it's all black & white

a few good days in the studio this week, 

feeling like I've finally truly found my way back

a fun session of painting paper with acrylic ink, achieving some interesting textures with a balled up piece of paper towel

I always find it interesting to take a "frame" and look at some potential crops

it's surprising what can be found in a limited view

the work I enjoyed the most came about from an experience I had last summer in the Yukon

arriving in Whitehorse on a rainy day last June, I noticed a raven perched on the peak of the house watching as we pulled into the driveway

they stayed there, in the pouring rain, as we unpacked my luggage... every so often it called out whilst looking down at me 

I stood in the rain for almost two minutes, watching it walk back and forth over the peak, calling every so often

finally I thought to take out my phone and take a photos, realizing later the last one happened to be a video

it's short, just one second, but the call is clear

this week, working on the Sound Module in "Sensing Place" I attempted to draw what I heard

drawing sounds is an exercise in abstraction and before I began I resolved I would do several iterations, each building on what I noticed in the first one

that day I only had time for two, tomorrow I plan to do a few more

my first thought was that the sounds were somewhat "circular" in trajectory, it felt like they were curving around, like a warble in the throat

making the mark in the way I was hearing the sound, looping around and down, dropping slightly to begin the next

a curving swoop then, not a circle

black ink, because the Ravens are

I chose a dip pen, wanting an uneven, scratchy kind of mark, like the wobbly warble sound it made that day

the first one had a little "tuft" spring out from the lower right, a little "jog" of the pen I think - it reminded me of the scruffy look of the feathers in the throat area so I worked to include that in each mark

some parts of the sound seemed larger, louder - more volume, so I varied the size of the marks

and then there was the persistent sound of the rain

("when the raven called me home" is a riff on the last line of the Spell Song Blessing" - you can listen to it hear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg1xFYpXuWA )

the next version had me acknowledging the calls in the video have a slight space between them so this time I spaced out the marks, making some less complete than others to illustrate the variations in the sounds themselves

I also changed the rain - in the first one the long marks seemed more what I saw than what I heard

at first this felt a bit of a daunting exercise but I like how it makes me think about what I'm hearing in a way I never have before, bringing me closer to nature and more importantly, looking at these birds in a new light

they are the territorial bird of the Yukon, symbolizing knowledge and transformation among other things, and being greeted by one in this very engaging way was a truly transformative experience for me and one I'll never forget

fitting then, to experience it again in a new way