What it’s like to draw people on Muni
muni from Avner Geller on Vimeo.
Hella people draw their fellow Muni passengers. It’s good practice, and lord knows there’s never a dearth of interesting characters on the bus.
Muni rider Avner shares the unique perspective of how those people react to being “drawn on Muni.”
“My name is Avner Geller. I am an artist living in San Francisco and working in the animation industry. I take the muni to work every day, and usually sketch the different passengers. People often ask me how do people react if they catch me…I made this little clip as an answer to how it feels.”
Thanks, Avner!
So, have you ever knowingly been drawn drawn on Muni? How did you react?
Avner,
In my 10 plus years in SF I had caught my share of folks sketching me, it’s comes with the terroritory of living in this city. However there was this one time, I was returning to SF one late evening after a visit from my hometown. Loaded down with a large bag and a backpack and exhausted from a delayed flight and an AirBART, BART, and now a rather empty N Car, my face was lit with the happiness of returning home. I smiled and looked out the window on 9th and through Judah, glad to be back and listening to my ipod taking in the sights that I missed in the week I was gone. My stop was about to come up when Bjork’s “All is full of love” appropriately started to play and I felt like everything was right in the world. When I stood up and collected my things I caught a glismpe in the reflection of the window of a passages sketchbook, who was sitting across from me. It was of me…leaning towards the window smiling. I was completely disarmed. I gave him a nod and smile as I left…I wish I could have said something to let him know how nice it was to have someone capture a small but sweet moment of life that was meant to be kept a secret. Between the joy of being back in my city, hearing that lovely bjork melody, and seeing myself smiling on someone’s sketchpad is probably my sweetest MUNI memory in my time in SF. Sorry you get some death ray stares so I just wanted to share that not all of us have a bad reaction, in fact, it’ was one of my best times riding public transit. -m*