I was thinking yesterday morning about how we don’t notice the addition of something new as much as we notice the absence of something familiar. Or perhaps I’m projecting? It’s possible that it’s reversed for most other people. Here’s a scene from this Sunday the 15th, drawn within one mass, back in Jackson, my hometown. I’m also throwing in something that happened in about a minute while I was messing around with a new kind of marker. I’d hate for all of the millions of my fans who read every post on this website to think I only use pencil these days.

Happy New Year!

Yes, it has been a while. I implore you not to lose faith in me. I am justified – you see, I have been home-purchasing and moving! And at 681 Shaler Boulevard, Apartment A in Ridgefield, New Jersey, I am now (drumroll PLEASE) setting up A NEW PHYSICAL OIL MURAL; PRAISE BE TO GOD.

But that’s enough about me.

Ladies and gentlemen, my amazing, beautiful, talented, and compassionate mother, Karen Maria Lozada!

They don’t make ’em like her anymore.

(I can’t show you today’s sketch since I went and wrote notes for my book all over it, and my book is absolutely classified – haven’t told a soul a thing. Will you forgive me for offering instead a late look at this sketch from last week?)

Sketch from a mass held in recognition of la Virgen de Quinche, a feast day of Mary which is especially beloved by Ecuadorians. This is a very special evening mass for the Hispanic community here in Newark. Painstaking effort is put into arranging a shrine of dolls and flowers and carrying the central doll of la Virgen into the building on the shoulders of four individuals, and in addition to me and the other core group of musicians of this cathedral, an authentic mariachi band performed during the mass.