Tag: UC Davis

a hatful of silo

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silo uc davis
Sketching has been sporadic lately, but I have been doing a little. Above is a quick lunchtime sketch at the Silo, UC Davis, where I often eat my lunch. On this day I sketched; other days I just eat, read, listen to podcasts, or in the case of yesterday I spent my time writing hilarious captions against photos of hairy pretentious bands in a local free magazine. That was fun. But anyway, this got me thinking about how many times I’ve sketched at the Silo – a LOT, I’ve worked at UCD for six and a half years now, blimey. So here is a selection of sketches of the Silo area from over the years.
sooner or later, one of us must knowno colours any more
(Above Left: March 2008; Above Right: April 2008)

silo um mittagsilo

(Above Left: Feb 2007; Above Right: July 2009)

yer bluesblue silo
(Above Left: Feb 2009; Above Right: Oct 2007)

the silo
(Above Sept 2010)

through the windowrainy silo

(Above Left: Feb 2010; Above Right: March 2012)

in the silo
(Above May 2011)

lunchtimesilo lunchers

(Above Left: March 2008; Above Right: July 2009)

silo on an envelope

(Above: Feb 2012)

at the silo, in purplepurple pen at lunchtime

(Above Left: August 2007; Above Right: Jan 2008)

taco bell at the silohalal truck at uc davis silo

(Above Left: June 2011; Above Right: May 2011)

carl's jroverheard conversations

(Above Left: March 2009; Above Right: Sept 2007)

the silothe silo oct 2011

(Above Left: Sept 2011; Above Right: Oct 2011)

Thanks for sticking to the end! This isn’t even all of them, and doesn’t include all the South Silo, Bike Barn, Outdoor Adventures ones, the whole Silo Complex. This represents a helluva lot of Grill’d Stuff’d Burritos.

let’s draw america’s coolest campus!

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let's draw davis september 2012
I wasn’t able to schedule an August sketchcrawl (and boy, was it hot this month!), but Let’s Draw Davis in September instead! This time we will meet on the very calm and quiet UC Davis campus – calm and quiet, before the thousnads of students return shortly afterwards! UC Davis was recently ranked ‘the coolest school in America’, and how much cooler would it be if we all sketched it? A lot cooler!

We will meet at the Silo, in the middle of campus. The Silo itself probably won’t be open for food, being the weekend, so you may want to bring a packed lunch. It’s an interesting area to draw, and we can meet at the tables bewteen the main building and the Bike Barn. From there we will sketch around campus, on your own or in groups, before reconvening outside the main doors of Shields Library (or just inside if it’s too hot) to check out each other’s sketchbooks.

START: 11:00am, @the UC Davis Silo (map)

FINISH: 3:00pm, outside Shields Library (map)

If you can’t find your way around campus, I recommend visiting the UC Davis website where they have an excellent online campus map: http://campusmap.ucdavis.edu/. Why not check out the UC Davis Virtual Tour as well?

As always, everyone is welcome to join in, regardless of sketching ability. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on, and once you start looking you’ll be amazed at what you find.

Hope to see you there!

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

scheduled for demolition

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boiler building
I have drawn this building before, but never knew what to call it. It seemed rude to ask its name by that point. The boiler building, by the music building, has long been a favourite of mine for the rusting boilers and pipes that dot its edges, and its general old but warm feel. A slice of the old campus, a cousn of Hart Hall. Here is my previous drawing (which hung on the walls of the Pence in my show last December; it’s now available in my Etsy store). The one above was done a week or so ago, when I was invited to come and sketch it with Catherine Buscaglia, from UC Davis Design and Construction Management, who had emailed me to let me know that finally this old building will sadly be demolished later this month. I have come back a couple of times to draw it again, and may come back to witness its demise.

boilers

Here are some of the rusty boilers I was talking about. I have drawn them before, as part of my ‘pipes and hydrants’ series, and you can see them here. I have looked through the broken window, and inside it looks even more interesting for sketchers of metal pipes, though I may be a little too scared of spiders crawling all over me to sketch inside. Below, one more, done from the front side of the building. The ever changing landscape; I wonder how it will look by the time the new academic year begins?
boiler building (other side)

‘the house!’

