A Little Red Book about

A while back, a good friend of mine, Phillip Bensaid, handed me his copy of the Little Red Book (he's not a commie, honest!), Chairman Mao's book of sayings, and said, "hey, fill this up." And so I did: adding little portraits of the people in coffee shops, on buses, on subways, in airports, planes, restaurants, meetings, lectures, and at concerts. I started sometime in 2008, and ended in the middle of 2010.

Sometimes I despaired of finishing. Now, 312 potraits later, I miss the practice.

The book, snug in my pants pocket, became worn and near tattered. I feared for its survival, so I found a box. I used whatever pen I had on hand, usually my favorite ball point pen I get at work, the Papermate FlexgripUltra Fine; sometimes a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen; occasionally a pen of less quality (which I would come to regret).

Most didn't take me more than a couple minutes to do. I'm not sure many noticed. I thank them nonetheless.

I read very little of Mao's text, but any correspondence with the images is purely intentional and genius ;-)

Clicking the images (or the link at the bottom) shows you the next picture in the order it was drawn (more or less).

--adrian -at- nonsensical.com