Smith gets 6 years -- YOU ARE THERE

This past week I was hired by CBC to do some courtroom sketches of the Trevis Smith sentencing. For those of you in the States who have never heard of this case, Trevis Smith is the ex-Saskatchewan Roughrider (the CFL team based right here in good ol' Regina) who was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He had unprotected sex with two women (both of which were NOT his wife -doh!) even after he found out he was HIV positive. He was found guilty back on Feb. 8th and sentenced this past Monday to six years. The prosecutor, or "the Crown" as they're called up here, was asking for a double-digit sentence of at least 10 years, so he got off kind of easy.

CBC didn't have a local artist to sketch the trial while it was going so even though the story was national news, there weren't any graphics of the trial proceedings. The producer of the local 6:00 news called the University's art department and one of C's professors, Leesa Streifler, referred her to me. Cool!

So I went down to the provincial courthouse Monday morning, plopped down in the front row and got my watercolours out. Here are the sketches I did.

Not a happy camper

It took me a total of about two and a half hours to do all these. All that training in Drawing Bootcamp and Design Basics at Expression really paid off: gesture, big shapes, shadow shapes, complementary colours! Quick, fast, loose. I had a blast.

I didn't get to stick around for the actual sentencing. The Crown took up most of the morning session making his recommendation to the judge. They broke for lunch and were going to continue in the afternoon but I had to finish these drawings and rush them over to CBC before their news deadline, so I never got to go back.

Here is the Crown taking 45 minutes to read his 5-minute statement.

Later that night they used the sketch of Smith sitting in the dock in their 6:00 newscast. They didn't use the other two but the producer said they may use them in follow-up pieces at a later date. Supposedly these will be used in the CBC news nationwide. Awesome!

"Who wants to meet at Phu Dong's across the street for some chow mien?"

So CBC said they'll ask me to go in and do other courtroom sketches whenever a big trial hits locally. Smith had filed an appeal before sentencing so hopefully I'll get to go back in soon and do some more sketches of him.

Until next time... adventure!

R-

Ice & Fire Carnival

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Downtown Ice & Fire Carnival in Victoria Park. It's a festival where they use the lure of giant snow sculptures, face painting, ice carving, meat pies, hot chocolate and a bonfire to get people out of their houses and into the freezing cold. And you know what? It worked.

Here's a sculpture depicting what happens to fire when it freezes.

C and I took the dogs out and had a pretty fun time. A lot of the snow sculptures were made by her fellow graduate students at the university. A crowd favourite was the giant marshmallow next to the fire scuplture.

"I need a snow shovel full of chocolate and a graham cracker the size of a sled."

Luckily, the temperatures were merciful. After about two weeks of crazy cold weather ranging from highs of around -25° celsius (-5° F) to lows of -35° (-30° F), this weekend saw afternoon highs at a balmy -5°. And today it actually got up as high as +4°! Zowie! It made for walking around the park a bit more bearable.

"What do you see, Moxie?"

It wouldn't be an official carnival without someone walking around in some ridiculous mascot suit. There were these two reindeer-looking things representing some local company or something. I'm not sure, and I didn't really want to hang around to find out.

"Hello, I'm Rudolph's retarded half-cousin. Does this jacket make me look fat?"

There was a sighting of Bon Homme, the mascot of the winter festival in Quebec. Bon Homme translates into "Good Man," which I guess fits. I really couldn't imagine this thing robbing a bank or passing a bad check or getting an old lady in a headlock or anything like that.

Sing along with Bon Homme: "There must be better ways of earning minimum wage."

I'm told Bon Homme usually looks better in Quebec. The road trip to Saskatchewan must've been a rough one for him. "Hey Mr. Homme, have a hot chocolate and a meat pie, you'll feel better."

When they ran out of wood for the bonfire, they had to use ice.

Here a city worker cuts down one of Regina's majestic, 600-year old Redwood Ice Blocks.

Ha ha, just kidding. This guy was an ice sculptor across the street on Scarth working on his next creation: a gigantic ice cube. Looks good so far, dude!

Besides the hot chocolate booth, the most popular attraction was the bonfire. Mmmmm, waaaaarm. It got pretty frickin' hot too if you stood there long enough.

"Ooooo... aaaaaah... I remember warmth."

As captivating as the snow scupltures and creepy mascots were, C and I spent most of the time hanging around the fire. I just wish I had a pack of firecrackers to throw in there, that would've livened things up.

Hot dog

This was the first time the dogs got to go out and meet a lot of people at once. The most exposure they get, ever since the winter dropped in, is the handfuls of folks at the nearby dog park or whoever walks by in the Sobey's parking lot when they're waiting for us in the car.

When we first got to Victoria Park Moxie and Django were a bit rattled and were really shy toward all the different strangers. But by the end they became accustomed to the crowds of people and began allowing folks to pet them more. Except for those doofy reindeer, of course.

"If you call her a poodle one more time, lady, she'll rip your face off."

People were very interested in the dogs. It seems like most people here in Regina had never seen a Blue Heeler before. C and I spent all of our time explaining that they were just over 6 months old and that they're just about full grown now. And yes, they're very smart. The dogs, that is, not the people. Well, some of them were smart I guess. Anyway, the pups got a lot of compliments which made C and I very proud.

There was supposed to be a play/reenactment of the The Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf story, but the Little Pigs were taking their sweet time getting suited up and C's and my toes were feeling a bit on the frostbitten side so we decided to call it a day.

We wish everyone a happy Family Day and we miss you all a bunch!

Until next time... adventure!
R--