Sept 21 - Parkersburg, WV

Apologies for the gap between Dayton and this last post "from the road". . . I meant to get these up the day after I got home, but strangely, I found myself sucked into the daily routine as if I'd never left (except for unpacking).  Three days later I remembered I had to do this or bust.

Parkersburg WV reached its peak sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, with industry booming and Victorian mansions springing up on every block.  Much of the city has hit a decline since then, and it hasn't found footing in the arts and tourism boom like it's sister city across the river (Marietta, OH). Having said that, however, allow me to say that the historic sections of P'burg where those Victorian beauties have been maintained really wow a wandering body.  My entire goal in stopping there was to capture some of the architectural elegance for later illustrations.

Sadly, though, I didn't catch much with my camera.  [Never fear, however, because I'm going back in a few weeks!]  Most days I bat about a .300 with the camera, but my average was way down that afternoon in P'burg.  Still, you can check out some of the local "color" from the block I circled while in town by clicking the photo below:

[And what was I doing the rest of the time I was there, you ask?  Well, part of it I hope will be in a future edition of This Old House; the other part of it will appear in future artwork in late October as part of my regular website.  Stay tuned!]

Sept 19 - Dayton, OH

Today included an exhausting seven hours running around the historic Oregon district and the main part of downtown Dayton, Ohio with family!  It's a pretty cool city to wander around, though: lots of flight-themed architecture and decorations, and tons of mechanical history here (starting with the Wright Bros and ending somewhere around the invention of the self-checkout register).

I'm hoping to get a picture or two at the Wright museum at the airport tomorrow--no good shots at the city's Carillon Park where they have the restored Wright Flyer III.

As usual, I'm keeping back a lot of photos to use on art projects or for show at a future time, so there will be more of Dayton to appear later.  Click the photo below to see some of the other pictures from the city:

Sept 17 - Oklahoma!

When I first thought about driving through Oklahoma, I thought it was going to be a long, boring drive filled with wide open spaces full of corn, cows, or (possibly) horses . . . and that would be all.  After I stopped at an information center, though, I realized I owe a huge apology to the entire state for wallowing in my ignorance.  I'm embarrassed.

Sadly, however, I didn't have time to explore or hit some of the highlights as I was blasting through the Sooner state; I was starting in Texas and hoping to magically appear in east Missouri before I stopped for the day.  I would've missed:

• The only existing skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Carlsbad Caverns and Blue Hole
• 39 tribal nations throughout the state and all the heritage, history, culture, and exhibitions that entails

I did manage to make a quick stop at the OK History Center in OK City to catch some of the tribal displays--mostly Sac and Fox, Awapaho, Choctaw, Osage, and Otoe.  I got some great patterns to compliment what I'd seen by the Pueblo back in New Mexico that I want to use on some fabric pieces, as well as some cut-work that will work for a quilted piece I had in mind for a wall hanging.  I was also inspired to do a little more investigation into my family history to see if I could find the tribe in my family tree--its one of the northern US or Canadian tribes, which is all my grandmother knew herself.

The history center also had a gallery display by artist Woody Crumbo; he worked in silk screen, watercolor, and oil to name a few of the medium types he used.  I really loved his style of applying patterns and color work into the animals, and also how he used watercolor more like opaque paint rather than the typical transparent layers; I somehow manage to mix watercolor like syrup (to the horror of every water-colorist I've taken a class with) so it was good to see someone else actually employing that on a finished piece--might have to try it again back home.

No flash photography was allowed, of course, but I did manage a few quick pictures of Crumbo's work for my reference files:

Sept 16 - Albuquerque, NM

This morning I woke up in my hotel on a bluff overlooking Albuquerque to see about 10 hot air balloons flying over the city--practice runs for next months Balloon Fiesta.  Of course my camera was in the car and by the time I got downstairs they'd either descended or were too far away to capture.  At some point I'm going to learn to keep my camera with me at all times!

Today was a busy day as far as the travel schedule goes: drive up to Santa Fe, drive over to Las Vegas (New Mexico) to have lunch with a new friend, then drive about 7 hours to Oklahoma City (I only made it to Amarillo, TX).  By my calculations that gave me about an hour in Albuquerque, which ruled out the tourist trolley for all things Breaking Bad.  Luckily the Petroglyph National Monument is on the west side of the city so I hot-footed it over there for one of the smaller trails.

The combination of sun angle and stone color can make the images a little elusive; the Pueblo elders believe the petroglyphs choose when and to whom to reveal themselves to.  I'd timed it just right to see The Flute Player, which a lot of folks miss by showing up later in the day.  No fancy photos, just something to share from the trip.

