Showing posts with label traveling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traveling. Show all posts

05 September 2008

Adventures in Public Transport


3.36 PM as I wait in the sun at one of Greensboro’s bus stops. Which I feel is not really a bus stop so much as it is... a street lamp with a sign no seating and no shelter from the 91 degree heat in the middle of August. With a bus scheduled to arrive at 3.45 PM I was honestly not expecting anything special. I’m no stranger to public transport because I actually find that public transport can be a very easy way to get to work or school in the summer especially when the price of petrol reaches a $4.15 peak as it did this past summer. I took this time to read through some of the reading placed online. Segregation is often taught in school and it seems if you dont know what’s going on you’ve probably been living under a rock.
Finally at 4.05 PM my bus arrives and I can join the masses enroute to the bus depot. Its crowded, I choose to stand as I am not one to really enjoy having my personal space. However inevitably I was told to sit down and found myself in the midst of society.

People of all walks of life. On one side I was having a pleasant conversation about why people who are quite wealthy have begun taking the bus to avoid paying the high prices of petrol. While on the other side of me I was being lectured on how crack cocaine was safer when it was a powder and not the new kind which comes in stones apparently and how every cop in greensboro was taking bribes. Such interesting people you can meet on public transport. However the ever looming sign was just how many non colored people you dont see on public transport. At the front of the bus sits a sign in memory of Rosa Parks, and this is on every bus. But in all on a bus with 27 riders 6 were white. Most were black, many seemed to be quite content and were having a merry time.
However having read the reading I couldn't help but see how segregation was really just still around today, an unspoken part of our society. For example the people on the bus seemed to segregate themselves, many of the white people crowded together while many of the african americans took up seats nearby each other and didnt really talk to anyone. The Bus is a prime example of misconception, the stereotype of public transport in the States is dirty, unclean and something only the poor do. But in fact public transport seems quite clean, its cool in temperature and all around is a comfortable ride and surprisingly quick.
The reading was I felt to be a bit of another statement of just how segregated we really keep ourselves however I also feel that by constantly pointing it out we continue to lay the ground work to continue such behavior, almost as though if you hear something long enough you begin to think that it actually is normal its almost phycological.

27 March 2008

Told you there would be drawings

I did mention I had some drawings I wanted to post.. these I did a few weeks ago during the spring holiday.. however I kept forgetting to put them on here.. I didnt do alot of drawing as I had hoped to.. I was catching up on my sleep... but here for you pleasure

not much to say about this one, I opened up deviant art and looked at some peoples photographs and then drew from those.. I chose some places in London, I believe the second one is Waterloo Station, but I cannot be certain.

Knowing that I needed to practice drawing people I set out to work on this. And actually, I think I might actually be getting something going.. no faces yet I'm afraid but they do look like people dont they!

Well thats all for now, be on the look out for the perspective assignments I'll be posting just as soon as I get them done, and they'll be in color too so thats something new.

-Cheers

20 November 2007

The road to tennessee

No one told me that the road into Tennessee was going to be so bumpy I would never have attempted a drawing if someone had told me so, alas they did not so a drawing I did do.


As you can see my lines are very rough and jagged, the road was bumpy and it was also quite dark in the car we were traveling in (by the way Escalades are not as roomy as you might think still big enough to stretch out though But I was expecting a set of rolling hills in the back of the car). My original idea was to make a whole series of drawings chronicling my trip to Knoxville, however due to a mishap involving car keys and a 90 minute trip to the stadium in the pandemonium I forgot my sketchbook and thus the whole idea was scrapped. Cant say I'll do it next time because their is unfortunately not a next time. I still enjoyed the trip. Even though I got home late and had to stay up late, it was totally worth it!

-Cheers!

18 November 2007

I'm a bit knackered...

But I survived my trip to Tennessee, good times were had by all, although I got little to no work done and I'm so knackered I cant lay down or I will not get up until tomorow and what with a scale model due thats not really an option, either way, I tried to sketch while I was there, due to my own forgetfulness I'm afraid I only did one because I forgot to grab it on the way out the door on Saturday, but I've got plenty of stories to tell...

for now, its off to the store for more supplies!