Back from my tenth Burning Man: 2013

I have returned safely from my trip to the Black Rock Canyon of Nevada.  The weather was great, with nary a single dust storm the whole week.

The art festival was again spectacular.  Every year the scale of the art and theme camps seems to outdo itself, and this year was no exception.

My own experience this year was laid-back and mostly in-camp.  I did get out a few times, but not as much as in previous years.  But that was fine for me, as I have already experienced plenty of great times on the playa with the interactive art, massive rave camps, etc in my previous nine years, and have a bit of a jaded, "been there, done that," feeling towards it all.  But I love seeing the virgin and newer burners experience these things for the first time, and having their minds blown.

Instead of going out a lot, I hosted several events in our humble theme camp, Cartoon Commune, including Laughter Yoga and a cartooning workshop.  They were quite well-attended and much appreciated by the attendees.  Other events in our camp included daily Longevity Stick exercise, 60's dance party, Goth dance party, Improv Comedy, Open Mic Nite, Life Drawing, souvenir button-making, fortune-teller, and massage parlor.

Our camp was better than ever this year thanks to the hard work of my campmates, Gerflash, Fountain, Nostrildamus, and the rest.  My Uncle Mike set up a display of his artful 3D pictures with the red and blue glasses, which were a big hit.  We had a large shade space for our guests and ourselves, with a stage, benches, chairs, LED floodlights, and some frontage art consisting of dream catchers made from hula hoops and old magnetic tape.  As always, our lovely and inspiring wind-powered gray water evaporation system, the Gray-B-Gone Evap-O-Tron, constructed from a design found online, handled our gray water beautifully.  Louis (aka Fountain), arranged a small kitchen complete with a "rocket stove" from recycled coffee cans and newspaper, and a "kitchen sink," so we were able to cook fresh hot meals for our camp dinners.  I made a vegan stew, (Louis is vegan), and other meals included sandwiches, felafel, chili, and lentil soup.  The massage parlor was a carport structure with privacy tarps on the sides, with two massage tables and all the necessary lotions and oils.

I made a shrine from a repurposed medicine cabinet decorated with scenes of my favorite playa experiences, and with portraits of some of my favorite inspirational figures on the back.

My personal dome was especially comfortable this year, with a queen-sized air mattress with warm flannel sheets and blankets, topped with a ornately-patterned comforter and a few throw pillows.  I covered the rest of the floor in cushions, except for my gear which stacked neatly in waterproof bins.  An extra layer of shade on top made it semi-cool in the heat of the day, with the door wide open and a small vent in back to let the breeze through. 

My cartooning activities at Burning Man

I have drawn cartoons at every Burning Man I've attended, for nine consecutive years, and will again this year, for my tenth.  Whenever I can, I'll scrawl my characters on a graffiti wall or "snipe" someone with a caricature from across the room, to gift to them.

In 2004, I brought a portable easel and made caricatures of all my camp-mates, and guests that were in our camp at the time.  My first attempt at a playa gift, the drawings were on paper, not ideal for the rugged camp living.  Now I do them on small cards which are a bit more durable and portable.

In 2005, I spearheaded the creation of an artful cover for our dome.  It was intended to be a brain pattern portrayed in mazy runes painted in black on an off-white drop cloth.

In 2006, I submitted my original ink drawings to an art project which was using the drawings of many artists in a wall-sized collage in the Man Pavillion, underneath the Man itself.  Also, I drew a self-portrait in a scrapbook left on a craft table in the Center Camp. 

In 2007, my camp-mates and I launched Cartoon Commune, and I held my first Cartooning workshop with a dozen attendees.  The workshop is now on its seventh year running.

In 2008, I finger-painted a large caricature of "W,"on a board with a hole for the mouth.  This was a carnival game, where participants had to throw dildos into bush's mouth.  This was for a neighbor camp's adult carnival.

In 2009, I created a shrine, the Shrine of the Cartoon Playa, a repurposed medicine cabinet with cartoon scenes of the playa.  Also that year, I claimed a two-dimensional art kiosk in the Center Camp Cafe, and made an impromptu artwork incorporating cartoons, collage and runes.

In 2010, I pre-registered for the Center Camp Cafe art gallery and hung my abstract/cartoon/visionary paintings.  And I drew caricatures as a rally point in the Kinetic Sculptures Race and Scavenger Hunt, drawing quick-sketch group portraits (five minutes or less) of the participants and their awesome muscle-powered art vehicles as a souvenir for them.

In 2011, I tried to maintain the habit of drawing caricatures as gifts for people, whenever I was waiting in line for something, like ice or coffee.  It's a great ice-breaker, and takes little effort.  In previous years, I had drawn them for people here and there, but this year I drew and gifted more than usual, maybe because I was often standing in line for crepes and artisanal coffee.

In 2012, I drew caricatures of staff and patrons at the French Quarter's Cafe Fin du Monde, and I painted an exit sign on an art car.  I also brought out my cartoony palm frond masks to decorate our camp.


This year, I am bringing out a brand new shrine decorated with cartoon scenes of my favorite camps, artworks, and experiences from my nine years of attending Burning Man.  I am also hanging my vision watercolor paintings in the center camp.  In addition to the masks I brought last year, I'm bringing a painting I made of Stimpy from an original drawing by Vincent Waller, one of the main artists who produced Ren and Stimpy, who had visited Cartoon Commune in 2007.  Finally, I'm involved in Matt Melnicki's Get Lit(erary) Project, which aims to expand the medium of the written word at Burning Man.  I submitted my recent cartoon artwork to appear as part of self-published 'zines, which will reside in a pair of artful book cabinets on the playa. 

Sketches of some of my favorite inspirational figures.

Some of the people I draw inspiration from.  These sketches will be added to a collage on my shrine for Burning Man.

Ten Saints: portraits in pencil from photos
top row from left: Thich Nhat Hanh, Ram Dass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
middle row from left: Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, Alan Watts
bottom row from left: the Dalai Lama, Dr. Madan Kataria, Mahatma Ghandi, Albert Einstein

Sketches and Studies of Shrines and Temples

Several years ago, I was on a shrine kick.  I was inspired by the work and even just the name of the LA artist, Shrine, who led construction of the Trash Teahouse at Burning man 2007 and Basura Sagrada at Burning Man 2008.  I made several small cardboard shrine mock-ups, and a few shrines out of repurposed furniture for Burning Man, from 2008 to 2011.  Here are some of the sketches and studies I was doing around that time.