01.24.25 Scree in the Distance-Brooks Range, Alaska

This drawing continues a series prompted by reading Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski, where long passages describe the physical and mental effort of moving through vast, unstable terrain. As I read, I kept returning to memories of traveling through Atigun Pass—seeing mountains layered with loose stone and wondering how anyone ever crossed them on foot.Here, the scree fields sit farther away, stretched across the midground and rising into the mountains beyond. The terrain feels expansive and resistant, its scale emphasized by sloping planes and fractured ridgelines. Directional line work suggests movement across uneven ground, while layered gray washes build weight and distance, offering no clear route—only the sense of gradual progress.Part of my ongoing Morning Practice series, this original drawing explores how reading can trigger memory and imagination, and how landscape can be revisited through drawing as a way of understanding effort, scale, and passage.