An Historic Meeting in Tacoma

 

5/28/25 Downtown Tacoma

For the first time ever, the four admins of USk Seattle met in person! Before Kim joined the team a couple of years ago, the other three of us had business meetings in person at least annually, but the pandemic ended that. We got so used to conducting business by email and occasionally on Zoom that it seemed like such a novelty to meet over an actual café table – followed by sketching, of course. It's a pleasure and privilege to work with such dedicated, hard-working women!

Tina, Kim, Jane and Kate

Since Tacoma is about halfway between north Seattle and Olympia, it was a sensible meeting location. Driving south with Kim, I was trying to remember the last time I sketched in Tacoma, and like so many things, it was before the pandemic. It was high time to get back there, especially on what turned out to be our one day of summer in May! I picked out a few favorite icons in downtown Tacoma, which is rich with interesting architecture.

Two Stories from Green Lake

 

Not Much Breeze

 

5/24/25 Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue

Every Memorial Day weekend, I visit family members’ grave sites at Sunset Hills Memorial Park. My personal tradition is to sketch the rows of dynamic flags – always a fun challenge. This time there wasn’t much wind, so the flags hung limply. It should have been easier somehow, but I still found the patterns of stripes difficult to capture.

If you’d like to see the various ways I’ve attempted this challenge over the years, check out the posts with this link.

Meditative Observation (Plus Holbein Graphite Wannabe)

 

5/23/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Fran Gallo begins every yoga class with a dedication inspired by a poem or quotation. This day’s class, dedicated to meditative observation, began with a passage from Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. As Fran read, I thought about how every sketch I make on location is a type of meditative observation that empties my mind of everything except what I am trying to capture from the moment.

On this day, I observed: Even when you can’t see most of a tree, you can learn about its size by looking at its shadow.

Pencil note: This Holbein colored pencil is the first of three I am auditioning to find the best graphite wannabe. I’ll be talking more about all of them, of course, after making several sketches with each, but right out of the gate, I must say that Holbein is a strong candidate!

The Best of Collecting

 

The keepers from my well-used random lot

Several years back during the pandemic (when I had time to do most of my heavy-duty colored-pencil geeking – one of the few positive outcomes of that era!), I wrote a lengthy post about Canada-made Eagle and Berol Prismacolors. At the time, the only Canadian Prismacolors I owned were a heavily used, random lot I had purchased on eBay plus a few that were given to me. The lot was sort of a placeholder that I could use and test until I achieved my goal, which was to eventually find a reasonably priced, complete set made in Canada.

The full Canadian set

By the end of the pandemic, I did manage to find such a set – intact, unused and fully made in Canada. It’s a prize specimen that I cherish!

One of my main downsizing criteria has been to eliminate duplicates. It was time to offload the random lot I had enjoyed sketching with and had also used to make informative comparison tests with US-made Prismacolors of the same era. 

Before donating most of them, I took the time to appreciate each pencil and pick out a few favorite colors. I also picked out at least one each that had been self-ID’d by MB, Sylvie and Alex. I enjoy imagining these (probably) Canadian children or their parents diligently knifing off the paint on each pencil so that their names could be written (Alex seemed to prefer carving directly into the paint with a ballpoint pen). I sharpened up the handful and put them in a jar for display.

Hard work getting those names on!

One of many things my downsizing project has taught me is what “collecting” is about (at least for me). Early on, it was about my growing fascination with learning about vintage pencils, which rapidly developed into obsessive (and sometimes indiscriminate) acquisition. Eventually I learned what I wanted to collect, which made me more judicious, but by that time, the acquisition phase had gotten out of hand. Now I’ve come full circle to the best part of collecting: Letting go of the excess so that I can appreciate what I’ve chosen to keep.

I don’t feel guilty or regretful about any of it; it’s a process, and I enjoyed and learned from every stage while I was in it. Someday I’ll probably have to part with most (or all) of my collection, but until then, I can enjoy this best and final stage.

Cybertruck

 

5/22/25 Feel free to avert your gaze.

I don’t usually have strong opinions about most vehicles, one way or the other. The exception is the Tesla Cybertruck, which I believe to be the ugliest vehicle ever to deface planet Earth.

Seeing more and more of them the past year, despite my low standards for acceptable sketching subjects, I refused to sketch one (if only on principle) because I didn’t want to look at one long enough to sketch it. Sketchwaiting near University Village recently, however, I spotted one parked near the sidewalk. I still had 10 minutes to kill – the maximum length of time I could tolerate searing my eyes.

As I sketched, trying to dredge up something positive about it, I had to admit it’s relatively easy to draw: It’s entirely made up of straight lines.

Sterile Pacific Place

 

5/21/25 Pacific Place, downtown Seattle

Although it wasn’t necessarily a favorite, Pacific Place retail center used to be a reliable wintertime location for sketching. USk Seattle met there once or twice, and I especially enjoyed sketching Santa there for several years.

That was long before the pandemic. Then sometime during the pandemic years, Pacific Place underwent a major renovation, raising eyebrows among local business writers and other critics. With retail business down all over the country, and downtown Seattle trending downward even before 2020, was putting a ton of money into Pacific Place really a good idea?

I don’t know the answer, but I realized that I had not yet been inside the retail center post-pandemic. Roy and I decided to check it out to see whether its sketching potential had changed with the renovation.

Probably some sketchers would enjoy sketching
this restaurant mascot, but it's not placed in an
ideal location for sketching it.

You already know that I have a high tolerance for “nothing” views and tend to believe that, with the right attitude, anything is sketchable. Roy has as similar attitude, and we both typically sketch a lot of “nothing.” Although we had fun anyway, we concurred that Pacific Place wouldn’t have much appeal for most sketchers. The term that kept coming to mind was sterile – everything looked tidy, fresh and colorful but also had no life. We nearly had the place to ourselves. The mall still has lots of empty spaces waiting for stores to move in – if they ever do.

On the upside, plenty of public seating (with uncomfortable chairs) was available on most floors, but somehow, it didn’t feel inviting. As I said, we both enjoyed sketching “nothing,” but I don’t need to go there again (though I may give it one more chance during the holiday season to see what the Santa situation is). It’s a pity because USk Seattle is always looking for good indoor locations for the long winter months.

The highlight of our outing was lunch at nearby Urban Sushi Kitchen. As usual during meals, my sketch was hasty due to hunger, but I couldn’t resist scribbling the multiple compartments of colorful food in my bento box.

5/21/25 Urban Sushi Kitchen