Lonely View holds a very special place in my heart because this was the first drawing of Minneapolis that I did.
I remember the day I sat down at a Dunn Brothers coffee shop and decided to make line art of Minneapolis ... I wanted to make something that could go on the walls of an apartment, condo, home or office - with the look and authenticity of something drawn by a real person - not just a photo.
I wanted something that would stand out ... and I wanted my own signature touch.
Growing up I always loved to draw although I never took a formal art class outside of what I was forced to take in K-12 education ... but I always loved art class. It was a time for my mind to wander. A time for me to capture a sense of a far away, but somehow familiar place, in the lines of a pen or the stroke of a brush.
It's crazy where your mind can go when you let it wander ... and as I thought about the city and this specific view, I let it wander to hopefully capture a sense of what makes Minneapolis feel so unique - a city with a raging river between it's shores and a skyline that touches the heavens.
The lines had to capture the contrast between the busyness across the river and the calm of sitting at the river edge in historic Saint Anthony Main ... with nature and the calm of the river trickling.
I love going for walks at night across Stone Arch Bridge after a busy day of work ... and I love taking a slow stroll along Saint Anthony Main and pausing to just stand in nature.
Something special happens in that moment - when i just stand or sit.
When the busyness of life is across the river and I am present in the moment.
I find myself looking at nature ... but if I raise my eyes to the bustling city across the river, my heart races with excitement about the opportunities ahead.
It's in those quiet moments where I recharge my inner self - where I learn to be still. I compose myself to go back ... so it's the quiet moments like this that inspired this drawing ... in every aspect of it from the heavy lines of trees that frame the lower left and right, to the "pull" of the lines that make up the bridge, to the calm horizontal lines that create the flow of the river.
I drew this picture with the goal of finding that peaceful moment that I find when I take that walk and stand in nature - when I feel small.
As everything in the world gets busier and busier, there seem to be fewer and fewer opportunities to just be, to just rest ... but rest is so close to each of us.
I hope you find rest when you look at this picture ~ and I hope you enjoy Lonely View.
