'BART-ist' draws fellow passengers, book due out on Amazon
OAKLAND (KTVU) - A Bay Area man uses his commute on BART to create art. He draws other passengers.
Hamilton Cline says it's a hobby. But he's drawn so many, more than one thousand, that he's now publishing a collection of them in a book that will be available online Monday.
Some call him the 'BART-ist'. He rides BART everyday to work and the artist loves drawing people.
Our crew boarded a BART train with Cline to see how he uses his daily commute to and from work to create art.
"I really try to pick a subject who looks like they're not moving...who's reading a book or looking at their phone," said Cline.
The BART-ist turns rapid transit into rapid art.
He says it takes about 10 minutes to draw one person.
"I get to see a new subject everyday. I can ride the same BART, the same stop, the same time every single day for a year and not see the same person twice," said Cline.
He draws with his smartphone and a stylus. His subjects often don't know he's drawing them.
"I like drawing hair and noses," said Cline.
The 36-year-old says each drawing captures a moment in time. His collection of 1,000 plus drawings is an intersection of lives.
During Wednesday's evening commute, he sketches a woman sitting nearby and shows her his work.
"What do you think?" Cline asked Paula Perse, the passenger he drew.
She says she liked the sketch.
"I think he captured the essence of a commuter at the end of her day," said Perse who says she's a nurse.
Cline teaches website and app development at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
He showed us his early sketches of BART passengers when he first started in 2011 when he moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. Clines used pencil and paper and switched over to a cellphone at the end of 2014.
"Some people like to organize things on a shelve. I like to scratch drawings: scratch...scratch....scratch," said Cline.
The BART-ist says there are things to be learned from the diversity of people depicted in his drawings.
"It's really interesting, the cross section of people that are in San Francisco. Art is fun for me. It's something that I enjoy. It's something I always want to enjoy," said Cline.
The artist says his dream is to travel to foreign countries and ride public transit to draw passengers.
His book "Rapid Transit" will be available on Amazon starting Monday, March 26.