Vancouver was quite resplendent in my five sun dazzled days. Down by the dock near Gastown is the Bronze Angel memorial to the Canadian rail workers who served and lost their lives in World Wars I and II. On the other side of Gastown, exhausted and struggling souls are scattered along Hastings Ave for a number of blocks.
Upon leaving the city by train, minutes out of Pacific Central Station, I saw the man below, beside the tracks and on the edge of brambles, wrapped in a blanket, a bike in the brush beside him. Can’t know for sure his circumstances, but far too many are in conditions to the extreme of those garnering immense wealth and comfort truly way beyond need and security.
At this point, I can’t be swayed by an argument that would put the fault of the downtrodden, indigent, and failing souls upon their own shoulders. The imbalances of the day are so out of whack, that the system as a whole appears to me to be staggering from pathology.
Some wait and wish for a spirit of supernatural dimension to lift us up. Others wish for a spirited whisking away of the inconveniences about them.
To a spirited awakening for us all.
both drawn using Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens in various nib sizes and grays, plus the Basic Black Leather fountain pen with Platinum Carbon ink. Top drawing in a Tomoe River Paper sketchbook. Bottom drawing in an unlined Rhodia sketchbook.