Jack Sjogren | DIANA KOENIGSBERG PHOTOGRAPHY

JASON POLAN & FRIENDS AND TACOS a memorial

Six years ago when my daughter Vivienne was about 7, she decided to sell some of her drawings to make some extra money. She knew about instagram, so she taped several small drawings up on the living room wall and began pricing each one, usually around $1.00 each. She asked me to post each one on to Instagram so my friends could buy them.

I was pretty reluctant, but I did as I was told. The first picture sold to a complete stranger named Mara who seemed nice, and agreed to come over the following day and pick up her artwork. She said she was going to bring an artist friend along who was visiting from New York. Jason Polan came with Mara that day.They went through a big pile of Vivienne’s artwork with her to see more because there weren’t many on the wall. Jason was super excited and bought 2 pieces ( one was a drawing of a hot dog and the othr was a Ketchup bottle with a face on it ). As they looked through the pile of drawings Vivienne said, ” I don’t like these at all”, to almost all the drawings. Jason responded to her as though he was speaking to one of his peers, ” I know it’s really hard to look at old work”. Which was hilarious to me

We didn’t know anything about Jason at the time, just that he was an artist and lived in New York, and that he was really nice. Im so sad because this week I learned that Jason is no longer with us. I came to love his work and followed it closely. Jason loved drawing, he loved New York and he loved making people happy with his artwork.

Along with taking on the impressive goal of drawing every person in New York, Jason also started The Taco Bell Drawing Club a weekly gathering for him and friends to draw at whichever Taco Bell he happened to be near. This week there are Taco Bell Drawing Clubs happening all over the country in Jason’s honor. His friends, and fans are gathering in his honor to celebrate his life, eat tacos and draw. I went to a Taco Bell Drawing Club in Glendale today and met a bunch of incredible artists, writers, and friends of Jason. Here are some photographs.