March on!

Hi there! Boy, February just flew by! I can’t believe its March already! I’ve been busy getting ready for my show at Bellwether Brewing this month and I’m hanging it today. I’m excited to see all the paintings up on the walls. Below is another new painting I made for the show-a Duncan Garden scene. Sigh. Only 4 more months till Duncan Garden looks like this again!

The show will be up until the end of March and the Monroe neighborhood is doing a 2nd Saturday Art Walk on March 12th, which I will be participating in. I’ll be there from around 3:30-5 or so! I’d love to see you!

This is an illustration for a poem in the March issue of Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living. It was fun to work with a limited color palette and to aim for moody, dusky light.

It’s been very cold in February but I miss painting outside so I’ve been driving my car around Deer Park and parking in various spots and doing tiny gouache sketches while sitting at my steering wheel. I put my water cup in the cup holder and my palette over the other cup holder and part of my gear shift panel, then everything else is piled on the passenger seat. I turn up the heat on my drive over and then turn off the car while I sit, so I paint quickly!

I loved the way the light hit the snow piles that surrounded this fire hydrant. The rain is slowly melting the snow away but we still have more up here in Deer Park than Spokane does.

Wishing you all well and hope to see you at my show at Bellwether! If you can’t make it on Saturday, feel free to stop in whenever they are open throughout the month.

Fall's End & Zoom Class!

Still clinging to Fall over here, though it is looking more like…

THIS…

than THIS.

Oh well. Maybe next year? It looks like I’ll get plenty of practice painting snow this winter.

I bought a pumpkin and some decorative gourds at Green Bluff back in October and they are still hanging out on my studio table. I decided to tackle them in gouache on tan toned paper.

Swan gourd! And now for the Big Announcement-I’m going on ZOOM! Read more below.

ZOOM CLASS! I will be teaching a “Paint and Sip” class with the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture on November 19th, 5:30-8. Sadly, we aren’t able to do it in person so the Sip part will be BYOB, but it will be a live class where you paint along with me as we paint a scene of Riverfront park-the Clock tower and Pavilion.

There’s still time to sign up here!

House Portraits & Fall Dreams

Hi all! I’ve been making the best of our short fall, refusing to be rushed by the snow. I’ve bought apples and decorative gourds at Green Bluff, did some exploring on some family property up north, went to visit the Japanese Garden at Manito Park (sadly closed when I arrived) and did some fall baking. What have you been up to? Do you have a prized pumpkin bread recipe? I’m looking for a good one-and in my mind, that means chocolate, not nuts!

Painted at Siemer’s Farm up at Green Bluff a couple years ago on a warm October day. I love to visit them and Hansen’s Orchard and High Country Orchard for apples, apple cider, gourds and more.

Sketching my old Ford Explorer on the overgrown dirt road where family goes to hunt deer. Lots of interesting plants, especially around the old homestead and near the creek. We picked elderberries!

A small watercolor sketch of the brilliant colors in the Japanese Garden. It seems like they are closed for the season (or never opened?) which is a bummer because this is the best of the time of the year there, in my opinion. These next two paintings are recently completed house portraits.

This is the 2nd time I’ve painted this house and I’m still loving it. The commissioner has hired me to do a portrait of the house in each season. So far, we have done Spring and Summer and I’m looking forward to Fall and Winter.

A little brick house on the South Hill is going to be a wedding present.

I love painting portraits of people’s homes. If you would like to commission me to do a painting as a Christmas present (whether it is of a house, a pet, a garden, etc), please reach out to me before the 7th of November when I will have to start charging holiday prices.

Summer Dreaming

We’re hanging out just under 100 degrees right now here at my house and I’m planning on popsicles for dinner. Despite the discomfort, I’m glad that summer isn’t over yet. I’ll hold onto the warmth and daylight and plein air painting for as long as possible. I mean, my tomatoes are just starting to ripen!

Painted sitting under a pine tree on our 10 acre property, looking out over our neighbors’s fields toward the distant hills. Done EARLY in the morning.

It is sunflower season up here north of Spokane, which means that swarms of people are parked all along the roads and highways, trying to get selfies with the flowers. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers (They were my wedding flowers, in fact), but I find all this sunflower mania frustrating because people are not respecting private property and are trampling and damaging the flowers-even if they don’t break any flowers getting into the field, sunflowers have a very shallow root system and the repeated trampling is not good for them. If the fields get to be too much of a hassle to maintain or the farmers can’t make a profit with the damaged plants, then there won’t be any sunflower fields at all and that would make me SO SAD.

