Three years ago I wrote about 19,000 words of a first draft of a memoir. What I learned is that prose isn't really my medium. But it was cathartic. I ended up writing a path out for my younger self from a bad place, and it was helpful. I also figured out that I had written way too broadly, and the story I'd like to tell is tighter and centers around a transformative summer in Greece I was lucky enough to spend there. I thought that maybe someday I would mine some of that outpouring for graphic storytelling.

This spring, as I am stuck in my house for most of the days thanks to a flare up of the POTS I've been trying to figure out how to live with, I'm toying with that project again. I don't currently have the physicality to do a lot of standing up work in my print shop, but sitting on the couch and noodling with small illustrations gives me joy. And going back to relive some of that travel when I'm feeling more closed in is also appealing.

I don't honestly know if I'll have the courage to put this very personal story out into the world, but I'm enjoying exploring it. There is nothing like the brain fizz of a new project to perk you up a little. So here's the first page. We'll see how much more makes it to the public sphere.

We had a deluge for a second first Saturday in a row with very little rain in between. Memphis Urban Sketchers (every first Saturday) were set to to to the Memphis Botanic Gardens. It felt a little wasteful to take a trip there and not have much scope for the gardens themselves, but there's a big main building with windows in multiple directions, a conservatory, and even some garden pavilions, so we went ahead. There was also a covered porch outside the main conservatory where I settled in. I'm a sucker for a good palm frond. But there was so much inside that I would also love to draw. I need to get back sooner rather than later.

The colors seemed to call for my Kaweko Paradise Blue ink, which I love, but which is not suited for everything. It was fun to pull that pen back out. I always seem to do a detailed, more time consuming sketch first one out of the gate (backwards of the recommended practice of a quick warm up or two, but there we are). Then I did a much quicker one of this crazy plant in a pot sitting out on the patio. It's very small, in my little 3.5x5" purse sketchbook.

After the first downpour I took advantage of the break to get back to the main building without being drenched, and it got a lot lighter. I pulled out my waterproof inflatable cushion (my key piece of non sketching equipment) and did another super fast but bigger one of this garden sculpture. I do love a spiral, and it stood out beautifully against a dark magnolia. I got lost in the spirals, and it's an under 10 minute sketch, so it's not too exact, but I ended up liking it best of the three. I probably SHOULD start with quicker warmups if I could get my brain to keep from diving in with both feet as I'm starting.

I've been quiet here partly because I'm working on two illustration projects for Memphis Magazine that I can't show yet and partly because I was having some serious internet problems and couldn't share my scans. So I don't have a lot of new material I can share, but here are a couple of recent(ish) sketches that didn't make the blog. The first was an art lunch with friends, which is one of my favorite things to do, and I clearly had tea.

The second was a really neat lecture at Dixon a couple of weeks ago. I got to a number of those and usually sketch, so I'm trying to figure out different media and styles to vary the sketches from lecture to lecture. This was local artist Carl E. Moore, whose work I admire a lot, talking about his practice and his art. Instead of diving into paint I kept it just fountain pen and brush pen. I also used a higher vanishing line than I usually do. Often I'm drawing what's on the wall behind the speaker, but here I left more space for audience and kept his figure central to the sketch. I was pleased with how it turned out, which is not something I say a ton about my sketches. I love doing them, but they don't usually measure up to the image I had in my head before starting. This one was different than I meant it to be, but I was pleased with the result.

We had a stormy Saturday so Memphis Urban Sketchers met inside Crosstown Concourse, a huge old Sears distribution center that's been converted into apartments, offices, a high school, a YMCA, two theaters, a brewery, and (crucially) my favorite bread bakery Lucy J's. (As opposed to my favorite cake and cookie bakery.) That morning I went in for a ham and cheese pocket or something like that, but the cinnamon rolls smelled SO good that I got one. I got a tea to go with it and settled in to wait for the rain and for friends to show up. It's fun to sketch a treat because I take more time and enjoy it more in the process. It was delicious.

Later while talking to friends I did a quick, smaller sketch of the classic red stairwell in the art gallery section of the building.

I finished the morning having a chat with a different friend while I sketched inside the Memphis Listening Lab with their stunning collection of vinyl that you can have played for you. They have a great soundtrack running, needless to say.

I haven't been sketching much lately, so it felt great to go out and do several, especially while seeing friends at the same time. Urban sketchers is a big part of my social calendar and my absolute favorite group.

Five in One kindly hosted the Memphis Urban Sketchers on Saturday. They're a cool art gift shop (my favorite stickers), print shop, and crafts camp for grown ups. I love what they do and was excited to sketch their cool space. I love their facade, and even though it was chilly I perched outside a while catching their awesome row of windows and bling. Nicely it was sunny and not at all windy and certainly warmer than the icy weather we had been having. I'd been wanting to do a big sketch again, and this is in my largest book. I used a charcoal grey Inktense pencil with watercolor on top.

Afterwards I moved inside to chat with people and did another tiny sketch in my smallest book with just a fountain pen and a W&N watercolor marker. It's fun to do those quick, free sketches after spending a bunch of time on an intricate one.

