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I checked two major items off of my bucket list last week – driving to Maine, and visiting Ashley Bryan on Little Cranberry Island. When Deb Taylor asked if I wanted to drive up with her, it was a no brainer. Prior to our departure, a large hurricane had barreled up the east coast causing minor damage to the island but briefly leaving people without power and water. The day that we drove up was perfectly sunny and calm.

The farthest north I had ever driven was to Boston back in 1999 when my mother took me on a college tour. BU was one of my choices. I had never given New England much thought outside of that. Looking back now, I don’t have any real explanation for my disregard of the great north, other than the fact that I didn’t personally know anyone from the region. In my mind, New York City was the edge of the world.

The first thing I noticed when we reached Maine was a purplish tinge that hung on the bare bark of trees lining the highway. I thought I was hallucinating from having been on the road too long with too little sleep, but when I asked Deb to confirm what I was seeing, she agreed. The trees were purple!

We spent the night in Ellsworth and then headed out about half an hour east to catch the ferry in Bar Harbor the next morning. Bar Harbor was the picture of Maine I carried in my head from Time of Wonder. Our little ferry (a.k.a. the mail boat) carried us across to Islesford (a.k.a. Little Cranberry Island) in about fifteen minutes.

Robin and Dean waited for us at the dock with a small wheelbarrow-like carrier for our luggage. Our tour of the island began at “the mall” a restaurant, art gallery, tourist shop and rest stop all in one. There at the dock restaurant, I ate my very first Maine lobster roll. Heaven. I also caught a glimpse of Ashley! Deb and I went over to make our presence known and Ashley immediately invited us to come over to his house after lunch.

The house we stayed in was a larger late 19^th century rusticator. It was a five bedroom country house that sat near the water and slept ten people. There were eight of us in the house for the week – two librarians, three teachers, a teenager, an artist, and a family friend with a wicked sense of deadpan humor. The wood was exposed, very much like Jonathan’s family treasure from Building Our House, and the house was decorated with lovely island accents and old family photographs.

I could barely wait to get to Ashley.

His charming island house was about a ten minute walk from where we all stayed. As with most houses on the island, it remained unlocked with a “come-on-in” policy. Deb and I headed over on our first day and were given a preview of his latest book, a collection of Langston Hughes poems (I won’t be more specific in the interest of publication privacy). Seeing the cut paper illustrations up close was a gift. The week we arrived was the week of his opening. Due to the hurricane damage, the big event had to be postponed. A tree fell near the museum that housed the work, but did not do any damage to the building, thank goodness.

The rest of my days were spent reading and drawing. I woke each day around 8AM to a breezy 74 degrees or so. We would have coffee near the window while Abby worked on her 1000 piece puzzle. Robin would knit, and the rest of the house would quietly read. In the evenings we played trivia and card games. After breakfast, I would head out with my sketchbook to explore and spend time with Ashley.

On my first day alone with Ashley, we compared sketchbooks. I shared my drawings from Africa and he shared his drawer full of sketchbooks from Germany and France. He shared his cut paper collages and I showed him my digital ones. His entire house was a museum. The walls were lined with books, toys, weavings, prints, and paintings. Airplanes hung from his ceilings. When I arrived, he was preparing a canvas to paint in the garden. We collected his morning materials and headed out. I drew. He painted.

A few hours later, we came in for lunch and I was able to meet Ashley’s nieces and nephews. Ashley graciously prepared bread, cold cuts, and cheese for us to lunch on. The big treat of the day, cranberry soda mixed with orange juice! We discussed the Kara Walker sculpture and the insensitivity to things misunderstood along with education and family. It was a lovely afternoon.

My observation of the day was that all of Ashley’s relatives had the “ey” sound at the end of their names. No doubt stemming from his famoly’s love of music. Once the table was cleared Ashley brought down the work from his latest book to which he exclaimed “Gather ‘round children!”. It was time to hear some poetry. And all of us “children” obliged and sat to listen and admire the vivid cut paper collages.

