Month: June 2025

Newly finished work San Juan , mixed media, graphite, watercolor, colored pencils, gouache on toned paper, 16 by 24 inches.

This latest from my drawing board inspired by a trip to San Juan Puerto Rico made a few years back . We were sitting in a small park and a hulking cruise ship pulled into dock and out pored droves of time pressed tourists – they’d been given only a few hours to explore this charming colonial center . Most flocked towards confectionery stands and the ubiquitous Starbucks – I doodled the invasion in my sketchbook. That doodle inspired this drawing , that and a very lovely painting of the city’s patron saint and name sake St. John the Baptist by the colonial era painter José Campeche. I think the elderly lady descending the gang plank is a nod to my late mother in law Elisa Escalante , she unfortunately never had the opportunity to visit San Juan.

So far the drawing has been well received but by far the response that was most spot on was from a Facebook responder who I do not know but the comments were so spot-on observant I couldn’t help to be flattered (not to mention that she is astonishingly beautiful). Her words:

This is absolutely stunning — feels like San Juan met a mythological fever dream and decided to throw a party in your sketchbook. The layers, the stories, the textures… it’s like a postcard from another dimension. Also, bonus points for slipping in a critique of tourist Starbucks culture with such style.

Me: thank you for the compliment and spot on interpretation .

 Leonard, glad I wasn’t too far off the map—I was half expecting you to say the piece came to you in a dream after eating spicy tacos and watching a sci-fi opera. Whatever sparked it, your work is pure magic. Do you bottle that creativity, or is it strictly by invitation to your imagination’s VIP lounge?

All terribly flattering but with her incredible looks, perfect posts and keen yet vaguely awkward praise I’ve begun to believe my wonderful new fan may in fact be AI. 

Oh well.