Ode to East Memphis on Errand Day

Canoe and Kayak Race

A couple of weeks ago the Memphis Urban Sketchers went to the Outdoors Inc. Canoe and Kayak Race to sketch. It was so fun! I posted a couple of these on the MemUSK blog, but added a couple of sketches I did of the band that was playing, the Bluff City Backsliders.

Trees and Trees and Trees

In case you have never been to Memphis, yes there are this many trees here. They are everywhere! We are lousy with trees. When you see trees in nearly every one of my sketches, I am telling the truth!

Stamps and Bookclub

A few weeks ago we met for bookclub at a restaurant downtown and I ate a delicious shrimp salad. Mmmmmm.
Bookclub is very accepting of my tendency to sketch at the table. Or wherever :)

Sketching in a Lunch & Learn

Picking Up Paintings

That's the Flicker Street Studio mailbox. I was picking up some paintings before heading home for Studio Night a few weeks ago.

Last Day in New York City

Our last day was even more leisurely, with an unplanned stop at the Puerto Rican Day parade (when I took us in the opposite direction of where we were headed) (again), brunch at the Applejack Diner, and a stroll through Central Park.

MOMA Sculpture Courtyard

When we were in New York, my sister and I pretty much roamed around and did whatever struck our fancy. On Friday, we wandered around the area of Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral and then shopped and shopped. On the way back to our hotel we passed MOMA. It was four in the afternoon, right at the beginning of Target free Fridays, so we just turned right in, got in the line for free tickets and blam! There we were in the world's best museum! But we were worn out from all the shopping, so we sat in the sculpture courtyard for about an hour, just relaxing and watching people. What fun!

Shelter from the Rain, Perspective and a Museum Visit

We went to this building in Central Park called The Dairy because it's really cute and has a wide porch that covers the walkway, and it looked like it was about to rain. I've never seen it before, because there is really too much Central Park to see in just 11 visits.
We were soon joined by a lot of other people when it did start raining. So we just sat there and talked, and listened to other people talking, and gave people directions (apparently we looked like New Yorkers!), and Katherine and I both sketched - that's one of the doors at The Dairy on the left.
I showed her how our dad taught me to do perspective - it's the drawing on the lower right, but it's sideways here.
After that we walked to Madison Ave and caught a bus up to the Jewish Museum, which is open until 8 on Thursdays. We got there late, right around 7, and the nice people there let us in for free! Though the museum guard did yell out how much time we had left every five minutes ("TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES! THIS EXHIBIT CLOSES IN 25 MINUTES!"), we had plenty of time to see the Vuillard exhibit, which was just lovely.
When we left the museum it was so nice out that we decided to walk a few block before catching the bus. Well, a few blocks turned into 30 blocks! It was so fun, though, just walking and talking and looking at Central Park and the buildings on 5th Avenue!

Sketching in Central Park

After a delicious lunch at Le Bonne Soupe, Katherine and I walked to Central Park and strolled around. There is a little amusement park, Victoria Gardens, set up at the skating rink. It was so cute!

New York Trip

Last weekend my sister and I met up in New York City. I was of course coming from Memphis and she was coming from South Florida, and we met at LaGuardia Airport.

This sketch is of my lovely flight, most of which I spent chatting with the very nice lady next to me, which I normally don't do. A guy trying to look like the Unabomber also sat on our row, but he wasn't too chatty.

Eye Doctor

That thing on the left is a big eye doctor contraption. I wish I had used a whole piece of paper because I certainly had time to draw the whole thing in detail!

Car and Wishes

This is from June 1, but it looks like a 5, doesn't it. The writing on the bottom is my wish list from Carl Moore & Melissa Dunn's show at L Ross Gallery.

Small Corner

Small corner in my office.

More Errands

This is the view of the Clark Tower from my other regular errand, Kroger. There were firemen collecting money outside the grocery store and I literally had a dime on me. Still got a sticker!

I Love Sketching

I love sketching so much I will sketch a fly if it's in an interesting position. It was on the outside of a window that I was sitting next to.

Below that is my lunchtime office at Panera. They have the best free wifi in town!

Colors on Loan

I doodled some shapes and colors from the card to Melissa Dunn and Carl Moore's show at L Ross Gallery.

The heart at the bottom is from a friend's wedding - they were scattered over the tables. So cute.

Walking Errands

 I was running errands slowly on this day (walking errands - get it!).

Dylan and Doodles

This quote is from my favorite Bob Dylan song - this is from May 24th, his birthday. The rest is just filling in space.

Chicagoland Adventure Part 5

May 23: Started that first sketch with some remnants from May 22, then did another first sketch of all of my conference supplies laid out in front of me: water, coffee, notebook, phone, pencil.
After a few more sessions, we had $15 ham and cheese sandwiches at the hotel, then headed to the airport for a bit of a wait, then finally headed back home! Yay!
(click images for more detail)

Chicagoland Adventure Part 4

 May 22: More conference, then took the L downtown! We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. So much fun!
Had another lovely dinner with yet another aunt!
(click on image for more detail)

Chicagoland Adventure Part 3, continued

Again with the sketching people problem. That woman in the lower right of the first sketch is beautiful and has a head of great big beautiful grey hair. I was quite far away from the stage, though. She was playing bass in the tech comm band, The Rough Drafts, which I went to see after Andria and I had a wonderful dinner with Aunt Carol.
And in the bottom sketch, no Jackie Earle Haley was not the lead singer of the band. Cute old guy. Next time I'll sit closer to the stage.

Chicagoland Adventure Part 3, Rosemont

 May 21: Glorious Rosemont! Attended the STC conference at the Hyatt. I find that I retain a lot of information if I sketch while listening. Really. I'm not just saying that. If I just stare at the speaker I zzzzzzzzzzz.....
I wish I could draw people as cute as they actually are, such as the two ladies in the 2nd sketch. The young woman on the left had a cool sort-of mohawk, and the woman on the right is actually lovely and a very good public speaker! She owns Cow TC and I got the sticker in the last sketch from her.

Chicagoland Adventure Part 2, Wrigleyville

May 20: Drove into Chicago proper with the use of the fantastic GPS. Met Laura Caroline in Wrigleyville, totally (and thankfully) missing all of the NATO summit traffic and protesters. We had a lovely lunch at the Flower Flat, then Andria met us there and she and I drove to the next part of the adventure...

Chicagoland Adventure, Aurora

Spent a lovely evening with aunts and uncles and cousins and dogs and pizzas.
(click image for more detail)