Reading Together, Rooted

In Prospect Park, on a warm spring afternoon, I saw a young couple reading together under a tree. They were both holding the same book—Umberto Eco—and leaning against the trunk like they’d been planted there. I asked if I could draw them, and they said yes. Turns out they were from Santa Barbara, just visiting. Afterward, they came to see the drawing and smiled. It was a small, lovely moment. The drawing is more abstract than I intended. But I like the way they seem to grow out of the tree, the way the colors scatter like fallen petals. There’s something about being young on a sunny day, reading in the park, that stays with you—even when you’re no longer young. An Honest AttemptPart of the Three Paper Project, this was drawn in one sitting, on one sheet of paper. It’s not perfect. But it’s real. A record of what it felt like to see them, to remember my own days like that, and to try to catch it before it passed. For Rooms That Welcome MemoryWarm, quiet, and a little scattered—this piec