| There's nothing like getting together with creative people to spark your own creativity. Over the past couple of years, family commitments have kept me (and continue to keep me) from a lot of the cool creative stuff going on around town. Good for the proverbial soul as such cultured events are, one needs to keep one's priorities straight. Making sure the kids are fed and the bills are paid is arguably more important than any of that mushy artsy soul-feeding stuff. |  |
But last weekend that starved-for-creativity part of me had a real treat, because under the guise of a responsible business networking event, I got to spend three hours talking with, and learning from, some Alberta people with a whole range of inspiring talents!
 | I have a feeling this little group get-together might be the start of something bigger, so I wanted to tell the story. Which, for me, is always about the people. So here goes... Jill Langer is a local facilitator who, together with her colleague Ben Smith, has been organizing a meet-up group for Calgary "visual practitioners." This general moniker (which is widely used around the world) is meant to include anybody who uses visuals in their practice - hence, not just artists. |
Jill and Ben work as graphic facilitators in Calgary. From the sound of it, the projects they do are quite different, but both use graphics and images to help them lead their process with a range of organizations. For example, Ben chairs the Calgary Logistics Council (which sounds like a group my infrastructure-obsessed son may grow up to contribute to, somehow). I think it is really great that Jill and Ben have been interested in getting people together to share experiences. They have brought together a variety of people in the past, including talented local graphic recorder Joleyne Mayers-Jaekel who wasn't able to be there this time.
So, we also had Susan Merchant at this meet-up, who's on the lookout for ways to define her facilitation practice, and wondering what role visuals might play in that. I have been fortunate to meet Susan a few times at facilitation get-togethers and I think it's pretty cool that, despite the fact that she doesn't identify as an "artsy" type, she came out to this! She clearly gets what many people still don't - that graphic recording/graphic facilitation is not about art per se, but about using visuals as tools for learning and memory. In an interview with Aaron Chatha of Calgary's Metro newspaper (from a couple of weeks ago), I tried to stress that point, and was really pleased at how well the article expressed that (thanks, Metro!). You don't have to be an artist - really!
So, we also had Susan Merchant at this meet-up, who's on the lookout for ways to define her facilitation practice, and wondering what role visuals might play in that. I have been fortunate to meet Susan a few times at facilitation get-togethers and I think it's pretty cool that, despite the fact that she doesn't identify as an "artsy" type, she came out to this! She clearly gets what many people still don't - that graphic recording/graphic facilitation is not about art per se, but about using visuals as tools for learning and memory. In an interview with Aaron Chatha of Calgary's Metro newspaper (from a couple of weeks ago), I tried to stress that point, and was really pleased at how well the article expressed that (thanks, Metro!). You don't have to be an artist - really!
Despite the fact that graphic recording and graphic facilitation are still not exactly well-known in Alberta, they're pretty well-established fields if you know where to look (the International Forum of Visual Practitioners is probably the best place to look).
Oh, and speaking of the IFVP, a group that acts as a great worldwide resource for both practitioners and clients looking to find people who do this kind of thing: we also had Rob and Laurie Benn at our meet-up. Rob is a past president of the IFVP and was its first Canadian member. Rob and Laurie are unique in an already unique crowd, in that they work as a tag team, doing graphic recording and facilitation together, in tandem - and sometimes with their grown-up daughter, too!
Oh, and speaking of the IFVP, a group that acts as a great worldwide resource for both practitioners and clients looking to find people who do this kind of thing: we also had Rob and Laurie Benn at our meet-up. Rob is a past president of the IFVP and was its first Canadian member. Rob and Laurie are unique in an already unique crowd, in that they work as a tag team, doing graphic recording and facilitation together, in tandem - and sometimes with their grown-up daughter, too!
I was fortunate enough to meet Rob and Laurie a few months back when they were in Calgary to record the Teachers' Convention. They live in Medicine Hat and it sounds like they've contributed their work to every southern Alberta community you can think of, as well as working in many locations further afield. Why did they come all the way up to Calgary for this? Like Jill and Ben, they've been interested in starting a more formal Alberta-wide visual practitioners' group.
Rob and Laurie in action!!!
This is something I'm increasingly interested in, too. People often ask me where to find the right person for a particular project involving visuals. Some want custom infographics or illustrations for their organizations. Some want facilitation that includes live "charting" (drawing big visual maps of the event). Some want silent sketchnoters to sit in on an event, taking illustrated notes that can be used later as a reflect-back on the discussion. And I wish I had a dollar for everyone who's told me their organization wants an animated whiteboard video. (That's another story.)
Yes, organizations really want these kinds of cool visual contributions! But people often don't know where to look for the skilled practitioners who can do these things... or what the options even are.
Yes, organizations really want these kinds of cool visual contributions! But people often don't know where to look for the skilled practitioners who can do these things... or what the options even are.
