Erica's Wish - 2010

If there was a picture, it would be a picture of a cupcake. Three, actually - one chocolate with pink icing, one vanilla with white icing and pink sprinkles and one vanilla with blue icing. I ate all three - in reasonably short intervals between each and ended up with a bit of a sugar rush. That's what racing is all about - personal bests.

Event was really well organized. My friend J had her initial lear-to-run clinic use this as their target race. Everyone did awesome. Especially L, who I picked up after one leg of the race and and ran in with. Very good time.

Met Rick Ball - world record holder for marathons - one leg amputee (he ran 42.2 in 2:57 ... first ever to go sub 3:00). He's gracious, funny, down-to-earth and - well - fast as hell. He ran past us at about (his) 9K mark and (our) 4K mark. Which means he was running twice as fast as us. At least ...

Love the finishing necklaces ... a little ring that says COURAGE on one side and ERICA'S WISH on the other. I hate loathe and dispise necklaces and won't wear them. This - however - I'm wearing.

The weather was overcast and stinking hot. About 40C humidex. Thank heavens there was no sun. Each water station, I dumped the water over my head so my head would not explode.

The course was nice and flat and - if it were slightly less hot out - it would have been an awesome race to do a PB on. I did not ... it was not chip timed but race clocked. I finished 33:04 which is right in the zone for a practice run. There is no point in pushing it in a race that hot ... besides it was way more fun and rewarding for me to race with L. When I picked her up, she was struggling but did completely awesome. All we did was beat those doubts into submission until they were no more.

When I got my water at the end, I had to get the guy to open it because the bottle and my hands were too wet to get traction. I am soooo lame. Seriously. Am I five? Well ... yes, I am ...

J did photo duty for her clinic and did after-race pictures as well. They are awesome. And I have a picture of me and Rick Ball which I want to get preserved.

Gosh. Today was a super terrific day. Loved it.

Honda Indy 5K Race

Right. This exercise was to draw your daily newspaper. The Sun is not - but temporarily - it is one of TWO newspapers we are now getting at the house. The Sun, no doubt is a Ying to the other paper's Yang.

The drawing itself is rubbish in spots (where the top page is smaller than the bottom one) and quite pleasing (how the car is rendered on the top page). Such is most of my drawings ... a mashup of good and bad.

In any event - what made this drawing particularly useful to me was the Honda Indy pull out section wherein I could memorialize this year's Indy. Not for the car race but for the 5K run. The "run" consisted of runners, walkers and wheelchairs - all travelling around the Indy course.

The race was a little disorganized but a perfect race is devoid of interesting stories and memorable images. Yes ... I will never forget being sent forward with the rest of the runners to get to the 5K start line. The lead car was confused to the actual start line. Then we could not hear the start gun. Then, we looked behind and saw wheelchairs barrelling down the track towards us. Great fun!

The course itself is the Indy Track. I cannot believe that race cars go around such a narrow, turny track. No straight aways. Just turns and narrowness. Lots of narrowness. It was narrow for me at about 9 km/hour. The indy cars go at about 240. Hoo.

Often races have fun things to do - expos with give-aways, swag-bags and whatnot. This race had air-brush temporary tatoos. Triple loved that. I got a lion on my forearm. Let me rephrase that ... a big ass black and orange lion head. It is still doing well and I confess to pampering it with a light touch and delicate dab drying.

The run itself was a stinker. 38C humidex. I need a minimum oxygen saturation in the air I breathe to be effective. I suspect I could have been faster (and happier) with cooler temperature. Having said that - the sun did go in for our run and that was quite lovely.

Best piece of swag was a pen with a carabeener clip.

Most interesting encounter ... the Hooter Girls ... I had never seen one before. They were the "hostesses" at the mustering point. All writers must be open to new experiences - to see new life forms and new civilizations. The HGs classify. For the record, they appear to have very strict dress codes (ie there is a McDonald's/assembly line - type consistency to their outfits - not even the slightest variation in outfits). This I found interesting ... mostly because it means (as in so many areas of commerce) the Brand Rules.

