Connections 737

This afternoon was another “Draw Along” session over Zoom for Museum of Flight Connections program. I chose my photo of a 737 from it’s 50th Birthday Party at the Museum on 4/9/2017.

Dragon

Seems like it’s my week for odd ball sculptures. After getting a flu shot, I drove up to Mercer Island to see this dragon in a children’s playground. It’s referred to as Kenton’s Dragon, created by artist Kenton Pies.

The small children in this sketch are actually one little girl, caught twice as she explored. I just dressed her differently so as to look like two.

More information about the dragon here. It can be found at Deane’s Children’s Park, 5701 Island Crest Way, Mercer Island.

Bacon & eggs

I think it was on Evening, the TV show on King 5, where I heard about the Bacon and Eggs skate park in Wilkeson. It was a 45 minute drive, east of Bonney Lake (east of Tacoma and Puyallup). I had the place to myself as the kids weren’t yet out of school.

I find these sorts of oddities amusing. There is a traditional skatepark in back of my view here. But the fry pan, eggs, and bacon strip can also be skated. I sat on a high spot in the regular skate location.

The high edge of the regular skating area is in view on the left.

I also drove around town, looking at some of the historic buildings. I found the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was built in 1900.

A business there is reportedly the best pizza in the state. I planned my sketch outing to finish about when they opened at 1500. There was already a line. Only half wore a mask. No social distancing. This did not feel safe to me and thus did not join the line for pizza.

More Photos.

Sunflowers

Though it was cloudy this morning, I went to sketch at Soos Creek Botanical Garden. It’s one of my favorite places. I might go back tomorrow just to sketch flowers. Despite this being the first day of Autumn, there were so many blooming.

These sunflowers were so tall, up to at least 12 feet!

After it started to sprinkle, I put the sketchbook away and just wandered the garden with my phone camera. It does a surprisingly good job and I’ve discovered portrait mode does good closeups with a blurred background… similar to a low f. stop on a DSLR (f 1.5 or so).

Lots of photos here. Among the flower images, there is a bee, a beetle, and a spider. Just so ya know.

Pumpkins

This morning I had urge to sketch some pumpkins but the patches aren’t open yet. So I went to my local McClendon’s Hardware and, wow, did they have pumpkins on display. I also met the display designer, Scott McMillin, a mult-faceted artist. We had a nice chat about art.

Monsters

Yesterday morning I went in search of David’s monsters. David H. has done a couple sketches of the oversized prop monsters outside the Georgetown Morgue. While all the signage is still there, it’s not really a Morgue, it’s a haunted house. And they are getting ready to reopen. There were a couple men working on the outside.

I almost missed the creatures. I was exploring a view point for the hearse when I noticed the alley behind, which is the actual entrance to the venue.

A few more photos.

New public art

My suburb, Renton, has placed new public art over the summer. The new mural(s) have involved community members. I’d previously sketched and written about the “Black Lives Matter” street painting. This is the Trussell Bridge Mural on Houser Way N near the Liberty Park Skatepark and the Renton Community Center Entrance.

Yesterday, in between blessedly welcome rain showers, I went out to sketch this location.

Since I was next to the skate park I sat on the bench to watch the young folk practice. For speed of sketching, I used water soluble graphite and some watercolor pencil. Rain sprinkles cut short my sketching.

Blog-versary

Today is my 9th blog-versary, when I was invited to be a USk Seattle blog correspondent.  Fortunately it was perfect sketching weather so I went out looking for fall color.   Gene Coulon Park, along Lake Washington in Renton, is one of my usual places to find brilliantly colored trees. It’s still a bit early for the best color but I did find some.

I sat at the side of the street to sketch the view across.  Bicyclists and the occasional police officer waved at me. 

I found a spot looking back across the beach toward the Interface statue, with some Canada geese. 

Earlier in the week I’d also found a bit of color in a parking lot at Southcenter.

After 20 years…

It seemed important to do something in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. I’d forgotten we call this “Patriots Day”. What better place to be than the permanent home of so many patriots. I decided to once again visit Tahoma National VA Cemetery in Kent, WA.

I have sketched this grave before. SFC Chapman was the first soldier to die in combat in Afghanistan. Sergeant Chapman was a communications specialist with the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis, Wash. (Section 6, Site 33). More about him.

I thought about him as I sketched. Nearly 20 years since his death, I wonder what he would think about our situation now.

Hybrid Urban Sketch: grave sketched on location. The lights commemorating the twin towers from various images and my imagination.

A few people had stopped by before me, given the number of pennies on the headstone.

Memories from that time:

On that morning, we were getting dressed for work, listening to NPR’s “Morning Edition” when we learned what had occurred. The West coast is 3 hours behind, so it had already happened by the time we learned of it.

Less than two weeks later, a couple co-workers and I flew out to Baltimore on the first day planes were allowed back in the air. That was rather nerve-wracking! We were supposed to fly to Reagan but it was still closed. So Baltimore was the closest to our destination. We were headed to a national VA Social Work leadership conference.
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It was at a Post Office retreat center that had been a large convent. FBI training center was co-located.
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While there, Peace Corps volunteers and their families arrived, having been evacuated at very short notice from the ‘stans. It was then that we all realized that the USA was about to invade Afghanistan.
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We set about “doing Social Work” with these evacuated volunteers as they were quite traumatized by having to leave everything and everyone behind. They were very worried about the local people with whom they worked and served.

Labor Day

Yesterday, I read on Renton’s Instagram that the “Interface” sculpture was again dressed…for Labor Day. So I hurried over to Gene Coulon Park. The statues are dressed as a woman pilot, a health care worker, and a grocery store employee. This in appreciation of essential workers. The “Statue Stylists” have added a large blond wig, the first time I’ve seen that.

I sketched from the opposite side than I usually do. This was late in the afternoon and the sun was bright in the west, so I faced east, into the line of trees.

For more about the “Statue Stylists”, scroll down here.