 Recent sketchnotes by Kipling from a talk about chocolate-making! | Sketchnotes For example, if you wanted some really beautiful sketchnotes about your event, would you know that the person to talk to in Calgary was Kipling West? Maybe not, since she herself didn't even know "sketchnoting" was a thing that went by that name, until recently. She's just always taken notes that way. And I really think it's a way that more people should try! It was great to have her out at this meet-up, representing the hide-in-the- corner-and-silently-draw side of graphic recording. |
That's probably my favourite way of graphic recording, too. I've always taken notes that way, too, and I also didn't know it was a "thing" until Jeff Mason of Alternative Comics told me at the San Diego Comic Con in 2001 that there was such a thing as autobiographical comics. I wrote comics about what was going on in my life for years, taking notes at all sorts of interesting events, before I ever heard of sketchnotes or graphic recording. But I've kind of put comics on the back burner over the past couple of years while getting my head around this graphic recording business. Kind of funny, then, that at the end of this visual practitioners' networking chat, I felt super inspired about comics once more... mostly thanks to the presence of Lethbridge comics creator Eric Dyck!
 | Eric (depicted here commenting on the popularity of Twitter in Alberta as a means of spreading the word about most anything) came all the way to Calgary to ponder the crossovers between art, sketchnotes, comics, storytelling, graphic recording, etc. I was delighted to meet him in person after having seen his comics online (Twitter, again!) for a while. Eric writes comics inspired by real-life local stories and it sounds like this constitutes a significant component of his work as a full-time artist. |
| Wow! Writing real-life local stories in comics form is one of my favourite things in the world. This is its own form of graphic recording. Although I still try to keep this up through my monthly strip for the Ramsay community newsletter, writing comics is something I haven't had time to do in a long while. And in the past few years, the real-life comics I've written (like my live tweets for the Calgary Expo and the quick sketchy strips for my little Alec's Year Book series) have been done so quickly in the limited free time I've had, that I haven't had the chance to treat myself to the opportunity of making really nice art befitting the comics. My comics look hastily made (which they are). Eric is making no such compromises with his art - his comics, whether made in haste or not, look awesome! |  Comic strip I stole from Eric's website! |
Indy Comics in Alberta???
Ok, so this is a slight digression from the visual practitioners' meet-up session, but bear with me - it's related. About fifteen years ago when I moved back to Calgary with the sketchbooks I called The Drawing Book, it seemed as though there was hardly anybody making independent comics in Calgary, except the amazingly tenacious Damian Willcox (who is STILL doing it, to my utter admiration) and a couple of others. These days, however, there seems to be a veritable groundswell of Albertan comics people doing amazing work! Not only that, these talented folks have banded together into a comics collective called Panel One and are putting together their own local independent comics fest on June 4th, 2016! If you haven't already put this on your calendar, please do. I will be there! Even better, take a look at the Kickstarter campaign they are running in an effort to bring down the costs for exhibitors (there isn't usually a whole lot of money in independent comics creation). The campaign only has a few days to go - considering supporting this local group!
And if I can keep up this blogging trend, I will put something up here soon about the project I'm hoping to bring to that event myself. How's that for a tease.
And if I can keep up this blogging trend, I will put something up here soon about the project I'm hoping to bring to that event myself. How's that for a tease.
Creative Collaborations
If that wasn't exciting enough, consider this: what's the parallel here between Alberta comics and Alberta graphic recording/graphic facilitation? It seems both are on the rise, and both groups are interested in collaborating with their peers: referring each other, learning from each other, driving halfway across the province to have coffee with each other! I think this trend is pretty exciting. Hence my labours to write up this rambly, long-winded post about it. (I'm rusty. Next post will be briefer, I promise.)
So basically, we met, we drank a lot of coffee and we went our separate ways... but I'm pretty sure more is going to happen with this group. Stay tuned.
Let me leave the last word to the final member of our meet-up, whom I haven't mentioned yet: Carolina Pelaez, a local facilitator who specializes in Change Management (just the expertise we need around here). Carolina is also a contributor to Newscoop, a new media platform for telling local stories which is also a cooperative (hm... another collaborative group... this is really a trend!).
Carolina mused, "We could tell stories about this group." We should. And we will!
So basically, we met, we drank a lot of coffee and we went our separate ways... but I'm pretty sure more is going to happen with this group. Stay tuned.
Let me leave the last word to the final member of our meet-up, whom I haven't mentioned yet: Carolina Pelaez, a local facilitator who specializes in Change Management (just the expertise we need around here). Carolina is also a contributor to Newscoop, a new media platform for telling local stories which is also a cooperative (hm... another collaborative group... this is really a trend!).
Carolina mused, "We could tell stories about this group." We should. And we will!
Answer: at 2:15 AM on Tuesday morning. Please chalk up any errors in this post to my sleepless state. Good night!
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