We all see things differently!

We all seem to see and remember things differently it seems. This morning as we entered Disney's Animal Kingdom Janis & I made arrangements to meet in a little bit. I would run ahead to get some fast passes to an attraction and we would meet at another section of the park. I suggested the massive yellow dinosaur as a good place to meet. Janis, however drew a blank - even though we had walked there a number of times in previous days. She simply couldn't remember any such thing. After some discussion she promised to trust me and she would find the place.

I headed out, got the required passes for the attraction we wanted to visit later in the day and then went to the prearranged location. Janis was there waiting as I knew she would be without a doubt.

It turned out that the dinosaur was so large Janis had walked through the legs many times without it registering that it was an enormous dinosaur and not just a big archway. This time she saw it for what it really was. We had a good laugh and went on with our day. The dino will now remain in both of our memories forever!

-grampa dan

Concrete day

Today we visited Disney's Animal Kingdom - my favorite theme park in Florida. The concrete work there is nothing short of amazing and most likely the most beautiful and detailed concrete in the world in my experience. The Tree of Life is the centerpiece of the park. The hand sculpted tree is MASSIVE towering above everything else. I've been sculpting concrete for more than 20 years, but each time I get to visit this park I set aside a healthy chunk of time to study each detail. It is that good!

In the bark and roots of the tree there are hundreds of animals sculpted in. 

The tree and surrounding rock and root work cover acres of land - all sculpted in minute detail from concrete. I spent most of my morning seeing all I could possibly see.

There is a LOT of other fine concrete throughout the park including many of the buildings. But this is not the type of concrete you see in most cities. This concrete is carefully carved and then painted to tell a detailed story. And that it does well. The next photo is from the village of Harambe, deep in the heart of Africa.

Skillfully carved concrete is everywhere through the park. The walkways may look like dirt, but they are stamped concrete, complete with stones, leaf impressions, animal tracks and sometimes tire tracks too... all in the service of the story of the land. On the safari ride through the savanah most guests don't see the concrete they are looking at for it is hidden everywhere right in front of their eyes. The picture below is a good example. This takes far more skill than most would imagine. Done best, it does not draw attention to itself but rather blends right into the scenery. The eroded dirt bank is actually made from concrete as are many of the features of the landscape.

It was a fun day at 'school' today.

-grampa dn

10,000 hours

We are still on 'vacation' here in central Florida. I'm doing my very best impression of moving slowly and relaxing. We are spending our days at various theme parks and having lots of fun. I'm taking lots of pictures and filling many pages of my sketchbook along the way. After only two days I find my mind already full of ideas, and I'm more than a little itchy to get back to my studio so I can put them into form.

In the evenings I am reading some books. One of the books I am reading is called Brain Storm by Don Hahn. It is about unleashing the creativity in ourselves. In the book Don suggests we need to invest at least 10,000 hours into our passion to get good. It sounded like an awful lot of time until I did some simple math. Ten thousand hours is five work years (1000 days) of ten hour days. After doing my math I believe that this relatively short time is far too few hours than needed to master much of anything. It would be the equivalent to the time spent obtaining a masters degree at university. While one can certainly gather a lot of knowlege in that time, few would say one had become an expert in their field while obtaining their degree. The degree is but the starting point for the real hands-on knowlege and experience where one really gets good.

When I do my workshops I often hear the comment "I wish I could draw like you." I simply point to my shelf of more than forty full sketchbooks and suggest they fill as many. The reality is that I have filled many times that through the years. And while I draw fairly well I believe I have far, far to go. Ten thousand more hours would be a good start. You can bet I won't stop there.

-grampa dan