Tag Archives: Corvallis Library

Library Lament



Sketches are below – can’t seem to get the formatting right for more than one sketch!

I spent several hours in the library Thursday, waiting for our newly-shampooed carpet to dry.  I was very excited to try a “dry run” of what I hope to be doing on a daily basis while abroad, sketching in museums and galleries and libraries and cafes.  I began with the fountain outside the reading room… but there was no water.  And the security warnings and exit alarms on the door were too big to ignore, so the sketch turned out quite different than what I had envisioned. 

Then I noticed the stacks of upholstered wingback chairs at the east end.  They’ve been cordoned off with caution tape for months.  I asked an employee what was up – they are “needing cleaning” he said.  A euphemism for covered with lice?  “No decision has been made,” he said, clearly uncomfortable with the dialog.  But before I could get started drawing the chairs, a young man sprawled out at the edge of the fountain, so I tried to capture him.  Dang – he got a call on his cell and off he went.So I searched out a cooking magazine, and retreated to the familiarity of voluptuous, rounded fruit, from a photo.  The glaze doesn’t dry up when the city funding does, there are no warnings to block the view, no danger of bed bugs or lice crawling off the pages (I hope).  I miss the days when there were people in the reading room, reading, and water sparkling in the fountain.  How was it that we could afford that, not so long ago?  I know I will encounter much worse as I travel with my sketchbook.  Corvallis, though, pretends we are different.  Pretends “it”  doesn’t happen here.   Wake up, Corvallis.
 

Alarm Will Sound, colored pencil & ink, by Kerry McFall

 

Kids Outside the Library, ink, by Kerry McFall

"Glazed Peaches", colored pencil, by Kerry McFall