I like bright colours!

(This sun is on the front of my house.)

A few weeks ago I had the chance to draw some pictures for Calgary Reads, a local early literacy initiative. (Here's the picture I drew!) A group that encourages reading – what’s not to love about that? But there was something else I really liked, too: the colours. Calgary Reads has used colour to make its work space fun, vibrant, and inviting. And in doing so, it’s branded itself as a fun and colourful organization.

It seems like a no-brainer: bright colours will make things more memorable, more accessible, and more welcoming! But it’s surprising how seldom folks are willing to take a chance and add colour to their scheme. I guess there’s always the danger that the colour you love might rub someone the wrong way. Taste in colour is pretty subjective. But I’d rather take the chance – especially in the space I’m going to inhabit (or work in) myself. Being surrounded by an inspiring space – which definitely includes colour – makes all the difference to my happiness and productivity. Well, and it helps if there’s also a coffee pot.

Calgary Reads front lobby welcomes you in with bright colours that tell you all about what you’ll find inside. Here is a bookshelf’s worth of sponsor names – a great way to recognize them in a permanent way that’ll never get boring.

I like how the objects on this wall seem to tell a story – starting small and getting bigger as your eye moves towards the right. You “read” the wall from left to right, just the same way you read the words on the page of a book!

I have the feeling Calgary Reads' Steacy Collyer, who was the driving force behind all these colours, would get along fine with the German artist Angela Holtermann-Stumpf. Here's a picture of her house in the city of Witten. I wish my house looked something like this, too!

When I bought my 1911 Ramsay house in 2004, every single surface in the house was painted white. I loved that – it was like a blank canvas just waiting for me to paint. And I didn’t stop until I had done just that.

I like painting skies and suns on the ceiling. (I’m really claustrophobic, so I think it’s really just about creating the illusion that there’s more space over my head.)


Here’s a sun I painted on the ceiling of an apartment I lived in about fifteen years ago (above). The room was already purple. I never would have chosen that colour, but it kind of grew on me. And here’s my own living room ceiling (below). This picture was taken by Rachel Psutka, a interactive reporter at the Regina Leader-Post, during her internship at the Calgary Herald a couple of years ago.

Here are some pictures of my house back when we renovated it (and I painted everything!). And down here is a little mural I painted on my son’s wall after he was born. Wasn’t I ambitious back then? We’ll be lucky if my second son even gets a mural at this rate!

I'm looking forward to catching up with the colourful Calgary Reads on March 6th, at their Reading Rally at Ramsay School! What is a Reading Rally? Here's what Calgary Reads' website has to say:

Doesn't that sound like fun? See you there!

As I've written elsewhere (here, for example), I used to get out a lot more. I used to go out at night, eat in restaurants, listen to live music, even leave town! Having children has changed a lot of that stuff quite a bit. I shouldn't sayI don't get around much anymore - it's just that I get around to a lot more playgrounds than night clubs. And I've loved the new places being a mostly-stay-at-home mom has taken me. I've seen a side of this city that I never saw before I was a parent.

One of the only things I miss is the chance to spend more time in Calgary's grown-up "playgrounds." So when theTEDxCalgary team invited me to come and draw some pictures at their event at theCalgary Zoo a couple of weeks ago, of course I jumped at the chance.

What is TED? I think the first time I heard about it was when I watched Naheed Nenshi's popular TEDxCalgary talk online in 2010 (back before he was Calgary's Mayor). TED describes itself on its website thus: "TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. ...TED conferences bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less)."

So what is "TEDx"? The TEDx website says: "The TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis."

So there you have it. Check out the amazing independent planners and coordinators on the TEDxCalgary volunteer team. And now take a look at my notes about what they cooked up for a handful of lucky Calgarians in January 2014!

("A Hole is To Dig" was my contribution, by the way. As I've mentioned elsewhere (here, for example), I usually don't read grown-up books!)

Anyway, I went around and talked with people about how they'd finish those sentences, and here are some of the things they said:

I loved listening to Canadian legend Robert Bateman speak, not just about how he paints the wilderness, but about important it is to let children interact with the wild world out there, rather than bring them up surrounded by screens. On that note - a total aside, I confess - here's something with a screen that was recently voted the worst toy of the year. You tell 'em, Mr. Bateman!

Next, Barbara Coloroso's very affecting talk about how something as common as schoolyard bullying can set the stage for bigger problems. Ms. Coloroso spoke about her work at schools in Rwanda helping to nurture a new society in the wake of that country's1994 genocide. The "1, 2, 3" points that I recorded in the image below (if I remember correctly) are the conditions she listed as necessary for a society to get itself into something as terrible as genocide.

