The Alliswells have taken a lot of trips over the years. Sometimes for work, sometimes for play, some- times for both. On this trip we flew to Dallas for the American Museum Conference. We went to work for a couple of days in Fort Worth, both of us looking forward to the part we love most: the-explore-the-area-after-party, aka "Yahoo, Road Trip!!!"
We are both sketchers. It's natural for us each to pack our sketchbooks along on trips, but on this jaunt we decided to try something different: team sketching. Our format was a clipboard loaded with simple typing paper. Our method was to draw the route as we drove. We sketched whatever showed up along the trail that caught our fancy. The
plan was to trade driving and
sketching across east Texas,
Arkansas and Oklahoma.
We rented a car, then
headed out, driving slow
and drawing fast. We recorded whatever crazy,
odd, interesting things
the back roads had to offer.
We had a lot of laughs
along the way.
I don’t recall much stopping to draw… except for the amazing fence of whirly gigs surrounding a little house in in Hawkins, Texas. The noise as they spun in the breeze was deafening. I will always regret we didn't stop and inquire about buying one to take home.
We did pause to gather some
of Lady Bird Johnson's roadside
wild flowers. She made it her
highways with glorious
banks of native flowers.
We were dazzled with the vivid results of her
campaign.
We took notes on music lyrics, folk art, and curious phenomena like the forests of Kudzu, armadillos crossing the road and “Texas Hair”.
We collected town names like Fate, Hope, Horsehead
and Smackover.
simple. Map the highways.
Illustrate the day as you go. Collect stuff along the way.
LA cut and pasted some of these bits in place. We added color later. Looking back, I see some of those pages never got colored.
No matter, even in black and white, the memories are vivid.
Taking to time to draw along the way had some
interesting results. We
discovered that both of us
were more awake (it's a
perfect antidote to the
mind numbing effect of just driving.) Our memory of this journey is quite bright because drawing made the highways and byways of Texarkana mentally stick.
interesting results. We
discovered that both of us
were more awake (it's a
perfect antidote to the
mind numbing effect of just driving.) Our memory of this journey is quite bright because drawing made the highways and byways of Texarkana mentally stick.
In case we do forget, our Dashboard Diary is a great document to jog our memories. Remembering
the trip is almost as much
fun as taking it.
The Dashboard Diary: 800 miles, 4 days, 18 pages.
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