JET-LAGGED IN BRIGHTON, ENGLAND

Jet-lagged in Brighton, U.K., 14 x 10 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

This is me about three weeks ago, on the first night of a visit to the United Kingdom.   I can never sleep much on airplanes which made for a very long day.  I crashed after supper in my hotel in Brighton on Britain's south coast,  but then found myself wide awake in the middle of the night.  I pulled a chair into the bathroom, set it in front of the sink, and drew this self-portrait.  The chrome faucet in the foreground is real and everything else in the drawing is the reflection I saw in the mirror.

JET-LAGGED IN BERLIN

Jet-lagged in Berlin, 9.5 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark

Just back from two weeks in Germany.  I arrived in Berlin at lunchtime after having slept only a fitful hour and a half on the transatlantic flight.  Had lunch at Savignyplatz and reacquainted myself with the neighborhood before returning to the hotel for a 90 minute nap.  ”Must stay awake until local bedtime,” I told myself, then headed for a Helmut Newton exhibition at the new Museum für Fotografie located in an old imperial court building behind the Bahnhof Zoo.  Fortunately it was Thursday, the day most Berlin museums are open late.  Then I had a late supper and finally crashed at 10pm local time.  What do you do when you find yourself suddenly wide awake in a foreign city at 3 o’clock in the morning?  If you’re me, you go in the bathroom of your Kurfurstendamm hotel room and draw a portrait of yourself reflected in the mirror and the adjustable round magnifying mirror.