Saturday, January 30, 2016

Howland Street, Cambridge 1984



My neighborhood in old Cambridge, Mass. was pretty peaceful most of the time. I spent a lot of time drawing the houses, streets, trees, and other urban places. This house was on Howland Street, which was perpendicular to Hammond Street where I lived. I wanted to gather as much visual information about the landscape as possible. My house had a porch and I used to sit on it and draw. There is hardly anything I like drawing more than old wooden houses with porches. I also spent time gabbing with the lady who owned the house in this picture, a retired schoolteacher. I have fond memories of this place although I was not very happy there in my accurate memory. Interestingly, my mother grew up in Boston's Roxbury district on a street called Howland Street.

Technical pen ink on sketchbook page, 9" x 7", July 6, 1984.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

I always love the sketches like this that you do. You always manage to capture so much with only black and white and a few lines.