“Manzanita is a small beach town and it is incredible how uneventful life can be there. And I say it in a good sense. I live a life driven by productivity and taking a moment to stop and change my pace was incredible. The walks at the beach, buying groceries, cooking. Normal life stuff that in my usual daily life doesn't get attention was the key factor there. I loved that. Besides that, not using the car for days was awesome, just walking around because everything is close. Maybe it sounds small, but for a person that lives in a city like Los Angeles where the scale of everything is designed for cars you get to appreciate it.

One day when we went to the beach and everything was covered by fog and it felt magical. loved that haze thing that happens in Manzanita, it feels like a James Turrell monumental piece of art. My association with the beach is sun and sand and a lot of people being loud and umbrellas and food vendors. This was totally different. It was quiet, all gray. Desaturated and very calm. I really enjoyed how subtle and unexpected it was.

During this trip I was drawing a lot. Some of these drawings are related to leisure, love, nature, balance and even peeling a sticker out of something, because somehow this memory of me peeling a sticker stuck with me. The drawing I chose for the print was the first one I did on this trip. Usually it takes me a lot of time to get to something that I like but this one came out right away. I didn’t erase anything and every line came out like what you are seeing on the print now. I thought that was a gift and I love this one because of that. The whole composition is directed to a moment of attention between two fingers that are about to touch. The posture is relaxed but if you pay attention there is something that’s about to happen. Like a still moment of a movement that you get to see because you were fully present. I want to think that during the road trip I thought about this gesture and once I got the Manzanita I just had to draw it.”

Day 01

I live in Los Angeles and Manzanita seemed like the perfect distance to cover with our car. It’s about 1.000 miles away and we thought we could cover it within 3 days. I say we because I live and work with my wife Macarena. We share a studio in Chinatown and this trip sounded like a dream when Jeroen invited me to participate. We also have a small dachshund that is going to join us on this trip. 

So, road trip! North California and Oregon are full of trees, mountains and beautiful route scene views. There are two options as far as I know to drive up there. One is to take the seaside route, the 101,  that is a longer trip but it looks epic. You know that last scene on Point break? Like that but without the storm.  The other option is the I-5 , It’s a shorter route and crosses a ton of small towns through land and hills. I want to see this part of the country this time and leave the other one maybe for another time. 

For this trip I planned to bring pencils, paper and charcoal. I want to draw rough ideas and finesse once we are back at the studio. I like to keep it simple and build up from there. First is all about the idea and the structure of the drawing. I brought paper of different sizes to trigger different gestures and textures by changing the materials. And some books! 

The first part of the trip was pretty desert-y. But when we started getting closer to NorthCal, things began to change. The road got greener and greener, and we felt that we were somehow entering this huge forest that would never end. The first section is 8 hours long. So when we arrived at our first stop in Redding (California) we were ready to stretch our legs, rest and grab some real food. Not much else. We are tired but we covered enough ground to go to sleep and feel accomplished.

Day 02 - Oregon

I love taking road trips, we kind of have our traditions and things we usually enjoy while on the road. Some music, podcasts, eating in the car or stopping for a picnic at a random spot. All of that sounds  like a plan to me. Macarena used to be a chef so she always brings tasty stuff for the road.

We start the day and hit the road. Incredibly enough, the desert views are far behind us and Oregon appears green and big upon us. Off to Eugene, our second stop. No sandwiches today :(

We arrived early to Eugene. Looks like an awesome town. Already love it. We bought some ham, cheese, and bread ( Can I say I’m not a fan of bread in america? ) tomatoes and fruits at a supermarket and we headed to a park with a river. It’s picnic time.  We took a good walk after eating and already felt like I’m in a different mood.  Air smells funny today. There is a fire around and smoke can be seen if you pay a little attention.  It’s fire season during summer here.  I guess I’m used to it from living 6 years on the west coast. How crazy is that? We’ll close the windows tonight.

Day 03 - Oh Manzanita you are beautiful

After some 16 hours on the road, we finally arrived at Manzanita. Seems like a lot of roads are behind us and we feel great about that. 

 About 50 miles before entering Manzanita the road gets windy. We rolled down the windows and slowed down the pace so we could take it all in. I can’t stress this enough, this part of the route is BEAUTIFUL. Oregon beautiful. Like rusty farm with green woods and sprinkles of daisies all over it. The trees get taller, the car smaller, the air fresher, my smile bigger :) Macarena is eating a donut and this feels like a perfect moment. I caught it just for you.

Manzanita is a small but very quaint town. One of those places where people talk slower, like days are longer and they enjoy waiting. I’m already happy that my screen time went down by hours and I didn’t even notice. Huge bonus: we have the pleasure to stay at Lisa Congdon and her partner’s lovely home, which it’s located just one block away from the beach. 

The second we arrived, we unloaded the car, and went straight to the beach. It was windy and a bit cloudy but in a nice way. Like bucolic let’s say. And that’s all the fancy words I’m going to use. Promise. Felt great to be there and breathe the ocean air. Ready for some days here for sure. I plan naps, reading time, more naps,  a lot of cooking and walking around the town without any goals other than to add steps to my sandals and take some photos. I forgot to mention I like to take photos so I brought my camera. I’ll play photographer for a couple of days.