This particular field is not far from my in-laws so I was able to spot it pretty early on. It was easy to set up along the dirt road (outside the field) to paint.

There is a saying the sunflower faces follow the movement of the sun across the sky and that is true to some extent in wild and garden varieties, but the commercial variety has a thick neck and frequently gets stuck simply pointing east, which means that in many of the fields I’ve been seeing, the sunflowers have their backs to you. Still, there’s always a couple that break the mold!

My Canna Lily is blooming its heart out and I’ve been spending time in the early morning admiring the way the light falls through the leaves.

I’m working on a large painting of a wedding bouquet for a commission. The key flowers are red Gerberas so I bought myself a bouquet and did some studies-first a quick sketch in the case of this painting and a more involved painting, as in below.

Couldn’t resist doing a purple shadow!

This is a painting of the Aer O Toaster, a large neon sculpture that hangs in the Spokane International Airport in Baggage Claim. After I did a quick sketch of it, early this year, the artist Ken Yuhasz commissioned me to do a painting for him. It was an utter delight.

Hope that you are all doing well and getting to enjoy the beautiful place we live in in whatever capacity you can.

Liberty Building Painting-Watch my Process

I was comissioned to paint the Liberty Building and just recently finished the commission. It was quite large-22” x 30”, which is a full sheet of Arches Watercolor paper and I wanted to do justice to one of my favorite places in Spokane (The home of both Auntie’s and Pottery Place Plus, makes it dear to my heart).

I started by doing sketches on site, trying to figure out proportions and settle on a size for the commission.

I counted windows and was surprised that there were more on one side than on another!

After I got the ok from the patron, I went to my final drawing and transferred it to the watercolor paper and began inking.

Inking is a slow and deliberate process.

A shot in action as I waited for the sky wash to settle down. I tackled the largest washes in the background and the road since I wanted soft edges between the road and the background.

Next the brickwork!

Working my way down.

Full color!

I had so much fun tackling this great subject in a big way. I can’t wait to visit it in its final home! Right now, it is at the printer, so 11” x 14” prints of this guy will be available soon!

Hope some of you can mak it to the show this weekend! It’s always a good time and supports the historic Woman’s Club!

Slice of Life

Here’s a look at what’s been in my sketchbook and on my table recently.

We went on a trip to visit my husband’s aunt at her guest ranch-Eden Valley Ranch up in the Okanagan back around Easter. They are at a higher elevation and nearly to the Canadian border so it was interesting to see how much further behind the plants were here than back in Spokane.

I accidentally used a watersoluble pen on this sketch, but the bleeding ink creates a really great effect, capturing the sort of greyed tans and greens of the land just barely coming out of winter (this was back in April).

I’m doing spring cleaning around the house and trying to clear space both physically and mentally!

This door on Howard Street is a favorite of mine. I see it whenever I head to the group of galleries over on Adams Street for First Friday. It’s just so dramatic! I’ve never been inside. To be honest, I think the interior will disappoint me after the door!

The Parkade, captured at sunset with some dramatic clouds. I think of the Parkade as an enormous animate sculpture, a head with broad shoulders looking over downtown and Riverfront Park. I love to watch the way the light moves on and across it.

I’ll be at Art on Blacktop up at 29th Ave Artworks in my fancy new white tent June 21st-23rd! I’d love to see you!

And thanks to everyone who came out to see me at Artfest this past week. I really appreciate it!

Spring in Spokane

Springtime in Spokane is one of my favorite seasons. Right now the lilacs are in bloom, but a couple weeks ago was prime time for the arrowleaf balsamroot, my very favorite PNW wildflower. They are so cheery and remind me of sunflowers and I love how they pop up all over town in early spring. Dishman Hills Natural Area out in the Spokane Valley is one of the best places in town to enjoy their beauty. Two weeks ago I hiked out there, looking for some painting subjects and spent a highly pleasant evening sitting among the flowers.

Gorgeous swathes of arrowleaf balsamroot.

Dishman also have some fabulous rocks and geological features that are great examples of the uniqueness of the Inland Northwest landscape.