Click the photo to see some of the petroglyphs and other sites from one of the park's trails:

Sept 15 – Western New Mexico

I crossed over into New Mexico in the late afternoon and here’s the summary of the drive with visual aids:

• Unexpected sights of pecan and walnut orchards, and several vineyards!
• Had to pass by Silver City and the Gila cliff dwellings, which was sad since the cliff dwellings were on my must-see list.  Next time!
• Huge dust devils along the valley and one monster next to the highway at one point—it was like a tornado of dirt spirals a good 50’ wide and a couple hundred feet tall!  Signs were everywhere for "caution: dust storms" and "zero visibility possible" and "do NOT stop in traffic lanes."
• Cone-shaped mountains that looked like pyramids from a distance.  I think they must be volcanic remnants—I’ll have to check into that once I’m home.

• I crossed the Rio Grande twice!
• I passed a sign for a town called “Radium Springs”, which reminded me of “Radiator Springs” from Disney/Pixar’s Cars and I wonder if this is where they got the inspiration for the name.  It also made me wonder (thinking of anthropomorphic vehicles) if I were a car what would I be?  I’ll have to think about it and work up an illustration for fun.  Let’s see  . . . 1970s, something speedy but not glamorous, both practical and fun, a little bit tom-boyish, some funky detailing. . . I have a sinking feeling that if I were a car I’d be a brown El Camino with orange pin stripes.  Ha!
• Other misc pix of New Mexico as seen from the highway:

From cones to buttes.

More lush desert.

More cones.

Catching some evening light against the red rocks.

More cones in the distance.  Is using a camera while driving a distraction if my eyes are still on the road?  Heh.

Sunset lasted almost two hours.

Sept 15 – Tucson, AZ (part II)

I got a very brief glimpse of Tucson in the less-than-24-hrs I was there.  There are two “downtowns”: the high-density commercial area and the adjacent historic-slash-University funky area.  Decidedly walk-able and very cool to visit.  When visiting, please note that there are numbered streets and numbered avenues . . . it’s very confusing to cross 6^th Street at 6^th Avenue.  You’d think they would’ve started using letters at some point, but no.

We (my hosts and I) had dinner on 4^th Ave then took a walk around the funky side of town.  I was lucky enough to be there on a Friday night, when the SkyBar has a group of fire-dancers working outside.  They used batons, hoops, etc, and grooved to some great electric mix music and live bongos.  My camera is useless for night shots, so I’m going to try to reproduce the memory on colored paper with conte and ink stick wash (if the two are compatible) or pastel.

We also visited the Hotel Congress where infamous bank robber John Dillinger was captured.  The interior of the hotel lobby is awash in copies of news articles and mug shots, which is an interesting contrast to the muted tones of tribal designs on the stucco walls.

The following morning I was headed out of town, but took a quick detour to the east side of town to the Saguaro National Park.  Did you know Saguaro cactus only start to bloom when they’re about 40 yrs old, and only start to branch out around 75 yrs old?  And that they have a “skeleton” made out of woody ribs that natives would use for fences?  I didn’t.

I didn’t make it all the way up into the deepest part of the park (the ponderosa pine forests), but I did manage to get a few pictures down in the desert portion.  Note to self: when wandering through lush desert aimlessly taking photos, try not to walk through low-growing cacti (again).  Got a couple of spines embedded in my ankle for my carelessness!  The park is gorgeous and I’ll be coming back to do some more exploring, though I’ll have to be on the lookout for more than just tricky cacti that jump in front of me when I’m not paying attention: there are tree snakes, jaguars, and mountain lions in the park, too.

The pictures aren’t fantastic or many, but I wanted to share for those that haven't been to the Sonoran Desert.  Click the picture to see the photo album:

Sept 13 - Bonneville Speedway and Salt Lake, UT

I went out today to see what photos I could get of some of the surrounding areas to the west of the city and maybe work on some sketches if anything jumped out at me.  The air was so incredibly hazy, though, it really wasn't a good "picture day."  Places that were well within walking distance appeared shrouded in mist or fog; there was no horizon line on the lake and sailboats appeared to be floating.  It was weird.

The Bonneville Speedway salt flats were amazing, though, even with crappy photos that don't do it justice.  The flats were a bit soggy so I didn't risk taking my brother's car out to one of the tracks to blow the cobwebs off the engine (that weren't blown off at 90mph getting there), though there was a group of folks who drove out for something as evidenced by the trailer of wood and metal they were hauling.  It was probably a good idea to stay back: I passed a camper that tried to drive out and ended up sunk in the salt up to its running boards.  I could see some of the pathway cones further out, but no obvious activity happening.

