UW Quad Protest

5/9/24 UW Quad

The day before USk Seattle’s outing to the University of Washington Biology Greenhouse, student protests of the university’s involvement with support to Israel started heating up. News reports said the pro-Palestinian protest encampment was still relatively peaceful, though, so I wasn’t concerned. I was, however, a naughty USk admin: After leading the group into the greenhouse, I went out to the Quad, where the encampment had been set up. I saw a good opportunity for sketch reportage!

OK, that’s what I told myself, but if truth be known, I just wanted to sketch in the sun. Two winters ago, USk met at the greenhouse when it was chilly out, so the greenhouse’s warmth was welcome. This afternoon, though, the hot, humid greenhouse was less appealing; I preferred 70-degree sunshine!

Even if my primary motivation wasn’t journalistic, I did find it an interesting challenge to tell the story of the encampment on a comics-like page (above). How different the Quad looked, covered end-to-end with tents, compared to the last time USk Seattle met there to sketch the fairyland of cherry blossoms.

After finishing that montage, I found myself suddenly hungry, so I wandered over to the HUB for a snack. I’ve been inside the HUB maybe three times since I graduated in 1985, and every time I’ve been shocked by how much everything has changed since I was a student. I open the same doors I opened nearly daily for six years, but inside, nothing looks the same.

Still, I enjoy the vibrant energy of the UW campus, especially between classes when students stream by in all directions. As I caught snippets of conversations, I realized not everything changes; students still talk about the same kinds of things.

Saturday with the Boys in the Boat

This past weekend was the opening day of boating season in Seattle and the Windermere Cup races at the University of Washington. Lots of people and boats, gray drizzle, but for me, the highlight was getting to sketch the interior of the actual UW Shell House made famous in both the popular book and the recent film, The Boys in the Boat.

That story–a true story–is about a ragtag group of University of Washington rowers who beat the national favorites and traveled to Germany to race in the 1936 Olympics. In front of Hitler, they WON the gold medal! A proud moment for our country and a legacy that is still celebrated here in Seattle and especially at the UW. Drawing this space was an emotional experience, I felt like I was connecting with that legacy and the young men who lived and worked in this very same spot.

This drawing was challenging! It’s an enormous, fairly complicated space that was initially used as an airplane hangar, and the backlighting from the windows made it very difficult to see. Scaffolding was in the way too, but I kept calm, measured with my pencil, and drew in each bay of structure. Then working left to right, I started to draw in the details…some I couldn’t see well enough to figure out, but I think I got close enough!

Rainy UW, Cozy Suzzallo

11/19/23 Gerberding Hall, UW campus

Other than my weather app lying, USk Seattle had a terrific outing at Suzzallo Library and the University of Washington campus. Seeing that it would be dry all afternoon, I took a confident walk around campus to see what color I could still catch in the trees. As soon as I found a composition I liked, it started sprinkling. Taking cover, I looked around for something to sketch and spotted Gerberding Hall’s tower behind a tree with some yellow leaves remaining (above).

It stopped raining, so I ventured out again to the composition I had been attracted to first – University of Washington Tower peeking behind some yellow and orange trees. Halfway through, it started raining again, and this time it was serious. In denial (“It’s not supposed to rain today!” I shouted to no one in particular), I kept going until more of my sketch was running off the page than staying on (below).

UW Tower and campus trees

Holding the book open but cover side up so that the wet sketch wouldn’t smear the one on the opposite page, I dashed into Suzzallo Library, where smarter sketchers had been all along.

While my drenched book and I dried off, I sketched a few students in the graduate reading room, where an impressive number of brave sketchers were taking on the room’s daunting Gothic vaulted ceiling. I stayed with the relatively safe stained glass window and a few of the beautiful chandeliers.

Suzzallo Library's graduate reading room

Suzzallo window

Even when the weather app lies, it’s hard to complain: With possibly one of the best turnouts of the year, USk Seattle filled two large tables with their sketchbooks at the throwdown. And with four A5-ish size sketches, it was one of my most productive USk outings.

Sunny Campus and U-District

 

10/2/22 Drumheller Fountain, University of Washington

Planning sketch outings in October is always iffy. Sometimes it can be crisp and sunny, but more often it’s wet and cold. We hedged our bets by going with the University of Washington campus, where Kane Hall has a wide, deep overhang in front. If it was wet, lots of sketchers could shelter there while still getting a great view of Red Square. Luckily, we didn’t need that shelter! It was sunny with temps in the low 70s, and except for a light haze of wildfire smoke on the horizon, we all agreed it was phenomenal weather for October.

Broken Obelisk

I warmed up with a small sketch of Drumheller Fountain (AKA Frosh Pond for the tradition of dumping underclassmen in) in my bright yellow Uglybook. The combo of colored paper and a white gel pen is the fastest, easiest way to sketch falling water! (I regretted that I didn’t have my red book with me, though, which makes the white gel pen pop even better.)  

Walking through Red Square, I spotted a sketcher with Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk sculpture behind her, which made another fun, quick sketch.

