The one place I thought I could go during this time of pandemic lockdowns with Chicago Police dispersing gatherings of a half dozen or more was a cemetery. So Giamila and I agreed to meet up, masked up as well, at Chicago’s elegant Graceland Cemetery.
In general, cemeteries are very sparsely attended so I was a bit surprised to find dozens of people, solitary, and groups of five, roaming the ground. Kids were zooming about on bicycles, a practice generally discouraged by cemeteries. Many unmasked. Lady G and I sat by this tombstone for an hour and a half while I drew and then roamed the grounds, her first time ever at Graceland.
If you have the opportunity I highly recommend a visit wherein you will find the tombstones of luminaries such as Louis Sullivan, Jack Johnson, Mies Van Der Rohe, Daniel Burnham, Dorthy Page, Pinkerton, Cyrus McCormick, and many others after whom Chicago streets, Parks and buildings are named.
Pitt Artist Pens, fountain pen on Clairefontaine Goldline Watercolour sketchbook. #fabercastellusa #clairefontaine
Productivity has sagged due to house search. Copped a few drawings here and there. Shot down to Hilton Head for my cousin’s wedding and brought the sketchbook along but managed only a few complete pages. Just below is a quick double sketch of Cheap Trip guitarist Rick Nielsen about to board a flight at the gate next to mine in O’Hare. Yes, I’ve fallen to being just a shameless celebrity hounding paparazzi.
Ania and her mom Dixie going bananas while play video games together. Serious body count and general mayhem.
Spent an afternoon talking with painter and serious bon vivant Scott Covert in Michigan. Scott has been making paintings and drawings from tombstone rubbings of deceased celebrities. He spent many years in the art and club scene in NYC and was chock full of crazy stories. One of those guys with an incredible constitution to survive years of professional partying.
Pitt Artist Pens, fountain pens, and grease pencil in a toned Strathmore sketchbook. I do like the toned sketchbook by Strathmore but, the fall apart fairly easily if you work them as I do on a regular basis and have a need to fold the spine back now and then.
I was walking home up Clark Ave on afternoon and wound up at the gates of Graceland Cemetery around 3 PM. I had about an hour before they locked the gates at 4 so in I went. Found a bit of headstone drama with the sun back lighting trees and monuments. It’s just so much easier to capture the mood and time of day using toned paper and adding white selectively. Unfortunately the paper Strathmore uses doesn’t have the absorption delay sufficient to allow for smudging, so I wasn’t getting the range of marks that increases the variety of textures I try to put into play.
 
Riding the #22 home in the city of big shoulders.