When I read Marcia Hanlon's haiku, I could almost feel those metal sliders from the Brannock's device cupping my feet. As a child I was fascinated by having my feet measured, and back to school shopping was a favorite bookend to summer vacation. As I thought about how to illustrate the poem, my mind drifted to a photo my friend Stephanie had shared with me of herself as a baby girl, decked out in yellow and white frills, with a purse, looking every bit the sophisticated shopper. With her permission, I labored to enhance the grainy photo with colored pencils and tried to summon a likeness, old feelings, and memories.

I chose the poem that David Pasinski wrote because it’s about friendship and contained a clever turn of phrase. While I pondered how to illustrate it with an allusion to Syracuse “spirits,” I joined the urban sketchers for the first time on a blue-sky day in November.

The location was at Salt City Market—also a first for me. I painted people lounging in red Adirondack chairs near Audra Linsner’s brand new mural and saw kids playing on bright green Astroturf. One of my closest friends was also there, painting.

Ambassadors were part of the scene. When I got home, it was clear to me that this convivial scene would be the subject. I used gouache for the re-designed background, and graphite for the pigeons.

My friend Kelly and I became instant friends when we met at a company party decades ago. We found time in our busy lives to deepen the friendship by taking walks together at Green Lakes. I would sometimes take my camera and quickly snap photos along the way (Kelly is a very fast walker), never getting enough of the branches dipping into that extraordinary color. Sometimes Kelly's tiny tots would accompany us, and I took many photos when Maggie came with us in her Halloween pumpkin suit. When I read Ana's poem, I felt it represented everything about my walks with Kelly. As I made the illustration, I re-lived our many walks and that special day with Maggie.