REPORTAGE SKETCHING
Since 2014, I have pursued drawing from life and urban sketching as a daily practice, evolving my style and approach, compiling a visual archive of life, fashion trends, and the social scene of the Charlotte area. I practice every day to gain the speed and design dexterity needed to capture fleeting moments as they happen, and by cataloguing the way people move and interact in the public space, I'm recording historically significant cultural movements and events as well as everyday minutia---which itself is historically significant in sum with other moments.
I sketch at a wide array of events, from live music to art openings to protests and political action, and hours in the courtroom, listening to cases and weaving compositions that attempt to convey a sense of the scene. Using ink and paper, I create narratives with strategically selected figures and items, arranging negative space with hatching techniques to make humorous yet thoughtful and attentive interpretations of events. In an age of such accelerated access to photo and video technology, I believe there is a place for re-emergence in information-sharing methods like oral traditions, storytelling, and non-photographic means of event coverage.
I have an instagram just for sketches!
sketches 2014-2016
You can now buy inexpensive prints of my sketches; please contact me with which images you would like to purchase and I will upload them to RedBubble
I finish, scan, color correct, upload, tag, and share these sketches within 24 hours of the event that occurred, a one-woman journalistic endeavor that regularly keeps me up till 5 AM after a night out sketching. You can view these at my instagram account just for sketching, theREALcharlotteObserver.
In my newest iteration of this project I am focusing on Charlotte's massive and growing inequality and gentrification. I am interested in highlighting black-owned businesses, and historic people and institutions in the city that are being overlooked, bulldozed, and pushed out. This project has influenced several new bodies of illustrative work. I have created one large composition, Reserved Harlot (pictured below), a 20" x 30" ink and watercolor painting on paper, that is composed entirely of figures collected in my practice from the last 2 years. I am still exploring larger pieces like this that explore symbolic rather than representational space.
If you'd like me to come sketch at your event, or if you're interested in commissioning a mural or large painting based off reportage figures, please contact me.
If I received funding to pursue this project more intensely, I could potentially distribute a regular publication free of charge to the Charlotte area of these sketches, a real Charlotte observer. If you are able to fund something like this, please contact me ASAP.
