Calligraphic cobblestones

San Juan Island bricks sketch by Chandler O'Leary

Roche Harbor is a hidden little pocket on San Juan Island, with impeccably preserved turn-of-the-century buildings, picturesque lime kiln ruins, a pristine saltwater inlet, and wharf buildings that hearken back to some (perhaps slightly revisionist) halcyon era gone by. Yet I had to force myself to even look at those things, let alone sketch them—because I would have been perfectly content to spend all day staring down at my feet.


4 responses to “Calligraphic cobblestones”

  1. I love floors, cobblestones, pavements. But I find it eerie to see my surname in these cobblestones. At all. Much less repeated. Clues?

    • Wow, you’re right, Marialena! That name jumped out at me, too, but because it’s shared by a Canadian painter I’ve always admired, and it seemed to fit that I was also painting. (The painter in question was from nearby Victoria, BC, so maybe the bricks were made by a family company? More clues!)

      • Emily Carr? People delighted in educating me about her when I lived on the opposite Canadian coast years ago. Lovely work. Clues everywhere… And they fit different mysteries for each discoverer.