Somewhere in there we were also treated to a video put together by TEDx team member Chris Hsiung. Here it is: "Meet the Human Race." (I'm not sure why my screen shows an image that's a few minutes into the video, but if you click on "play," it should start at the beginning.) The images in this video were beautiful and powerful! But even better, I loved the music!

Here's an aside. TEDx curator Rahim Sajan impressed upon participants the idea that they weren't just there to soak up the information in the talks; rather, the TEDx material was meant to get participants interacting, asking questions, starting conversations, and coming away with some new opportunities for friendship, collaboration, and learning. I think Chris Hsiung's video was the "trailhead" that set me off into a particular wilderness adventure just now:

When I went to Chris's website to put up the link to his video, I took a look at a few of the other projects that his company, Hidden Story Productions, has worked on. One thing I noticed was that Chris put together the video for the song written and performed by Amy Thiessen during Mayor Nenshi's first campaign. That's a video many Calgarians (including myself) watched. Then I noticed that there was a project called "Soul of the City Neighbour Grant Proposal." (By the way, these grants are still available, and if your neighbourhood group would like to apply for one, you should - check out the information here!) Looks like Chris is proposing to document the stories of the grant recipients. (And, from what I can see, it looks like he'd do an awesome job!).

But what I also realized was that I'd met Chris before, one year ago, when I did some graphic recording for Calgary Economic Development's "Soul of the City" series. It was really early in the morning and I hadn't had any coffee - I think that must be why I didn't instantly recognize Chris at TEDx (that, and the fact that he was busy taking pictures and I was busy drawing and there wasn't really any time to talk). It turns out Chris is the person who made the sped-up video of me graphically recording the Soul of the City talks. I have pointed so many people to this video, and I never knew who made it! Hooray for TEDx solving this mystery for me. I will have to send Chris a note. But first I have to finish this blog!

Above: something I drew while listening to the TEDx talks. (Yes. I can listen and draw at the same time!)

Then it was time for lunch, and here are some of the pictures I drew while listening to folks around the table (click on them to enlarge).

I couldn't stay for the afternoon's talks, but before I left, I put all the pictures I drew up on a blackboard for everyone to see when they came out of the auditorium!

And now one more note. I really love drawing pictures amidst crowds of engaged, smart, motivated people - it's so inspiring. But sometimes when I come home to a house full of diapers and train tracks, it is a bit hard to switch gears (as depicted at the end of this post from last year's Mayor's Lunch for Arts Champions). In this case, though, my 5-yr-old son helped me through the transition by welcoming me home with this message:

Graphic recording can make even the dryest, dullest presentation fun and creative. (Not that I know this from personal experience... all my clients are fun!) So now imagine the energy in the room if you've got a graphic recorder working at what's possibly the most colourful, funky venue in town, with a roomful of passionate, motivated, creative thinkers. What you end up with is an exciting workshop, a lot of great ideas, and all sorts of inspiration for a brightly-hued visual record of the evening's discussion. Yes, I'm talking about my evening yesterday, when I had the chance to draw some pictures for Calgary Reads, a local early literacy initiative located in the Beltline.

Calgary Reads' staff and board members are spending this weekend dreaming up a plan to foster a reading movement in Calgary. At their workshop last night we listened to three inspiring speakers (Calgary Reads' own Duna Bayley; MRU's Roberta Lexier; and the ever-insightful Cesar Cala of the United Way). I'll be excited to see what they come up with this weekend and what they'll come up with next.

Watch this space for some more (close-up) pictures of the graphic recording I made for Calgary Reads last night. And I think I'll have to go back and take some pictures of their super-colourful office space, which features the bright and bold artwork of Calgary mural artist Dean Stanton. It deserves a post of its own!

Here in Calgary we have this cool organization called CADA (Calgary Arts Development Authority), and one of the things these folks have been working on for a while now, is an official Arts Plan for the city. Building on the momentum of our truly inspiring year as a Culture Capital of Canada in 2012, CADA has been working with artists, government, and the public, to put together a plan that will lead Calgary into an arts-friendly future!

A few weeks ago I had the chance to draw a picture, in which I tried to capture some of the events that had led up to where the Arts Plan is at now. It was a bit tricky to get it all on to an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper. But even trickier was to decide what to leave out, because it's really such a great story with so many things that would have been fun to draw. I enjoyed learning about details of the process I hadn't known about, and revisiting parts that I had (one really cool project was the Citizens' Reference Panel). Anyway, here is the picture - put on your reading glasses, and enjoy!