Memphis is sleeted in, but ohmygosh so much better than being iced in the way Nashville and Oxford and a whole belt of Mississippi are. We missed the damaging ice by about 7 miles, and I'm absurdly grateful and then a little guilty for being that grateful, but I'm here and warm and mostly home. I've been doing more print work than sketching lately, and I've got a house guest who had the bad luck to choose this stretch of time to visit, so I'm just doing less art than I might be anyway. But Monday I sat in my print shop and sketched the snow shadows outside the French doors, and then I sketched a super small/quick one from my kitchen island. I'm also posting, on the general theme of "home," a recent sketch of my stepmom in her wing chair. I love having my parents right in the neighborhood.

I also sketched in line at the grocery store before the snow hit. Fresh Market usually has little to no line, but leading up to the storm Memphis was stocking up. I had had a conversation with a new artist friend about reaching for a sketchbook instead of a phone, and I'm trying to do more of that. The constant struggle.

I had a conversation this week with a new artist friend about how sketching always makes me happier than looking mindlessly at my phone, and it renewed my focus on pulling out the tiny purse sketchbook I (almost) always have with me in those small spaces during the day. I did the top sketch during a stop by the Metal Museum to see their new show and pick up enamel tiles from a workshop I did last year. I love the old bridge that we're slated to lose at some point to something more modern, so I took a minute to sketch it with a simple fountain pen. I treated myself to a new not-too-fancy-but-fancier-than-my-Lamy Pelikan late last year, and I'm really enjoying using it. I grabbed it again waiting in line at Target the other day and added a little red Windsor & Newton watercolor marker (I love their juicy colors). Clearly I closed it a little fast as I got to the front of the line, but it was fun to do in that couple of minutes of waiting instead of reaching for my phone. Here's hoping I can keep going on this streak.

Shapeshifter Art School opens this week offering continuing education art classes to Memphis, filling a void that badly needed some help. I'm so excited about the quality of the teachers, the interesting range of classes, and the gorgeous building it's all housed in. Elizabeth Alley, who founded our Memphis Urban Sketchers chapter, is one of the five artists who also founded the art school. She got the urban sketchers in early to have our monthly meeting and sketch the school. I was completely bewitched by this funhouse mirror door frame. the reflections and light were fascinating, even if the sketch got busy trying to capture all that. And I always enjoy a chance to sneak in a self portrait, this time in brand new thrift store jeans with a great bootleg flare.

I was finished ahead of time, so as well as chatting with friends I pulled out my small purse sketchbook and did one tiny corner with a Nicole Ritchie sculpture by a window.

Afterwards Christina and I caught up over Farmburger at Crosstown. Their holiday lights are still up through the dark part of the winter, and I did a super fast sketch with my gamboge W&N watercolor marker (one of my favorite tools) and a little bit of fountain pen after. It was a great day out, and I've been enjoying being out of the house more this week. It's nice to mark the good days in my sketchbook to remember later.

I gave myself an art day out today after turning in the cover art for Memphis Magazine's February issue a couple of days ago. I know artists who are disciplined in their work hours and days, but I am not one of them. I work through a lot of weekend time but give myself days off while everyone else is at work (which is the nicest time to take them except for seeing friends who are off work on weekends). Also my time off is muddy anyway, as non artist friends have pointed out to me, since sketching is often part of a day out for me.

Elizabeth Alley was talking at Dixon on her art residency in the arctic circle, which was fascinating. I love the noon Wednesday lecture series because it gets it on my calendar to take a museum day. And I love vicarious travel and artists talking about their craft. A perfect excuse to get out. And it was great. I chose paradise blue ink to do some of the sketching in because it felt as appropriate for the chill of the subject matter as it does for the blue of the Caribbean. That was the one I spent the most time on, but then she got to her slide of a polar bear track, and I grabbed my tiny purse sketchbook to record that.

It's 70 degrees today and gorgeous, so after walking through the printmaking exhibit again I ordered a peach tea latte and a blueberry muffin to take out into the gardens. Day out indeed. The drink making is delicious but a little slow, so I sat down to wait and sketched the croissant in the case while I waited. That's my gamboge Windsor and Newton watercolor marker as color. I love their juicy, saturated markers.

Sitting outside at Dixon feels a tiny bit like Paris. There are tables behind rows of  pruned trees and boxwood hedges with a view through to a Rodin statue. It always makes me think of the sculpture garden at the Rodin museum just a little, and it's a happy place for me. Sometime I'll sketch that view, but Elizabeth's talk about drawing patterns on her trip stuck with me, and when I looked down at the table base, I drew that instead. I did a whole series of sketches of my black boots when I was traveling in Paris, so again it felt like a small flashback to good times. It was a truly excellent day out.

I often try to do a very quick sketch on happy occasions just to have something to flip over later in my sketchbook/journal/carnet de voyage (travel book in French, but that phrase has the tang of adventure that I love). I fall back into that day and place when I come across such a sketch. So I did a super fast little pen/wash/marker sketch in the small sketchbook I keep in my purse while I was sitting in the sunshine sharing pastries from Lucy J's bakery with my dad. A good day.