Shooting star flowers! They are so delicate and lovely.

Not sure what this flower is.

Ink drawing of the trifecta-pine tree, arrowleaf, and rocks!

In progress

The finished painting!

Sketchbook pages

I’m at ARTFEST this year!

I am going to be at Artfest this year! May 31st 12-5, June 1st, 10-7, June 2nd, 10-5! Its at Coeur D’Alene Park in Browne’s Addition, home to this charming structure. This is my first show of the year and I’m looking forward to setting up in the park and chatting with people about art. Hope to see you there!

Mukogawa

At the end of last year I made a foray over to Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute out on the west side of town and was delighted what I found-tall trees lining a long and misty path, surprise public art, a delicately decorated historic church moved from GU’s campus decades ago, rows of brick buildings, formerly barracks and fort offices, now repurposed for the college, a fabulous brick path and more. Thank you to Akihiro Nakahara for the fabulous tour...I was really inspired!

This painting is the result of wistfully thinking about spring as I batten down the hatches for another snow storm. Koi fly at Mukogawa in the spring time for Boy’s Day, a Japanese children’s holiday.

In progress shot.

I had to laugh when I saw the Sisters of the Holy Names Music Center on the Mukogawa campus. I went to Holy Names High School in Seattle and it seems like the order of nuns pops up all over the Pacific Northwest!

One of the things I love about the Fort Wright Mukogawa campus is the quantity of tall old trees, especially the ones lining the road into the campus. I even heard that one of the oldest ponderosa pines in Spokane is here on campus! Want to take a stroll?

Sketchbook studies of a petite white and gold church decorated with all sorts of interesting shapes. I heard it was moved over the Fort Wright campus from Gonzaga long ago. Anyone have an information about its history?

A surprising sculpture in an evergreen shrub.

Gloriously colored and patterned brick make up the paths in some parts of campus.

Ireland is Gorgeous!

We spent several days roaming about Ireland. I know that the UK experienced a severe drought this summer, but it rained several times while we were there and, as a Spokanite, I hadn’t seen rain in months. It was excellent but confusing.

This is a college that was a short walk from our hotel. The rest of the family decided to go to bed early (It was 8pm but we weren’t adjusted to the time zone yet!), but I decided to walk back despite the stormy skies and try to get in a quick sketch. I sat just inside the wrought iron gates in case they closed at a certain hour and I’d have to Indian Jones my way through before they locked me in (High stone walls are everywhere in Ireland!).

This drawing got made because we made a miscalculation about when our train back to Dublin left and I got a spare hour to sketch this Gothic beauty that was across the street from the station.

Painted later.

O’Neil’s is a sprawling pub in Dublin that had multiple bars on multiple floors. We sat near the Whiskey Bar, but there was also the Lounge Bar, the Wine bar, and more (SO many staircases!)! Food was downstairs and some of it was a deli/cafeteria style but it was also a to-order restaurant. In conclusion, we were so confused and ended up spending a ton of time there trying to figure out what we needed to do to get some food!. We were there so late, we decided to hang on just a little longer when we learned there was going to be live music. We were rewarded for our patience. I drew a million whiskey bottles.

Surprise live music at the bar! It was fabulous and there were two Irish dancers who performed mere feet from our table. One of those magical moments of travel where you luck into something amazing.

We took a little prop plane from Ireland over to England. I was going to give my brother my window seat just to be nice, but then I saw this view and told him, “Offer revoked!”

Sketching in Japan

This is the last of my blog posts about my trip to Japan. We spent the last part of our trip in Kyoto and then Osaka. I'd love to go back. Perhaps I can connect up with Spokane's sister city Nishinomiya!

At every hotel we stayed at, they had yukata or "lounge wear" for visitors to wear while staying in the hotel. This was one of my favorites-a classic white and indigo cotton robe decorated in simply "mon" shaped designs.

This pond was full of koi, several of whom leaped out of the water to catch the bugs hovering above the water in the evening air.

Waiting at the airport in Hong Kong for our 8 hour lay over. 

Watching TV in my seat nook on the flight home. Thanks to Dad's crazy mileage points, we flew First Class home to the US and it was AMAZING.

Back to my beloved Alaska Airlines and the commuter flight from Seattle to Spokane. I decided to make the 40 minute flight a good reason to be really minimalist with this sketch.