And you'd think whatever pools of water were out on the flats would be hot in the mid-day sun, but the water was cooler than ambient temperature (mid 70s). . . the dregs of memory left over from my chem lab days explained it all to me once I actually took a few seconds to think about it.

I managed to get some decent photos, but nothing that really stood out for me.  Nearly all of the salt flat pix had to be tweaked to get anything off in the distance to show up.  As usual, click the photo to see the entire album:

Sept 12 - Park City, UT

I spent yesterday kicking around with my family, getting the tour and seeing some of the sights.  We drove north and east circling a section of the Wasatch Mtns, lunched in Park City (it's Utah's Malibu to Salt Lake City), then we circled back around to Salt Lake City by way of the Guardsman Pass.  Gorgeous country, especially with the Aspen trees just starting to turn yellow, and the maples already brilliant scarlet.

Today I was on my own and back at work, camera in hand, so I decided to revisit some of the places we saw yesterday since I'd have time to dawdle and wander around.  Click the photo to see the online album:

Sept 9 - Portland, OR

I took the train up to Portland and have a little over 24 hrs here before I fly out to Salt Lake City.  With the time crunch I wanted to catch as much as I could, so I'm limiting myself to just photographs while I'm in the city.

Portland was made for me to photo!  It's got that funky blend of modern sleek appeal with historic charm; I knew I was in trouble when I spotted three of my favourite browsing companies (because they're certainly out of my price range) with display windows right on the main streets for me to drool on.  I'm staying in the northwest part of the city - the Pearl District they call it - and within walking distance of some of the best attractions in the city.  I was commanded to Powell's Books, which is the largest privately owned bookstore, and just did my usual wandering around with camera in hand.  I should make a tee that says "Caution: tourist" across the back.

I'm also headed to the famous Rose Garden and perhaps the Japanese and Chinese gardens as well.  The sky is again overcast, but here's hoping the morning the fog will burn off a little bit!  As usual, click the photo to view the Portland photos . . . more coming soon!

Sept 6 - Roseburg, OR (the plein air event)

So, so tired!

Today was a whirlwind of activity starting at about 7am and going right up until now (1030pm).  The weather was beautiful, the farm I worked on was beautiful, downtown was beautiful . . . the margaritas and designer cupcakes I ate with dinner were beautiful.

I did a total of four pieces today--I had to have them stamped, framed, and delivered to the art center within one hour of completion, so I don't have any scans of them to post.  Tomorrow I'll have photos of them from the display, though, so keep an eye out for those.

I didn't know what I was going to do when I started the competition this morning, so I did whatever felt right for the subject. The shed and tree at the entrance to the farm became a nice, calm ink illustration; the rough and tumble cornflowers against the aged truck became a roughed-in drawing in ink stick I applied with my fingers; the blowzy over-blown red begonias against the blue mountain ridge became a cartoon-like illustration; and the energy of the downtown street scene became that rough ink sketch style with a color wash I liked so much back in Nashville.  I'll redo a version of these once I get back home, too.

Anyway, enough of that--no sense talking about them if I can't share pictures of the art right now.  What I'm trying so unelegantly and unsuccinctly to say is that it was a busy day, I did some good stuff, I got a few pictures, I ate, I laughed . . . and I am exhausted!  Tomorrow we have a morning full of demos and more painting (non-competitive), and then at 5pm they announce the winners and open the display to the artists and the public.  The top forty pictures are displayed in the main hall of the arts center, and I'm hoping I get at least one picture chosen for that.  (Secretly, of course, I'm hoping I win the top prize cash pot, but I'll be really happy if someone buys something!  Heh.)

Okay, I'm falling asleep while I sit here, so without further ado I present to you a small selection of the photos I managed to take today while I wasn't scribbling away on paper.  Enjoy . . . and wish me luck for tomorrow!

Aug 31 - New Orleans, LA

The power finally came back on, the sun came out, the storm was over and the city got back to its hustle and bustle . . . so I was back out this morning taking more photos and grabbing a few sketches for my last day in New Orleans.

Click the photos to see what's new in the NOLA album:

Aug 27 - New Orleans, LA

I arrived in New Orleans yesterday afternoon and my host took me on a bicycle tour of the French Quarter and the river front (the Moonwalk).  The streets were packed, Jackson Square was alive with a ring of artists, performers, and tourists; I got a $5 caricature lesson from one of the guys we stopped to talk to.

Today, though, things are different.  The city's been in a state of emergency since last night thanks to TS Isaac coming in tomorrow, and though there isn't a sense of panic or rushing about in the neighborhoods, folks are missing from the streets and store-fronts because they're off preparing for gale-force winds and 9 - 14" of rain.  The Quarter is quiet and the normally welcoming full-length windows are shuddered or boarded up. Not much to photograph or sketch there.

