Daily drawings: Week 17 of 52

Airplane diaries

Hi, my name is Chris. I’m an artist living in Los Angeles, CA. Throughout 2025, I am drawing scenes from my life on 3x6 inch desktop calendar cards, five days a week. This is a pop-up newsletter, which means at the end of this year, it will end. I’ll be here for 52 weeks. If you’d like to follow along with my drawings and the short writings they inspire, subscribe.

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I keep a special notepad in my backpack to write in when I fly. It’s an old American Airlines notepad with the motto “More from Shore to Shore” written in large serif type along the top.

I found this pad at an estate sale back in 2023, and decided to make a game of it. I would only write on this pad on airplanes. And I couldn’t write on anything else on an airplane until the pad ran out. There were only 11 sheets left when I found it, but it’s taken me a year and a half to fill seven, front and back.

Here are some excerpts from my airplane diaries, starting with the very first sentence I wrote.

10/4/23: It’s 10:23 AM… I am listening to Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan… The bathroom situation on this flight is pretty dire. There has been a consistent line of three or four people for half an hour. I shouldn’t have gotten coffee. This is bad.

10/30/23: To do:

• Write Ry bday letter

• Sew coat

• Tour apartments

• Buy xmas ticket

1/3/24: The colors of the sunrise have lasted longer than they should, because we’re flying away from the sun. The entire horizon looks like a perfect rainbow. Blue to green to yellow to orange to red to purple.

8/20/24: I’m starting to embrace the idea that LA is my city.

1/8/25: As I fly, three wildfires burn in LA county… The fires started yesterday, fueled by the Santa Ana winds, and have thus far claimed two lives and over 1,000 structures. Smoke will likely be the most serious problem for me in my apartment, as it blows west from Altadena directly over the city.

1/26/25: I’m flying back to Los Angeles in love… I fell in love in one week and three years.

2/20/25: Hannah dropped me off at LAX this morning, and just barely made it back to school in time to start the day with 2 minutes to spare. This is probably the last time I’ll fly back to Chicago alone for a while.

3/10/25: I’m on a plane with friends to Mexico City… Just before taking off, Sav goes “Oh nooo,” turns to me and says “I forgot all my meds!” Face in hands, she said “Well, I guess we’re raw dogging Mexico with no medication!” But apparently, after a quick Google search, you can buy almost any medication at a Mexican pharmacy without a prescription.

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There are quite a few more folks here than there were a week ago. To all those new faces, hello and welcome. To all the old, welcome back. And to everyone reading, thank you truly for your kind words and support.

If this project means something to you, consider commenting or sending it to a friend.

Sincerely,
Chris