Drawn the Road Again

Category: City Mouse

  • Coming up roses

    Coming up roses

    Drawing super-complex things like rose gardens always breaks my brain a little. I start out with good intentions, attracted by the detail in every petal and the stunning colors of all the rose varieties. But every time I look down at my page and back up again, I lose track of where I was. Then…

  • Catch of the day

    Catch of the day

    A June day at Alki doesn’t tend to provide the summer warmth you might find at a beach outside of the Northwest—but even in the chilly overcast air, there’s nothing better or more summery than a basket of fried clams and hot chips.

  • Big tow

    Big tow

    Seattle is one of the most tow-happy cities I’ve ever encountered. If you’ve ever tried to decipher the convoluted weekday parking rules downtown here (where signs say things like, oh, I dunno, “2-hour parking except third Wednesdays in months with an “R” in them, between 3 and 6 pm, and then only if driver is…

  • Toddler tug

    Toddler tug

    After seeing this, I would like to propose a requirement that all utilitarian equipment and vehicles also be hilarious.

  • Stones and subdivisions

    Stones and subdivisions

    The very same day the Tailor and I breezed by a sign painter’s version of a petroglyph, we also got to see the real thing, up close. Of course, they were beautiful and fascinating—but what really got me was the fact that the remnants of an ancient pueblo civilization were perched above a modern suburban…

  • Quick Draw McGraw

    Quick Draw McGraw

    What can I say? Sign says “Draw,” I reach for my pen. Save

  • Perennial pagoda

    Perennial pagoda

    This Sunday my town is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the pagoda at Point Defiance Park. Originally a streetcar station, the building features an Arts & Crafts design, Japanese-style roof and Welsh ceramic roof tiles. A teenage arsonist nearly destroyed the structure in 2011, but the subsequent restoration brought back several of the original features…

  • Ghost lodging

    Ghost lodging

    The Panama Hotel was the centerpiece of Seattle’s once-thriving Japanese community, until every one of the neighborhood’s residents was rounded up and imprisoned during World War II. Many stowed their personal belongings in the basement of the Panama for safekeeping—and never came back to claim them. The few who did return after the war found…

  • Meditation station

    Meditation station

    Every time I’m in Portland, it seems like I have a list of errands a mile long. Inevitably I get caught up in the bustle of the city, ticking items off my list, and usually only taking a break long enough for a hurried sketch now and then. But whenever I get the chance to…

  • Big Apple, Big Sky

    Big Apple, Big Sky

    I did both of these sketches on the same road trip. What I love best about traveling this way is that it makes it so easy to see many facets of a complex country—all in one long stretch. If you want to go from a place where the buildings are so tall you have to…