The President Glacier, British Columbia

We all know that glaciers are melting rapidly (thanks to global warming). Winnipeg climber friend David Cormie took this revealing photo in August… brings back sphincter-tightening memories of punching through into “bottomless” crevasses while on glacier crossings—and a good reminder to travel roped even when the surface looks benign.

This past spring I wrote and illustrated a booklet for the Alpine Club of Canada entitled Top Climbing Knots—the piece includes two friction knots (the Prussik and the Klemheist) that are useful for climbing out of a crevasse… of course, only if you are roped to team members on the surface. :-| If you’re interested in a copy of the booklet, contact me…

Wanganui, New Zealand

I’ve spent the past five days here in and around the far-flung, remarkable community of Wanganui (or Whanganui, as preferred by the local Maori), acting as an external moderator (re: graduating Masters and Bachelors students, along with Sherry Blankenship from VCU/Qatar and Rex Turnbull of Lino magazine, Australia) at the Wanganui School of Design. This remarkable school punches far above its weight (consistently out-pacing other NZ design programs re: student awards won, etc.) thanks in no small part to the inimitably dynamic Hazel Gamec (an ex-pat U.S. citizen from Minneapolis who jump-started the program here 20 years ago).

Aside from reviewing student work (very talented, very intelligent), I was able to take in a day of New Zealand farm-life with Hazel’s guy (tough ex-Navy Seal, diver, ardent hard-man hunter, deer expert), and I spent a day “up the river with Riki,” a cool Maori artist dude (working at the school) who took me to his ancestral land, introduced me to some of his relatives, welcomed me to his marae, and gave me some insight into the fascinating cultural milieu of the Maori (and the polemic relationship between these native peoples and the pakeha, or white folks). Fascinating, and something I’ll be looking into further…

A hearty “kia ora” and thank you(!) to everyone at the school who made me feel so welcome!

Photos above: The design school; awesome Hazel; tattoo-specialist Riki; a cool vernacular sign on the edge of town; freshly ironic graffiti (Maori accused of being “terrorists” headlined in daily news…); and sheep-herding Harvey’s way.

Wellington, New Zealand

I was fortunate this week to be able to visit various studios and design offices in both Auckland and Wellington, to meet with some leading designers and Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ) board members, and to take in some “tiki-touring”—all thanks to DINZ and the gracious hospitality of its dynamo CEO, Cathy Veninga. I also gave evening talks in the two cities (as part of the Designers Speak series), with favorable feedback from attendees.

In Auckland, Cathy and I visited InHouse Design Group Ltd., Shine, and Studio Alexander Ltd. In Wellington, we visited Experimenta (where we also met type maven Kris Sowersby of Klim Typographic Design), Moxie Design Group Limited, Parkview Motorcamp Ltd. (a cooperative with the inimitable Len Cheesman), Base Two (DINZ Vice President Sean McGarry, Creative Director at Base Two, accompanied us on the Wellington visits), and Designworks. Educational visits included the School of Art and Design (Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology [AUT]), and a pre-opening peek at the graduation show of Massey University/Wellington School of Design students.

Thanks to all those who opened their doors to me! I was impressed with the creativity and positive energy I encountered during this whirlwind design visit… and I look forward to further liaison and collaboration with New Zealand designers in the future (I’ll be writing a feature article on graphic design in New Zealand for Communication Arts magazine over the next months).

Photos above: The black sands of North Piha beach; Cathy and the lead team at InHouse; Kris, Elaina, & Duncan outside Experimenta; coffee at Moxie; the cheeky door at Parkview Motorcamp; Writers’ Walk in Wellington.

Banff National Park, Alberta

My annual August visit to the Canadian Rockies has been odd this year. After encountering some vehicular hiccups traversing the prairies (ran out of gas, then Bettie blew a tailpipe an hour out of Calgary) I arrived in Banff and promptly succumbed to a bad cold (replete with aches, fever, nasty cough)—uncanny how you can tough things out all year, then as soon as you start to relax, BAM… you get sick.

As physical exertion was a challenge (sucking wind), the highlight of my trip was intersecting visits with friends, rather than the hoped-for summits. First long-time climbing mate Simon Statkewich, then Gregor Brandt and Janice Liwanag (all with their VW Westys—Gregor & Janice had been living in, climbing from, and blogging about theirs for four months) shared camp-sites at Lake Louise and Tunnel Mountain (I happily discovered that the latter has a few sites with a wireless signal from an adjacent resort hotel, so I was at least able to get some online work done while moping).

Images: Yours truly on a day recce to the Fuhrmann Ledges (photo by Gregor); Bettie on Tunnel Mountain, Cascade in the background; Janice & Gregor simul-rappelling off a trad climb, Back-of-the-Lake.

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

I’ve had fun building some bird houses this summer, using recycled pallet wood combined with found objects. The “urban aviary” shown here is designed for 8 pairs of Tree Swallows, (desirable in this region thanks to their prolific diet of mosquitoes) and features an “ethnic enclave” (intentional irony), copper-clad roofs (one with a sculptural rooftop garden replete with copper trees), and various brass findings. Perches are made of brass rifle shells… yes, more irony.