Discovery By Sketch

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Alaskan visual stories
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The last few digging days at Nunalleq in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area revealed more artifacts and the most elabor...
06/18/2026

The last few digging days at Nunalleq in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area revealed more artifacts and the most elaborate architectural feature ever found at the site — in the 17 years it has been excavated! And I got to be there to sketch with my folio palette! The surprises include the image at the beginning of this post, an ivory bird I found. It may be a gaming piece. It reminds me of a bird sitting on a nest — which is so appropriate as the tundra teems with nesting bird life. Have you ever happened upon an object that seems timed with something occurring at that exact moment in nature’s cycles? ***

Spring sweeps across the tundra as the Nunalleq dig moves into its third week. The ochre colors of the spit of land in ...
06/10/2026

Spring sweeps across the tundra as the Nunalleq dig moves into its third week. The ochre colors of the spit of land in front of th Arolik River became green over three short days. Louseworts bubbled pink and suddenly there’s spots of white — salmon berry flowers. I’m sketching artifacts and the day’s newest plants every evening which makes for very long days. Every hour feels amazing.
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This is my first week at Nunalleq. But what’s so cool about Nunalleq? It’s the largest pre-contact Yu’pik site in Alaska...
06/03/2026

This is my first week at Nunalleq. But what’s so cool about Nunalleq? It’s the largest pre-contact Yu’pik site in Alaska. Incredibly well-preserved by permafrost,sea-level rise has caused artifacts to wash out onto the Bering Sea beach near the village of Quinhagak. Then came the horrific remnants of Typhoon Halong last October. A small group of us are digging 10 hours a day to extract as many artifacts as possible. I use my palette to sketch at the site when I can and in the conservation lab in the village at night. Thanks for the photo of me sketching. ***
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sketchingarchaeology

Join me tonight for relaxing sketching at Hoonah’s Icy Strait Lodge from 6 to 8 pm. I provide materials and as much supp...
05/07/2026

Join me tonight for relaxing sketching at Hoonah’s Icy Strait Lodge from 6 to 8 pm. I provide materials and as much support as desired. I plan to practice my bird drawing.

Artist Wendy MacNaughton says, “drawing is looking and looking is love.” Find new things to notice and love at Sketch Club.

02/19/2026

Posting this before dropping off Instagram to head back to northern Patagonia. We plan to continue backpacking a loose collection of routes northwards. Our goal is to travel mostly on foot, heading north from the area around Lonquimay where we stopped at the end of last May. I’m carrying several big sheets of paper to continue documenting the changing vegetation. This video shows the result of 3 months last spring.
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A shoutout to and for her excellent webinar on pruning the tree of your life so that everything you do contributes to ...
01/29/2026

A shoutout to and for her excellent webinar on pruning the tree of your life so that everything you do contributes to your artistic and personal goals — and whatever doesn’t, gets pruned away. I have been working on this since a long week in October spent on the couch with Covid. It’s morphed into a color pencil and brush pen project with rim of Vision Board. Great for figuring out what I want to be doing as an artist — while also having fun with art supplies I haven’t used recently. What’s your experience with vision boards?⁣
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