The tiny musings found below will perhaps provide you an opportunity to pause and reflect on our world and our place in it. You can subscribe to receive posts in your inbox (approximately once a week)! Note: all writing and art is © Christopher Buddle.
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Lunch
mid-day ritual.
a magic taste explosion
– rolls of perfection
I really like going out for lunch. That is a fact. I especially love finding places that serve food I don’t normally make. I recently found a terrific sushi place near my work- they make it fresh, it is delicious, affordable, and while the decor may not be spectacular, the food is. Last week I had a lunch meeting cancelled so I wandered down and got my favourite selection of sushi which included the spicy shrimp rolls. I almost wolfed it all down before remembering to pull out a sketch book and do a quick drawing*. Sometimes having a sketchbook and pocket set of watercolours comes in handy! Next time you are in Montreal, grab some lunch at “Sushi Inbox” on Union Ave, just south of Sherbrooke. Yummy!
* it is not a great drawing, I realize. But, well, perfection is the enemy of progress, right? Sometimes a quick sketch is better than nothing. It was also done in a sketchbook, not on watercolour paper. For those who are curious, using watercolours on paper not designed for them is a bit tricky, so it becomes more about getting the colours down loosely and in a “good-enough” manner. They just don’t blend, soak, or move around in the right way. But, I will always remember that lunch because time was spent on the illustration. Art makes memories better.
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Signs of spring
sniffing out roadkill
with slow erratic circles
thank you, bald beauties
Notes: For many people, a first sign of spring might be seeing a Robin*, or perhaps watching crocuses push up through the cold earth. For others, it might be the flow of maple sap, or perhaps just the equinox itself, when the melt really kicks in and March sun baths us in warmth and the day length gets more noticeable. For me, one of my favourite signs of spring is the return of the turkey vultures. Always around this time of year we see these magnificent birds reappear (they are migratory in my part of the world). We see them slowly circling overhead, gradually moving northwards. This, as I have learned, is called a Kettle of Vultures.
Our town seems to be directly on one of the (slow) migratory paths of vultures, and we sometimes see up to 20 or more birds overhead at one time. It always seems to be on one of those first warmer days in March, and always around the equinox. This year was no different, and it was last week we got the pleasure of their company again. They actually hang out for a while in a wee patch of forest a few blocks from our house, and we also know that the more contiguous forests 5 or so kilometers out of town is a favourite location.
I did a search through some old notes recently and discovered the Haiku, written above, from 2016! It was timely since I had the turkey vulture art already done but hadn’t yet written the accompanying Haiku. Upon reflection, it was around 2016 that I started writing more nature-themed Haiku and the seeds of the ideas for this blog were established. Now, so many years later, it is happening.
There are perhaps a few lessons to draw from this: first, give things time. Ideas jotted down on pieces of paper, or formed in the recesses of your mind, or typed into a note on your phone, sometime come to fruition, even if it takes years. Second, it is acceptable to worthwhile having lots of crazy/different ideas all the time (something I suffer from!) – because the good ones come back again and again and stick. I am convinced that time can be a filter that helps sort out which ideas might have staying power. Third, document, document, document! Sometimes do you find some gems that your former self might have created. If you didn’t sketch them, or write them down somewhere safe (and searchable) they just might get lost.
* many robins are actually around all winter here in the Montreal area, but they still seem to be sign of spring for many. I’ll also mention that my post is, of course, biased by my geography – mid-March here always means snow on the ground still, frosty/freezing nights, but daytime that starts to get above freezing. It’s a glorious time for Canadians!
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Typing
clickity-clack, ding!
hammering words, carefully.
Satisfaction.
I simply adore typewriters. It is immensely satisfying to write with an analog machine. I learned to type on a typewriter when I was in high school. I think my grade nine class was one of the last in my school to have the opportunity to take the typing class as an option. The classroom was FILLED with the glorious noise of the keyboards, and the ding-ding-ding sounds could be heard throughout the halls. Learning to type has been a life-long skill that has proved so useful and when I see other people type, I feel grateful for my grade nine typing class. I can move along at a pretty good tempo!!
Since about September I started writing a semi-regular journal with a typewriter (perhaps I could share some of them on the blog, sometime – what do you think?). I find the process of sitting down and in one shot putting thought to paper is immensely gratifying. It’s an intimate relationship with the written word – and one that cannot be overthought, or corrected, or erased. More recently a friend of mine sold me a beautiful typewriter called an “Olympia” – these are German engineered, and the model I have is maroon coloured (lovely!) and has a tab-function (rare for the time!). It’s also silky smooth, and (haha) “portable”. This means you can carry it around in a case, but by today’s standards, it is not really all that portable. Although, in fairness, if you wanted a workout when walking to work, carrying the typewriter would do it.
