👀 Untucking a Decade: Celebrating 10 Years of Drawing DC

I'm slowly emerging from my post-festive gloom despite the gray skies outside my window. Opening my sketchbook, I find a drawing of a woman I saw over the break. She was watching her kids near the pool with a mild smile. Her posture was rigid, and she wore a long, black pencil skirt…the only thing suggesting she was on vacation was a bright yellow t-shirt that she had tucked in. This last detail is particularly important because, as you can see from the illustration below, the tucking interrupted the phrase printed on her shirt: "It's not your job to…"

The scene has puzzled me ever since. It's not my job to what? To worry? To be everything to everyone? To make everyone happy? With the answer tucked under her skirt and me too afraid to ask, I let my mind wander about life, the absence of answers—and jobs. If I couldn't know what my job wasn't, did I at least know what my job was?

This week marks 10 years since I first posted my first illustration of DC on Reddit: an oh-so-familiar scene of Christmas trees piling on the sidewalk, waiting to be picked up. The scene somehow set the tone and themes that I usually choose to depict, an organic approach that prioritizes intuition, curiosity, and immersive observation —one I still follow today.

In this decade, I've created more than 300 postcards, participated in countless exhibitions and projects, and decorated walls and collections with my art. Those late nights of printing, packing, and preparing for markets weren't just work – they were a labor of love. Consistency became my companion, and somehow, I transformed my passion into a profession.

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that perhaps I'm not giving enough importance to this momentous occasion. It is, after all, 10 years of my life doing something I love. And 10 years of an ever-evolving city, too! Many of the buildings I've depicted over the years no longer exist. How lucky I've been to be part of the memory of the city I call home. 

In this city (like any other big city) people love to ask, 'What do you do?' My answer always varies: graphic designer one moment, illustrator the next, occasionally just 'artist.' But recently, digging into my creative journey, I've discovered a job description I like. I'm a chronicler. Someone who captures the world in sketches, preserving moments with humor and humanity for generations to come. And I have 10 years of experience! Not that I'd ever have the courage to say that at a cocktail party.