What's the story?

Sketchy spaces were never meant to be “art” or even completed illlustrations, really. They were practice — and something to do while sitting alone at bars (as my jazz guitarist boyfriend did his thing). The light was rarely good (a few drawings are partially blue as I couldn’t tell the difference between blue and black pens in the dim lighting) and, at least in the very beginning, which seems to be around 2014, I never worked on the same drawing twice. That changed as the sketches seemed to morph into something a bit more than “bar doodles” (which is what I called them before I started calling them “Sketchy Spaces”). Masterpieces, they will never be (they wouldn’t dare try).

There is often an object in the room that is the starting point or “inspiration” for a space. Sometimes it is a current event (the death of David Bowie, the shit-show that is US politics, the poisoning of the planet). Sometimes it’s just…well, sometimes it just is.

Five years after the first Sketchy Space had its beginnings, a sommelier at a local wine bar (Vino Veritas) saw me drawing and suggested I display the goofy things at the wine bar. I laughed off the suggestion, then went home, opened my little box of Sketchy Spaces, and found I had over 80. What was I going to do with all of those things? Keep them in a box? So, why not? And I put the funky little worlds on display.

A musician friend, Ryan Meagher, was at the show and was, of all things, inspired (who would have guessed?). He asked me to create art for some compositions inspired by Sketchy Spaces (and other things). And so, I thought, “I guess I should have a web site.” The irony, perhaps, is that I make websites for a living. Sh, don’t tell, sometimes, the cobbler does need shoes.

The Missing Numbers

Since I never took Sketchy Spaces very seriously (honestly, would you? they aren’t very serious), I gave many away without documenting them. The truth is, the numbering is itself, in some places, sketchy. Many a night as I sat at a bar drawing, someone complimented a drawing and was rewarded with said drawing. Sometimes I gave drawings to friends (with or without documenting the drawing first). The general order of the numbers is pretty accurate, but the numbers don’t represent the true number of drawings.

Number 84 isn’t really missing — it’s just not “properly” photographed. See: