Tag: national monuments

Sketching the Stonewall Inn

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Stonewall Inn NYC

As Pride Month starts, here’s another place I sketched New York that is so important to LGBTQ+ history, and present, the Stonewall Inn National Monument. I remember hearing about Stonewall from my old professor at university but never really knew much about it, other than it was in New York, and central to the civil rights struggle for the Queer community. The Stonewall Riots began here in June 1969, kicking off a fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights and a larger gay rights movement in America and around the world. That fight goes on, and it’s not a fight that is going away. The current lot in charge have removed the ‘TQ+’ from LGBTQ+ and expunged any references to trans, non-binary, intersex etc individuals on the official government run Stonewall National Monument website, in an erasure of the monument’s actual history. they even took down the recommended reading list.  I won’t link to that site now.  I’ll link instead to the Stonewall Visitor Center, that was very interesting. I came down here twice, once to sketch it in pen and some paint (finished off the paint at the hotel), stood in the little triangle across the street which is part of the Monument, which has some very moving memorials and a lot of flags showing support for our trans friends, and then back again to get my sketch stamped at the Visitor Center, and look around some more. I got some nice metal pins. I didn’t go into the Inn itself, but I was glad to finally visit this important place, and walk some more around the Village. This area is cool. More New York sketches to come…

Stonewall National Monument brass plaqueStonewall National Monument sign

Muir Woods

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Muir Woods 090724

We went to Muir Woods, in Marin County north of San Francisco. I’ve never been there before so it was pretty cool. It’s a National Monument, so our National Parks pass got us in. I love all the Redwoods. (I don’t love John Redwood much, but he’s not a tree, he’s a Tory.) These trees are genuinely enormous. The first time I came to the US we visited Armstrong Redwoods, but haven’t been back since. I’d like to visit the Redwoods National Park, though it is quite far north near the top of California, and I’m not liking the long car rides. Muir Woods was really beautiful, though to get there you have to go up some pretty windy roads with steep drops. It’s part of Mount Tamalpais, and backs onto the Pacific, though we didn’t go down to Muir Beach. We took a long walk along the main groves, without any steep climbs, and while it was pretty busy it was still nice listening to the sounds of nature amid all the green shade. One area, Cathedral Grove, is designated a quiet path, but nobody told the people behind us who were talking very loudly. These trees are big, I wouldn’t get them upset. It all reminded me of the recent Planet of the Apes films, they were all up here weren’t they. I sketched this one big tree that had an opening in it, where people would stop and get their photos taken as if the tree was consuming them. Don’t give the tree any ideas, I say. I was inspired by all these trees though. I’ve spent the rest of September filling most of my sketchbook with drawings of trees, and once you start it is hard to stop. Each tree is different, and old, and very alive. After our walk around the woods, we drove down into Mill Valley for a smoothie, before driving around the Marin Headlands and getting some nice photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.