Artist Adventures in Japan pt 2

We were fortunate to see Mt. Fuji. Normally she is shrouded in mist. I grew up just south of Seattle and a common phrase there, usually uttered in celebratory tones, is, "The mountain is out!" Back there, "the mountain" is always Mt. Rainer. In Japan, "the mountain" is Mt. Fuji. I love the stamp I got at the post office half way up the mountain. It is SO CUTE. 

Stone lanterns were everywhere. I was also thrilled to discover that many locations have stamps as a continuation of Japanese pilgrimage culture and I made a dedicated effort to find the stamps everywhere we went and put them in my sketchbook.

I have never experienced so many fancy toilets as I did in Japan and that is thanks to the Toto Toilet company! These toilets play music, have warmed seats, bidets, and more. They have control panels! Crazy!

This Sarubobo Doll is a folkcraft supposed to represent a monkey. They were frequently made by Japanese Grandmothers and given to their grandchildren for good luck/good fortune. Depending on the color they can be for good wishes in school, work, love, and more. The red was the most common and I think it is for a sort of general good fortune.

This was a simple temple not far from our hotel. In a quiet moment I ran out to sketch it. 

Kenrokeun Garden is a beautiful walking-style garden that reminded me of a Japanese Versaille. In thirty minutes I did this speed sketch of a bridge of a river of purple irises. I wish I had had more time to do them justice.

One more post to go about Japan!

Japan Adventures

So to add to the excitement of finishing my 52 week painting project, at the end of May I took off for Japan with my parents and brother for a little family adventure. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Takayama, and Osaka. I had a great time and I'd love to go back to Japan just for a painting excursion, though I'm feeling very lucky that we just missed the earthquake in Osaka.

Kando Myojin, a shinto shrine in Tokyo. We watched a BMW get blessed by a Shinto priest in traidtional garb.

At most shrines there is a stand or two for people to tie on their wishes and prayers, often on small wooden boards. This one was absolutely packed!

Collaged paper with kanji and hiragana on it (left), calligraphy done as a religious prayer/act by temple staff in exchange for a donation to the temple (right).

We were in a tour group for the first part of the trip as we shuttled around to all the different cities.

On the bullet train, my brother looking out the window.

We left Tokyo and headed up into the mountains and some smaller towns. More to come!

52 Weeks of Artist's Eye on Spokane

YAY! I did it guys! The first week of May, I officially completed 52 weeks of painting all over Spokane! What a wild ride! I learned a lot, got to see a lot of cool things that I wouldn't have otherwise and had a delightful time. Thank you everyone for following along with my journey! I thought it would be fun to look back over some of the things I sketched over the past year.

Holiday Lights at the Gaiser Conservatory!

Beautiful fall foliage at the Japanese Gardens.

A ride made of giant bears at the Spokane County Fair!

A lovely October afternoon at Highbridge Park.

Pumpkin season is a way off and I'm ok with that. I need to earn some more sunburns before I'm ready for frost again.

A group of Buddhist monks came to Spokane Community College to make a sand mandala as a wish for world peace. This sketch shows them setting up the preliminary details of a seriously complicated mandala.

A building downtown where a skybridge meets a facade covered in classical designs.

A classic car moment on a sunny, but COLD spring morning on the newly renovated Sprague Ave.

Just over a year ago, this is what our shiny new carousel building looked like. I stopped by this week and the finished building is so shiny and fancy!

Lilacs are gone now. We are in the short moment of reprieve just before summer's heat hits us all like a hammer.

A vendor at a Spokane Indians baseball game.

Vintage signage on Monroe!

A burger and fries at Wolffy's Diner by Gonzaga. Get there early, there aren't a lot of seats!

The gorgeous light of a winter's afternoon.

The magical castle of paperwork-the Courthouse!

Our delightful local news anchors who are way more perky than I ever could be at 6 am.

Artist's Eye at Get Lit!

This year is Get Lit's 20th anniversary. Get Lit started back in 1998 as a one day event sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press and EWU's Creative writing program, according to their website. Get Lit is now a week long festival that has so many events that it is difficult to get to them all! There are readings, panel discussions, and workshops all over town. I managed to make it to three events, one not officially in the Get Lit program, but scheduled to take part in all the literary hubbub. Another I attended somewhat accidentally as there was a reading at Auntie's on a day when I was working the evening shift at Pottery Place Plus and since it was quiet in the shop, I hung out by the connecting door way to Auntie's and listened to David Axelrod, Christopher Howell, and several other Lost Horse Press authors read their poems.

