I finished reading Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City last night. It is one wild ride. I can’t say that the book made me want to travel to the Bombay he writes about, but it certainly made me curious. If there’s as much life packed into that bit of the planet as he says, then it’s got to be sending some kind of crazy energy all around the globe. Mehta writes that, before long, more people will live in the city of Bombay than on the continent of Australia. Some areas in the city have a population density of 1 million people per square mile. I think I’ll just sit here and think about THAT for a while!
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Tags:Architecture·India·Ink·Sketchbook·Urban
Today, we went out to Hampshire, IL to visit a working-dog training group. They have a terrific training area — a couple of outside fields with lots of shade, a nice barn for inside training, and even a pond. Plus, they’re a great bunch of people and dogs.
This is the training barn.
And this is Abigail, one of the dogs we met. She’s a gorgeous pitbull(my sketch doesn’t come close to doing her justice) with lots of drive, and she’s very friendly.
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Tags:Animals·Architecture·Dogs·Ink
I haven’t posted in awhile, but I have been drawing. Here are some things we’ve seen on bike rides over the last few weeks.
Waveland Fieldhouse on the Lakefront
An old grist mill near the Fox River bike trail (in Dundee?)
The Art Institute
Japanese Garden at the Botanic Garden
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Tags:Architecture·Chicago·Ink
Today, we took a long bike ride up through the Forest Preserve and the Skokie Lagoons to the Chicago Botanic Garden. We had lunch there and did a little walking around. The best part was the Japanese Island. You cross a longish wooden foot bridge to get to it, and then you can wander around on an elaborate series of paths that wind through traditional Japanese landscape features and garden elements. This drawing is of a Shoin House — a structure from the Edo Period that was designed to merge the outdoors with the indoors through the incorporation of sliding panels in the walls. I also really liked the Zigzag Bridge. Apparently, evil spirits move only in straight lines, so they can’t follow you if you cross a zigzag bridge.
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Tags:Architecture·Botanical·Chicago·Ink
This is for my friend, Vel. The “Old Bridge” has an amazing story. It was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557. When it was constructed, it was the largest man-made arch in the world. Building it was such a feat that the architect, charged with completing it on pain of death, reportedly prepared for his funeral on the day the scaffolding was finally removed! Despite all kinds of technical mysteries associated with its construction, it stood until the early 1990’s. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Croat troops destroyed it to erase any sign of Ottoman influence in Bosnia. After the war ended, the bridge was rebuilt as a sign of harmony and healing for the city.
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Tags:Architecture·Ink·Urban
The first mosque to be built in India (1192-1195).
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Tags:Architecture·Ink·Urban