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the house, uc davis
This is The House, a building at UC Davis near the tri-co-operatives, a part of campus I had not explored before today. I cycled around there looking for something to sketch, and found this pleasant little spot. (I sound like Alan Whicker or someone) The House is home to CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services), who do a great and necessary job on campus. The House has an imaginative name (a bit like The Barn, sketched recently), but I keep imagining it being bellowed by Christopher Lee, “The House!”

will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

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pierce hall (being demolished)
These student housing halls over by Tercero on the UC Davis campus, Pierce Halls, are currently being demolished. I was kindly informed about this last week so raced over this week to capture them before they vanished. I found a quiet spot up a stairwell outside the demolition zone, and listened to the “football weekly extra” podcast (who seemed convinced that Spurs season was also under demolition). I’m glad the big digger stayed still for me, parked like a big mechanical yellow dinosaur awaiting its prey. I can imagine all the student tales from all the years that students lived here. When I was at university I didn’t live in the halls, and while one part of me felt I was missing out, I’m glad I didn’t. I did spend a year living in the student halls while teaching in Charleroi (la Vigie), which was noisy to say the least. I have no idea about American halls though, other than in the movies. Anyway, whatever the hidden histories, they’re all being knocked down now and buried in the rubble.

what a catalyst you turned out to be

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uc davis student general assembly crop
After the Pepper-Spray, the reaction. UC Davis students, faculty, alumni, staff, all have discussed and debated last Friday’s events, while Chancellor Katehi, who has been called on to resign, has publicly apologized and started a series of dialogues with students, something they feel they did not have before. The camp is back, bigger and much more organized, and peaceful, civil protest is the order of the day. No signs of police around, though there were quite a few Facilities trucks casually dotted about campus. On Tuesday lunchtime’s General Assembly, which preceded a town-hall event in the evening, students debated the role of the chancellor among many other things, as they tried to bring the focus back to what they were originally protesting, the recent large hikes in tuition. I recorded this important event for UC Davis in my sketchbook. A photo of me sketching even emerged later on Twitter:


(photo courtesy of Kirby Araullo)

I couldn’t resist sketching more, as the Occupy UC Davis camp grew, so I came back today (Wednesday). As my sketchbook came out, the Chancellor arrived, bringing food to the protesters. I took the opportunity for some people sketching, and while she spoke to a small group of students, along with a set of news reporters, I sketched her. She got to see it, and I think she liked it (she did comment on the nose though) but she was pretty busy so I didn’t have her sign it. As I sketched, another student questioned her on a range of issues, so I sketched her too (she’s below left; Chancellor Katehi is below right).

at occupy uc davischancellor katehi of uc davis

One news reporter who I recognized from local TV, Chris riva, commented too on my Katehi drawing, so I asked if I could sketch him. I’m not sure he liked the sketch, but I had him sign his name on it. I’m glad I did; I thought he was Dale Schornack! (another local TV news guy) Whoops. He’s below left. Below right is someone who just happened to be there, Anna-Lisa from Chronicle Books. She saw me sketching in my Moleskines and, since she works for those who distribute Moleys, gave me the brand new Moleskine pen! I’m yet to use it (it’s apparently designed specifically for Moleskine paper, but doesn’t take a watercolour wash).
chris riva of kcra newsanna sandstrom of chronicle books

There were lots of people from outside UC Davis who had come along to see events take shape, and offer support and solidarity to the students. The protests are gathering in strength, and much-needed dialogue is finally taking place. I hope it all stays peaceful and productive.

thank you for the music

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TB 195

This big old building on campus, right by the Music Building, has been set for redevelopment for some time now but doesn’t appear to be moving along. It is supposed to be knocked down and turned into something modern and fantastic. I like this building though. I have drawn the rusty pipes on the side before, and this view is the rear, drawn from the path that runs by the Arboretum (Cushing Way).

I just wanted to point out, because it needs pointing out, that Spurs beat Arsenal this past weekend. I just wanted to mention it. Nothing to do with the drawing.

This, as were many other in this ongoing series, was drawn on a piece of 8″x10″ hot press Strathmore watercolour paper, with a micron pigma pen and some watercolours.