Visiting the shores near their home, Sebastian would look out to see if he could catch a glimpse of Jack.
04.14.2021
This illustration makes me think of three things: the red clay in the ground where I grew up, the coast of Maine, and Meghan Follows as Anne of Green Gables, walking out on the White Sands of Prince Edward Island.
I had recently been driving back to visit my parents in southern Missouri. At one point, my brother and I were driving and we passed through an area that had just had some roadwork done. I could see the orangey-red soil that had been turned over, scattered with cream-colored rocks. Grass will grow over it before too long, but it piqued up some channel in my memory—the clay in the ground.
I had never been to the northeast part of the U.S. until I got married and my wife and I honeymooned at a cabin in Maine. The little towns along the coast seemed so charming and at the same time strange to me. I had never been around harbors or shipyards or lighthouses. My wife and I were both incredibly sick over the trip, but it was my honeymoon, so I mostly just remember all the wonderful things. My brother and sister-in-law moved to Maine a few years ago, and it has been awesome to have more cause to go visit that part of the country. We still engage in a fair amount of pipe-dreaming about cabins in Maine.
As I was growing up, my first movie crush was on Anne of Green Gables. I appreciated her one-off creative mind, her boldness, and her compassion for others. She was a fierce character with a determination to seek beauty, and I have a lot of appreciation for those qualities paired together. There are a couple of scenes where she stands in sandy grass overlooking the water. Couldn’t help but think of that too, as this drawing came about.
