Through the years, starting when she was 6, Rita Swidrowski would capture on the pages of her sketchbook what to some might seem like banal moments - like the color of someone’s backpack. But for her, they were a way to capture moments in time. “I have this core memory of sitting on a bench on the boardwalk by the ocean with crayons, and I drew the beach and the people and it left a real impression,” she said.

She was an art teacher throughout the 1980s and 1990s, then worked in libraries in children’s programming in the 2000s.

“Art has always been part of my professional and personal life,” she said. “I’ve always had a private journal, but somewhere along the way, the sketchbook and the journal melded.”

She began to get inspiration from other sketchbook journal artists, such as the author of Sarah Midda’s South of France.

Around 2001, when she lived in Portland, she started restudying the French language. Her French teacher, Valérie Guillet, of The Language Exchange, got a glimpse of her sketchbook and said, “You’ve got to go to France.” So she went on immersion trips to Provence.

“Traveling with my French teacher, we weren’t allowed to use English, so journaling with my sketchbook became a way to practice French,” she said.

For 10 years she went back to France to sketch. Hence, many of her sketchbook drawings are captioned in French.

Swidrowski works in black pen and colored pencils, or watercolor. “I don’t like pencil,” she said. “I like the commitment of a pen.” While she sketches the “big” overarching scenery details like waterscapes and architecture, she also zeroes in on the innocuous little moments — things that wouldn’t necessarily stand out to the casual observer. In one sketch she did at an L.L. Bean concert this past summer, she portrays what looks like an ovoid-shaped husband and wife, whose clothing even somewhat matches. Her friend provided the caption. “J calls them salt and pepper shakers.”

"For me, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and memorable when I draw and write," she said.

Sometimes people she’ll never meet end up as character sketches in her notebooks. Flipping through the pages, she remembers these people who’ve wandered through her life — many of whom never even know they were sketched. Sometimes she overhears their conversations and includes snippets of what they said in captions beside the drawings. It’s a lot like being a photojournalist on a micro level, except the “photos” are her own interpretation.

For example, one day she observed a group of young people in the Belfast Commons playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee. To the everyday passerby, it was just a game, nothing noteworthy. But, as she overheard the young people conversing, she began to scribble down their words next to their sketches.

“What they were talking about had such local color, but then my comments were all about how they were all cooperating together, as opposed to other sports where other players just fight each other,” she said.

 Swidrowski often draws in public spaces such as libraries, parks, beaches and concerts. She is often approached by strangers while sketching to ask what she’s drawing and if they can take her photo. With societal norms, it’s hard to imagine a stranger coming up to someone writing in her journal to ask “What are you writing?” But for some reason, with artists, people feel it’s okay to approach.

“Sometimes, I have these great encounters with people who are enthusiastic in sketching,” she said. “And there are times, I just close my notebook and wait until they pass. But, they’re just doing what I’m doing. They’re curious and instead of sketching me, they are interviewing me and taking my picture. And it becomes a little moment for them that they’ll remember in their journeys as well.”

Swidrowski currently has a show hanging at the Belfast Free Library, with two filled workshops starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. To go through all of her private journals and choose what allows the public into her private world took a lot of time for her.

“I mostly picked most of the sketches of Maine and Quebec City,” she said. “In the past, I might have felt more vulnerable about releasing these illustrations, but I’m more confident and centered than in my youth and I enjoy sharing the joy they bring me.  I also think we’re in a society that is getting to be a lot less private. My generation has been much more private, but I think in a way, this show is moving me with the times.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com