Day 4 - Settling in

There were a few recommendations that Lisa and Clay shared with us, one of them instantly caught our attention: fish and chips next to the river.  We ordered some pieces of fried cod, fries with a coke and water. I like places that are close to the water. There is something about the sound of water passing by that gets me. We could have stayed there more time but the sun was hitting really hard and we couldn’t move far from the shade. We had lunch, walked a bit around town. This place is in Nehalem, a town 3 miles from where we are staying, and then headed back. 

We plan to stay quite a lot at the house because it’s really comfortable and we need a chill stay. I enjoy going to supermarkets everywhere we visit, so that was another thing we did after. We walked a few blocks and I grabbed the camera so I could take some photos. We  stocked up on some veggies, fruits, coffee, chocolate, pasta and a steak because fun. Now we’re ready to settle in.

I found this very nice spot in the house’s living room. A little nook with a couch right next to a big window at the front of the house. Panchi sniffs everything and looks outside. I started drawing up some sketches right then and there, while the sun was setting. I started on a small notebook and a pencil. A pencil that later will be chewed almost to death by Panchi. Life can be a bitch.

Day 05 - Everything is awesome

Woke up feeling great and well rested. Nothing better than a good night’s sleep. The day seems cloudy from the window but it seems weather changes very fast here. I’ll brew a humongous cup of coffee and check the photos I took yesterday. As an illustrator you get used to look at things quite a lot, to pay attention to things that maybe you wouldn't if you are not drawing. My photos tend to be like that. Like a collection of things I found and they resonate with me in some way . It could be a combination of colors, a situation, shapes or anything really that helps me to remember that thing I saw and I want to keep. These inform my work in a very random way and it could take years until I use something but I learn that this constant search of the miraculous is the way to find new exciting stuff. Art is work, like Milton Glaser said :)

We went for a walk by the beach. The Pacific Coast Beach here is very different from other beaches I know. It’s colder and the scale of it gives me a really different vibe than a South California beach. I’m not a fan of sunbathing and I usually read at the beach so this one is my kind of place. We walked a lot and played with Panchi for some time.

In the afternoon we walked past a firefighters drill on our way back to the supermarket and it was really cool to see it live and how the neighbors were commenting about some details. Everyone stopped what they were doing to see the truck and just how the thing developed. We felt like we were catching a glimpse of how the locals live here. 

Day 06 - Beach Haze

Early in the morning today we went to the beach and it was pretty incredible. We never saw something like this and it made our day! We felt in some kind of surreal scenario because you couldn't see further than 50 meters on the beach. The wind would lift water and foam from the sea and it would take it to the air creating this very thick layer of white all over. Like living in a cloud.  The fog was too thick to see anything and if you got close to the water the houses and mountains disappeared. We walked around for some time until we got tired and got back to the house.

I usually keep myself busy. I’m anxious and that makes me take on work like there is no tomorrow. The studio runs all year, five days a week. I switch between commissions and personal work so it is always interesting to me. And I try to keep a daily practice of drawing so all the work comes from a place of exploration. That makes my days a bit more busy but also way more sustainable in the long run. Here in Manzanita I’m pushing myself to enjoy leisure. No activities. Getting bored is the plan. To stay quiet and maybe cook or just read a book. I feel this cycle of quiet moments helps me to get back to work with the intention I need. And for me that’s the key. The intention has to be there to create good work. Today we filled the day with some pancakes and some drawings. 

Day 07 - Charcoal

Today is the last full day and tomorrow we have to leave. Time here passes fast and we got in love with the house faster than that. I started drawing with charcoal some time ago and I’m getting in love with that too. I come from the computer. CMD+Z fixes everything and I learned how to draw and paint and everything really in this way. Analog methods seem to not have this very useful tool. You have to start again. It requires patience, practice, and materials. All things I didn’t have when I was a student. But now I approach drawing with a better understanding of what I want. And soft charcoal seems to be the link between drawing and knowing what to do and working on a digital medium. This thing is made for sketching. Thing that I love the most and it requires me to re draw everything a thousand times. When I draw hands I look for a thin balance between abstraction and figurative. The ones that I like the most present a point of view that is a bit unconventional.It’s all about representation. Proportions are wrong but you can see the hand. And even if it is a lie, because drawing is just that, a couple of lines that tells you they are a thing that is not there. Then the lie sometimes is too good and we want a bit of that for ourselves.

After lunch we went back to the beach to see how it looked. Also Panchi got quite used to these long walks and she is getting anxious so we head back there. Two things happened at the beach today; First Panchi got into the water for the first time and it was incredible. Funny how we love our pets and suddenly the world goes around them, right? Second thing was, and I’m very ashamed to say this, we lost our house keys :\ Somewhere between the beach and our long walk back we lost it. We tried to find it for an hour but I think the sea took it and we are not going to find it.  On the way back I found a dead starfish but no signs of the keys. Sorry Lisa. We felt really bad and the guilt ruined the afternoon for us but we got a bit of luck because the back door of the house was open and Clay left a second key inside the house. I think we went for groceries a bit after but that was enough for us to close the day.

Day 8 -  Good Bye Manzanita

Our stay in Manzanita was perfect. It was all I could ask for and more. The long walks, the quietness, the beach, the weather, the road trip even was something to remember. I’m excited to get back to the studio and see how the print is going to look. I have some good sketches and a ton of drawings to revise and come up with something cool. See you soon!