We got a call after lunch saying that the museum was open briefly and we could head down to see the exhibition. I gathered Robin and the crew and we all bounded over to have a personal tour of the exhibit from Ashley. What a treat. The walls sung with color and art. There was a timeline of Ashley’s art and his 92 years of life, many selections from his hundreds of sketchbooks, a fantastic display of his handmade puppets, his amazing sea glass windows, and of course, original art from many of his popular books, including “Beautiful Blackbird”, “Let it Shine”, and “The Dancing Granny”.
The next day, after breakfast and reading (I made it through half of Octavian Nothing), I said goodbye to my friends and struck out to draw on the island. The docks were full of activity, so I plopped myself down and began a drawing of the Cranberry Isle Fisherman’s Co-op. It was the end of the work morning, so most were packing up and heading home. While drawing I met Stephanie Alley. After a bit of conversation I realized she was a famous Captain on the island and gave lobster tours on her boat. The next morning, I grabbed Abby and headed on down for a lobster boat adventure. Robin had mentioned Stephanie’s tours the night before and serendipity brought us together.

After our morning adventure, I found myself back at Ashley’s house. I hadn’t planned to bother him that day, so I sat outside on the curb to draw his home. No more than fifteen minutes had gone by when he and his dear friend, Suze popped out of the house to head over to the museum and greet fans. I was still drawing when he returned home an hour later. Being extremely hospitable, Ashley didn’t just disappear inside his home. He came out to make a few notes from the painting he began the day before, which ended up being my cue to come on in for a spell. Knowing that he had already had a long day, I excused myself shortly after he settled inside.

My last day on the island, I was itching to make a strong portrait of Ashley. I struck out to his house mid day and let myself in to an empty house. Though his door was open to me, I still felt strange hanging out in his empty home. I went outside and finished an earlier drawing and by the time I was done, Ashley appeared. It had been another long day for Ashley and he was expecting more guests, so I didn’t force myself. We had dinner plans at the house that evening, so I headed back to read more of Octavian, which turned into a delicious nap in the sun next to the picture window.

Dinnertime came and we all rallied around Ashley. Dean prepared a wonderful brisket that he had brought over by the mail boat. We had been all abuzz over it throughout the week. Ashley sat and announced, “okay, draw me!”. No pressure there. I made three miserable attempts at a portrait and gave up. During dinner, when the plates were cleared and dessert was brought out (Robin prepared a delicious lemon ice box pie), I grabbed my drawing book and began again, finally capturing Ashley’s spirit.

Deb and I said our goodbyes the next morning and headed back to Bar Harbor, passing along the boat ticket to Robin and Dean’s daughter, Julie. What a treat. “A Visit with Ashley Bryan” will be on display until September 20th on Little Cranberry Island. If you can head over, I highly recommend it.

On Friday, I took my students to the Baltimore City Detention Center to draw and interview some of the inmates in Cell Block E. I am most grateful to Dr. Kevin McCamant for working all semester to help make this a reality for us. Dr. McCamant is a psychologist who works with MICA’s community arts program to use art therapy with the inmates there. Most inmates on Block E are in for light crimes like, theft, vandalism, and trespassing. However, there are a few who are in for more serious crimes. To be clear, the detention center is NOT a prison. The men there are awaiting trial. In my understanding the men there cannot be held over three years. Most of the men I talked to had only been there between 2 months and a year. Longer sentences are carried out in prison.

Before entering the facility we all had to pass security inspection, which meant removing all jackets, sweaters, coats, jewelry, watches, and sometimes shoes (similar to what you would do to pass airport security). Afterwards we had to walk through a metal detector. One student and I did not pass the metal detector due to the metal in our underwire garments and had to wait for a supervisor to scan us with a wand before heading upstairs. Once we walked through a few corridors and many locking gates, we arrived in the dayroom where some of the inmates were having lunch – not unlike what you would see in any high school cafeteria.

The day went very well. The men were happy to see fresh faces from outside and have their likenesses drawn. The students and I enjoyed the stories that they shared about their families, talents, and passions. One of my students joined me in walking down to draw some of the cells. I chose cell 49 and after bringing the drawing back to share, the men teased Clarence, it’s inhabitant, because of the messy state of his dormitory. In contrast, my student drew cell 48, which was very neat and tiny. When he shared the drawing, the inmate it belonged to beamed with pride at his neatness.