ChatGPT has, for me, raised questions about originality and creativity, and it has actually reinforced my love for typewriters. It’s an antidote to machine learning, and while I do very much appreciate AI tools for some of what they can do, and they are game-changers in a lot of areas in society, they cannot replace the deep and authentic connection between the human brain, the muscles in the arms, hands, and fingers, and the typewriter. Playing around with ChatGPT, however, has been fun in its own right, and I did ask it to produce a Haiku about typewriters, and here is the end result (very impressive):
Clacking of the keys,
Ink on paper, timeless sound,
Typewriters still sing.
Which do you like better? My Haiku, or the one generated by Artificial Intelligence? What image do you like better? The watercolour, or the photo of the Olympia’s keyboards? To each their own, of course. But for me, clickity-clack all the way.
AI, analog, art, ChatGPT, drawing, ink, Machine Learning, pen, type, typewriter, Watercolor, Watercolour, writing -
People
Everywhere you look.
Bipedal sacs of water
– together, alone.
Notes: As mentioned recently, I have been in a bit of a creative slump, so when I saw Liz Steel’s “One Week 100 People” challenge was on again this year, I jumped at the chance. In essence, the challenge is to draw 100 people in a week, and although it’s meant to be over a Monday to Friday period, I took a couple of extra days. Otherwise, the rules are simple: draw people, using whatever medium you want, from reference photo, on location etc. While 100 is the goal, the number doesn’t really matter, which is good because I was not able to get to that number (I was close…). I really enjoyed pushing myself in this way, and drawing people has never been something I have excelled at, so the commitment for a week was a terrific way to refine the skills. Trying to do 20+ people sketches per day also means you are forced to stay loose, quick, and just not get overly obsessed with perfection. I also decided to mostly stick to simple tools i.e., a pen (micron pen), adding a bit of shading with a brush pen or ink wash. I also largely worked from reference photos since most of these were done on the commuter train, on my way to or from work.
So, what you have is some examples of the work. From from perfect, but fun to do anyway, and I hope you enjoy. Maybe you would like to do the challenge sometime? It doesn’t have to be a once-a-year thing. It can be an every-day thing if you want! Just like Haiku, doing quick sketches of people can be a two minute adventure.
Oh, some of you sci-fi geeks out there may have recognized the reference in the Haiku, to a terrific quote in Star Trek: The Next Generation. We are just ugly giant bags of mostly water, after all.
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
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Tiny Owl
A screech in the night
camouflaged in the forest
pint-sized predator
Notes: The eastern screech owl is a tiny yet magnificent bird. They have a distinctive call, and while they may be small, they are fearless hunters. There are different colour morphs, but I have depicted, above the more red/orange variety. I love owls. They are a hoot.
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
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Polypores
bracketing white birch
turkey tail and tinder conk
– dead wood is alive
Notes: I always admire shelf fungi (polypores), especially in the winter. They bring colour to what is sometimes a more drab or tonal landscape. Whether the orange and brown rings of turkey tail fungi, or the yellow or cream shades found on hoof fungi (also called Tinder fungi, or Tinder conks). In summer I like to look on the undersides of shelf fungi to see what little critters may be found. Small beetles, or slugs, or perhaps fly larvae. They are full of life. And, of course, they thrive and grow even when their host (trees) are dying and dead. There is so much beauty in that. The artwork above was done many months ago because I am in a creative slump right now. For whatever reason, I can’t get the energy or interest in doing art these days. It might have something to do with the time of year – winter can feel really long in late February. Or perhaps it’s just part of the normal ups and downs of creative pursuits. These cycles, like the seasons, are common for me. I will get the energy back, no doubt, but for now it is what it is.
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
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Old Things
In ancient oceans
strange segmented creatures lurk
– learning from fossils
Notes: Earlier this month we did a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum (mainly to see Kent Monkman‘s incredible exhibition, Being Legendary*). But no trip to the ROM is complete without visiting the halls of old things. I am always drawn to Trilobites. These incredible (now extinct) life forms occupied our planet’s marine environments for 270 millions years – which is truly an astounding success story. There are some 22,000 described species of Trilobites, with great diversity in form and size. I have no idea what colour Trilobites were (nobody does…) but I imagine some of them being red or rusty-brown colour. I did the above and below watercolours on a bumpy train ride back to Montreal from Toronto – less than ideal, also because I worked off reference photos. But, better to do the art, than not, I suppose!
