Drawing at Borders - Still in Mourning!

Once upon a time, there was a place called Borders, a bookstore with a café and plenty of music playing. They had books, and chairs to sit in,magazines, coffee, poetry readings,open mike's for bands, stuff for kids to do, but best of all, Borders was a great place to go and meet fellow artists - and draw. I used to tell students that I would be there on a Friday night, bring your sketchbook (and your date) and let's lay down some graphite.

On the way out the door, I would grab "stuff", stuff like plastic wooly mammoths, wooden manikins in different sizes, tiny porcelain tea cups, whatever, stuff to draw. We would set up "still life" arrangements at our tables, guzzle big cups of coffee and chow down on scones, or brownies. Sketchbooks would open and talk would trickle down as pencils did the talking for us. When we needed a break, we would wander the stacks, looking for the books we had to have that night - Borders did not suffer from our Friday night takeover - and then head back to the sketchbooks for another hour or two.

Borders closed down, across the country, and left us high and dry. Our little band dissolved, for lack of a place to meet, and drawing night came to an end. The old Borders building is being turned into another furniture store - because we need more furniture stores. The competition bookstore - Barnes and Noble - is not meeting place friendly; the atmosphere is more "you got your book, now get out". The Starbucks that is squeezed against the wall makes lousy coffee, is painted black, and has no room for those who might linger with sketchbook in hand.

I'm still in mourning.

I've posted some of the pages (look on the navigation bar) from my sketchbook that were done at Borders and if you were one of the "gang" who met there and you still have some of your work, look up my page - Hunt's Pencil - on Facebook and post a few. Or, just say "Hey, Ms. Hunt".