The evening  “Power Swim” is a long standing ritual for my brother Andy and his children at the family’s summer cottage at Georgian Bay, Ontario. Andy’s wife Rachel sometimes goes with them, but most of the time she does not. However, this does not mean she is not involved. She takes the photos. She sends them to me and other family members with her thoughts attached. One of these photos from August, 2018 had a particularly striking composition, so it became a logical choice as a source for this, 2019’s Christmas present. What I particularly liked was the grouping. They are together, but each with their own individual focus. Isabel, at left, lost in the thicket of her own hair, is intense. Andy and Calle, at center are in the midst of some kind of brief conference. The goggles were a gift for someone with my history of subject matter. And Will seems almost clowning around as he sets off ahead. 

 

In my conception of this drawing, the subject was in fact Rachel. It is about her being there with the camera. I had a similar interpretation of Ducklings. In the same way that “you” is understood as the subject of an imperative sentence, so too are these drawings about the people who envisioned them or who were so centrally involved that they thought to capture them. I shared some of this “4th wall” concept with Rachel soon after sending the drawing to her and Andy. Rachel responded,“Andy loves the power swim, Calle adores Andy, Isabel and Will like being fit and talking about being power swim participants, and I feel like the universe is on our side so long as this tradition is upheld.” Maybe a drawing keeps the universe on side even more.

 

I have been forever trying to get myself to obsess a little less about detail. Drawings like this are essentially a therapeutic exercises for this. There was no way to include any detail. Gesture was all that was possible. Calle’s face is very crude but she is somewhat recognizable from a distance if only for her pose. Andy’s face was more cramped as i made sure the goggles were well defined. Will is basically a posture. Isabel is the most defined and I took some pleasure in being able to bring out some textures in the wet suit and the hair.