Author: Ken Avidor

Ken Avidor

Ken Avidor

Ken Avidor is an illustrator, cartoonist and occasional courtroom sketch artist. Ken Avidor is an active urban sketcher and maintains a daily, illustrated journal. Ken is married to urban cartographer and talented sketch artist Roberta Avidor in the Union Depot in Lowertown, Saint Paul. Follow Ken and Roberta's sketching/bicycling adventures on their travel blog.

Sunday Sketch – The Ruins of Saint Paul

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” From Ozymandias by Percy Blythe Shelley (listen to Bryan Cranston’s recital of the poem on You Tube) I  love drawing ruins. Ruins […]

Sunday Sketch– Flood Sketching and a Modest/Awesome Riverfront Proposal

Roberta and I did a lot of sketching of the flooding in Downtown Saint Paul. We wanted to document the changing landscape as water gradually replaced land. There’s a slideshow of our flood sketches at the PiPress.  Here’s one of the sketches I did from the Robert Street Bridge of the Port of Saint Paul’s Lowertown Landing submerged […]

Sunday Sketch – Transit Sketching

I have been thinking a lot recently about transit sketching and how the new Green Line LRT will change my transit sketching habits. I like sketching people, but finding people to sketch in the Twin Cities is often a problem. Streets can be devoid of life as if a neutron bomb went off. There are […]

Sunday Sketch: Memorial Day in Minneapolis & Saint Paul

Two weeks ago, readers may remember I wrote about sketching in cemeteries.  The day after I wrote that post I got out from behind my computer, packed my sketching supplies and put my bike on the #54 bus and traveled to Minneapolis from the Union Depot in Saint Paul to Minneapolis to sketch at the Memorial […]

Sunday Sketch, Memorial Day Edition – Cemeteries

It’s Memorial Day weekend and many of us are going to spend some time paying our respects in a cemetery. Cemeteries are quiet sanctuaries in the urban jungle and good places to sketch. However, cemeteries are not public parks. There are rules, so it may be a good idea to call ahead and ask what they […]

Sunday Sketch – The Mortality of Cars

I love sketching people, but very often people are in cars and I hate sketching cars. But, cars are a big part of the landscape so I sketch cars. Cars all seem to be screaming for attention with designs which for the most part, reminds me of flashy athletic footwear. The only time I really enjoy sketching […]

Sunday Sketch – The Forgotten Fountains of Saint Paul

Someday  I will travel abroad and sketch the famous fountains of Rome and Tivoli.  However, there are fountains right here in downtown Saint Paul, maybe not as famous, but every bit as wonderful, in a Saint Paul sort of way. What Saint Paul fountains lack in artistic splendor, or even water, they make up in bleakness and  pathos. They are eminently […]

Sunday Sketch – Meet Some Twin Cities Urban Sketching Architects

Sketching isn’t just for professional artists. Sketching is a great way for people from all walks of life to practice staying rooted in one spot while observing and documenting the world in front of them. Naturally, I’d expect some of the folks who create the built environment around us to take an interest in sketching […]