Lost and found

One of the saddest sights in the world is watching someone put up posters of their lost pet. As I sat in my car waiting at the traffic lights yesterday, I watched as a man on a bicycle stopped at the intersection and stuck his lost dog poster up on a post. It looked like every other lost dog poster – printed out on A4 paper with the obligatory cute photo of poochie/turbo/fang. Only those cute photos are often so close up that you can’t quite tell what type of dog they are. Or the poor dog has red eye from the camera flash, so that your initial reaction is, ‘I hope I don’t run into that devil dog.’

I couldn’t help but feel the futility of the man’s little poster and as I glimpsed his face, he looked so forlorn and seemed to be on the verge of tears that my heart broke just a little bit.

Maybe he’ll find his dog. It happens. His lost poster may match up with someone’s found poster and he and his beloved dog will be reunited.

If only we could put up lost posters for other things we lose and have them returned to us - like friends, youth and the ability to backflip off a swing without breaking a limb.

The little things

Oh yeah, it's March, the month of noticing the little things.

The first pancake

Have you ever noticed that the first pancake of the batch tastes the best, even if it’s slightly misshapen, lumpy and odd? Some people don’t like the first pancake and throw it away. But I wish every pancake could be the first pancake. First pancakes are the best.

Catch a tree killer

I couldn’t believe it. They were tearing it down mercilessly. I had to look away as though I had seen a brutal car accident. The neighbour’s tree is now a pile of logs.

I’ve always felt a bit sick whenever I see a massive, old tree being chopped down. Inside my head I’m screaming, ‘But it took so long to grow. Don’t worry about the roots buckling up your footpath. Now you won’t have any shade. It was so beautiful. Won’t you miss it? Stop, you tree killer..!’

Another part of me knows that they had their reasons. Maybe the tree was diseased and dying, dropping heavy and dangerous limbs too close to the house at random moments? Maybe it was an environmental weed and its presence meant that native flora was struggling to find its place? Who knows?

Goodbye tree. Thanks for all of the oxygen, shade, beauty, wind protection and for being a lovely home for birds and insects. Now I have another good reason to plant more trees.

Reflective distance

This is the theory.

The more control you have over your art material, the more time you have to think about what you’re doing when you’re making a mark. The messier your material, then the less time you have to intellectualise, and therefore this is the way to access your emotions and if you like, unconscious imagery. And if you’re using a tool to make the image, like a pen or paintbrush, then the physical distance created between you and the image also contributes to your ability to second guess yourself and analyse what you’re doing. If on the other hand you are touching the art material directly with your hands as in the case with clay work or finger painting, you increase your chance of spontaneous expression.

That’s the theory, anyway

So here is a portrait, one side using the most controllable tool, a fineliner pen. Lots of time to think about what I’m doing there. Neat, clean, graphic. Creating form through suggestion and leaving white space to do the talking. The other side uses a soft pencil. Still an easily controllable tool, but one step removed from the fineliner due to its ability to move a bit quicker and create light and shade.

In recent years I find myself drawn to art materials that allow more reflective distance. Not out of a conscious decision, but rather because I love the look of stark contrast of black ink against crisp white paper with touches of soft watercolour. In the past I was very heavy handed with the oil paint, working quickly and alternating between brushstrokes and finger marks.

When I draw now, I try to create images that have ‘breath’ to them. That is, I don’t want to fill in all the blanks, I don’t feel the need to explain it all in the image. Not sure if the reflective distance theory is being applied with what I do now. But one thing I know is that a pen and small sketchbook is easier to carry around than a canvas and easel.

What I learned today...

When it’s hot, I want to draw pineapples.

Create or die

I’ve seen it before. I mean, it did come out in 2007, but I have to express my love for the movie Eagle vs Shark. Directed by Taika Waititi and starring Jermaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) and Loren Horsley, Eagle vs Shark captures something about relationships that we stop noticing as we become adults. I’m talking about when there was plenty of time to just hang out with each other, when we accepted idiosyncrasies readily and when we were unafraid to express our likes, dislikes and needs in plain and simple words.

Do you remember being a kid and having a friend come over for a visit? Do you remember showing off your prized possessions as a way of sharing yourself, proudly describing the origins, meaning or purpose of treasured objects? Well, when Jarrod shows Lily his unusual handmade candles and states, ‘I guess I’ve gotta keep creating or I’ll just die’, Lily is genuinely impressed. And so am I. You said it, Jarrod. You said it.