If sketching the mural in Athens taught me anything, it’s that new ideas do indeed have a way of stretching our minds, just as windows are opened to the coming of spring.
From Colombia to Costa Brava: Introducing a new sketching adventure.
Sketches – Europe
Summer’s Sketchbook 2014.
From beautiful Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest to the infinite beaches of the Outer Banks in North Carolina, I tried to pull out my sketchbook as often as possible during this stateside summer.
Travel sketch of the month: January edition.
As we kick off 2014, let us leave space in our schedules to wander, to walk for the pure sake of walking, to linger over a second cup of tea. But most importantly, let us never doubt ourselves for doing so.
Sketch of the month: December edition.
The hills were equally arresting. I couldn’t stop staring at them, shielding my eyes from the sun as I tried to burn their image to my memory forever. When I think about it now, they offered me a bit of their clarity on a day when I felt anything but.
Sketching Amsterdam: Gratitude along the Singel Canal.
Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today or not, I hope you find a bit of time to say your own prayer of gratitude. For life’s many crazy blessings, for new cities to explore, for the gift of home, and of course, for pumpkin pie.
Sketching Serbia: Fifteen hours in Belgrade.
Travel is funny like that sometimes, isn’t it? Giving us these oddly scheduled arrivals and strange pockets of time in which to explore a new country; in-between places that will pass through us as quickly as we pass through them.
Sketching Croatia: Chance encounters and island wisdom.
I’m overwhelmed by everything I will never understand about Stan’s story – what it means to lose a parent so soon in your life, what it means to hear enemy tanks encircling your city at night – and by the simple yet poignant wisdom he now shares with me.
Sketching Croatia: Full-circle moment on Iž.
And so it was that I decided to return to Iž, to circle back to who I was the last time I was here. I wanted to sketch the island again – and to honor the crazy journeys that life delights in sending us on. As I sketched, all I could think was: thank you.
Sketching Ireland: Cider and serendipity in a Dublin pub
I decided that when Sanel does in fact realize his dream of drinking in an Irish pub, he won’t be disappointed. It was warm, it was human, it was the feeling of many people in a small room. And when you thought about it, you could almost smell the coast.
Sketching Bosnia and Herzegovina: Painting sessions and pomegranates in Mostar.
You have to do this every now and then, don’t you? Give your wonder a chance to breathe and marvel at where life has brought you: to Bosnia, to a family’s back garden, to a table beneath a pomegranate tree.