Second most intereseting encounter ... we got lost and found ourselves in the middle of the Indy display set up. There was a car ... an Indy or F1 car ... on a pedestal. It had very specifically focused spot lights and was sitting on an angle wherein a thin plane of water was streaming under the car (to give it sleekness and light bounce). There was a guy (it's always a guy with car detailing ...) in his bare feet, standing in the water and polishing the polish on the highly polished polish. I was worried he would wipe off the shine ...

The only thing this race makes me want to do, frankly, is to run it again next year.

Glass Fish

Glass is notoriously difficult to draw. I've made a has of it, I think but th image does look "see through" and you can see the base is a base.

Tangentally, how do you draw something that is see through. Isn't that impossible? How do you draw invisible?

In any event - here's the fish. Aquamarine Blue and Burnt Sienna - two of the most useful colours in my pallet and two of my favourites.

Drawing is hard. Watercolour near impossible. I lack control and the precision to convert what's in front of my eye via my brain down through my hand onto the page. Writing is easier. Maybe ... or maybe I just have more practice so it feels like I have more control.

I did a race yesterday and have not recorded the rich details yet. I feel this pressure like a headache ... I must write it all down before I forget.

Clematis - through my neighbour's fence

My next door neighbour is a gardening maniac. I hate her intensely, of course, because she can grow roses and I can't. She and her husband (both retired) put in a $25,000 water feature that makes me crazy on the principle of misdirected expenditure of funds. Having said that - Mother Nature is my Avenging Partner. She regularly sends herons in to eat their ornamental fish.

That said - I am shameless in capitalizing on her floral escapes and will draw whatever bloom makes its way to my side of the fence. The clematis is just such a character.

Alrighty. This sketch is not what I would call a masterpiece. And yet ... I really do like the way the flower came out - and the anther/pistil (lower left) is really exotic looking up close. I love how the pistil looks like the boom-part of a fireworks. Not overly fond of the leaves but - hey - not every bit is a winner.

It occurs to me from time to time that I should have separate journals for seperate types of sketches. The botanicals for sure would have their own book. I image that would be a terrific single-theme volume. I would love to see that, frankly. Every page its own lovely flower. Lots of colour - lots of detail. I still might just scan them all and convert it. Won't be quite the same, however. Original watercolour (or original anything) has a magic all unto its own.

But here's the problem with having multiple books. You end up with mulitple books. And knowing me and my predisopositions - more than one book would lead to a cascading of problems that I really don't need. Do I have the right book for what I'm going to sketch? What happens if subjects straddle more than one topic area? How do I pick which one it goes in? Do I then make 2 sketches, one for each? Or copy / paste from one into the other? I can barely keep track of things as it is ... what happens if I *lose* a book? That would be horrifying.

I had two books a while back - one for sketches and one for watercolours. Different paper weights determine proper medium. I found it distracting in the extreme. Every time there was something to draw, I was utterly conflicted about how best to render it. Pastel? Ink? Watercolour? Marker? Bleh. The important thing is having the sketch DONE. I ended up focused on the pastel sketches and then never went back to more than one book at a time.

Having just one book is easy. Do a sketch. Turn the page. Repeat until finished. There is a certain simplicity to that routine. There is also a certain freedom ... it is implicit that there will be good and bad side by each ... no one book will be reserved for the gems. Maybe that's why it's hard to have two books ... the fear of ruining one with a single bad effort.

Bad efforts, mistakes, misses, and messes should not stop the show. If it's bad, just turn the page and do another. I am regularly surprised by my own work in this regard. A crap sketch here, turn the page and I do something decent. Turn the page. Keep going ... it's the forward motion that counts.

Mai House ... sticks and stones and i-beams

This is my house. I'm pleased with the sketch ... so much so that I did not draw on the back side of this one. I do on every other one ... so more pictures to a book. But this one is special ... it is a place with history. It is my house.

At work, we are doing several major constructions and I get to participate in the big build meetings. Over the last two years, I've met project managers, architects, designers, property managers, real estate experts and the odd builder. I've learned three important lessons.

