Someone Pinch Me

If the house catches on fire, I’d grab 2 things: my grandmother’s pearl necklace and this sketch, so it was amazing that the incomparable Thomas W. Schaller selected this image to start our conversation this past Saturday! Tom is teaching a course through Terracotta, and as part of the class, he is interviewing a series of artists about their work (including the likes of Alvaro Castagnet, Joseph Zbukvic, John Salminen, and others)…and oh my gosh, am I honored to be part of that line up–thus the need for a strong pinch! It was also very interesting to see what images from my work his keen eye selected to discuss.

Clearly, this sketch is one of my all time favorites! It was done a hundred years ago on my 25th birthday when my then grad school roommate Maureen and I made the architectural pilgrimage by slow train, bus, taxi, and foot to Le Corbusier’s chapel at Ronchamp, France—and on that day, with this sketch, something clicked. I don’t know exactly what it was– some combination of inspiring architecture, quiet setting, special day, and of course, lots of pushing through very mediocre sketches that preceded this one–for some reason, my hand/eye/brain coordination kicked in and I could DRAW. This sketch represents a quantum leap forward in my thinking and drawing abilities, and as I learned through our talk, amazingly, something similar happened for Tom when he sketched this building!

This past Saturday, we had a wonderful nearly 2 hour discussion about my work. It was a real honor to be selected by Tom– I am still pinching myself. He is an artist (and former architectural illustrator) who has inspired me, someone I’ve admired and learned from, for decades. Thank you, Tom and Terracotta!

I’ve never posted these, but here are two additional sketches I did on that magical day.

On another note, I just updated the workshops page on my blog…Mexico in January 2023 and the Loire Valley in June 2023! Can’t wait!