I urge you to call your elected officials to demand oversight hearings to push back on the administration's efforts to devastate our national parks and public lands under the guise of "cutting costs."
Some of that language was taken from the 5Calls app, which makes it super easy to call your senators and house representative - it gives you their numbers and a script! The people who answer the phone are always nice, and you can leave a message.
Public parks, both national parks and state parks, are super important to my work, and they are important for us as Americans to be able to enjoy freely. They are not cutting costs by firing workers at already understaffed parks and public lands.

​Since I’m planning out my sketching supplies for the Arctic Circle Residency, I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite travel sketches and thought I’d share them.

​Great Basin National Park hike, 2019
I love this one because I did it really fast. We were hiking and it was cold at this high elevation where we stopped at a pond to have a snack. We also needed to hurry up and turn around so that we would make it back to our car before sunset. I wanted to sketch and Toby said, Okay you have 10 minutes – go!

Nine sketches of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, 2020
We camped at Devil’s Tower and the only thing I could think about the whole time – even waking up in the middle of the night – was sketching it.

Grand Tetons, 2020
Same trip – we didn’t camp here, but we spent a couple of hours just hanging out with these beautiful mountains. I tried to sketch every single thing I could see.

Cape Cod, 2017
An older sketch – I made this one specifically to prepare for a class I would be teaching when I returned, but I can’t remember what the class was. You can tell this is a sketch I made on vacation because I obviously took my time with it to get all of those layers.

​Monument Valley, 2021
We camped in Monument Valley, then drove through it the next day. I made these on the road.

Santa Rosa Sound, 2023
I made these sketches very intentionally, knowing I would make work about this trip. This was a family trip with my Mom and siblings and nieces and nephews, and I’m glad they all just let me do this thing.

Rangitoto, 2023
One of my favorite travel sketching experiences ever. I went for a walk by myself sketched Rangitoto – it was very meditative.

Loch Ness, 2024
Another meditative experience, getting to know this space and watching the conditions change as I sketched.

Amsterdam, 2019
Just to show that I don’t only sketch nature when I travel, here is my final sketch from the 2019 Urban Sketchers Symposium. This sketch always makes me think of the great visit I had with Liz Steel while sketching the marina and museum in the distance.

​Traveling and experiencing new places, and getting to know those places by sketching them, is very important to my art practice. I’m grateful to be able to travel as much as I do, and for how travel has shaped my work.

I’m starting to think about what materials to take with me to the Arctic Circle Residency in May. I’m just kidding, I’ve been thinking about it since March 23, 2024, when I found out I’d been selected. But now it’s time to actually DO the work of putting a sketching kit together.
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For years I’ve been using the same sketching supplies. I do switch out materials now and then – exchanging my fat pen (Pigma Graphic 1) for a chisel tip or adding and then removing a *fountain pen.

Here’s my current set up:

For sketching in the Arctic, what changes do I make? I rely heavily on water-based media, especially diluted sumi, which I often use to quickly lay out a sketch in a way that adds some weight to the final sketch. I’ve been trying to get the same effect using dry materials, but honestly, I haven’t been trying that hard because my diluted sumi works just fine in winter in Memphis.

​So – these are the things I need to do right now:

1. Try to get the same effect of quickly laying out a sketch with dry materials – pencil, what else?
2. Put my diluted sumi pen in the freezer and see what happens. Maybe I will be able to use it in May Arctic temperatures?
3. ASK FOR HELP. Do you have experience with sketching in very cold temperatures? Do you have any advice?

I am definitely taking all of these same dry materials. About the colored pencils I use – they are not watercolor pencils. I like the texture of regular colored pencils, and I like being able to paint over them. Other than watercolors, I use non-water-soluble materials (colored pencils, pencils, waterproof ink) because I don’t want my sketches to melt. Unless they are watercolor? I don’t know – I didn’t say this was logical.
 
If you have any input on this topic, please let me know! I’m open to suggestions!
 
*I don’t love fountain pens! I did for a while, but I can’t manage their inconsistency. I need my materials to be working at all times.