In the Before Times, I would occasionally make a mini zine to put in my son’s sack lunch before he went to school. Here’s a zine I made for him about Miles Davis. (It’s Davis’s birthday.) I am struck often by how when you make things for others, they wind up speaking to you.
Last night Meg and I watched Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool on PBS and this morning I drew a zine about him for Owen’s lunch.
One thing I had completely forgot was that he started drawing and painting in his 50s. He said he thought painting helped with his “demons.” He wrote in his autobiography:
“It keeps my mind occupied with something positive when I’m not playing music. I get obsessed with painting just like I get obsessed with music and everything else that I care about.”
A couple of his drawings:
(The one on the left reminds me a little of Kafka’s drawings, and the one on the right a little of Miguel Covarrubias.)
You can see more of the paintings here and in Miles Davis: The Collected Artwork.
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