The experience was valuable to all. I personally thought about institutionalization and how we are all conditioned at a very young age. There wasn’t much difference between the environments of public school and the detention center. Both are under very strict supervision and rules. We are told when to eat, when to use the restroom, when to go outside (a lot of men hadn’t seen the outdoors in months). I am much more sympathetic now to the “problem children” from my days in elementary, middle, and high school who acted out and struggled with performance in that very rigid climate. It is a highly sterile and unnatural environment. I think of myself, who was a model student. I stayed in line, didn’t question the authority in place and made it through the system sucessfully in order to become a “model citizen”; therefore reinforcing the system and the production of more and more model citizens . . . drones . . . slaves . . . etc.

One of my dreams has been to use my location drawing/visual journalism work as final artwork. I lived that dream through Bird, and have taken it to another level by  illustrating this year’s Baltimore Transmodern Festival poster. A lot of my most interesting projects find me serendipitously, including BIRD. This job was no exception.

When I moved to Baltimore back in June of 2011, I took a trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art to familiarize myself with the art scene in my new hood. While there, I came upon the video work of Stephanie M. Barber. She was working on “jhana and the rats of james olds or 31 days/31 videos”. Of course, I partcipated, and upon leaving, ran into Stephanie in the hallway (she was taking a lunch break). She noticed that I looked a lot longer at the work than most visitors, to which I responded, “I’m an artist. We speak the same language.” From there we talked about MICA (where she also teaches!). One thing led to another and we became facebook freinds. After seeing my Visual Journalism work week after week, Stephanie invited me to create a poster for the Baltimore Transmodern Festival. The pay was modest, but my poster will be all over the city (flattering of the ego always works for me). So, me and one of my awesome Visual Journalism students, Jordan Jones, went down to the Current Gallery, sat in the back alley (where the festival will be held), and drew. From there, I did a little photoshop magic and came up with this:

I did the drawing in one sitting in my giant Archie Grand sketchbook. From there, I took tracing paper and drew a bunch of tiny colorful balls (to represent summer festivusness). I then did lettering on a separate layer of tracing paper and multiplied ever’thang in photoshop. Total job took about ten hours. Yay.

It’s official, I am hanging a shingle to do more drawing based work at my agency, Painted-words. You can see the new Visual Journalism gallery here. Just think of the possibilities! Now, to figure out how to clone myself to get everything done. . . dilema.

On Friday my Visual Journalism class took a trip to the Third Batallion, Baltimore City Fire Station. Here are my drawings. Stay tuned for a link to my students’ work. It was a great day of drawing.

Here is today’s rockin’ drawing from rockin’ Lexington Market. Below are a few experiments with Crayola and watercolor. Me likey.

What a week! On Tuesday I visited with Atlanta International School via Skype. Technology is mind boggling. It was my first time using video Skype with anyone, let alone a classroom of youngsters. The video is pretty long in cyber time (a whole 10 min.), but is pretty interesting for those interested in conducting Skype visits. Thanks to Morris Gardner with the Auburn Avenue Research Library and Sharon Hermann, media specialist, at Atlanta International School for sharing this video!

And a special CONGRATULATIONS to my Visual Journalism class for being featured in this week’s edition of  Baltimore City Paper. One of my sophomores, James Harper, even made the cover! Go MICA!!

Two weeks ago I took my Visual Journalism class to the Baltimore Zoo in Maryland. The assignment was to gather as many drawings as they could and use them for reference to create a poster advertising the zoo. I will post their posters to our class blog tomorrow. In the meantime, here is my favorite drawing of the (freezing cold) day.

brush pen with digital color

This week I took my students to the Inner Harbor. My dearest, Taeeun Yoo, was with me after having spoken with my Advanced Book Illustration class and we braved the elements together to get some really great drawing done. Check out my crown jewel of the day, The US Frigate Constellation~

Today we headed to Fells Point to draw. It was warm and sunny out which led to a couple of drawings I am really happy with. I am drawing with a Pentel brush pen in an Archie Grand Jumbo sketchbook which opens up to a generous spread of 16″ x 24″.

The tree is shaded with a photoshop brush. The three images to the left of the tree are done separately and dropped into photoshop.

My students take their time in getting scanned work to me, but here is a link to the Visual Journalism Blog. You can also check out the blog of Aaron Provost, who updates his location work weekly. Go Aaron!

A few drawings from Cross Street Market~

Happiness is drawing on location