leave) New York City! He got to an incredible 30,000, becoming the City’s ‘Resident Illustrator’. You can find more of his illustrations here.
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Polan’s work had put in my mind the task of making my own Tokyo Drawing Book when I visited. Obviously I am no Polan; I’d struggle to call myself a fine artist by any measure. But having dabbled in street photography for many years, it seemed to me that Polan’s mode of sketching (on) the streets would combine the street photographer’s attention to the life around them with an interpretive whimsy of an artist cheerfully willing to bend away from realism. And, unlike the photographer who might lay down their camera after they take a picture, which happens in a fraction of a second, the illustrator must return for another stroke, and another. I wondered what that felt, for a Looker to become a part of their environment, even if from an observational post.
Thus inspired, I sought moments to put down my camera and pick up my pen. I found myself completing lines I thought I lost. I contorted proportions without too much bother. I let my pen run without judgement. It was liberating. As for my relationship with my surroundings — I felt the sonder of lives beautifully lived around me. As if to say, “You do you, I’ll try to do you justice!”
I didn’t get too far in filling up my pages. I drew some things retrospectively, but it lacked the electricity of a live sketch. I know I’ll be back soon. Eventually, I shall complete This Looker’s Tokyo Drawing Book.
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Blue Bottle Coffee Flagship Store, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa.
Udon Iroha, Western-inspired udon in Harajuku (not captured, aha!)
View of Kanto Plains, after taking the Akechidaira Ropeway, Nikko.
Another Blue Bottle, this time after the magnetic 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT musuem.
At a very special Omakase place which Yeo-san connected us to. It was a casual, modern experience. At the end of the night, two locals we befriended took a picture of this! I was so glad.
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Thanks for making it to the end.
