Under the Stars

Artist: Angie

Angie drew the above when she attended my hair party (a party to celebrate the shaving of my head after my hair had grown to a ridiculous length). I don’t know too much about this picture, the above title is not Angie’s but one I made up myself. What I do remember Angie telling me is that the picture was of her watching the stars, something that she enjoyed doing while she was at camp.

Not only do I think it’s a great picture, it’s also the only one I have which I also have a picture of the artist drawing, and I have to thank Chantal’s frequent picture taking for that.

The End is Near

Artist: Lisa

If you’ve been frequently visiting House of Pastels, you’ll have noticed that every picture has a story behind it (as the tag line to this blog indicates), and that many of the pictures themselves have a particular meaning. Though I tend to explain the meaning behind the pictures, this is similar to flipping to the back of a textbook to find answers to a problem that you haven’t tried; you’re cheating yourself out of something important.

Really, I would hope that you would first look at the picture and try to figure out what it means to you. As is the case with song lyrics, you can often fit the art to a specific element of your own life. So give it a try: What does the above picture mean? Does it have any meaning for you in particular? Why or why not?

I don’t believe that you’ve actually done this, so I’m giving you another chance to try it out before I continue.

If you have the privilege of personally knowing who the artist is, then it’s a good idea to take into account their personality when considering their work. If Lisa was suicidal or if she had suicide touch her life very strongly, then a reasonable guess would be that the title was referring to the end of one’s life. The dark morose cityscape may be a comment on the loneliness found in a big city. The clock, with far too many hands, might be saying that even the artist is unsure when exactly the end will come, as the time is illegible.

This though, is not the case for Lisa’s drawing. Talking to her, she told me that the drawing is about not having enough time to do the numerous tasks she had at the time. A feeling I have had before along with most university student.

I encourage you to feel for yourself the pictures found here at House of Pastels, and if it turns out to be different form the artist’s view, do post a comment about your own opinion.

Getting There

Artist: Mel I.

Over the summer, I went on a week-long camping trip with my friends Mel, Mike, and Mike’s mom. Our trip consisted of a 70-80 km hike around Killarney; not a huge distance, but Killarney itself is ridiculously hilly (you could even say “mountainy”) area. If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about, if you haven’t, well then I’ll have to take you camping this summer.

Of course, I had a lot of free time on the trip, so I made sure to bring some paper and pastels with me. I ended up doing 3 drawings, but Mel produced 5 in the same amount of time, hers probably each better than any of mine (this shouldn’t be a surprise, in no way am I proficient with pastels, even after 3 or so years of practice).

Out of all the pictures we drew, this is the only one that attempted to capture the feeling of our hike. Killarney itself being a baby mountain range meant that we were constantly ascending then descending hills. After a few hours, with a 40-50 pound bag on your shoulders, the process can become a physically painful one. It’s no wonder that we felt like we were walking towards some giant rainbow at the end of trail.

As an interesting note, Mel drew each person in their favourite colour (though not the backpacks, she drew those as they were). Try to figure out who’s who.

Finding one’s way

Artist: Gaven

I’m pretty sure most people have felt this way before: You know what you want, but you don’t know how to get it. I’m not talking about wanting a television and not knowing how to finance it. I’m talking about having a specific goal, maybe to get a job, get that special girl, or maybe to get past the death of a loved one. All of the above can prove to be difficult to achieve.

That’s what this drawing is about, an individual (in this case me; I had big hair awhile back) trying to find his way. If you look closely, he’s standing on a road that is barely visible, the road being the path he must take to achieve his goal, and the visibility indicating how much of a challenge that it will be.

As a personal note, when I drew this, I was still working my way down this road, but I did find my way to the end. Just one of the many roads that make up all of our lives.

[Gaven’s View of] Life

Artist: Gaven

In response to Kathryn’s depiction of life, I drew the above pastel drawing.

In the picture, heads kept in jars are being manufactured by goblins and placed on a conveyor belt. As the heads travel down the conveyor belt, they amuse themselves by watching a giant blue TV. It is important to note that the instruments which will kill the heads are visible to them, but the heads choose not to focus on them, and instead pay attention only to the TV.

Now for how this relates to my view of life:

The fabrication process is simply my colourful way of representing birth, and the conveyor belt is my representation of life. The TV is just a general representation of the distractions we fill our lives with. It could be material things such as cars or houses, or emotional things such as love or children, but I argue that these are all distractions we try to fill life with from our birth to our death.

