rebecca coleman visual studies notebook

I set out to do something more experimental this week. One piece of feedback that you (Tony) gave me last week was to put more emphasis on the sky in the drawing, and then we looked at the Morris Graves painting of the Swan during most of last week's class. What ended up happening is that I spent most of my time working on the background and then I added a strange looking bird at the end. I'm not sure whether I like it or not but it's what I've made for this week. Morris Graves, Moor Swan , 1933

This drawing is of mountains at high elevation on the John Muir Trail on a cloudy day. It's drawn from a photo taken by my friend Shaon, who I hiked the first part of the trail with this summer. The word "reach" makes me think of the word "aspiration." Hiking more long distance trails is one of my aspirations. I turned 30 on Friday. The older I get the more bold I feel in pursuing aspirations that when I was younger I felt were out of reach.

This is a drawing of a lake and mountains on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevadas.  I used charcoal and markers to make it. Over the past couple of years I have started to really enjoy long hikes. The trip this summer on the John Muir Trail was nearly three weeks long, and the trip I did over the summer of 2016 took about two months to complete. I generally had good weather on the hike, but there were a couple of short rainstorms. More often, there were dark clouds that did not actually turn into thunderstorms. When hiking solo, (which I did for about 50 miles of the 220 mile trail), the experience felt much more solemn than when I was with others because I was more aware of my surroundings.

I'm re-taking the seminar because it's a good outlet for me to have a class that isn't directly related to my intended career focus. At the same time, I like that it's still in the College of Environmental Design. I also like that we spend the first half of the class discussing art and music, and often poetry. This drawing is of mountains at night. I didn't intend to do another mountain-scape. But that's what's on my mind. I hiked the John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney over the summer. I saw many mountains at night. I will likely spend the next few months thinking about this hike. And then I will spend months planning what hike I want to do over the winter and next summer. I did this drawing using chartpak markers. All of my drawings last year were mixed media. In the coming weeks I would like to do some paintings, probably on wood panels, if I can make some more time. Garnet Lake, John Muir Trail, August 2017