In addition to trilobites, we wandered through the dinosaur exhibits. Seeing the joy and sounds of young people encountering the giant models brings much hope. Natural history is awe-inspiring, and I certainly attribute my own love of natural history to the opportunities I had, as a child, to visit museums and other places that display old things. Old things are important and provide perspectives when we think about and live in a world with lots of new and shiny things.
* part of why indigenous artist Kent Monkman’s work is so powerful at the ROM is because of how it provides a critical assessment of how the stories of old bones, fossils, and other histories are told so often through a colonial lens. Travelling with Miss Chief Eagle Testickle changed my perspective in important and fundamental ways, and is causing me to rethink my relationship with, among other things, natural history and the way natural history is depicted in museums. Learning is good. Let’s do it as much as we can.
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
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Ambling
All year the giant walks
through forests and wetlands
gentle, careful.
Notes: Moose are rather emblematic mammals of the north. While I haven’t seen one in the wild in quite some time*, they are sometimes on my mind. I imagine these large herbivores munching on twigs on cold winter days, or moving slowly through wetlands during the heat of the summer. They are there. They also show bursts of activity, occasionally- especially the antlered males in rutting season. I worry, that we don’t always respect the lands that are their homes. We cannot take them for granted.
*many people never have the great fortune of seeing moose in the wild; so, they are secretive animals, even if large!
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
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In Flight
A swirl of pigeons
Dancing between skyscrapers
-urban wingbeats
Notes: On my walk to work from my commuter train station, I often see a flock* of pigeons. I find them amazing, adaptable, and striking birds. They are also such impressive fliers – you often hear them before seeing them**. Strong, purposeful birds when in the air. There is always quite a large flock in one specific downtown park and the other day I observed them take off and fly together. They moved as if one (similar to the fantastic murmations of starlings) and circled up from the park, up between and among the skyscrapers in the downtown core. Above the cars, city busses, walkers and cyclists. Nature is around us, all the time. City pigeons remind us of this.
* I understand that collective nouns for pigeons also include “kit” or “loft”, but I’ll stick with the more well-known “flock”. That being said, I hereby propose “swirl of pigeons” to represents a flock of these birds, in flight.
** I must share with you that a few weeks ago a pigeon flew right into the side of my head as I was walking through a park. There was a flock coming in fast, heading towards some foodstuffs that had been placed near a park bench. One of them didn’t judge the obstacles quite right and hit the side of my head. It was baffling, hilarious, unexpected, and unusual. A unique event; I heard the bird before I saw (and felt) it.
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
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Charlotte A Cavatica
Humble barn dweller
– legs aplenty, catching flies
spinning silken tales
Notes on the process: I am grateful to work at a University with such an amazing library, including a phenomenal division of Rare Books and Special Collections. In that division, there are also printing presses (the Book Arts lab) and they have a print-shop for special projects. Back in the late summer, the former Trenholme Dean of Libraries suggested I undertake a collaboration and create some spider-themed art and haiku and see about getting prints done. This came to fruition last week, and the end product is above. I did the art as a simple black and white line-drawing of a barn spider, and the Haiku was inspired by Charlotte’s Web (see below) – my colleagues in the library generously got a plate made of the spider drawing, and helped typeset the Haiku, and I was able to work with them to print off a dozen or so prints. We selected sepia as the ink colour – but so many options were available! A few photos of the process are below. What fun! And I am so thankful to the team who helped me with this (especially Lauren).
Notes on the art: Charlotte’s Web is a very well known children’s story by EB White. Archnophiles (like me) like to dig deeper into the story and see whether or not EB White was accurate in the depiction of Charlotte, the spider who saves the day. You might recall that the full name of the spider is Charlotte A. Cavatica – and is modelled after the ‘barn spider’. The scientific name of that species is Araneus cavaticus. So, well done, EB White! My illustration above does hopefully have a likeness to the barn spider. EB White got her basic biology and life cycle correct too (Charlotte doesn’t live that long, and lays eggs in late summer, the egg sac overwinters, etc). Very impressive. Charlotte wrote a lot of words in her web, including Humble. The Haiku is therefore trying to capture elements of Charlotte’s Web, and capture elements of her natural history.
Notes on next steps: What shall I do with the prints? The plate is now housed at the Library and there will be opportunities in the future to do more prints – I can select other font types or sizes, other ink colours, or even options to use multiple ink colours! What fun! Please let me know your ideas for next steps with this printing press project. I feel that it’s just the beginning.
© Christopher M Buddle 2023
Nature's Reverie 