The month of June was surprisingly packed with a number of activities that I had the pleasure of attending and being part of.  Those included Wine and Painting at the Hayti Heritage Center, outdoor sketching and exploring with the Triangle Sketch Crawl meet up group,  a Community Art Show at the Carrack and the normal leisure art and design.  July is proving to be the same, but stay tuned for a follow up post about that!
  On June 6th, I visited the Hayti Heritage Center (HHC) for the first time where Triangle Friends of African American Arts (TFAAA) hosted a fun Wine and Painting event.  Instructed by Brenda Miller Holmes, Director of the Durham Civil Rights History Mural (DCRHM) Project, we learned about Artist John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968) and recreated his painting called Forest Pool. It was a pleasant surprise to meet Brenda finally. I had been in touch with her after signing up to volunteer to paint  when I heard that the planning and design process for the mural were underway. I am happy to say the mural is currently in the grid-drawing process at the wall and the TFAAA will team up and work on painting it this weekend. The gallery below shows pictures from the TFAAA event. Also, please find two shared Facebook pictures at the very bottom, one from TFAAA and the other from a day of volunteering with the DCRHM Project -- both link to their Facebook pages, so go check them out and hit like!

  The next day was the meet up with Triangle Sketch Crawl and we met at Trinity Park. This was also my first time at the small, community park near the Duke's East Campus. I walked around until I found a shady, picturesque place to sit. Below are a few pics I snapped out what I saw and what I drew. In addition, that same weekend was the drop-off for the Carrack's quarter-annual community art show and third birthday, so I took "The Drum That Spoke" over to be displayed. 

  Happy New Year! I didn't realize this would be my first post of 2014. Today, The Triangle Sketch Crawl met up at Golden Belt Artist Studios for an afternoon of (well... two hours of) sketching. Instead of going to Blend Cafe, which we discovered no longer existed, about a dozen of us drew in the area and returned to The Scrap Exchange to discuss our art inspirations and methods. There was so much to see and everyone shared their wonderful creations along with tips. Below, please find my sketches. I braved the cold weather to do a perspective drawing of a section of the beautiful brick buildings surrounding us. I was inspired by another member named Fleet who drew cool architectural sketches at the last meet up I attended.
  When my fingers could no longer endure the cold and I thought the perspective in my sketch was good enough, I went inside and saw some pretty plants I wanted to draw in the meantime. At least one meet up is scheduled for each upcoming week. I'm not sure when next I'll attend, but I will be sketching until then- working on some fashion designs for Divachix.com. Just trying to stay busy and productive. Best wishes for 2014!

 Yesterday afternoon, I made it out of the house and trudged through the heavy rains to Raleigh. Members of the Triangle Sketch Crawl gathered for the afternoon at the NC Museum of Natural Science to practice drawing from the variety of objects found at this new location. I remember coming to the museum previously during a conference I attended, but this was my first time actually exploring the many levels and exhibits. It's a very beautiful space with a lot to see. I spent half of my time snapping pictures (gallery below) and walking around before I found a couple of spots (by the turtles) that I enjoyed sketching in.

  April is awesome! This month has been filled with more Triangle explorations and some inspiration. As it wraps up, I'll just take this time to share some cool things happening.
  I found out about a three-day conference hosted by NCSU's chapter of AIAS, a student-run organization dedicated to all things architecture. While there, I met a number of students, the Chief Planning & Development Officer and Planning Director for Raleigh ( Mr. Mitchell Silver), toured many firms/campus sites, and listened to interesting lectures. The [SWAG] goodie bags we received at registration had silicone USB drive bracelets, restaurant certificates, a tee shirt and a bunch of information about the conference/Raleigh/NCSU/etc; I KNOW - HOW COOL! It was a great conference and it helped me realize that I enjoy being in educational settings. Some pictures are in the gallery below, but find more here.

  That same week, I attended Durm-based rap artist The Real Laww's (TRL) concert in Raleigh at Tir Na Nog.  It felt good to be in a new environment and I had a lot of fun. The dance that goes to his newest song was the inspiration for completing my first animated project in Adobe Flash CS6. Check it below (click gif to enlarge)!