Utopia Moment sketches and writing by Jack Ruttan and friends

Exactly 24 hours and seven minutes after I took the previous photo in this series, and then came out after school let out to shoot the progress of the sign’s destruction, this is what greeted me.

An empty fence. No trace of the sign: no shreds of plastic board anywhere nearby, not even loose attachments left hanging on the fence. It was as if the sign NEVER EXISTED.

Happily, there is this second sign still around the corner, so our neighbourhood’s children won’t become road pizza thanks to heedless drivers:

“My Street is not a race track!”

Nonetheless, I’m not going to track this one. The experiment is concluded.

“Old Yeller?” I like drawing in the morning, and I like being spontaneous, but it has its disadvantages. Certain things make me go “darn!” but I wonder if anyone will notice them, or cares. Could be a dog with ears of different length. Or maybe he’s just a dog who looks like that, and it’s not a big thing. I’d have to check the pencil drawing in a mirror or something to avoid it happening again. Still, there’s a lot I like about this.

The sign I was keeping track of in yesterday’s post is still unmarked. Actually, not. There was a shoe print already on it when I took the picture. I’m looking for actual tagging or major vandalism, however.

Consider if you will, an experiment. The police put up this safety sign this afternoon on the schoolyard fence across the street from me. I want to see how long it takes before the pristine surface is defaced with graffiti of some kind, or torn down entirely. You can watch and keep track with me.

UPDATE: Next morning: nothing wrong with the sign yet. I’ve just figured out the slogan is a play on “la Petite vie,” kind of meaning “the simple life,” and also therefore “little lives,” plus the speed factor. Wouldn’t know how to translate it accurately as a slogan: probably just go for something else.

UPDATE 2: I made my translation of the title a little nicer. I can do that. It’s editable.

Maybe chubby fortune-teller guy knows.

What’s a little depressing is when you go a “Graphic Image Search” (GIS for those in the know) for “pigeon,” you get a larger than usual number of dead and messed up pigeons. It’s not the main thing I think of when watching pigeons out my front door, but there are a lot of them by the church steeple and school. Lots of models, therefore, but they don’t stand still, or get very close.

Chihuahua’s not the same problem, but there are still a lot of them out here, and other small dogs, mostly attached to people. Cats rule!

It’s good to see Rick Gagnon again, at our traditional Friday afternoon meet at the Cock N’ Bull for drawing and chat. We missed last week, and then I put this post off until today, because of all the class action excitement. But here we are again, with another batch of fun drawings.

Below, can you tell who did what? Rick drew the two girls, and added shading lines to my cocky guy. Rick’s lines are usually more parallel than mine. He also aggressively darkened my Nora the Cat.

Pretty girl (sometimes hard to find at this bar!) drawn by me, inked by Rick:

Rick on a profile I drew:

Now, this is me on a drawing of Rick’s of a couple of ne’er-do-wells by the video gaming terminals:

Rick did a great job on my hat guy in a car:

And I also love the job he did on my “Count:”

David Fennario, author and playwright, was once the class representative for our class action lawsuit against a collection of corporate media types. He had to bow out in 2002 because of crippling health problems, but he’s still a supporter of the ERDC and its objectives. He proved this at our celebration last Thursday of the approval of our class action, with a message, even though he couldn’t be there in person. The message ran:

“I am learning to walk for the third time, and when I heard this news — I jumped!”

Ron Diamond, ERDC (Electronic Rights Defense Committee) Treasurer (R) with Mireille Goulet, our butt-kicking lawyer, who won the authorization decision against a team of five top-flight legal minds on the other side. Read more about the hearings last year on my old blog here.

A little late in getting this to you, because there was a contribution from playwright and ERDC member David Fennario which might be copyrighted (gasp!), and I wanted to get permission to use it. Well, if he gets back to me, that will allow me to mention this whole happy event again in an entirely new post.

Elise Mosler, QWF Prexy.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of the celebration last Thursday evening. Wasn’t a huge crowd, but a warm and happy one. Included stalwarts of the QWF (Quebec Writers’ Federation) and PWAC (Periodical Writers of Canada). Also some folk from when the lawsuit started up, way back in the antediluvian times of 1997. Very pleasant to catch up, and also plan our next steps.

Claude Lalumiere

I’m trying to nudge the ERDC crowd into doing more publicity. We’ve kept our cards pretty close to the chest, but I think the more people know about our fight against unfair and abusive freelance contracts which force you give up all your rights for all eternity in the entire universe, the better. Now I’m ranting. Well, good luck, Mirielle, Mary, and all the rest of the ERDC, working for the good of freelancers everywhere!

