A day with and without

Today was a day with many errands -- and without photos. I could use one of my old carwash pictures because I had my second immersion experience today (yes, that's what the mystery photo was!), removing the Spanish moss pollen from the car before going to two bodyshop places for an estimate on work to repair damage done by the car behind me stopping "in" my bumper at a traffic light last week. Not much damage really, but the driver was most contrite and wants to pay, so it will be repaired at the end of the week.

I've finally "finished" with graphic novel chapter 3, at least for the first draft. That's the chapter with practitioner views, and it was difficult to convey a whole interview in a single panel -- I really needed two or three for each of the four practitioners (architect, artist, graphic designer, organization person), but I'd made the rule of only six panels per chapter (i.e., a page) and am stickling by it. This is only a conference paper. I've committed (to myself) to complete a first draft before leaving Florida, tehn fix major problems later. As I put a chapter aside there is always one panel that doen't "work" as well as the others, but I'm hoping it will fix itself if I don't look at it for a while. (This is rather like my drawing practice - I finish each sketch in a state of extreme dissatisfaction -- I might say despair. But when I look at it the next day, it really isn't so bad after all!)

Back to the graphic novel. I'd already created chapter 4 (examples of confluence of art,d esign and organization) out of sequence, so now I'm on chapter 5, the conclusion. I'm at the fun stage of the chapter, laying out the panels, finding photos and experimenting with the text. I'm using a large sketchbook from the comics workshop I took last November, so working with pencil on paper has a nice feel to it. This chapter is important - it deals with the "So what?" question that lurks behind every piece of research. I must take the ideas that have emerged from my exploration in each area/chapter and tie them together as implications for theory and practice. It's hard - but right now I'm just playing with ideas. I've given myself this week for "play" and next week the panels must be made. I'll most likely be in a different frame of mind then!