Walking Through Dorchester

My complete series of drawings, exhibited in the kitchen space. 

I do a lot of walking in the average day. My place is a twenty minute walk from the train, and that’s a walk I do at least twice a day, nearly everyday. I found most of the cracks I chose to draw for this assignment on this walk, the majority of which happens up Ashmont Hill. This assignment allowed me to pay more attention to my surroundings on a walk I could do with my eyes closed; I noticed how the different sidewalk tiles were made of different cement, were different colors and contained different sediments. I found this project as a way to document a walk that seems familiar to me in a new way. 

Sidewalk cracks on Pierce Ave., 8"x8", pen on paper.

My process was to photograph sidewalk cracks I encountered during this walk and then later choose

the ones I felt were visually compelling to draw. I drew entirely from photographs, I did not draw on site

for any of my drawings. In some drawings, like the one on the curved piece of paper, I shaped the paper,

or chose specifically shaped paper,  to reflect the sidewalk tiles. I liked working within the boundaries

that the cracks actually existed. 

Similarly, my largest piece is the funky conglomerate of cement that exists right in front of the front porch steps of my childhood home. This drawing is the one I drew to scale, and the only sidewalk crack that was not part of my route to the train. I knew that this piece of cement looked weird and visually compelling, and particularly sought it out. I also chose to display it on the floor right in front of my foam core exhibition board. As the sidewalk right in front of my front steps, I imagined the viewer looking down at the large drawing and then looking up, in a similar fashion that they might identify the house that sidewalk exists in front of. 

Sidewalk cracks on Roseclair St., 24"x30", pencil on paper. 

Roseclair St. drawing as exhibited, on the floor. 

Sidewalk cracks on Pierce Ave., 10"x8", pen on paper.

Initially in creating my drawings, I strayed from using pen; I have never formally drawn with pen before,
and I had fears about the permanence of the medium. After choosing to do my smallest drawing in pen,
I realized that I liked the fineness of the lines I was able to create. The drawings I continued to make
in pen looked very organic to me. They reminded me of the ways that rivers look on maps.
In class, Elisa compared Singing’s largest drawing to veins emerging from an anatomical drawing of a
heart, and I think that imagery is very similar to the organic imagery I envisioned in my own drawings. 

Sidewalk cracks on Ashmont St., 3"x3", pen on paper.

Sidewalk cracks on Pierce Ave., 8"x4", pen on paper.

Sidewalk cracks on Ashmont St., 11"x6", pen and Sharpie on paper.

This assignment allowed me to look at a walk that I have done hundreds of times in a new light and
experiment with new media in art-making. I truly enjoyed listening to my classmates’ experiences so
far in Boston; as a lifelong Bostonian, it is so refreshing to hear these new perspectives on things that
I might have never noticed before. I look forward to learning more from you all this semester!

Sidewalk cracks on Pierce Ave., 5"x4", pencil on paper.