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Wednesday, Apr. 07, 2004 - 1:34 a.m.

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WARNING!!!! if you know me personally, you may read my diary, but if you do, you take the chance of hearing things you don't want to know, misunderstanding what I've written and being hurt by it. If you are unsure if it is ok to read, save yourself and me the grief and heartache, and ask first!!! Please note that this is a DIARY, ie my subjective feelings, hearsay, suppositions, and outpourings of ranting of the moment. It does not represent objective news, the whole of what I think of a topic or someone, or even a thought-out representation of any of the above. Keep that in mind. Thanks. * Here is a Diary Etiquette Read Me.

The Far North Expands over its Time Limit

Well, I was a bad, and good girl, today.

I cancelled, or rather, postponed, the meeting with my editor and author for my Far North book, for Friday afternoon. Because I am not ready. Because I ended up documenting and documenting and documenting. Yes I procrastinated some, but mostly I was documenting.

Because the ideas I had in my head for the drawings totally clashed with the photos I found of Ungava Bay where it is set. And through my research I discovered that it is really rocky cold coastline, not wide open tundra that I had imagined. And that there are mountains, or at least rocky hills, surrounding the village on all sides. And that it is an actual real village where there was an actual real avalanche that killed 9 people on New Year's Eve (Jan 1, 1999).

I also learned that there are 5, yes, 5, differerent kinds of sled dogs,(pardon the bad English in this site, it is his 2nd language) including Malamutes, Huskies, Samoyeds, and the kind that is actually in Nunavik, in the north of Quebec, the original Inuit Sled Dog. This is one of the only original domesticated dogs which has not been hybridized from the originals. It hasn't been crossed to make better dogs... the ones that they use now are the same gene pool as were used to cross the Bering Strait all those years back from Mongolia. Very cool. They do not have blue eyes. Interesting. If you see dogs with blue eyes they are one of the other types.

lemmings thumbnail, copyright 2004 Wench77

So, now my head is full of pictures of this rocky terrain, studded with snow that can dislodge and come tumbling down. Little houses, most very modern modular type things up on little stilts. Kids in a school doing internet projects and having penpals with far off places.

The author says not to worrry so much about documenting since she says the images are in the inuit boy's imagination.(though she wishes that someone had told me before a week ago that this was an actual avalanche, since the whole book is actually dedicated to the children who died in that avalanche, and one of her friends daughter died there)

Well, if I don't see where he came from, and what type of terrain, houses, people, birds, flowers, trees he is used to seeing and taking for granted, how can I know what he would imagine? I am a 40 year old white person who lived all her life in the south of Canada, mostly in urban areas. My imagination of what a tall tree, a big building, a small bird, etc is very different from his. So I am very glad that I did that documentation. The whole point of the book is him having culture shock, having moved to the south with his Mom. And NOW, seeing exactly WHAT he was used to, I can imagine what things he sees with different eyes. And I will use that in my drawings.

The other thing is that these books are translated into Inuttitut, and used in these Far North communities. And I would hate to have all kinds of errors, based on a stupid uninformed white woman from the south's stereotypical clich�s that come to her head when she hears "the Far North" spread out in a book that is for them living up there. Urk. How horrid.

So, in the end, I think the drawings will be better, but they were not done and would not be done for a meeting on Friday.

So it is cancelled. It is good cuz now I will not draw in a rush. It is bad cuz I feel like I have failed at my deadline (which wasn't actually a deadline... it was just an agreement based on when the editor was available) and i was too lazy and undisciplined. But it is good cuz the book actually doesn't need to be done until June sometime, and it would be stupid to rush in a week all the compositions for a 24 page color book when I have time galore.

Now I cannot meet with those people until after April 22, since the editor will come back from Vancouver, but then leave again for Italy (thus the meeting set in that window of one day before she spent Easter in the countryside with her family). And that is far enough away I am tempted to put it on the back burner again. Now THAT would be undisciplined! No, I shall continue forging ahead, now that my head, and desk are full of images and ideas. Forward and onward.

But I tell ya, I feel way less stressed. It must be a sin.

Well, what I am showing here for artwork is the "thumbnails"... ie my ideas before the final sketches are composed, which I proposed to my client about ten days ago. You can compare them to the final sketches when they are done later. Yup. But they were quite happy with these so far. BTW click on the small images to get larger images in another window.

all images copyright 2004 Wench77

Haha! I finally got a horoscope for the first time in days, though it is Monday's arriving on Tuesday afternoon. And what does it say? It says "wench, here is your horoscope for today..." and then it is absolutely blank. Well, there ya go. Yay for emails. Personally I had a busy financial day, in that I met with my accountant for my income taxes, and i met with the bank lady for my RRSP placements and investments. HAHA, as if I know anything about that. But for someone really uninformed I have a lot of opinions. Are we surprised? No. That is another complete entry I tell ya.

So, I hope you look at the Inuit links I put, and like the drawings thus far. Tah!

me, Wench77

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previous meanderings - future past

Goodbye Michael. May your next life be kinder to you. - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Taking Care of Your Cows - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Saint Joseph robs the cradle and eats spaghetti - Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
sticky notes and broken irises - Friday, Jun. 12, 2009
The FOODCOMMANDER - Monday, Jun. 08, 2009

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