Hand Drawn (and Hiked) by McCall🌻

Happy Wednesday! If I seem different, it’s because I saw Taylor Swift in concert last Friday and I’m confident I’ll need the rest of my life to process it. In the meantime, I’ll be ripping the setlist at every opportunity possible.

Mini Musings

This section is slowly turning into my weekly brain dump; essentially the more glossed version of what’s in my journal when I thumb it open every Monday night (around when I realize I need to put some urgency behind writing this). I’m also learning that writing prose is something I could use some serious work on. Dare I say that’s Taylor’s greatest strength?

A concept I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this week is responsibility. Specifically, how I love being around people who take responsibility for their lives, their decisions, and the outcomes. I’m lucky enough to feel like 100% of my best friends have that mentality when it comes to life and can stop me if I’m ever doing the opposite.

I remember the moment I realized I had full autonomy over my own life so vividly. On a whim, I signed a 2 month lease in Santa Monica when I was visiting a friend. I knew I had the savings to cover double rent if I couldn’t sublet my apartment in New York, so I flew back to New York after that trip and before I knew it I was on a flight back to LAX for a change of scenery — and to do the life changing act of skipping Northeast winter.

I was still working EST hours while I was in California, so my work day started at 6AM and ended around 2:30PM. Since none of my friends were available until 5PM PST, every day I found myself with about 3 hours to kill.

I made a promise to myself that I’d get outside every single day while I was living there. And I did. Every single day after work I went for a walk alone through Santa Monica — sometimes with headphones, sometimes without, but always walking for 2 hours or more. My camera roll during that period time consisted solely of flowers, sunsets, trees, and houses I thought were so beautiful.

Somewhere along the way during the many songs, steps, and sunsets, I realized I had zero obligation to keep living in New York. I could live wherever I wanted, do whatever I wanted to do, and be whoever I wanted to be. It wasn’t some massive lightbulb moment that stopped me in my tracks; just something I always knew deep down that was stomped from my subconscious to my conscious mind somewhere between Santa Monica and Venice.

Whatever opportunities that would come to me in the future were simply the mix of hard work, preparation, and timing. 2/3 of those variables were my responsibility. Life is a lot of things, but more than anything, it’s making your own luck. And taking responsibility for the actions that make that luck.

Artiste In The Making

I’ve been working on this drawing as a surprise for the last two weeks and I am so excited to finally include a photo of it here. Although it’s twinged with a bit of sadness because it’s a going away gift for one of my best friends in the world, gifts like this are exactly why I love drawing so much. Over the hours I spent drawing this, one of the many things I realized is that watching a friend move away is sad, but watching a friend build their life is far happier.

This was the first time I was able to put my new colored pencil set to the test, and man, did they deliver. Why didn’t anyone tell me how easy it is for colored pencils to blend? I mean, check out those CLOUDS. I’ve never had white colored pencil blend like that, and for that reason, I’ve shied away from drawing landscapes that are primarily white (ie: snow-covered mountains, oceans with white coming off the waves, you get the idea).

I have a few commissions to knock out in the coming weeks, but I’m really thinking about getting into more hyper-realism style art after that. Can you tell I’ve been binge watching CJ Hendry’s TikToks?

After these next two commissions (both gifts) I’ll be back drawing Colorado favorites and maybe having a little fun with drawing specific items vs. places.

The Wild, Wild West

I’m feeling a weeeee bit of impostor syndrome with this section since I’ve been off my hiking game lately. Between the toenails Mt. Sopris claimed (sorry) and recent travels, I haven’t carved out a ton of time to hike lately. And lemme tell ya, I miss Mother Nature.

I’m heading back home to New Jersey this weekend, off to Lake Powell the weekend after, and back to Crested Butte the following weekend. Cue Sunday Scaries upon realizing that this past Sunday night; I love traveling, but over the years I’ve realized I don’t bode well without a weekend to decompress after a trip.

In lieu of a trip to the mountains, I’ve been reading my avalanche book slowly but surely. One of the major perks of reading this book is being able to recognize phenomenons I’ve seen out in the wild — making it a lot easier to remember the science behind them.

One of those phenomenons is a wind slab. Snow begins to drift when wind speeds reach about 10mph and the wind takes snow from the windward side of terrain (ridges, open bowls, gullies, etc.) and deposited on the downwind side of terrain. That deposited snow forms a thick slab of snow, and the problem with slabs is they’re likely to break.

As you can see above, wind is blowing snow onto the opposite side of the ridge, and one of the typical results of a wind slab is a cornice on the opposite side of the mountain. My recent example of this? Please enjoy this massive cornice on Mt. Sopris in late June.

In this case, there’s an open bowl on the right side of the mountain that you can’t see in that photo. So the wind (and subsequent snow) was blowing from West to East and depositing that snow into the bowl on the East side of the mountain.

Another cool phenomenon (I promise I’m almost done) is avalanches affecting the shape of trees. Ever been on a hike and see a big tree that looks bent like these?

Cue the recent realization that Momma Sopris is PRIME avalanche terrain in the winter. Those puppies were most definitely in an avalanche path.

The immediate takeaway? Ski patrol is right next to teaching on my list of “professions that deserve a metric sh*t ton more than they’re paid”. While I’m traveling over the next few weeks, this section may or may not turn into avalanche fun facts.

What I’m Noodling On

• ⛰️: All my one year ago memories on Google Photos are when my best friend was in town and we did this hike. The wildflowers had us dragging our jaws along the trail and CO is in store for a super bloom thanks to all the rain. HIGHLY recommend checking this one out in the next few weeks if you’re able to

• 📖: I finally finished a book I’ve had on my nightstand for the last four (4!) months, Here For It by R. Eric Thomas. I’m so bad about reading one chapter of a book, starting a new one entirely, then coming back to it in 2 weeks. Well worth coming back to, though. This one is laugh out loud funny

• 📺: I’ve been watching this documentary series about climbing K2. As much as I love tackling big summits, I can confidently say I will never climb this one

Thanks for being here. Til next week!

- McCall 🌻

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