All in my head...

Left with little time to explore, and even less time to feel rejuvenated, I spent my bus rides recalling moments when I felt uplifted, content, or charmed. Places I could close my eyes and trace the memories.  Slightly different from most sketches posted to date, these were drawn from hindsight, months or years later.

Portland - journey to Washington Park / porch of our hostel.

Beijing - stone archway to boat dock within Old Summer Palace / inconspicuous alleyway 

Nanaimo - dinner company / Surrey - rough contemplation about thesis site

SFU - terraced pub with honey-combed patios / Unknown - based on someone else's description

Beijing - stone path floating on depthless green water, surrounded by the bamboo ravine. 

UBC -Bean Around the World cafe (I believe the interior setting was much nicer when Salt Spring Coffee owned the place, the barista table with its high chairs was the only part they kept intact and thank goodness for that). 

Vancouver - narrow cafe in Gastown

Process

There is nothing like beginning the lunar new year with a healthy does of nostalgia. With thesis on the horizon, design process has been on the forefront of my mind -how does one process information? What data should be focused on? It also doesn't hurt that this balances out my lack of blog activities over the past months.

These are scans from a studio project sited along Kingsway / Metrotown. These snapshots, now three years ago, portray a site information gathering session.

Brain stew.

Conversing with shop keepers.

 Sketching outside of a tattoo parlour. 

 Sketching outside of a beauty parlour inside a mall.

Synthesizing on the bus.

Then on a unrelated but relevant note, sometimes, you really do dream things up. This was a scene I (sleepily) dreamt of shortly after my visit to Cumberland, the land of rivers and lake. The current consensus are that processes are diverse -sometimes linear, other times radial, then there are quantum leaps.

Coffee Talk

Everything has a story to tell, why should your coffee cup be any different?

Coming to a Starbucks where I sit next to you.

Rowdy Pub Night

 Sketching in Cumberland's town pub. 

I have an artistic classmate who encouraged sketching to capture movement on the karaoke floor. He later reinforced a 5 seconds rule per post-it where he snatched it away at the end of the time limit. In rough chronological order.

Arguably the best use of the waitress's memo paper.

RE: Alice -Happy Birthday

Because you know Starbucks so well.

There is this bench inside the Starbucks by the Granville skytrain station that just organizes everyone arounds it, subtle but impressive.

Field Studio Days 2

My favourite cafe in Cumberland is a little shack that's half encased in glass, flanked by two patio gardens. Drawn after closing.

I returned two mornings later to experience for myself how it feels to sit inside this magnificent little shrine. The floor reveals the potential mobile nature of this cafe -it is built on a wooden crate; the glass sliding doors (there are no "windows"per se, only floor to ceiling glass doors) are obvious later adaptations to enclose the immediate area where a customer would order a drink. To access her chalk board menu in this front enclosure, the barista had to exit from the back of the shack then walk around the shack and enter through the sliding door like everyone else. While I sipped a green tea latte and ate my sweet bakery goods, groups of people entered and exited. This business is keeping busy.

Cumberland streetscape.

 Hostel staircase leading out.

Cupcake at the ferry terminal.

Field Studio Days

 Our hostel in section, a familiar home for nine days.

The barber shop as seen from across the street. I was sitting on a chair left out by a store closed for the day; they even left water dishes for dogs, signs of an intimate community. Sketch with left hand.

Recollection from swimming in the river.

Amanda and Ania making music during dinner party.

Students hard at work on maps.

The ferry ride to the island. Light and shadow to be a theme to explore in the future.

RE: Derek -Diagram Surroundings

By diagraming our surroundings, we always gain insights into place making.

A delightful little nook in the Tsawwassen ferry departure terminal. A focal point at the end of an allele of food stalls, this glass fireplace is surrounded by wooden block seatings -situated half indoors, half outdoors, completing a whimsical dialogue of inside/outside.

 Cumberland's town square is a small clearing along a continuous street facade. It did feel a little barren when it's not occupied by children and their parents in the morning (there is a busy coffee shop adjacent to the square). The benches are situated at different angles, I'd be interested to revisit once the trees mature. I suspect benches are angled towards trees, street, picnic table, and other benches in general.

Walking down a segment of the main street and chatting with Jane the local.

RE: Niall -Sweet Ride

While you were doing all the work driving... 

(ride from Nanaimo)

 Our journey back in sections:

RE: Miriam -Surreal Trip

A bank note from surreal Miriland where two oysters would trade for one cup of coffee. 

When it dawned on me that Oyster River Studio was held in Cumberland, south of Oyster River:

I may not have gotten to know Oyster River but Cumberland is a small town with a history in mining. As one lady remarked, "You won't find nice Kitsilano Victorian houses here, most of these houses were built to be simple accomodations for the miners."  The mines has since closed and younger generations have moved in, but still, Cumberland remained a quietly thriving town (with the occasional motorist's engine roaring outside the hostel). More to post.