An artist creates fantastical pop culture scenes with BART as her canvas and riders as her subjects

An illustration of dinosaurs on BART with a Jurassic Park logo and a man in a hat walking on the train
An illustration of Scooby Doo and Shaggy over a photo of a woman waiting for BART
An illustration on o photo of a man on BART as Van Gough with Starry Night in the background and a canvas in front
Characters from Back to the Future (Doc in white and Marty McFly in red) along with the Delorean time machine
Photo of a BART train with a cat sleeping under lamp illustration
An illutration of a man sitting on BART in a suit with colorful green and blue puffs behind him

"Some people read, some people work, some people apply makeup,” says Joanna Sokua of riding BART. “I draw.”  

Since 2017, Sokua has been creating what she calls “BARToons” during her morning and evening commute. You might say she is a seasoned BARTist. In the past seven years, she has drawn more than 170 BART illustrations. While on the train, she snaps photos of scenes and passengers that spark an idea, and when she gets home, she’ll sketch them out or, most often, superimpose pop culture figures onto the images using a digital pen.  

The drawings depict Scooby Doo and Shaggy waiting for a train; Van Gough seated near the doors with a pipe and bandage over his ear; Doc Brown and Marty McFly from Back to the Future standing on a legacy train; Clark Kent looking at his phone with his Superman suit peeking out. Sometimes, she’ll just draw a passenger as they are, sitting on the train engrossed in whatever they’re doing. 

Sokua works in banking, helping small business owners secure financing for their ventures. She is one of many artists who have been inspired by their BART rides, from photographers roused by the system's striking angles to novelists who wrote their books almost entirely onboard. There have even been plays set on BART trains. 

On her BART ride from the East Bay to her office in San Francisco, Sokua is not thinking about her data-and-dollars day job. Mostly, she’s looking for subjects to draw. The creative exercise helps her unwind, and it’s deeply entertaining for those who keep up with her work on her Instagram (@the_und3rwrit3r), where she regularly posts her latest drawings.  

The artist said she doesn’t board a train with an idea for her next drawing. She simply waits for inspiration to strike. 

“People always ask me how I decide what to draw,” she said. “It just comes to me. I see something, and I know exactly what I want to do.” A drawing of Jack Sparrow was born after seeing a fellow rider in a headband on her train, for example.  

A person dressed in a suit, with a Superman logo humorously edited onto their shirt, is intently looking at their smartphone while riding a subway train, surrounded by other passengers.
A scene on a BART train with a person sitting in a green seat with a Paddington Bear illustration over their head
An individual dressed in a Spider-Man costume is performing a handstand on a moving train, with their feet raised towards the ceiling. The train interior is populated with various passengers seated and standing.
A line drawing of a person sitting on a BART train
Hooded Kermit the Frog illustration beside a photo of a man with a similar black hood on BART
A man in yellow and green standing in a white and black line drawing of a BART station

BART proves ripe for inspiration because “you see people from all walks of life,” Sokua said. She’s even made friends onboard.  

“I take the same train every day at the same time. You see the same people over and over,” she said. “It becomes a sort of community actually." 

Most of the time, people don’t know Sokua has used them for a drawing, though sometimes they find themselves or their loved ones on her Instagram page. One memorable instance was when she drew a man who “looked like Jesus” sitting next to a woman praying over a rosary. It's one of her favorite drawings, least of all because the man’s wife saw the drawing on Instagram and commented, “That’s my personal Jesus!” Once, she drew an Oscar the Grouch cartoon, and the person operating the train found the image on Facebook, commenting something to the effect of, “Hey! I was operating that train!”  

Sokua said she creates her BARToons to “make people laugh and make their rides more fun.”  

She doesn’t want to offend with her drawings, she just thinks everyone can always use a healthy dash of humor in their day.  

“You might as well make the most of your commute,” she said, adding that she “100% recommends” doodling on BART.