Pier 58 Waterfront Park Finally Opens!

 

8/10/25 Pier 58 Waterfront Park

After many years of planning, designing and rebuilding, the much-anticipated Pier 58 Waterfront Park is finally open! The first part to be completed was the Overlook Walk, but that didn’t open until fall last year. The new Pier 58 renovation opened while we still have plenty of summer to enjoy it.

Although Roy, Mary Jean and I had gotten a sneak peek of the waterfront in June before it was officially open, I knew that USk Seattle would eventually meet there, so I resisted sketching the new park. Last Sunday when USk finally had its outing, I tried to capture as many new elements as possible.

Statue of Ivar Haglund and a live human 
borrowing Ivar's chair

The meetup location was the eye-catching jellyfish climbing apparatus, which is the focal point of the new playground. It became a popular subject for many sketchers. Other highlights I had fun capturing were a bride being photographed on the Overlook, the giant swings (with the most comfortable seats of any swing I’ve used as an adult), a caricaturist (though her client got away before I could sketch him), and a man wearing a huge sombrero while singing in Spanish.

While I typically wouldn’t sketch a public restroom, this one seemed important enough to capture: My whole life, I’d heard (and have myself uttered) complaints about the lack of facilities anywhere near the long stretch of the waterfront between the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. At last, a clean, safe public restroom!

When I ran out of space in my orange Uglybook spread, I opened my smaller blue one to catch a couple more scenes: A weary human resting in the seat attached to the statue of Ivar Haglund feeding his gulls, and a magician dazzling his audience.

With temps rising toward the upper 80s on the mostly shadeless waterfront, I thought I would run out of steam quickly, but it’s funny how sketching can keep me going. I just walked from one bit of shade to another, covering several blocks and back again. As a native and lifelong resident, I’m happy to say that Seattle finally has a waterfront worthy of my tax dollars!

William Chen at PhinneyWood Show

 

8/9/25 William Chen at PhinneyWood
Comic Book Show

William Chen is both a comic book author/artist and urban sketcher. Last Saturday he participated in the first-ever PhinneyWood Comic Book Show at the Phinney Neighborhood Association. I popped over to say hi. As you can see from the photo, he’s a lot taller and more animated than I drew him!

A Tree-mendous Sketch Outing in Fall City

 

8/8/25 Pete's Treefort at Aroma Coffee, Fall City

Having a treehouse in their backyard is a fantasy for many kids. Pete Nelson of Nelson Treehouse has been making that fantasy a reality for people lucky enough to stay in one, at least for a night or two: His magical houses built in trees can be rented. And now there’s a new one next to Aroma Coffee in Fall City that’s open to the public whenever the café is open! Kate, who discovered it when KING 5 TV featured the café and treehouse a few months ago, knew it would be a fun USk outing location.

Last Friday morning, a good turnout of sketchers tackled the substantial challenge of the treefort’s architectural details. Inspired by Nordic stave churches, the three-story treefort can be climbed all the way up (I forgot to take photos as I climbed, but it’s fun to look out the windows and doors on each floor). There’s even a table and stools on the balcony and a swing accessible from the ground.

My breakfast and a warm-up of the fort

I warmed up with a small thumbnail from the front as I devoured a cinnamon roll (which was one of the best I’ve had in a long time). Then I tackled the color version, focusing on trying to get at least the proportions right. Whew! That took more than an hour, which is longer than I usually spend on any sketch!

That done, I went around to the back to capture the spacious outdoor seating area, where families were enjoying coffee, treats and shade after climbing the fort. Next door to the café is Nelson Treehouse’s office and warehouse. A funny wooden mascot sits atop that building.

Aroma Coffee's spacious seating in the backyard

About 45 minutes east of Seattle, Fall City is a little far for me to make regular coffee/sketching stops, but it’s tempting. Even without the treefort, Aroma Coffee offers unique beverages and treats in a spacious, comfortable place, inside and out. (The coffee shop building, itself, has its own story: It’s the Prescott-Harshman House, on the historic register, built in 1904.) But the treehouse certainly makes it special.

Next door to Aroma Coffee is the Nelson Treehouse warehouse and office.

For ideal sketching, I recommend going early in the morning. By 10 a.m., this bit of light was already disappearing, and then the treehouse is in shade the rest of the day.