The Anne Lamott talk at the Bing Crosby Theater on Saturday night was the head lining event of the festival this year (Well, at least in my opinion.). While I was driving around trying to find a parking spot, I noticed that the line to get in was around the block! A fully sold out show, it was so fun to spot people recognizing friends in the crowd that they hadn't realized were also coming. Anne Lamott dished out advice on writing "shitty first drafts," giving yourself short assignments, and the creative process. Wisdom and laughter, always an excellent combination.

Stephen PItters's released his latest poetry book, "Unrecorded" at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture in a event featuring visual artists (me!), amazing jazz music by Jermaine Carlton, and a video of a dance choreographed by Gonzaga University dance students set to a song written inspired by one of his poems. A multi-media extravaganza!

I can't wait till next year!

Sketching at the KXLY Morning Show

I had a super early wake up call to be on the KXLY Morning Show-3:30, so I could down to the studio and be ready to go before they started filming at 5 am. Robyn, Derek, Mark, and the film crew all must go to bed really early! I found a spot that was out of the way of the action but still gave me a good view. It was really fun to see how the news casters moved in and out of the small sets around the studio for different clips. 

Ready, set, ACTION! (They don't actually say that. Instead they do a count down until "live.").

Derek and Robyn at their desk with their coffee!

Thanks to my lovely Aunt Judy for doing whatever it took to record these clips of me getting interviewed on the Morning show! It is a bit of an odd feeling to watch myself in video, but I think it is something I could get used to! 

Main Street Explorations

Boots Bakery is one of my favorite places in downtown Spokane. Not only do they have delicious food, but also beautiful murals inside and frequently host poetry slams and a bunch of other creative events. I can't wait for sunshine and warm weather so I can sit on the patio and watch people go by.

I love this shade of blue!

I painted this during Leadership Spokane's Art day. Thanks to Brooke Nicholson for inviting me. It was great to meet so many lovely people interested in doing exciting things in Spokane! If you'd like to invite me to come paint at your event, please email me at meganperkinsartstudio@gmail.com.

This wall of mirrors is inside of Boots. The way the light comes through the front windows is lovely and there is something about the repetition of a objects that makes a collection on the wall very compelling.

Boots is one of the restaurants inside the Longbotham Building. Zola is another one. There is so much going on at street level, I don't know how many people look up to admire the building's crown but with its signage, year, sculpture, crests, rusty bits, and a teal and lime green patina if they aren't, they are missing out! 

I think I need to do a bigger painting of this building-maybe something full scale from the crown to the sidewalk. Another one for the to-do list!

Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral

The white caps and crosses on the top of the towers of Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral peek above the buildings along the Spokane River when viewed from Kendall yards. Situated on Riverside Avenue in a block that holds the Philanthropy Center, the Spokane Club and the old Masonic Temple and just across the street from the Spokesman Review Building, the Cathedral is in good company. Open for short periods of time before and after Mass each day, you can duck in to admire the vaulted ceilings and art. If that doesn't work for your schedule, no worries, there is plenty of beauty to be found in the exterior.

I'd describe the brick that makes up the Cathedral as "salmon," though "pink" works just as well! I am constantly astounded by the range of colors in the brick buildings I find all over town. Brown, orange, burnt siena, umber, pink, salmon, cream, ochre and more!

The patina on the bronze cast doors was unreal, practically a rainbow! 

This is my favorite of the bronze sculptures above the three entrance doors. I loved how the bronze had a purple cast to it and how that looked next to the salmon pink brick. 

If you've never made a trip down to Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, it and the surrounding area are definitely worth a visit, then walk down to the Monroe Street Bridge and along the Centennial Trail to admire the falls!

