We stopped for lunch Friday in Williams Arizona, a small town where my brother-in-law grew up. I sent a few snapshots of the downtown area to him and he commented on how the town has changed, “Williams was a busy town back then, with Route 66 and all that tourist trade. The Santa Fe railroad had a repair station there, and the logging and cattle industry were strong. Then the bottom fell out. I-40 bypassed Williams, Santa Fe moved to Kingman, and the logging/cattle industry went into a real slowdown. The railroad to the Canyon was the beginning of a recovery.”

I caught a couple at the lunch counter having pie and coffee. Even though this couple sat together, I did not notice much talk or interaction and never got a feel for where they live or who they are. My goal this week is using line to tell a story. I quickly scribbled in the figures with a soluble graphite pencil, trying to convey a sense that each person was lost in their own thoughts. Today I finished it up with watercolor and a bit more of the pencil. I attempted to fade out the line and color in the parts of the sketch that are further away and to use it to convey a bit of gloom.