Sketchy: Why I'll Never Have An Illustrated Travel Journal

I have been reading Danny Gregory's 

"An Illustrated Journey:

Inspiration from the Private Journals

of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers".

I have fallen in love with these mad

sketch artists whose dedicated passion

is to travel in order to draw their discovered

worlds, their adventures are in the eye

and heart and hand.

Whole vacations are spent

in the deep bliss of drawing.

Sigh.

Lately it seems as though many of us are returning to drawing,

to sharpen our skills, or just  to revel in the

engaging, engrossing pastime we once had as children,

coloring in color books, or filling lined sheet after sheet

of Big Chief tablets with pictures of our imaginary

or provincial worlds.

When I visit my favorite art store now

I notice shelf after shelf of drawing pads

in every dimension, and blank journals,

hardbound, softbound, leather wrapped,

square, long or tiny: a heaven

of pure possibility.

Alas, while I enjoy sketching, and would

love to have a journal bulging

with drawings of everything from my dishes,

to my desk, from my gardens to my closets,
from the streets of Paris to the streets of NYC,

that is probably not in the cards for me

I am much more of a smorgasboard artist.

I like to try too many things.
I make art journals filled with directives
from my instinct, yearnings, dreams and emotions.
I love looking, and breathing things from the inside.
 I love painting

on canvas and boards and anything that will 

hold paint or collaged paper.

I love the adventure of experiment
and there is simply not enough time to do everything
well and masterfully. I know I must
pick and choose as wisely as I can.

I started out the above spread with a quick sketch of Warhol.

which was fine as it was and enjoyable to do,

but the next's page's face, I just had to dress up,

add a little paper,a little ink,

illustrating the image farther, making

a person statement about it.

I just can't leave a drawing alone it seems!

I think of the sketch artists as gourmands,

those who have exclusive tastes and appetites,

 who are willing to forego fast food, or scratch potluck cooking

for a feast of delicacies!