Paul Madonna draws San Francisco.

July 31, 2010 8:52 PM

"I never know what to call myself really. I call myself a cartoonist because it's what I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember, it's what I always return to, and it's how I think. But I don't really work in that field. I think I'm an artist and a writer, or more appropriately, an artist who writes."

Paul Madonna's All Over Coffee is a curious commixture of poetic text and architectural drawings, in the guise of a comic strip. It has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle since 2004, and anthologized, with a second anthology forthcoming.

The drawings for All Over Coffee are usually drawn from life, as you can see in this short video from Spark.

Madonna also produces Small Potatoes for The Rumpus, where he is a comics editor. He was recently interviewed for the site about a new book project, Album.

The artist's website includes a sketchbook blog.

The quote at the top is from this interview, but the site seems to be down at the moment.

posted by oulipian (5 comments total)

I love his work. It's quintessentially San Francisco, just as much as Herb Caen's columns were once quintessentially SF. He juxtaposes thought-provoking text and painstakingly, beautifully rendered drawings of hidden corners of SF neighborhoods that have been stripped free of people and vehicles. Terrific stuff. There are people who love to see it in their Sunday Chronicle and people who are irritated by it because they don't know what to make of it.
posted by blucevalo at 10:54 PM on July 31, 2010

I don't much care for the words, but I love the art. I have dreamt this.
posted by doublehappy at 3:21 AM on August 1, 2010

These are beautiful drawings.

I always get a little frustrated when a post like this goes on the blue. I discover a really interesting artist, and then there's almost no discussion of the artist. I don't think it's that people here don't like it, it's just... not much to discuss, for some reason.
posted by fatbird at 9:29 AM on August 1, 2010

Fatbird, I sort of like that. So far the only post I've made for the blue was something artsy, which didn't start much of a discussion. I'm OK with that, I like the quietness of knowing people are looking and thinking without Having Something To Say about it.

And more on topic, these are gorgeous. Whoever said they are quintessentially SF - even before I read that he is SF based and publishes in the Chronicle, I noticed that. I can't put my finger on it (aside from the Golden Gate drawing), but yeah.
posted by Sara C. at 9:50 AM on August 1, 2010

Thanks for posting this, I'd never seen his work before and I could stop at saying I held my breath while he drew in the video. I draw buildings and cities, I know dozens and dozens of people who draw buildings and cities, and it's profoundly frustrating to see the style of drawing I most admire turning out be be drawn from life, drawn by a man who's sanguine about small mistakes.

I can definitely see the San Francisco thing, but before the washes, they're also not miles from the post-war British architectural style of ink drawing. Similar tools, too, I suppose.
posted by carbide at 2:30 AM on August 2, 2010