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...
It was a panel talk, along with kiwi cartooning legends Sharon Murdoch and Chris Slane. It was really interesting to learn a little of the thought process behind their work, a little bit of the practicalities of the job - things that have always intrigued me. Aucklanders can check out his exhibition and talk later this week here.
I had a go at quickly capturing them as they talked. I think Chris and Sharon look almost right, but Steve looks either curmudgeonly or demonic depending which sketch you look at — and neither of those descriptions would be true!
Comments