I did this drawing from Point Woronzof. This is one of the classic shots of Anchorage, usually done with a telephoto lens, which I did not have. In the foreground are chunks of leftover ice floating in the Cook Inlet which have been deposited by the tide upon the mud flats. It was only when I arrived back home that I realized how the process of doing the drawing had changed my perspective. I felt like I was in somebody else’s house and was extra aware of the walls, floor, furniture in a new way. My goal in doing these drawings it to notice the effects of the process on myself and to learn about how to set intentions related to that. This session was particularly powerful in that regard.

This drawing was particularly fun to do. I wanted to draw Susitna (Sleeping Lady) and the Inlet, and it was a clear-sky day. I didn’t know that I would end up drawing the inside of the car and the view in the mirrors, or Denali (Mt. McKinley, the tallest point in North America). Before heading for this spot, I stopped at Side Street Espresso to fuel up. While I was there I was engaged in an exercise of inner attention that had altered my perspective.

Previously I had noted that there was very little in the way of scenery in the room that seemed interesting. I felt I had mined the interest from the place the last time I was there to draw. However, as I followed the inward focus, I began to feel enlivened in my senses. I began to feel that everything was equally interesting and alive, that every moment of waiting for my soup was infinitely sweet and compelling. No matter where I turned it was the same. I had a sense that there was no limit to anything, that everything could be penetrated kind of like it was a bottomless pit.

It certainly seems that  I carried that perspective with me to my drawing spot, and the unexpected results were due to that preparation.