Anyway, here's some more of my stuff. The images here are from a pair of community events that were convened to support the District of North Vancouver's Official Community Plan. (OCPs seem to be a recurring theme for me this year...) At these events, participants were invited to talk about issues that mattered to them relating to (a) people and (b) places in the District. As I stood at the chart, people came up to me with their ideas, dreams, wishes and concerns, and I drew them all out. This is what they looked like:
(There are more circles to the right of these, but you get the drift...)
It was really quite wonderful, because everyone was so passionate about what they wanted to see for the District, and wanted to make very sure their ideas were fully drawn out. If I missed a detail, I heard about it! For example, the proponents of community gardens made sure there was a composter in the picture. And the folks who wanted to see vibrant urban spaces made sure I drew children into the picture and that I noted that vibrant space meant "night AND day".
What this tells me is that the drawings really mean something to people. I see it as a way of making abstract ideas concrete. Pictures are so much more solid and real than mere words, and I think people feel their ideas become real when they see them translated into images. It reminds me of my favourite story when I was a little girl, which was a story about a little girl who had a magic pencil, and whatever she drew with her magic pencil came to life. I always wanted to have a magic pencil like that ... and lo and behold, now I do!
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