Mary Soderstrom, ERDC Chair, with Mirielle Goulet.

Margaret Piton, and Richard Willing, journalists.

Tracy Arial of PWAC, and Julie Gedeon, freelancer.

Jack Ruttan (That’s me!) ERDC Secretary.

Sorry I didn’t post more general shots of the event, but the room was dark, and I didn’t like annoying people with the flash. So those snaps turned out very blurry.

Ellen Lee: with us since the start.

You can see the whole set here on flickr. (Not that many more pics, actually. Most of them are here!)

I want to invite freelancers of all stripes in the Montreal Area to the Brutopia Pub (1215-19 Crescent St. , between Ste. Catherine Street and René Lesvesque Blvd. Metro Guy.

It’s happening from 5:30 pm to 7:30 this afternoon (Thurs. 23) to celebrate the authorization by Quebec Supreme Court of our class action lawsuit over freelancers’ electronic rights. Drinks and delicious things to eat!

Here’s what the fuss is about: [Link to earlier blog post] or just check ERDC in the category, below.

We’ve had a bit of attention from the internet and other media. I’ll put those in a blog post over the weekend, plus pics from the event, I hope.

It was fine weather earlier this week. So I sat on my balcony, read, and drew a few sketches of the passing scene in my small (5.5″x8.5″) sketch book. Good times!

And more nice weather is coming this weekend. Yay!

Kind of like what a complete page in my sketchbook sometimes looks like, rather than a nice drawing excerpted and isolated to show you. Again, the usual paints on a thin, sketchbook paper.

I’m a little bit torn up this morning, because a pro illustrator (more successful than I, at least) looked over my website and said the things in black and white were more “professional” than the ones in colour.

She was trying to help, and be honest, (and she’s probably right!) but I’m just barging ahead anyhow, hoping someone likes something. Artists have huge egos, and I’m no exception. I think it’s part of how we function. Personally, I’d like to have a less fragile one, so I can take criticism better, but at the same time not be in denial about my level of ability. I know some artists like that (and no, it’s not you!)

My trouble is that if I’m in any way methodical or self-critical about what I do, I get blocked, and the work gets awkward. The fun drains out. So I purposely put on blinders. I seem to get much more praise than critique, anyhow, so have learned to take it all with a grain of salt. If people want to buy it or print it, then I feel it’s all right. Sometimes they do. And I know I’m not Bob Peak or Maurice Sendak, but that’s okay.

I think successful people in general don’t let failure or shortcomings slow them down, or get in the way. Of course, if you have no talent and think you do, you’ve got problems, and will go through life frustrated, like some artist-manques I’ve known. Such as this writer who knocked off an atrocious “novel” every two weeks, simply by free-writing for extended periods of time. He got angry and frustrated, because people didn’t think of him as the new Henry Miller. There are obviously combinations of talent, business-sense, and confidence which let you succeed. I think it’s pretty rare to have all three, elsewise we’d all be rich.

I’ve been busy with “stuff” and have neglected the blog a little bit. By that, I mean I didn’t post something yesterday. Scandal!

Well, as I said, my friend and collaborator Rick Gagnon was away in New York, hobnobbing with the Hoi Polloi. Meanwhile I was toiling here in my dungeon in South Central Montreal. But I finished up a sketch above that we started last week (mostly mine, but there are Gagnon-like traces in the face and hair). So, today is in effect Gagnon Friday-by-proxy. That’s despite the fact that Gagnon isn’t here, and it’s not Friday.

I’m going to post more next week on the Montreal freelancers’ victory in the lawsuit vs the Gazette, Southam, CanWest, et al. So, look for that, all you six people who visit this site.

In the meantime, maybe you haven’t seen this, but here’s a link to “Gagnon Friday” posts on my previous blog site: http://mruttan.ca/mruttan.ca/blog/labels/Gagnon%20Friday.html

Still excited about the ERDC win a couple of pasts now back. But still drawing things. I’m working in black and white, because I’ve got an upcoming gig, and want to be sure I can handle it with aplomb. So, it takes a little practice for me to “get back in the groove.”

Happily, it’s been a pleasant last few days, so opportunities for sketching outdoors. Like that guy up above. The pic below is one of the species of swamp greaser. Where he came from in my head, I’ll never know:

Spent an interesting evening at the Drink and Draw at the Casa del Popolo. Not many people there, but we were a happy table. I had to relax a bit before I could really draw stuff, hence the exercise above. Later I drew this hipster guy, who is a little more legible:

I did a couple more comics panels (on pink paper!), but don’t have them to show.