I drew this under a misting fan in an outdoor restaurant in Dallas where the temperature was heading to 106 degrees. Overwhelmed and distracted by this intense heat, I scratched feeble white charcoal pencil lines. Others, more hardy, jogged and cycled up and down the Katy trail in the background. I had prepared the page with gouache back in New York on Friday, anticipating a certain browness to the proceedings, but naive as to the desultory effects of the actual weather.
While I was unable to do much drawing in Dallas, I did manage to take some photos of Dealey Plaza and the Texas Bok Depository, a grim and effecting place that I have read so much about since I was a teenager. It was smaller than I had imagined and I felt a terrible sadness that I had only ever experienced at Gettysburg and Ground Zero. an ordinary street corner that my imagination and memory populate with powerful tragedy.
- Nutrition advice from Rusty Taco.
Danny Gregory 
Before i even read your post, i thought “hmmmm… this is unlike Danny” and as soon as i read 106 degrees, i understood. 🙂 I’d also be scratching feeble pencil lines in such intense heat. Thanks for the Texas pics… xox
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Now I have an excuse for WHY I am so unmotivated to draw lately. LOL Danny
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Almost too hot for breathing – my brother went to school in Houston – he said it was like being on the subway in NY before air conditioning!
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I am new to your blog and am having great fun exploring your various posts and sketches. Today, I especially love your photo of the Texas Liberl license plate! That’s one brave soul! 🙂
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Danny, I love the ochre background in your bicycle sketch. Lately I am obsessed with all the variation on that pigment. So much so that I want to take a trip to Roussillon so visit the “Conservatoire” they have, as well as the town itself (I love Provence–lived in Aix) and collect an array of pigments to bring home to get me through winter…I dislike those darn misting machines in Texas, as they ruin my hair! Thanks for your inspiration….
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I can’t imagine doing much of anything in 106 degree weather except staying INSIDE in A/C.
the X on the street is chilling…tragic times…yes, overwhelming sadness…mixed with a few smiles of pictures to get one through…humor helps.
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Gosh, in that heat I think the only thing I’d produce would be a sweaty print of my face on the paper as I keeled over!
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Good grief! You should get a medal for visiting Texas in the summer and venturing outside! I grew up in Texas, lived there 40 years, and after 17 years in Western Washington could never go back in the summer!
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But I think it builds character to endure the 106 degree heat here in DFW and attempt to do anything, even eat outdoors.
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Yikes! I had to convert that to Celcius. It’s 41. I thought that only happens in the Sahara 🙂
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A bike, in my (sketch)book is always a lovely thing to draw. They can be tricky though you have done a lovely job of it. Great to have you back at full stride Danny. I’m just back into EDM myself. Second round. May finsh this time, though is anyone ever really ‘finished’? Hope not 🙂
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I don’t know how you could draw at all. That’s air you wear. Bleh!!
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I don’t think I’d want to draw in that sort of heat either which is why I don’t look forward to the heat of our summers. Great photos…..a little sad too.
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It’s been like that here as well…up into the 100s. Yuck. I haven’t drawn much, and the little I have done was inside 😦
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