Drawn the Road Again

Category: Built to Last

  • R is for Return

    R is for Return

    Well, I’m no fan of beer, but I do love me a neon sign and a good swash capital. So while I couldn’t make it to the official relighting of the Rainier “R” in Seattle (link goes to my friend Jennifer’s blog, where there are some fun videos about the R), you can bet I…

  • Retro Row

    Retro Row

    Manitou Springs has been a tourist attraction since the 1870s—first for its “medicinal” mineral springs, and then for its wild-west remnants and mountain location. For decades it’s been chock-a-block with midcentury motels and vintage neon—and by some miracle, nearly all of them are still around. Every time I come back here, I run around town…

  • Red hots

    Red hots

    Oh, sure. I love a fall full of pumpkins, bright gold trees, crisp air—all the usual stuff. But thanks to a few years spent living in southern Colorado, shiny-waxy-red chili ristras are also a sure sign of autumn in my mind. They’re not something you see around my neck of the woods, but a bright…

  • The last roundup

    The last roundup

    I couldn’t be here in person for this, and I haven’t actually eaten here since I was a kid. But Giuffrida’s has been a familiar (and completely incongruous) landmark on countless drives north of Boston over the years, and this is the first neon sign I ever loved. So when my dad told me it…

  • I see dead people

    I see dead people

    Okay, you’re going to think I’m a total weirdo for getting so excited over bunch of headstones (and I have many, many more sketches than these…), but since it’s Halloween this week, I figured I could get away with it. I have to tell you, I have a serious, major thing for colonial graveyards. My…

  • Tea for two

    Tea for two

    Speaking of Canadian fall color, almost exactly two years ago I had the chance to stay at Victoria’s Empress Hotel, and see its climbing ivy in all its autumn glory. Both then and just recently, when the Tailor and I visited Victoria together, a major highlight of the visit was the Empress’s world-famous High Tea.…

  • A world where there are Octobers

    A world where there are Octobers

    “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?” —L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables And I’m so glad my first visit to Prince Edward Island was an October one. Even without the peak fall color everywhere, the…

  • Lobster Lane

    Lobster Lane

    I just got back from two glorious weeks in the Maritimes. I still have a lot of color finishing to do on my trip sketches, and somehow it’s still four hours later in my brain—so for now, here are just a couple of drawings to give you a taste. The tiny fishing village of Peggys…

  • Memory lane

    Memory lane

    There’s only one drawback (no pun intended!) to the sketching trip I’m currently on—and that’s that I’m missing my ten-year reunion at RISD this weekend. So to all my friends from college who are whoopin’ it up this weekend: I’m raising a glass to you from afar!

  • Ghost palace

    Ghost palace

    Even on sunny days, the Claremont always seems to appear from nowhere as you turn a corner or follow the curving roads uphill. But in the chilly morning fog, it seemed to emerge from some other world.