Lesson #1 ... holy permits, batman. You cannot do anything - not dig, pour cement, pass go to the next step until you have a permit allowing you to do so. There is a permit for everything. Zoning is also important. You won't get a permit to do anything that hasn't been reviewed first by the Zoning Gods. Permits granted can also also conditional. You can submit plans but they can come back with changes and / or caveates. One of the sites had to be moved 10 feet to the left because of an endangered lizard. Apparently lizards have the right-of-way in some municipalities. Their safe travels to and fro have the ability to hold up multi-million dollar constructions. No one puts a shovel in the ground until the gekkos are safe!

Lesson #2 ... details matter and in a build, there are about a zillion details. Caveat: every detail requires a decision. Some times highly paid people debate way too long about the stupidest details. I have unfortunately been in some of these meetings and have contributed to the debate with such passion that - in retrospect - I still think was worth it. Having said that - all I can recall is the desk-pounding. None of the actual content remains. This is beside the point. It is the passion that matters. But to give an example of the minutae ... I have been in meetings wherein the entire time was spent talking about way-findings, signage and "floor palette". Yes. People actually get paid to think about, design and create colour schemes for floors. You'd be amazed at the liveliness of the discussion, too.

Lesson #3a ... designers and architects have terrific printing. Seriously ... it's all that fabulous blocky stuff that goes really fast. They use roller ball pens - disposables - in funky colours sometimes. Green. Purple. It looks beautiful - so light and airy and legible. My printing and my handwriting is all scrawly and indecipherable. If you have a creative type in a meeting and they are not getting their point across (and even if they are), they often sketch out what they mean. I love those sketches. I wish I could tear off corners of some of the plans and just keep the doodling. It's so clean and simple and *right* - perpsective, line. They may even do shading while you discuss. Everything they touch is art.

Lesson #3b ... designers and architechs are the funkiest dressers. The designers mostly so. They wear with complete aplomb and style stuff that would look positively ridiculous on me. I so love them for that. It makes me keep my face straight when they riff on the importance of door colours and review their three-page colour scheme they have in mind.

I look at buildings differently now. There is so much to think about. So much to see ...

Lavender

Another botanical.

I have a bunch of lavender in my back garden. Smells divine. Much of my garden is scented. What doesn't smell perfume-y is eye-popping colour. It's a good combination, I think.

Often when I am out surveying the landscape, I will brush my hands over the leaves to activate the scent and then bring the perfume up to my nose. Ah. Lovely and calming.

I used to make lavender wands. I still can - I haven't lost the knowledge. I just haven't done it in a while. One or two of my drawers have wands to keep away the moths. I should probalby refresh them. Trouble is ... there's only one time of year that the lavendar is suitable for wand making and I fear we have passed that point. Lavender in full bloom now. Oh well. Maybe next year if I think of it.

This is done with a .5 pen nib. Too thick and the images have ended up kind of clumpy and heavy-handed.

I really love the orange throat to the florettes. Not something you expect from a purple flower. Also, I love the complexity of how the flower unfurls ... there is sort of a sting-ray formation for the little florette pods (second from R).

One final random note about lavender. I have a hell of a time spelling it and calendar. The words are almost identical but one is "ER" and one is "AR" ... for reasons that remain completely obscure to me. Having said that - I can never remember which is which.

Hm ... didn't put the latin down for this one, either. Science work is never done ... ! ...

500 words - … prompt “Taking Risks”

(written in response to a 500-word challenge about taking risks. before you get yourself all worked up into a lather ... 1) The issue is more complex than 500 words can cover and yes - I have more to say than this, 2) a major reference group of mine are first responders, 3) the world is a very big place ... )


Risk is about probability and severity of outcome. If the potential outcome is sufficiently likely and/or severe, odds are people will dedicate themselves to mitigation and avoidance.

What happened this weekend in Toronto was a fine example of a police force successfully managing a myriad of risks while enduring an embarrassing lack of appreciation for their efforts and a need for some media outlets to create a story bigger than it actually was and feed confused hysteria under the guise of “getting the story out”.

Let us be clear. G20 in Toronto was not Metro Police’s idea. Neither was the months of risk management of the city their sole responsibility. In truth – if one thinks about it – there would be no way a local police force (no matter how world class) would be allowed to plan a G20 response in isolation of provincial, federal and international input – across military, police, first responder, air, sea and land mobilization groups and intelligence organizations. Metro Police are, however, the “face” that many put to the force that presented itself in Toronto to keep order. Combine that with the average citizen’s lack of understanding of risk management, law enforcement or a clear picture of the real risks and then observe the vitriolic accusations of a of purported abuses (where – it seems – accurate definition of terms is abandoned in favour of frenzied story-telling).