I strongly believe that most of us usually live this way (filling our lives with distractions), and I believe I am very guilty of this, but I wish that we spent more time ignoring the TV, and spent more time examining the conveyor belt, or trying to befriend one of the Goblins. After all, the TV only brings happiness, which in my opinion is hardly enough to fulfill anyone’s life.

[Kathryn’s view of] Life

Artist: Kathryn

This is another one of Kathryn’s first pastel drawings. In it, she has expressed her view of life where we all live under concrete slabs which will one day fall and kill us. It is important to note that the ropes have been attached in such a way that death cannot determine which rope leads to which person. Thus, death spends his time cutting the ropes and ending people’s lives with disregard to whom he is killing. Even Kathryn herself, the girl with the rainbow behind her, is in no different of a position than everyone else.

Maya

Artist: Gaven

This is the drawing I gave Matthew for his birthday. When I drew it, I hadn’t seen Maya nor any pictures of her, but I believe I got her likeness down pretty well. You can see real life digital photos of Maya and family over at Cute Qubit.

If I Were Picasso

Artist: Brad

I met Brad through Donning this year, and I must thank him for starting up weekly guitar session that Donkers and I joined in on. Not only did it encourage me to learn more songs on my guitar, something which I had put off for over a year, but it also gave me a chance to get to know Brad. Aside from being a man of integrity (I one day was thinking what word would describe him best and integrity hit the spot), he is also the best hope for caber tossing being passed on to future generation of Dons.

There is also something more fundamental that I see when I look at this drawing, and I will first have to go on a bit of a rant.

I have a problem with people steeling my music. Not literally taking music from me, but taking the joy I feel when listening to particular songs. I’m sure I’m not the only one this happens to. Usually it goes like this: I find a song I like, I tell a friend, and then my friend tells me that their brother died while listening to that song, and the song is just ruined for me! Okay maybe that was a drastic example that never really happened, but you get the point.

Anyway, some good songs have been taken from me do to negative associations, and I’m getting sick of it! But I think I’ve found a way to fight this take over of my music, and it’s to learn to play the songs, thus claiming some sort of ownership over the songs.

The program is rather simple; when I find a song I like, I learn to play it, and then when I hear that someone’s brother died listening to it (I pick this example ONLY because I don’t think this scenario comes up often), I’ll have already built a relationship with the song that won’t be easily disturbed.

So I really have to thank Brad for getting me back into playing the guitar, else I would be stuck perpetually loosing great songs.

On a side note, since nobody I know listens to Euro Dance, I’ve never lost a song from this genre from undesirable connections. This is good, because there’s no way I’m going to start learning dance songs on the guitar.

Pistachio Nut Waiting at a Bus Shelter

Artist: Dave

One of my classmates drew this picture. I remember him taking a lengthy amount of time drawing the brick wall; he wanted to get it right. He then drew the nut and he was done. There really isn’t much I can say about this drawing, after all it is just a pistachio nut waiting at a bus shelter, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of my favourites.

Fly N6!

Artist: Cherry

Well it’s finally over. That’s 44 months of being a physics undergraduate student, 20 months of donning, and 16 months of having a growing pastel wall. The process of taking down the pastel drawings was emotional and time consuming, but it was a gentle way of closing things up. The pastel drawings now continue to live in plastic sleeves which have been assembled in a binder. I consider it to be one of my greatest possessions.

It was when I was taking down this picture, drawn by one of my residents, that I stopped for a moment and thought back to the last 8 months. This picture symbolizes all the ups and downs my residents and I had in North 6, and how wonderfully worthwhile it was to be their Don. Unfortunately this is a pastel drawing that I can’t explain any further than that. It’s a drawing I love for what it reminds me of.

The Exam Wall

Artist: Gaven

If you’ve ever been a student before, you’ve most likely faced the exam wall. It’s the wall that separates you from the freedom from work, and keeps you in the world of studying and report writing.

When I drew this picture at the end of 3rd year, I was facing a challenging set of exams, and was looking forward to a very prosperous summer. This was to be the most severe exam wall that I was going to feel in my entire undergraduate career.

My last exam was Quantum Physics 3, one of the hardest courses I’ve ever taken, and when I left the exam, I was in pure happiness. I remember rollerblading/dancing home, excited for my summer working in a physics lab, and hanging out with friends.

This is in stark contrast to the exam wall which I easily pushed over this past term. My courses were relatively easy, and my summer is still undecided. I actually have one project still to finish, so you could say that I’m currently pulling myself through a bog of report writing across to a plain of satisfaction (but I haven’t drawn a picture of that yet).

