The Path to Somewhere

Dear Sarah - Day 44 of Our Daily Drawing Exchange

Hi Nikki
February 12, 2025

The lesson in drawing buildings was harder than I thought it would be, especially after I warmed up doing some more loose one-liners (not shown). Buildings are all angles (well, most buildings) and I struggled to get the angles right. I drew in a bit of a landscape between the houses, and added a path, which I deeply regret. Supposed to be cobblestones but looks more like steel wool.

This is my afternoon with Kianna, which will no doubt include some drawing. I think I'll bring some pens and do some one-liners with her.

February 12, 2025
Hi Sarah -

Dani and I have started work on our final project for this semester’s course (The Art of Writing) at SFU. We are weaving together several stories, all related in some way or another to art, the camino we did with Dad in 2017, and my dad… We’re planning to integrate visual content as well as our words to come up with some sort of braided essay.

This wooden carving by an unidentified artist from the 16th C caught our attention at the pilgrim museum during our 2017 visit.

So, I’ve been scrolling through (and printing out) relevant photos, zooming in on info cards accompanying various artworks on display at the pilgrim museum in Santiago de Compostela, making notes and, yes, drawing. We are both writing and we are also integrating some of Dad’s work (as well as some of our own). I explain all this because otherwise tonight’s effort won’t make much sense. The captions under each image will provide some additional context.

As you will remember, Dad didn’t actually walk into the plaza in front of the cathedral at the end of our trip… But, arrive we did - three generations of pilgrims together, as we had travelled the Camino together.

After returning to his studio in Canada, Dad created a series of fascinating self-portraits in which he infused ancient works of art with his own face - this is an oil painting he completed as part of that series.

This evening, after poring over these various pilgrim images, searching for clues (I’m not sure clues to what, exactly, but the process of staring at the images was quite intense and prolonged), I did this drawing. In pen. And, to be honest, shocked myself! I quite like it and think it will quite probably find a place in our project…

Goodness. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!!