My Mojo’s Back

 

8/7/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Just when I was beginning to worry that my urban couch mojo had dried up, I spotted one right on my walking route! Despite the drizzle that morning, I couldn’t pass it up. And what a fine, rare specimen it was – upended on the sidewalk! (To keep passersby from getting too comfy?) Bonus: It was also trash day!

Miatagrrl’s mojo makes a strong comeback!

Art and Bananas at Nitro Plaza

 

8/6/25 Nitro Plaza, South Lake Union

My sparkling wine flute from dinner afterwards.

Gage Academy has been sponsoring free pop-up art events this summer in South Lake Union. With big tables spread with markers, pencils and still life objects at Amazon’s Nitro Plaza, the events encourage the community to sketch and interact while promoting Gage’s programs.

Natalie, Ching and I met there last Wednesday to check it out. We had a great view of both the Amazon Spheres and the vintage Elephant Car Wash neon sign. The sticker from Gage was a fun addition to my page.

In case you’re not familiar with Amazon’s “community banana stand,” the company has long operated a kiosk outside the Spheres offering any passerby – employees as well as the general public – a free banana. The kiosk was closed by late-afternoon when we arrived, but Ching had several to spare in her bag. A banana was just what that space on my page needed. (And how about that pop of bright yellow on dark blue?)

Charlie

 

8/6/25 Charlie (reference photo by Katelyn This)

Charlie is the last of five dog portraits I’ve made for the same family. They’ve all been a joy to draw.

I’m taking a break from pet portraiture for the rest of the summer, and when I get back to it, I think I’ll change it up. I took up this fundraising project in December 2023 mainly because I love drawing animals. But the other motivation was to get practice in realistic portraiture, especially with colored pencils. I’ve learned a lot from nearly a hundred portraits, and I feel confident that I can do this on request. While each portrait is still challenging in certain ways, the task in general no longer challenges me.

Although I want to keep supporting animal organizations this way, I need to keep being challenged, too, or I’ll get bored. I’m at that point now, so my next task will be to figure out how I want to change. A new medium, style or approach? I have some ideas.

Planet Grief’s Orbits

 

6/26/25

I think about grief often lately. Process-oriented as I am, maybe thinking about it is a natural reaction to feeling it.

Coming into the middle of an NPR interview, I heard the author make an analogy that resonated. Since I was driving, I couldn’t take notes, and I regret that I missed both his name and the title of his book, so I can only paraphrase what he said:

Grief is like an orbiting planet. At first, it orbits regularly, frequently, continually. As time goes on, the orbits become wider and wider, so the grief comes around less frequently. But it never stops orbiting completely.

The moon takes only 27 days to orbit the earth; Neptune takes 165 years to circle the sun.

5/8/25

These widening orbits are familiar to me from when each of my parents and my sister died. Twenty-two, 16, 14 years later, the orbits are wider now, yet occasionally the planet appears. Unlike the moon or Neptune, its revolutions are unpredictable, prompted by the unexpected.

I understand that kind of grief because it’s a response to death, and that topic is easy enough to study and analyze, in terms of resources (a quick search on Amazon brings up more than 60,000 publications with the term grief in their titles, usually associated with loss from death). The more challenging study of grief is when it’s related to loss of something other than death. *

I know that people who have lost loved ones at a young (or younger than expected) age feel a loss for all the years they thought they would still have together. I feel that too, so perhaps my grief is not very different in that regard.

10/8/24

Yet every time I visit, I am reminded that I haven’t lost him yet, and I should be grateful for whatever time we have together now. Appreciate the present. Stop grieving for what hasn’t happened yet, I tell myself. But it’s too late for that: I began grieving years ago, long before we even had a diagnosis with a name. It began the moment my denial ended. As I watch him decline, each day brings new losses to grieve.

The orbits are tight, frequent, continual. Accepting grief is easier when I understand that although the orbits don’t end, the circles become wider.

Someday, I will have to start over again, fresh.

11/28/24

(These sketch journal entries, some quite old, didn’t have enough context to write about at the time. Somehow, this post seems to give all of them context enough.)

*A couple of years ago when I was still part of a support group for caregivers of people with dementia, the moderator had recommended a book: Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief, by Pauline Boss. After reading it, I read a second book by the same author, Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope while Coping with Stress and Grief. Despite their titles, which sound like they would address my experiences directly, I found both disappointing and mostly unhelpful. I suppose everyone’s mileage varies.

8/4/25