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Momos in Neukölln

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momos in Neukolln Suzanne Forbes April 2016I had a pretty rough day yesterday.

But today when I went to the bank at Hermannplatz, an incredibly handsome man was serving momos from a food truck.

I love Tibetan food second only to Mexican food in the whole food. I am a momo fiend. So when I walked along the sunny, bustling plaza to Momo Master, I was pretty excited. imagine how excited I was when I saw the beautiful man serving them!

Yeah, yeah, I’m shallow. But I’m a portraitist- human beauty is my raison d’être.

I asked if I could draw him and he said yes! It’s perspective drawing crunch time as I develop the teaching materials for my next class, Perspective for Masochists, so I made it a seriously challenging spatial drawing. It was two hours of hard-core angle-gauging to get the truck.

The momo gentleman was wearing the trifecta of boy-hotness clothes: a v-neck sweater over a button-up henley, sleeves pushed up to the elbows, and a thin necklace. Guys, you know wearing long sleeves and rolling or pushing them up make you look great, right? And that a necklace is a socially acceptable gender-fluid signifier that is as charming to women as guyliner? Whether it’s a spiritual article, like red thread or a crucifix, or just a strand of beads! With an open-neck shirt, magic.

I don’t mean to be dehumanizing by objectifying this extremely nice total stranger. I don’t know if the female gaze can operate in the theater of the historic male gaze without accruing its toxins. But I know that actually Rob, whose loss hit me again so hard yesterday, and ALL of my husbands have genuinely enjoyed my pure aesthetic delight in male beauty.

My drawing only barely suggests how great-looking this person is, but I did what I could. And the momos were delicious!

Drawings from an office Xmas party that was actually fun!

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We went to the hubby’s office Christmas party (not “holiday” party; it’s pretty much mostly Christmas you hear about in Berlin, despite the city’s diversity) and it was actually AWESOME.Christmas party in Berlin Dec 18 2015 Suzanne Forbes

Who knew a work party could be fun?!?

There were people from six different countries at our table alone. So many languages- sixteen at the company of 30 employees, “if you count Catalan!” (Euro-joke). Such happy, beautiful young people.Christmas party in Berlin Dec 18 2015 Suzanne Forbes

The food was scrumptious and there was amazing music.

The hubby wore the Lip Service Step In Time steampunk suit I got him last winter, pants and tailcoat of copper with black plaid and a waistcoat of black and bronze plaid, with a black silk Pierre Cardin tie I got him at Ross and a black-on-black pinstripe shirt. He looked amazing. I wore a purple lace 50s style dress from eShakti, a teal burnout velvet kimono with a huge blue fur collar, masses of blue and violet hair flowers and jewelry, and turquoise fishnet stockings. Cause I’m so subtle.

I had a wonderful time drawing our tablemates and the musicians. We just had such a good time. It’s so ridiculously good living here, I feel like we won the lottery, and I’m so, so grateful. I think how happy I am shows in my work. There’s been some talk recently about the whole starving/suffering artist thing and what a crock of shit it is. I can’t say strongly enough that I believe artists work best when they have health insurance, medical care and affordable housing.

“I got into therapy and I got on a pill, and what I discovered was getting help didn’t make me less creative. What was making me less creative was being a depressed crazy person. Figuring out how to be happy and have fun with the kids again, how to have fun with my life and work, actually made me a better writer, not a worse writer.” – Joe HIll