Risk management is simple. List what could possibly go wrong and then take steps to avoid, mitigate, share or accept these defined risks. Create a plan. Plan for contingency. Execute as required.

To be clear – no one – delegate, citizen, officer - was critically injured this weekend. No one died. There was no catastrophic event. When it all went sideways, the police acted with focus and patience. As a parent might when faced with an unruly two-year old, the police contained those having the Big Snit and put them in a safe (although inconvenient and temporary) time-out zone.

Lest we forget, there were three other factions who were central to this weekend’s ballyhoo. The wilfully lawless made their own counter-plans and struck first. The wilfully stupid were oblivious to what might happen, and decided to protest anyway. The vast majority just stayed home and tormented themselves with the risk-free occupation of arm-chair quarterbacking the decision-makers. Thus we had one group managing risk, one accepting (and arguably revelling in) risk, one unable to accurately anticipate risk and one happy to avoid it all in favour of watching selective feed on TV.

As with all successfully executed risk management strategies, the complaints will always round up like a Maslow’s Hierarchy of complaints. The post-game show is focusing on issues like trying to argue inappropriate methods for mitigating risks. With no material outrage to be had, the proletariat must satisfy themselves with a meal of petty and self-righteous indignations and attempt to equate what happened in Toronto with genuine and outrageous human rights violations, stifling state dictatorship and – in some cases –war zones.

Toronto. Get a grip. In the grand scheme of things – a little property damage, a few inconvenienced people and the odd moment of high tension is a nominal price to pay for mitigating the substantial risks at hand.

If it all bugs you that much, call Metro Police and ask them to delete your address from their 9-1-1 response CAD. But I bet you won’t, no matter how wounded your tender sensibilities.

Not having the Police? Why, that would be risky.

Birdfoot Trefoil

This is one of my favourite type of sketches - the scientific(ish) botanical.

I have done a lot of these. A couple summers ago, I had a personal challenge ... one flowering botanical a day for two weeks (but went on for about a month). Had to be a different flower and within 500 meters of my house. You would NOT BELIEVE the number of flowering plants that are so close to home. Once you start looking, you can't help but see them. Funny ... now on my long runs, when I see something new and interesting, I have a sudden urge to stop and take a sample home with me. Sadly, I have no where to store them and so have to keep going. A part of me dies when I have to leave one behind.

Having said that, doing this project has developed my eye for seeing and I can now quite accurately remember very small details that will allow me to find other examples of the same flower later when I have the time to sketch. Many of the wildflowers are small (less than 10 mm) in size, so a sketch involves some close up work to really see what the flower is all about. There are often micro dots of colour, lines, curves, edges, fluorishes, thin curlicues, anthers, stamens and all manner of beauty to behold. More deep-sea diving once you start looking ... a whole new world opens up.

Fine detail brings me to my next point. This is actually the THIRD botanical I have done since I started drawing again. The other two were done with a pen that has too thick a nib for the subject matter. Screwed it up and the sketches are quite leaden. Nuts. Nib thickness is key for being able to capture the sense of delicacy. Super fine lines also lets the deliniation fall to the background while the colour and form come to the front.

Another thing I love about botanicals is discovering the nomenclature. Everything has a name and there is a name for everything. I have Peterson's Guide to Wildflowers and that is key to the accurate identification. I often think that I am putting together my own super-local version of this guide. It gives me an idea for a fun gift ... a handmade, illustrated local guide to flowering plants. I could never give up the originals but I have a fine scanner and some wicked paper ...

This one is called Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). Birdfoot (because it looks like one in one of the growth stages ... second from left bottom). Trefoil because it has three (tre) leaves (foil). I failed to capture the latin on the sketch and will add later.

One of the best names so far is the first page of my current sketchbook ... Viper's Bugloss (oddly, a delicate purple flower). Seriously ... who comes UP with these names? Very entertaining. I guess that's a hazard of descriptive biology. Eventually you run out of good names and then one night, you and your botony buddies get roaring drunk one night and start making ridiculous word associations that probably made sense at the time but now is rather cryptic but too bad, the name sticks.

