Newsletterversary III

I recently recorded a podcast conversation with Frank Harmon, an old friend who taught me architecture studio at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, back in 2012, and inspired me to look at the world differently.¹

Frank is an architect, teacher, writer, and avid sketcher who always has a sketchbook with him.

He writes to find out what he’s thinking, and draws to understand what he’s looking at and ensure he doesn’t forget it.

We talked about writing, drawing, life, and how digital technologies make the world completely placeless. "It’s too late to stop [the internet], but what we can do as architects and artists and writers is give people a sense of place where they are."

Frank believes we can make places that have something physical and concrete grounding us in an otherwise unlimited digital world.

---

Today, I’m celebrating my publication’s third anniversary with 157 weekly sketches and stories published over 1099 days.²

Frank’s Native Places blog was one of my greatest inspirations to get started with this project. The formula is simple: pair a sketch with a mini-essay, share it online, and repeat.

I’m still figuring it out. But I enjoy every bit of it and will continue writing, drawing, and publishing for years to come. (I encourage you to discover the power of writing: start with one word per day.)

---

I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, comments, and suggestions and invite you to write a comment, reply, send me a voice note, or send me a private message.

Thank you, as always, for pushing me to keep going.

---

Happy newsletterversary.

---