Beachcombing

Christine LeBlanc-Payne is an artist, designer, and illustrator based in Connecticut.

For her Zócalo Sketchbook, LeBlanc-Payne draws inspiration from natural artifacts found on the beaches of Connecticut; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Costa Brava, Spain; and the Côte d’Azur, France. Using traditional ink illustration, she composes her beachcombing into elegant arrangements that she finishes off with vibrant geometries of color that she adds digitally.

“I refer to the sketches as ‘exercise at the beach’ to flex my drawing muscles,” LeBlanc-Payne tells Zócalo. “My day-to-day is immersed in digital. It’s satisfying to switch off and switch over to …

More In: Viewings

Dew Glow

Aimée van Drimmelen is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and arts programmer based in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Working in diverse media—from painting and drawing to film, sound, and animation—her work explores …

Cybernetic Flowers

Sofia Pusa is a multidisciplinary creative director and illustrator based in London.

For her Zócalo Sketchbook, Pusa gives us an array of crisp, cybernetic flowers to herald the arrival of spring. Note her …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Butterfly Vacation

Mercedes Padró is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Illinois. With a paintbrush in hand, she creates whimsical and vivid pieces that visualize the world as she sees it. …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

I Turn Science Into Art

My Textbook Illustrations Help Educate the Next Generation of Biologists, Doctors, and Physicists

I graduated from art school in a muddle. All I’d ever really wanted to do was draw, and I had done so on every sheet of paper that came within …

The Hmong Dolls We Lost, and the Story I Found | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Hmong Dolls We Lost, and the Story I Found

I Couldn’t Save These Hand-Sewn Heirlooms From a Fire, But I Could Preserve Their History—And Maybe Even Part of My Heritage

The dolls were a seemingly trivial loss in the larger scheme of what went up in smoke when a fire burned through my neighborhood in the summer of 2020.

My family …