When I do these sketches, I often think of the heyday of descriptive biology and think how wonderful it must have been to have that kind of job. The scientists and the independently wealthy (sometimes one and the same) spent their time just looking for new things and then cataloguing them. What a *great* time that must have been.

My Camera

I have a lot to say about cameras. I didn't think I did until I uploaded this sketch and started to think about what to say. As I am wont to do - here is a summary list in no particular order...

1. Among other things, I am a part-time assistant event photographer. It is one of the best jobs ever because I get to take pictures with one of my epic best friends and I am an employee, not a boss. Being an employee is different from a boss and after a week of bossing, being an employee is a sweet relief. I just do what I'm told.

2. My favourite lens is my macro lens. My favourite pictures are with a macro lens. On a slow day, I will post a couple of my favourites. A macro lens allows for super-close up work. My best stuff is of flowers ... looking through a lens doing these types of set ups is like deep-sea diving. I am nothing but focus on what's in the viewfinder and the noise of the world disappears.

3. I have a camera that takes "reality" and I also draw. Apart from recording events and macro stuff, I prefer sketches. As crappy as my sketches are, I remember more. Perhaps this is because of the concentration required to render a sketch. Perhaps because it takes more than 1/60th second. Time investment = more meaning? Macro work is like that as well ... I can take dog years setting something up before the click happens.

4. Above is a digital camera. Yes, I can take 2,000 pictures in an afternoon ... but remember the days where film was required? I think I miss the flick, thread, snap skill to loading up a fresh new roll. I miss the sound of film advancing, too. And not having to be so frigging careful about dust when changing lenses.

5a. I like taking candid pictures of people. I'm not an extrovert and my job as assistant is candids. So I'm all about the stealth. People don't see me ... they are too focused on the Real Photographer. It is an opportunity for super-close up people watching. People are really funny. They get all tense when faced with A Picture. Hear the click? Then wait a heart beat and they relax, then I click. Completely different faces ...

5b. People who know each other for a long time have a way of being with each other that I love to capture. The way mothers sweep back hair from their daughters faces, the way girls rest their heads on fathers shoulders ... the way friends jostle and touch and fix and groom and play ... the way lovers hold hands and walk together.

6. This particular sketch is not one of my best. The perspective went wonky at the end of the lens. But here's the thing about sketching, even though it's off in places, it's also completely bang on right in others ... and you absolutely know what you are looking at ... even though it's not perfect. I like how I did the grey (burnt sienna and ultramarine blue - top two mixing colours ever). The lens cap is a disaster. Oh well. Finish it up and turn the page.

7. Everyone has a camera now. By everyone - I mean everyone with a phone, small digital or something big and formal. It's having a funny way of keeping everyone a little more honest ... particularly now that we have the internet where we can share.

I don't think I'm done talking about images. This is enough for now, though.

EDM - 163 Deck of Cards

I haven't sketched anything in over a year. No explanation. Life happens? Shifted visual art to writing. Still creating ... different medium.

I draw from this list. I remember wanting to do this sketch a year ago ... the Rider Deck ... when the topic was cards. It's a fancy pack, not like the regular card backs. This is *of* something ... not just patterns.

When it came up again this time, it was still my immediate thought.

I have this deck. It's worn slightly from use but I treat the cards with care and respect - like they contain a magic that I don't quite understand and should not screw around with.

I play with the cards from time to time. I always have no idea what I'm doing. I have "decoder" books that give me the layout patters and what the cards mean. I've done them enough times to know that whatever the layout, it will mean something. Some "hits" are big. Some are small. Some literal. Some symbolic. There's never a point where I go - nope, not at all.

I get the feeling that each card is an archetype and we have every card in us. Regardless of the cards that turn up, they will all apply.

I have use the cards from time to time to to search for ideas, plots and explore characters when writing. Plenty fun, that. Always yields thoughts and options that I had not thought of before and can take things in new directions.

There are lots of things in the universe beyond our ken. Who knows if magic is real? That is ... if there is real magic and not just well-executed illusions.

Not sure I believe. Not sure I don't, either.

The universe is a big. We are small.