Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
I'm a fan of the art deco Landmark House at 187 Queen street. Strong vertical lines accentuate the art deco tower, giving it the feeling of some 30's Manhattan skyscraper.
It must have looked pretty impressive above the surrounding Auckland skyline on completion in 1930.
Today it's completely dominated by much larger towers, approach it from Durham Lane though, and they're completely masked from view, the alley accentuates the vertical lines of the tower and for a moment you feel lost in time.
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