Missed Connections

I start my commutes in the front of the F-train. Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the same car I was in yesterday (and sometimes I am!). Sometimes I see the same people. There's so many new things to see... and so many things that stay the same. These days, I often see this poster by Sophie Blackall and I smile because the artist has charmingly captured just about every kind and type of person I've ever seen in the subway. Except for the punksters, so I snapped this quick pic of the skull-hoodied sleeve cloaking the person next to me. I thought it was just a quirky moment and wanted to remember it.

As part of the MTA's Arts for Transit programs, I've loved watching the posters parade through the years. A quick search to find out a little more about this poster's artist led me to Sophie's personal project - Missed Connections - where she illustrates the "missed connections" ads posted on Craigslist. While often just a shoot in the dark, each post on Craigslist earnestly searches that some day paths will connect again, describing in hopeful detail the desired persons' appearance and situation.

As she picks posts to illustrate, Sophie embeds warmth into her drawings with wit. On her blog, she tells how the MTA invited her to create the poster that I love looking at. Watch the video she created, telling more about the creation of the poster:

She sat and sketched folks on the subway, just as I do. But while Sophie's project "gives wings" to the stories from the subway, my "before I transfer" portraits will cement them into a beautiful mosaic of faces and memories.