'BANFF NOTES'

Week one - Entry two

The weather is unnaturally warm for this time of year. There is talk that Bear could come out of hibernation early - confused by the climate change. I thought of Bear hidden away, imagining his hibernation to be a regenerative cocoon. I pictured him emerging too soon, unready, unfinished, an incomplete bear.

I've begun to make my mark, but after the initial enthusiasm about its size and the view, I now have to really tune myself in and make it feel mine. I allowed myself a little luxury of getting down on hands and knees and throwing ink around. This spontaneous, private moment of creative fun was enough to unwind my cramped mind. It's like I've been holding my breath, afraid to disturb the wonders before me and now I could finally exhale and begin to process it all. I draw the dripping, gnarled bears emerging from their long sleep. I create a small defunct zoetrope.

A big yellow school bus arrives. All of us giddy as children as we head out to Lake Louise.

For 3 hours we walked across the frozen lake. I thought of all the aquatic creatures beneath my feet, wondering what they were up to in the dark. The mountains and their scale play tricks on the mind. The frozen waterfall looked so close. The light was blinding bouncing off the brilliant white of the snow. Here you feel like you can reach out and just stroke the trees or skip over to the waterfall or leap over to the mountain peak. But it is all an illusion. The waterfall is a few miles hike away, the trees tower above into forests that swallow you up and the mountain tops a treacherous and deadly climb.

As the sun goes down and I snooze on the back-breaking bouncy bus I cannot believe a week has passed already. The volume of visual input, the friendships made, the conversations, creating art - it feels like it couldn’t possibly be fitted into just one week - but then it flies by so quickly and suddenly you’re down to just 3 weeks left.

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