KYRS: Sketching on the Radio

KYRS is a non-profit, non-commercial radio station here in Spokane. It is known as "Thin Air Community Radio" and broadcasts at 88.7 and 92.3 FM. According to their website, KYRS's mission is to, "fill needs that other media do not, providing programming to diverse communities and unserved or underserved groups." They have over 40 programs and many volunteer programmers. Art Hour with Jennifer LaRue on Thursdays 3-4pm is one that I will sometimes listen to and I was quite pleased to be on the show myself on the day I came down to sketch at the station. Jennifer and I spent about a half an hour talking about art and my childhood, my Artist's Eye on Spokane project and the fact that we'd both gone to private all girl's schools with "free dress days"! You can listen to KYRS on the radio or steam it live from their website.

KYRS is inside the Community Building down on Main Street, one of the many lovely brick buildings in town and I loved that they left the interior walls as the rough brick. There are so many different colors and shades to brick! Just delightful.

Paul of the Spokane SOS radio program, let me sit in the recording booth with him while he interviewed a groups of former Peace Corps volunteers about their experiences with the Peace Corps. There were four of them plus Paul and an extra gentleman helping with the recording machinery plus me so it was a little tight! I did this painting while sitting on the ground looking up at Paul and I am super pleased with how it came out, except for one thing. Hey Paul, I know this is radio not tv, but how about wearing some color? Haha!

The view from my corner!

A quick sketch made while Jennifer and I are waiting for the clock to tick down to when we are on air. Not a good likeness of Jenn, but that's how it is sometimes.

All in all, a lovely way to spend the afternoon-drawing and painting, old friends of mine, combined with a first-being in a recording studio! I love how art encourages me to experience new things!

Garland Neighborhood

The Garland Neighborhood is such a a fun, artsy area. There's been an proliferation of murals-clockwork owls, Vincent Van Gogh, graffiti inspired craft supplies at Sew EZ Too and more. I visit the area often thanks to my love for knitting supplies, Spokane Art School, and milk shakes!

When I saw that the Garland Theater sign getting repainted this summer, I knew I needed to do another painting of it. Vibrant and still kicking after all these years! I've seen several delightful movies there in the past and for my brother-in-law's bachelor party, his best man rented out the theater so that all the family could come and watch movies for a night. It was a lot of fun!

Here's a favorite haunt of mine in the Garland Neighborhood. At one time, it was the Tinman Gallery, a combined bookstore and gallery. Nowadays it houses the Spokane Art School and has frequent shows of local art. The current show is of Maya Jewell Zeller's poetry, illustrated by Carrie DeBaker. Stop by sometime and take a look!

 Mary Lou's Milk Bottle is not the only "Milk Bottle" shaped building in town (There's another one downtown, not far from I-90.), but this one serves milkshakes, burgers and fries. I think they have the best milk shakes in town (But then, I like mine so thick that it is a challenge to suck it through the straw.). Who do you think has the best milkshake in town?

Flashback Friday! These two paintings were done on location on a hot summer afternoon on Garland. Man, I’m looking forward to sunshine and short sleeves!

Here you can see that the paint job is much more faded in the theater sign. Oh for sunny summer days!

Sketching at the Steam Plant

The Steam Plant building in downtown Spokane is a restaurant and brewery and houses offices and store fronts as well, but the name is a remnant of an older time. The building was an actual functioning steam plant for 70 years according to their website. It didn't shut down until 1986. Renovated with a vision toward making the most of the industrial space, many elements of the Steam Plant's past remain which create a unique atmosphere. I know I'm sounding a bit like an ad for the Steam Plant here, but I have a soft spot for creative reuse, adapting to the surroundings and reusing old material in new and exciting ways, so I was thrilled by the aesthetics of the space. There's a lot of inspiration there! 

This is a corner in one of the side rooms of the building. I loved the abstract composition created by the girders and pipes and the way the lighter elements emerged out of the darkness.

I worked my way across the page from left to right in order to not smear the paint (I'm right handed). Painting this was slow work, but worth it for the final result!

Walking by, this caught my eye. I think it is the front of an old boiler room, but don't quote me on that. Now it is a window into a private dining room, wallpapered in thin pipes. 

The pipes that run down the wall here trickle water into a trough made by cutting a large horizontal pipe in half. You can see the fixture it ran through on the left size just above the table. Creative thinking with a great result!

This is a sketch done in a long vertical sketchbook two years ago. Done while sitting on a window ledge of the Davenport Hotel (carefully avoiding their decorative spikes!) just before going to the Broken Mic poetry reading at Neato Burrito. The stacks of the Steam Plant are an iconic part of the Spokane skyline and I hope they always will be!