Last fall, Robyn O'Neil concluded a seven-year saga begun with a pencil drawing made in graduate school. Awkwardly drawn, it featured two happy, middle-aged, anti-hipsters comfortably sporting sneakers and saggy sweat suits with elastic bands at the ankles. Fascinated by these funny but pathetic characters—which she describes as "archetypal normal" guys—she let them design their own adventures. She eventually began incorporating them into a drawn population of similarly rendered men also engaged in leisurely pursuits. Scattered in landscapes of vast snowy forests and mountain peaks, these tiny men jogged, cross-country skied, and sat around campfires roasting marshmallows.
   While these scenarios may have initially seemed innocent and whimsical, details eventually revealed the hopelessness of the situation.

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For just over ten years, Robert Walden has been creating intricate, detailed line drawings, eerily reminiscent of the topography of the world's great, familiar cities. Graceful, spacious, elegant, the drawings capture the eye as maps, but when the viewer draws closer— thinking, perhaps, that this is Amsterdam, Paris, or London—she finds not a legible map, but a sort of ghostly vapor trail—an afterimage, mysteriously stripped of all identifying features.
   Walden himself is like his drawings—quiet, but with a presence that manages to be both understated and powerful. On a recent cold day in Queens, where he has his studio, I spoke with the artist about his inspirations and sources, the advantages of abstraction, and how to draw calm out of chaos.

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