After that, I walked around campus for several thousand steps, looking for another subject, but nothing grabbed me. It seemed like all the buildings I was attracted to were either fully in shade or fully lighted, which are both difficult to sketch. I wandered off campus to Northeast 42^nd and 15^th Northeast, where an old brick building covered in ivy caught my eye (below). The green awning near the center is Magus Books, a used book store that has been in the U District since I was a UW student in the ‘70s. I liked all the contrasts among old, new, brick, steel and foliage. In a few weeks, the ivy will turn, and I’d probably make even better use of a secondary triad if I sketched it again.

U-District

Gothic Splendor

It was a large group with many first timers that came for Urban Sketchers Seattle's afternoon outing  to the UW Suzzallo library yesterday. The Gothic splendor of the quiet reading room attracted many.

Throw down and group photo.



 

Thanks to Sean for taking the photo.  At least three are missing. 


I chose a section of that Gothic splendor for my sketch subject.

 


--Kate Buike

Sakura, Sakura

When I lived in Japan many seasons ago, we used to sing a song in honor of the sakura, cherry blossoms. So when I stepped outside of Suzallo last Sunday and glanced up at the Quad, it was a magnetic attraction. Despite the pouring rain and cool temperatures, there were so many people milling among the trees. They defied the Seattle norm with their colorful umbrellas and bright yellow and red rain jackets. I wedged myself under an arched entryway with a spot of dry ground. It was an odd angle. I would have preferred to get a nice perspective of the angling paths of the quad, my fingers got stiff from the cold, and wished I had brought my water-color paper and ink and twig. 

By the time I was done Suzallo's interior seemed much more welcoming. And then...a brief spell of sunshine. 

That building in the background by the way is, I believe, the UW Art Department, my old haunt back in the day. 

A gracious host with warm and welcome surroundings

Ahhh. A taste of the tropics in mid-November. 

I warmed up, literally, with the long view. 

The light was amazing and the structure a bit overwhelming, but I loved the contrast of the technical exposed structure and the organic shapes and colors of the plants.  

This multi-colored palm tree caught my eye with the rich texture in the trunk. The leaves were multi-colored with a leopard-like pattern.

I concur with you all who have said it, our host, Doug Ewing was incredibly gracious and welcoming. Maybe we should make this an annual mid-winter location. 

UW Commencement 2013

I attended my youngest daughters graduation from the U of W and I wanted to have something to remember the day,  so I brought my sketchpad.

Suzzallo at noon today

I went this morning with my Cornish class to sketch at Suzzallo (they made some GREAT sketches!) I was inspired by the Seattle group's sketches of Suzzallo a few weeks ago, so I decided to stay after class and do a sketch.  Started in pencil, but after a bit, more of the sketch was on the back of my hand than on the paper!  So, I pulled out the Lamy pen and gave ink a try...

I'll be in Washington DC next week, hopefully sketching all day on Tuesday...

Rainy and Cold, Suzzallo closed!

Was so disappointed to miss last week's sketchcrawl, so I decided to go today to UW's Suzzallo to sketch.  It was cold, rainy, and the library was closed!!!  So I did a super quick sketch of Red Square (didn't have time to draw the buildings, so I painted the clouds), then saw one of my Cornish students, and we decided to sketch the entry foyer of Suzzallo.

More Suzallo Arches

As I drove into Seattle, it was stunning to see the bright sunshine after our week of enclosed cold. Nonetheless I stayed inside like most of us and was thankful for the protection from the cool temperatures. 

The reading room is almost a cathedral 

and the stairway arches reminiscent of Piranesi

Suzzallo Library - 3rd Floor South Allen Stacks - HV Crime Section

When I heard that today's sketchcrawl was at Suzzallo library I thought I would like to do something different than I did last time when I sketched the front of the building. I thought it would be fun to go back into the stacks where I first started thinking about what would later become my career as a Criminal Justice/Criminology professor. So I found the old familiar HV section ... some of the books on the shelves...The Criminal Personality, The Onion Field, Sexual Homicide Patterns and Motives, Crime and the American Dream, Punishment and Social Control, Acting Out: Maladaptive Behavior in Confinement, Letters from Attica, Life and Death in Sing Sing, Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles from Walla Walla, Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide,  Sex Crimes, Women, Murder, and Justice, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, Evil Doers, Convicts, Profiling Violent Crimes, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, Postmortem....As I sat there sketching I remembered many a day long ago lost in some of these books. A peaceful afternoon sketching down memory lane thinking about how powerful books can be in shaping the course of a persons life.

Suzzallo Library

I hesitate to post this because this is not what the drawing looked like at the end of our sketch crawl today. I work way too slow to finish a drawing to my satisfaction in two hours. At home I added a lot more shading and my white gel pen lines to raise the contrast. I'm not really an Urban Sketcher, I just play one on TV.

This is what it looked like at the sharing.

UW Finals Week

Last Sunday,  I went to Cafe Solstice again.  It was filled with students studying for finals.
Here is a sketch from a different view point.

March Urban Sketchers gathering - Uof W

Slightly cold and wet but great subjects to sketch. As always, enjoyed seeing everyone and again, learned something new about fountain pens.

3/21 cherry blossoms @ UW Quad

Yes, that's a bride down at the end of the walk, joining us and all the folks with Nikons hanging around their necks to pay homage to the cherry blossoms. The stop-and-start showers were a bit problematic, but as always it was great to be out with Urban Sketchers, and exchange sketchbooks and pen & paper info.