It’s Time for Me

Artist: Chantal

Whenever I draw pastel drawings with a group of people, I always hope that everyone will present their drawings and explain the meaning of what they’ve drawn. I actually won’t put a drawing on my wall if I don’t understand it, but that’s just one of the hiccups of my personality.

So when Chantal drew this picture, I was obviously expecting to hear an interesting explanation. Clearly someone is being pushed off of a pedestal, but it’s unclear who the two characters are. She told me that it was her pushing off no one in particular, though who it was didn’t matter, the message was clear.

This got me thinking; do I put people on pedestals? You need only look as far as my other blog to see just a few of my friends who I have done this to – the ones that I have written posts about (I’d like to point out that these people aren’t the only ones that are on pedestals in my life. For instance, Mike A. is the most trusted friend I have, and I have yet to write a much overdue post about him).

So the obvious question arises; is putting people on pedestals a bad thing? Generally I don’t believe this to be the case, but I have been disappointed with some of the people in my life that I have put up there. I think most of us can feel some degree of sympathy with this drawing.

Different Suns

Artist: Donkers

My 3rd year of university saw the birth and development of my pastel wall. My 4th year turned out to be a barren tundra in comparison. I think I only did one pastel drawing all year, though it’s probably my favourite one I’ve ever drawn. When I restarted the wall after 4th year, I didn’t really think I missed all that much in the mean time. It wasn’t until Donkers came over to my place about a month ago that I realized how much I had missed out on.

I first met Donkers when I found out that I would be Donning with her in CLV. We decided to try to hang out with each other some day during the summer before we started to live together, and that day came right after I gave my self food poisoning. So, as I’ve started all of my great friendships, my first real time with Donkers involved me saying something along the lines of ‘just to let you know, I might need to rush to the bathroom at some point as I gave myself food poisoning last night.’

When we did live together, we didn’t spend that much time with each other. I enjoyed when I had a story to share with her, and it was great to share meals with one another, but we each had busy personal lives. After CLV, I missed living with her, and I started worrying that I also missed out on getting to know Donkers better.

Since then I’ve tried to continue building my relationship with her, and this picture is just one example of what I was missing out on. I was shocked to learn that I lived with Donkers and never knew that she could draw such beautiful pastel pictures. Unfortunately, the digital photo doesn’t do the picture justice, so stop by and check it out sometime if you’re in the area.

You Suddenly Realize that you Need to see a Psychiatrist

Artist: Gaven

As I mentioned in my previous post, pastel drawings were originally just a way to hang out with my ex girlfriend in a comfortable manor. Of course, if you ask two people to draw pastel drawings for an extended period of time, they will eventually try to find a way to make the activity more interesting.

This picture is an example of one of those attempts to find something more interesting to do. The game was simple; a number of titles were written on pieces of paper, the pieces were put into a hat, and then each artist drew out one title randomly. I drew “You suddenly realize that you need to see a psychiatrist,” and thus I drew the above picture.

As a small aside, I would like to point out that the scene is actually taking place in one of the engineering buildings here on campus. If you recognize the colourful floor, then you most likely know which building I’m talking about.

Jane Jane Jane Kathryn Jane

Artist: Kathryn

Something which I don’t think everyone knows is that Kathryn, my roommate from 3rd year, was the person who started the pastel wall which has since continued its existence on my walls. I don’t remember why, but one day Kathryn decided to buy a pack of pastels to draw some pictures with. At first I didn’t really think anything of it. It wasn’t until I was rollerblading through the park one night, trying to think of something I could do with my then recent ex girlfriend, that I thought about pastel drawings again.

It didn’t take long before I did the drawings not as an activity to share with others, but as a means to express my feelings about a given subject.

This pastel picture was one of Kathryn’s firsts, and still one of the most popular drawings on my wall. Kathryn told me that it depicts how she remembers she was in high school: trying to be like everyone else, masking over the individual she was.

Nature Machine

Artist: Gaven

Most of the pastel drawings I do are in an attempt to represent an idea I have in my head in some abstract way. In the case of this drawing, I just wanted to draw a robot.

I was at Shy's place, particularly for a painting party, so of course I had to bring my pastels. I didn't have many ideas, so I asked Hill to give me a title in the form of ' machine.' Hill responded with 'Nature Machine,' and well, that's the story.

It might be interesting to note that the jaw actually cannot move (this was a flaw I hadn't anticipated). Take a moment to look at the picture and see why for yourself. You see, the jaw is hinged along two different axes; at the back of the mouth, and another on the robot's left side.

Also, as Hillary pointed out, it is unclear whether the tree is being uprooted and eating, or if it is being pulled out of the robots mouth and planted, making it a true nature machine (rather than an anti-nature machine).