From Pen and Ink at 33,000 Ft to Watercolors at Point Loma
This week’s blog post is by long time ART for ALL artist Mike Sprague! Mike was the lead muralist for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail mural and is our ART for ALL carpenter. He is always building new things for the studio - we are so lucky to have him!
I was in San Diego last week with my wife, Elizabeth, and son, Ben; and, we had a blast. We mainly went to visit my family, my parents, and three sisters. It is always a gift to be with them and soak in their presence. That said, I can’t come back to San Diego and not take in some of the wonderful sites it has to offer. On this trip, we visited the Cabrillo Monument at the tip of Point Loma, got some beach time in La Jolla, and visited beautiful and historic Balboa Park.
As I prepared for the trip, I planned on how to squeeze in some art-making during our week-long stay.
My art-making on this trip started at 33,000 feet above the Earth. We flew directly to and from San Diego. The 6-hour long flights were exercises in endurance. To help pass the time, I brought a small sketch pad and a small collection of ink pens. As a teenager and young adult, I was really into pen and ink drawing. In my free time, I loved doodling and creating creatures and landscapes of fantasy and science fiction. I drifted away from that art form in my adulthood but have recently gone back to this art form. My goal is to rekindle a childlike and exuberant approach to art making. I just want to relax, have fun, allow my imagination to run wild, and see where it takes me. I was recently introduced to brush pens which I had not used before. I have really enjoyed exploring the possibilities they unlock. Unlike traditional ink pens, brush pens put down lines that can vary in shape and thickness based on how you hold the pen and how you hold the pen. I have also played around with using a pen with white ink or white-out to create highlights in my ink drawings. I have been less impressed with those results so far but I’m still experimenting. Here are examples of drawing I did while on these cross-country flights
While in town, we stayed with my parents who live in Lakeside which is about 20 miles inland from the coast. The air was clear, dry, and hot. To escape the 90s-degree temperature, we headed west, destination Point Loma. Point Loma is a finger of land that forms part of the gateway at the entrance of San Diego Bay. At the tip of the finger is the Cabrillo Monument which memorializes the place where Europeans first set foot in California. Whether or not that is worthy of celebration may be a matter of debate, but the beauty of the surrounding landscape is not. The cliffs rise up from the crashing waves below and offer a bird’s eye view of the bay and the Pacific Ocean below. The buff-colored sandstone is covered with hardy desert vegetation in a multitude of shades of greens and browns, blues, and greys. Flowering desert plants dotted the arid landscape with splashes of vibrant colors. Wispy clouds blew in from the ocean, flying over us and occasionally enveloping us in mist. Ben snapped some nice photos of the beautiful landscape as well as the old lighthouse which sat on a hill above us. These images inspired me to create several watercolor paintings. Thanks, Ben!
The next day we again sought refuge from the heat at the coast. This time we went to La Jolla Shores to enjoy some fun in the waves. La Jolla was my old stomping grounds because I had graduated from the University of California, San Diego which is situated on the bluff overlooking this coastline. There were throngs of people (no surprise), but it did not feel overcrowded. Like most beach communities, La Jolla has a certain bohemian flavor that invites people to come visit and leave their cares and worries behind for a little while. It is colorful and playful, relaxed and at the same time full of vitality. We walked along the beach to find the right spot to set down our beach towels and stake out our spot. The small waves offshore catered to the novice and the casual surfers. I know from personal experience that it is not easy to balance on a board being carried along by a wave of energy moving through the water until it crashes and dissipates at the shoreline. I consider it as much a form of dance as it is a sport, and your dance partner is the ocean. We jumped in the water and played in the waves. It is too easy to say “The water was perfect.” But it really was. It was cool, but not cold. The saltwater felt cleansing and refreshing. It appeared to be various shades of blue and green like antique glass, and the filtered sunlight reflected off the sandy bottom creating playful, constantly changing patterns. When we returned to our towels, I laid back and closed my eyes. I focused my attention on what my senses discovered. The warmth of the sun and the breath of the ocean breeze on my skin. The gritty texture of the sand covered everything. The smell of sunscreen mixed with the salty ocean air. The sounds of the beach: the cry of seagulls, the laughter of beachgoers, waves breaking on the shore, and the tinkling of a bell ringing as the ice cream vendor pushed his cart along the beach. I sat up, and I looked down the shoreline past the crowds of people. I saw the blue horizon meeting the terrestrial landscape, and cliffs rising up in the distance appearing hazy in the marine air. I snapped a picture with my phone and used this to create yet another watercolor.
On the day before we were to return to Boston, Elizabeth and I went to visit Balboa Park, an amazing urban cultural park that dates back to the 19th century. It is my favorite place to visit in San Diego and has been since I was a child. The park has lots of green space on which to spread a blanket and have a picnic. There are beautiful gardens, a variety of museums, fountains and reflecting pools, and a wonderful art center. My wife and I enjoyed strolling down the pedestrian-only El Prado promenade, surrounded by the park’s charming Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. Along the way, my wife took pictures of me proudly showing off my ART For ALL t-shirt. We visited the Mingei International Museum to check out their collection of folk art. I also discovered the recently opened Comic-Con museum which celebrates art and creativity showcased at Comic Con, a comic art and pop culture convention that has been an annual event in San Diego for the last 50 years. We ended up at the Spanish Village Art Center which is an open-air plaza with a collection of small art studios. Oftentimes you can meet the artists working in their studios; they are always happy to talk with you about their work.
I had an awesome trip to San Diego, but it is good to be back home. I am excited to be working with the rest of the Art For All team, planning projects and events for the fall and beyond. Watch for a blog post from me next month when I take my ART For ALL t-shirt to Ireland.
