I began using a sketchbook as an art student at Carnegie Mellon University. The journal’s small surface was convenient in my college dorm room, my first apartment in New York City, and when I traveled to Turkey in 2013 with a Fulbright Fellowship. I continued traveling for several years by bouncing between international artist-in-residence programs, and my sketchbook came along for the ride. Subject matter became increasingly autobiographical with daily use, and the sketchbook evolved into the visual diary it is today.

Depending on the scene, a painting can take forty-five minutes to six hours. If I am unsatisfied with a picture, I will cover it with a solid color and start again. Every page has a few failed attempts beneath the surface. Due to these revisions, a journal takes one year to complete.

My complete travel journal is comprised of four sketchbooks, totaling two-hundred full-spread paintings. Eighty of my favorite pages were published in The Traveling Artist: A Visual Journal (G Editions, 2021). Below is a selection of pages that did not make it into the printed version.

*My original travel journals are on display at the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Viewers are welcome to handle the books and flip through the pages. Click here to plan your visit.