I was lucky enough today to take in Calgary Opera's boisterous  pop-up performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance in the East Village. My grandfather was a big fan of Gilbert & Sullivan, so not only did his children grow up hearing their music, I did too. It's some of the music that's permanently stored in my head - in fact, I may be the only person who ever performed a song from The Pirates of Penzance at the Ship & Anchor's open jam (and that's probably just as well).

As soon as I took my seat at the piratical operatic tent, I wished I'd brought my sketchbook so that I could draw some pictures of the whole experience. A bit later, I decided I was glad just to enjoy the show. However, some of the things I would have liked to draw were: the view of the C-Train rolling across the Bow River overpass just behind the performers; the shadows of seagulls skimming above, seen through the roof of the tent; the fact that the music playing through the speakers in the adjacent fancy port-a-potties was the Papageno/Papagena duet from Die Zauberfloete (you've just gotta love that!); and the faces of the audience, some of whom were clearly longtime fans (like myself) and others who were cracking up at W. S. Gilbert's lyrics for the first time.

Some folks may not realize how deeply those lyrics have permeated western culture. For example, I love the fact that famous sci-fi author Isaac Asimov was crazy about Gilbert & Sullivan, and actually couldn't resist slipping a few lyrics into his works of fiction. It's somewhere in the Foundation series (all my books are in boxes right now, or I'd go dig it up for ya), in which he writes that someone has "journeyed for a month, or nearly..." - clearly a nod to Nanki-Poo's line in The Mikado: "So, have I journeyed for a month, or nearly/To find that Yum-Yum, whom I love so dearly..." (Well, I've never confirmed that, but there's no doubt in my mind. Anyway, how could you confirm that?) Another (more well-known) instance of this music finding a place in popular culture, is "The Elements," a really incredible spinoff of the Major-General's fast-paced tongue-twister of a song (from "Pirates") which was written and performed by satirist Tom Lehrer. And of course anyone who's read Margaret Mahy can tell that she grew up steeped in Gilbert & Sullivan - and here's my homage to that (she actually sang "The Elements" the one time I met her in person.) Ok, but I digress, as usual.

I drew some pictures of The Pirates in the Drawing Book - on my 23rd birthday, apparently (a long time ago). Seeing the performance today made me want to dig them up:

Right now it's kind of funny to think of a 23-year-old reflecting on how the "moments quickly die." Seems like they're going a lot faster now than they were then!

It was fun to see Michelle Minke of Cowtown Opera wonderfully well cast in the role of Edith (the rather exuberant sister) in "Pirates." Here's a picture of Michelle wowing the crowd back at our Ramsay "find it" event, "Opera on Scotsman's Hill," in 2012 (a rather less ambitious pop-up event than a full-scale opera in a tent... but very fun nonetheless!)

Most of all, it was fun to see a major opera company having so much fun. (If you don't believe me, check out the URL when you click on the link to Calgary Opera's Pirates of Penzance page.) I hope this Opera in the Village thing becomes an annual tradition!

I have to go to bed now, but you can bet these rollicking melodies will be the last thing that go through my head before I fall asleep. Good night!

I tried to fit all this into a tweet and realized I needed a whole blog post.

How could I get Red's Diner, Calgary's Beltline neighbourhood, a "floodraiser" benefit at the Hotel Arts with funds going to the Calgary Foundation, and a comic strip about the Memorial Park Library (among other things) into 140 characters? I just couldn't.

So here's the story.

It all began last year when Bruce Campbell of Red's Diner - local breakfast spot and community gathering place, on 4th Street in the Beltline - asked me if I could draw some comic-strip-style posters for Red's. We envisioned something kind of like this one that I drew about Ramsay. Since Red's is opening a new diner in Ramsay soon (my neighbours and I are pretty excited about this), we talked about creating some posters about Ramsay. But then we thought it might be fun to do some posters for Red's on 4th, too.

The first in the series - which is mainly about the R.H. Williams building itself - will be on display at Red's on 4th sometime in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space for that news! (Or check Red's website, which I believe will shortly be sporting a new look, too!)

Ok, so why I am telling you all this? (Other than just to give a shameless plug for a great local business I've had a lot of fun drawing pictures for, during the last several months...) Well, not long ago I heard from Richard White (local writer, blogger, man-about-town and flaneur... look it up!), about an upcoming benefit to raise money for people affected by Calgary's recent flood. Here are the details about this event, which is happening this Sunday, August 25th (yes, folks, that's this weekend!)

