Meet the Correspondent--Marcia Milner-Brage

This is me in my backyard. Cedar Falls, Iowa has been home for close to 30 years. My first memory was drawing my parents when I was five years old. I've been trying to figure out the world through drawing it ever since. I became hooked on urban sketching when I went to the 1st Urban Sketcher Symposium in Portland, Oregon, in 2010.

I like drawing landscapes. Many of my drawings are of my neighborhood--part of old town Cedar Falls. My favorite media is wax pastels on tinted paper. I spend about 2-1/2 hours on-site, doing one. The 3rd down I did yesterday afternoon. It's finally warm enough to get outside and draw!

2 Steeples Winter

School Bus in Vacant Lot

Backyard Shed on 13th

Since I retired from my wage earning job eight years ago, I draw more than ever. And I travel, drawing wherever I go. I carry a 5B pencil with a stick eraser and a pocket-size Moleskine everywhere. I try my hand at watercolor, too.

Moonrise from Lapa (Lisbon, Portugal)

Green House on Flower (Venice Beach, California)

Perio Point Dock sketch (Beals Island, Maine)

August 2014, I was asked to be a Correspondent on the Urban Sketchers international blog! Very exciting--a dream come true! I also write short personal essays; some have been published and many have been broadcast over Iowa Public Radio when I was a regular commentator in the 1990s. The Urban Sketcher blog is a wonderful format for telling a story with both drawings and words.  Here's one of my posts: Bringing the Garden Inside. 

I am also one of the seven volunteer editors for the Urban Sketchers Blog. We curate content for guest posts and interviews. I love doing this and am honored to be the conduit to feature other Urban Sketcher's work. Winter Hats on a Moscow Suburban Train is a guest post by Masha Kirikova. Reuven Dattner's Pattern Rich Israel is an interview. 

If you have a cluster of urban sketcher drawings and words to go with it that tell a story and would like to be considered for a Guest Post on the Urban Sketcher blog, send your proposal to editorial@urbansketchers.org. Likewise, if you think one of your posts to this Midwest blog should be reposted to the international blog, send us a link to be considered.

Soon, all Urban Sketcher regional correspondents will be invited to be listed on the Correspondents page of the international blog. If you're a Midwest Correspondent, get ready by posting your Meet the Correspondent here.