Amazing Love...

Good Friday service at Zion Baptist Community Church.

"And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?"

Charles Wesley, 1738

bed

I never get tired of sketching the kids while asleep.

It's become a little easier to do this with my son, who now sleeps on a mattress on the floor after finally mastering the art of climbing out of his crib.

Prince of Wales Armouries

A little sketch of the interior of the Prince of Wales Armouries where I attended a meeting. A military training building from the 1910s, it has been converted to house the Edmonton Archives as well as other city organizations. Its interior still shows its riveted wrought iron structure and intricate web of curved trusses.

new community centre

The community centre I had the privilege of designing has been completed (pending some seasonal work to be finished once temperatures rise) and I attended the opening event that took place in its multi-purpose hall. There were media, community, and government representatives, and many speeches. I stood at the back and sketched. It is exciting to see the building up and running, but it also makes me nervous to find what may have not worked, and what things that got built that was not what I imagined. There are also fortunate accidents and discoveries made along the way.

a late concept perspective sketch during the schematic design process...

"Ziva" Paperwhite flowers

The bulbs the kids planted in late January have now grown and have begun flowering, leaving the dining room with subtle and sweet fragrances.

Spaca Moskalyk Ukrainian Catholic Church, Lamont County, Alberta

I was moved by a recent Edmonton journal article that reported on the status of an 89 year old rural church building northeast of Mundare, about an hour east of Edmonton; the beautiful, yet humble wooden sanctuary -- a testament to the faith, love, resilience, and commitment of a small community of immigrant settlers in the frigid but expansive Alberta prairies -- was about to be burnt to the ground some time this month in a decommissioning ritual. In a race against time, I felt almost a sense of duty to visit this building and document its character in a sketch or two. After a trip to Elk Island National Park with the kids, I drove an extra 45 minutes on gravel roads to find the structure.

































 


It was a beautiful sunny day, minus 6 but windy... and though my heart raced, my hands (as well as my paint and brush) froze... I felt I did not do justice to those craftsmen who built the church, along with the many artisans who decorated and furnished its interior. They certainly endured (embraced, even) the Prairies in a way I wasn't able to that day.  (More photos here.)

My daughter gives it a try as well.

lifeguard

A lifeguard at the pool, while my daughter takes a swimming class.

drawing on the wall

One of the little perks in working at an office that deals with rolls of drawings is that I can bring home large sheets of scrap paper, and when they are taped onto a wall, the kids' imaginations can run free.

With the help of some Photoshopping, my daughter's princess drawings enliven these sketches (and more importantly, our living room).

two day panorama

A panorama sketched over two lunch hours: the western portion of downtown Edmonton.

Bennett Lake, Strathcona County

The view from Strathcona Wilderness Centre across Bennett Lake, a peaceful snow covered marsh clearing full of winter reeds, and a great place to snowshoe close to the city...

and one of several little bird's nests we witnessed along the shoreline.

dragon fruit

Some dragon fruit  which I bought for the first time, waiting to become ripe enough to be tasted.

new ink

My foray into the world of fountain pens and inks continues with the purchase of some proper ink (80 dollars worth!). After tinkering around with the pens, cleaning, realigning, adjusting parts, and reassembling, I've finally been able to get things working. The colours I chose were a bit more subdued in this sketch than what I imagined (partly because the dip pens I used weren't cleaned properly each time), but I felt like a new world of subtle possibilities has opened up.

wrong ink!

The Noodler's Ink Ahab Fountain Pen I bought a few weeks ago was a hit, and I have loved using it. Wanting to experiment with colour (without dip pens), I bought another Ahab, along with two of the slightly cheaper (and smaller) Noodler's Creaper pens, so that I could fill them with other colours. These sheets are the result of some experimenting...I still prefer the Ahab pen, as it gives me a much cleaner, crisper line with easier manipulation of width. The Creaper pen is still good, with a more consistent, softer line, while still allowing expressiveness. Both cannot beat the flexibility of certain metal nibs on dip pens, although I was surprised how spontaneously I changed my technique depending on the personality of the pen. Each has its own great quality.

I quickly found that the new pens were getting clogged. I had been using the wrong type of ink unsuitable for fountain pens. I rinsed the pens immediately... and now need to acquire new ink. This has become an expensive endeavor.

the funeral

A scene from the funeral of my wife's great-aunt, who passed away at the ripe old age of 98... and some of the flowers that decorated the intimate celebration of her beautiful life.


"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.^'

    “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?” ^"

^{1Corinthians 15:54-55 (NIV)}

going home...

A dear relative of my wife, her great-aunt, passed away today in Calgary.   She was 98 years old.

When we last visited with her last Wednesday at the nursing home, she had not eaten a good ten days or so, and had her eyes closed the whole time. Her bedsore wounds had become so unbearable that she was under medication to ease the pain, but we sensed that she knew we were all there as she garnered enough strength to blurt out "bye" after our teary goodbye greetings and prayers.

Although at times a difficult journey -- including life in the internment camp, the death of her first husband and enduring a difficult second marriage -- she lived a life rich in stories, many which my wife continues to recount to me with much longing. These stories usually revolve around the house near rural Redwater (north of Edmonton) where she lived alone for decades and well into her 80s. A vast cohort of relatives and friends of my wife's generation (mostly urban) were embraced wholeheartedly, spending time to experience the prairies as the prairies should be experienced -- on a farm. She had no children of her own, but took in all kinds of visitors under her gentle wing, often teaching new young immigrants from Japan (many who had never set foot on a farm in their lives) the joys of the vegetable garden and where to pick matsutake mushrooms.

That legacy flourishes to this day as many of our own friends trace their Christian spiritual journeys to those moments of time spent tending the garden and witnessing the fruit of their labour nurtured by the grace of God. I have only known her for ten years or so, but witnessing the beauty of that farm (sadly sold off several years ago) was a powerful event for me. It connected the humble history of the struggles and the joys of an entire ethnic Canadian community to my own, and somehow I was comforted to know that I too could make my life here on the prairies...

She was a rather quiet woman, a strong silent type, but often with a down-to-earth humour and playful wit. Her giggly laughter will always be remembered... and we are comforted to know that that is what she is doing in Jesus' presence as she worships Him in heaven.