I managed to get a few good sketches and photographs this morning while the skies were still blue; later they got a little silvery because the cloud cover had moved in, which washed out a lot of the image colors.  Most of the pictures (not shown in the album) I'm keeping back to use as reference material for later pieces.

Click on the picture below to view the New Orleans album of my day in the French Quarter and river side:

Aug 25 - Mobile, AL (sketches)

(sigh)

Today was one of those days when everything I tried to do ended up being a disappointment.  The photos were okay, the sketches were rushed (dang ants!) or I was feeling frustrated that the markers weren't blending like I wanted them to, or I tried to use people as subjects and (as usual) failed.  Also, I forgot to put on sunscreen today and got a horrible farmer's tan line just under my knees (lol)!

Or, to paraphrase: bleh!

In the interest of full disclosure I've posted the sketches here in this post rather than give them their own postings . . . they don't deserve them!  I'll try these subjects again on the flight out of New Orleans (on the 28th) and push them a little further.  I also picked up a few supplies today that I hope will enable me to work with the markers a little differently when I want to use them as a color wash (versus a solid like with the cartoons).

And, to focus on the positive, the sketch I did with the people in it shows at least my non-existent people-as-subjects skills are getting better.  I'll keep practicing.

New photos in the Mobile album--click the picture!

Fort Conde, Mobile, AL

Aug 24 - Mobile, AL

Wow--I'm slipping into town just in time for the first week of classes at the University, Beer Fest downtown, and just ahead of Tropical Storm Isaac!  Now if only the Chili Cookoff was happening or the fishing rodeo I'd be set for the next few days with a mysterious cold that sadly laid me up for about a week or so while I "recovered."  [cough, cough]

I got in touch with some old friends from school (USA, go Jags!) who gave me some pointers on what to see downtown for this project, and my host also suggested going to Bellingrath Gardens, which is a sight to see year-round and one of Mobile's true gems.

We went to the Gardens first; I could spend a week camping out there and still not get all the photos I wanted to!  Did a quick sketch in the Japanese Garden and then we took off for downtown.

For those who are not familiar with the city (which is pronounced mo-BEEL after the Maubila indians, not MO-bul like it's portable), it was once the 3rd largest city in the US and has French and Spanish roots.  Sadly, most of the historic part of the city has been lost to fire or misguided architects of the previous century, but some of the older historic buildings have survived, along with the centuries-old live oaks that line the older residential streets and area green spaces.

Click the photo below to see today's pictures taken at Bellingrath Gardens and in "historic" downtown Mobile (around Dauphin and St. Joseph Sts.):

Aug 22 - Nashville, TN (Part II)

So here I sit in the hotel-of-the-night—nearly done with Nashville, but I’ve still got to do the city icon cartoon(s).  There was so much to see here I could easily spend weeks trying to capture the city and all its neighborhoods, not just The District I spent so much time in!  I’m going to keep thinking about the various things I want to incorporate into a cartoon sketch and see if I can work those out in the morning—I may have to just focus on one and save the others for later when I’m stuck in mass transit for hours and hours.  I also still have some time in the morning to kick around before I leave, and I keep thinking I want to go back to Music Row and grab a few photos.

Music Row is what they call 16^th and 17^th Streets on the west end of town near Vanderbilt University, and it’s where most of the city’s recording businesses are.  You’d think they’d be small corporate-looking buildings or something, but the street is actually full of posh and very beautiful craftsman-style houses.  The entire length of each street for about two blocks is nothing but studio, next to studio, next to studio, and because each one has a small sign out front with the studio’s name, it reminded me of every college’s Fraternity Row. . . but with more class and less beer can ornamentation.  Perfect for an icon line-up, cartoon style!

That’s it for tonight: tomorrow is another long traveling day.  A few more pictures have been added to the Nashville photo album, too.  'Night!

Aug 20 - Knoxville, TN

Today was the only day I was going to be in Knoxville, TN, so I wanted to make the most of it by visiting the Smoky Mountains and getting something specific to the city itself.  I drove out to Cade's Cove in the park and took the recommended scenic drive; did my first practice en plein air sketch with the illustration markers and nabbed a lot of great photos.  Afterward I headed to the city for lunch and more photos . . . and got a great illustration of Knoxville's World's Fair Park and the Sunsphere, which will be in a following post.

Click the photo to view some of the day's pictures (more to come after the trip):

As mentioned, here's the sketch:

Clipped a little by the scanner!