57 - Drawings from the Edge of the World
Hello and welcome to the SneakyArt Post. With this newsletter, I talk about my art, the things I see, and all that I learn on this journey of self-education to be an artist.
In this issue, I want to share some drawings from the past week, and an older issue of the SneakyArt Post that I enjoyed writing very much.
The Edge of the World
This weekend we took the ferry to Vancouver Island, which is the furthest west I have ever gone. Beyond it lies the Pacific Ocean. It extends for thousands of miles without pause. Every evening it swallows up the sun, and does not even break a sweat.
My first stop was for work. I’ve been commissioned by a BC-based construction company to make ink drawings of their best marinas and docks. One of them is in Victoria, the big city on Vancouver Island and, incidentally, the capital of British Columbia.
I walked around my subject - the Victoria International Marina - for a few minutes before deciding on the point of view I liked best. This is something I am able to do only when working on location, and I prefer it over working out of a photo.
There are many reasons why a photo is inferior to working on location. A photo is too fixed. It is too literal. As my guest explains in next week’s podcast episode - “In a photo everything is equally loud.” This is a major drawback.
Here are some details from the piece.
Afterwards we went walking around beautiful Victoria.
We closed the evening at Swan’s Brew in downtown Victoria, in the nick of happy hour.
The next morning, we drove up early to Cathedral Grove, stopping at Nanaimo for breakfast, to see some old-growth redwood trees. I tried to convey how big they were, but couldn’t do a good enough job.
That evening after another hike and a pizza dinner, we put up our tired feet and rested on the couch to watch the Olympics at our BNB.
This was a very short trip of only 3 days. Just as we were getting comfortable, it was time to leave. But we made the most of this final day - starting at the amazing Butchart Gardens in the morning.
Heading back downtown, we took a long walk to the Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria, a way to earn a big lunch of fish and chips. It was delicious, and the day was perfect, and I sat on the grass afterwards to draw this scene from outside the wharf.
In the evening, we boarded the ferry back to Vancouver city. I made my final drawing of the trip on the top deck as the sun set on the western horizon, drenching the ferry and passengers in its orange glow.
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Best of the SneakyArt Post
To celebrate one year of writing this newsletter, I am sharing my favorite past issues. The second part of this five-part “Best of” series is Issue #36 - Infinity on the Shore.
In this issue, I shared my drawings from the annual #OneWeek100People challenge. It is a challenge I love participating in every year. It’s an opportunity to practice different styles of drawing people - small and large, quick and slow. Sometimes I can do 100 people in just one hour!
During the writing of Issue #36, I was reading the wonderful book Order of Time by theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli. Sitting next to large bodies of water always makes me feel like time is slowing down. I feel like the lapping of the waves is my new, calmer metronome and I can disregard the ticking of clocks. It is an idea Rovelli agrees with too.
I made this drawing sitting by False Creek in downtown Vancouver. I thought about the depth of the water, and how far it was to the other shore. I was thinking about infinity, from my reading of Order of Time. Was the shore infinitely far, if I could never reach it? Was the water infinitely deep, if it was enough to drown me?
This week, in SneakyArt…
… I had too many beers with a friend who likes to drink too much. Afterwards we went to get a taco where he insisted on drinking some more. Five beers and an unnecessary shot of tequila later, I made a drawing of the server at the taco place. I showed it to her when she came with the bill, perhaps only because I was so tipsy. She said she'd had a busy, terrible day, and was probably going to cry herself to sleep. But if I gave her the drawing, it would make her very happy. So I gave her the drawing.
It's hers now. And I wonder, what greater purpose can art serve?
I guess I have conflicting thoughts about what it means to be a successful artist. As per the traditional trajectory, the more famous I become, the more exclusive my art should be. The pinnacle of achievement is to have your work absorbed into the private collection of a wealthy patron. After you are dead, if you are lucky, it is shown at museum for short periods of time.
I don’t know if I want to be that kind of artist. Art should belong to people. Everyone should have it. But if I think this, do I devalue myself? Is this egalitarian idea harmful to an artistic career? Some more thoughts here.
What do you think?
Read
For a quick ramble about time, as explained by Carlo Rovelli, check out Issue #37.
Why is Art Expensive? - an article about how fine art is valued, and auctioned, and collected.
To listen to episodes of the SneakyArt Podcast, visit here.
Next week, I will have a new episode of the podcast and some new commissioned work to share. Thank you for your time and attention.