In 1998, I led a group of students on a study-abroad program exploring the idea of classical beauty and its manifestations in Roman ruins, Romanesque architecture, and Gothic cathedrals in France and Italy. I returned from the trip with one hundred small drawings of various architectural monuments. These drawings were the beginning of a process of exploration into how to represent the experience of being present in these historic spaces.

Eighteen years and 13 drawings later, I have developed a disciplined work process that begins with site selection and research, preliminary drawings to determine format and materials, and a final, large-scale drawing that attempts to deal with the particulars that make these magnificent sites unique.