When I heard "silent auction with proceeds earmarked towards flood relief..." I immediately thought: Maybe the Red's Diner team would like to donate a print of one of our Beltline comics posters to this cause! After all, the Hotel Arts is another Beltline business, only a few blocks from Red's, and, like Red's, affected by the flood. In fact, the Beltline suffered some of the most extensive damage caused by the flood, and, just as we saw all over the city, local residents and business owners came together to support each other in a way that really displayed their community spirit. Here was another chance for some mutual support in the hood.

To see the first Red's poster, you'll have to head down to Red's on 4th and see it on the wall in a week or two (I'll let you know when it's up!). For a sneak preview of the second poster in the series, you'll have to head down to the Hotel Arts on Sunday to see this first-ever print of the artwork. Its subject is "Beltline Stories" and it features a comic strip depiction of all things book-related in the Beltline: The Memorial Park Library, the Lougheed House (which boasted one of Calgary's earliest private libraries of note), old bookstores (Sandcastles) and new bookstores (Shelf Life Books)... and, just for fun, it also features a bit about my own "Beltline love story" (yes, my own courtship began and ended... that is, when I got married... in the Beltline). (You know I just can't write comics about neutral facts and figures, I've always got to put some stuff about myself in there.) So if you're a fan of comics, Calgary history, the Beltline, and books... this may be something you'll want to have on your wall!

Of course, you can also keep watching the walls at Red's on 4th, as the series is unveiled.

There'll be some more artwork along these lines at Red's in Ramsay sometime soon, too (featuring Ramsay stories). I'll be sure to let you know about what's happening with that. For now, get your tickets to the "floodraiser" and help support a good cause! It starts at 2 PM... which should give you plenty of time for a coffee at Red's on 4th before you head over.



There... that wouldn't have fit into a tweet, now would it?

There's a new find it pop-up event happening soon: the Inglewood Night Market, on July 12th (this Friday!).

It will be followed by another market on Friday, August 9th and one more on Friday, September 13th.

So I thought it was time I wrote a bit about find it.

It all started back in November of 2011 when Calgary arts activist and all-around mover & shaker Meg Van Rosendaal invited residents of Inglewood and Ramsay to to talk about the potential for creative collaboration in our neighbourhoods. Meg could see that there was a wealth of creative talent in the two neighbouring hoods, and she felt that there was an opportunity to turn that into something more!

Meg also had her eye on the upcoming Calgary 2012 designation of the city as one of Canada's "Cultural Capitals" - a city that would be eligible for funding, promotion, and general celebration of the arts. How could we be part of that?

Here's a picture I took at that first meeting, hosted by the AREA in Inglewood - an awesome spot that we hope will be back in business soon!

A few of us crazy local folks - I mean, adventurous creative thinkers - came to the meeting, and then came to a few more. At the time, I was just starting to emerge from the round-the-clock sleepless life of a new parent, and just looking for something fun and not too ambitious that I could do in my own neighbourhood. Little did I know I'd be drawn into a wild world of community arts activity!

Darcy and Greg from Inglewood's DaDe Art & Design Lab - who I think just singlehandedly co-ordinated the whole neighbourhood's flood relief effort from their gallery home base; arts & culture fan Sharon Barrette, who happens to be (almost) my aunt; me; and a few others who I don't have pictures of, but I wish I did.

I had the chance to attend Calgary Arts Development's "Report to the Community" yesterday.
It was fun!

A talk is always more fun if you draw while you're listening. Here are some sketchnotes from the event. The takeaway message: See you at City Hall, 9:30 AM on June 5th! #yycArtsPlan!

Read the rest of the inspiring, powerful and funny monologue, "Artists are Dangerous."

But here's what I really wanted to show you. A couple of weeks back I had the opportunity to draw some pictures at a really inspiring series of talks hosted by Calgary Economic Development. They've been holding a series of events called "Soul of the City", each of which has been about a different aspect of what makes Calgary tick. (I drew some pictures at a previous Soul of the City event, which you can see here.)

This one was about local food and featured talks by local chefs John Jackson and Connie De Sousa of CharCut fame; Luke Kimmel of the Leaf Ninjas (yay Ramsay!); Eliese Watson, Calgary's best-loved beekeeper; and Ron Finley, who came all the way from Los Angeles to tell us about how he'd started a local movement in his own hometown growing healthy food on boulevards and in empty lots. (He's got a pretty inspiring TED Talk on this subject, which you can see here.)

This evening ended with the chance to taste some of Calgary's local fare at the SAIT Culinary Campus - a rather delicious spot to visit.

Hope you enjoy the pictures - they were extremely fun to draw!