It's late afternoon on Friday, October 5th, and people are already making their way down to the Arts District here in Richmond, Virginia. I just got off the Pulse bus and walked through part of it. My tiger drawing and I , along with a couple other drawings, will find some little nook or cranny in the general vicinity of the big Maggie Lean Walker statue on Broad, and do a pop up "art show," so people can take a look at it.
This is the first First Friday I've made it to here, and we'll see how it goes. It's cloudy, and a bit chilly after a couple crazy hot days. But it's not supposed to rain. I somehow managed to get a killer cold on a day when it was about 80 degrees, and so I'm sniffling and sneezing a lot. Not sure how I manged that, but I'll cope. But I"m here, and I want to show people what I do, and see where that leads.
If you're local to RVA, come on down and check it out. The Arts District is in and around Broad, from about first to 7th streets, I think. Or the "Arts District" stop off the Pulse bus that goes up and down Broad.
Should be a cool time. If anyone sees my work and wants to contact me, I don't have an operating phone, but you can email me at: stevenemig13@gmail.com .
Some of you may have just followed my hashtag on small pictures of this tiger you've found around Richmond. My name's Steve Emig, my nickname is The White Bear. I draw in a totally unique style with Sharpie markers. You will be able to see this full size drawing, it's poster size, at 18" X 24", this weekend. I'll be somewhere on Broad, within half a block of the Maggie Lena Walker statue in the Arts District for First Friday. This drawing took over 40 hours to do. It is for sale, for $400. I'll have a couple of the smaller things I've done to check out as well. I have dozens of drawings I've done online, mostly of musicians.
You've found my blog. I'm also on Facebook: Steve Emig- Richmond, VA. On Instagram: @steveemig43. And I'm on Pinterest: Steve Emig 13. I'm currently homeless, and working to end that situation. I don't have a working phone right now. You can email me at: stevenemig13@gmail . Don't forget the "n" in that. Can't remember why I did that. See you Friday...
Sumatran Tiger drawing #1, in my unique Sharpie scribble style. I don't keep track exactly, but this drawing took well over 40 hours to do. It's 18" X 24", my standard size for large drawings. I've done dozens of musicians drawings this year. I wanted to try something different and to have a cool showpiece for my first, First Friday in the Richmond Arts District. I'm also raising my prices up to where I'm actually making reasonable money for the time I put into these. This puppy (OK, kitty) is $400. Free shipping in the continental U.S., unframed, if anyone out there is interested. That's a chunk of money, but I have a feeling it will be sold by Friday. This drawing stops people dead in their tracks.
Sumatra is an 1,100 mile long island, the largest that's entirely in Indonesia, with a backbone of mountains all down its west coast. There are some active volcanoes in that range. That's where the remaining Sumatran tigers live, about 400 are estimated to still live in the wild. Poachers kill them for their bones and skin, the bones bring big money for traditional Chinese medicines. Habitat destruction to build palm oil and coffee plantations is another threat to these big cats, which are critically endangered at this point.
Here's the drawing on a chair in my "studio of the day," which was a Wendy's yesterday. I celebrated finishing this guy with a chocolate frosty.
Most of you probably remember the huge underwater earthquake that caused the horrific tsunami the day after Christmas in 2004, and the city Banda Aceh that was so hard hit. That's on the very northern tip of Sumatra. The mega cities of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are on the next major island to the east, in Malaysia.
The Sumatran tigers are some of the smallest of tigers, but still really big cats, with males weighing 220-310 pounds, and females about 60 pounds less. This is much smaller than the huge, male Bengal tigers which regularly weigh over 500 pounds, and can go up to 717 pounds. The tigers of Sumatra live mostly in the thick jungle. The Sumatran tigers have a darker orange coat than other tigers, more stripes, and the thick white main around the face. Like the tigers of India, when Sumatran tigers can't find wild food, they will kill livestock... and people.
Here's a good documentary on a controversial plan to reintroduce Sumatran tigers on a large peninsula called Tambling, which is in southern Sumatra.
