Incredible Drawings

Today was a day off so I headed downtown to see something I had been waiting for.

Like all Olympic host cities, Vancouver is hosting a Cultural Olympiad in addition to the Olympic Games. There are hundreds of live performances, exhibits, and digital artwork presentations scheduled. Some events have already begun but the calendar for the Games weeks is really full. There was one particular exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery that I wanted to see.

Years ago when Vancouver was awarded the Games, the Vancouver Art Gallery decided they wanted to stage a show to complement the Games. Rather than focusing on sports and athletics, they decided to focus on the human body. They wrote to HRH Queen Elizabeth II and asked if they could borrow some of her collection to exhibit. The Queen has always been fond of Canada (or so we Canadians are told) so she agreed.

The exhibit is "Leonardo Da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man." It is a series of manuscript pages hand-drawn and hand-written by Leonardo in 1510-1511. This exhibit in Vancouver is the first time that all the pages have been shown at one time.

As an artist and a scientist, Leonardo was apparently planning to author a definitive book on human anatomy. In preparation, he performed detailed dissections of human bodies and created exquisite drawings and notes on the human structure.

Most of the pages in the exhibit were about the size of a regular 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper with notes and drawings on both sides. They were written on an animal-based paper rather than a tree-based paper which has helped with their preservation.

The pages are an incredible combination of large and small detailed drawings with notes written all over the page. Leonardo wrote all his notes in mirror image. Apparently as a left hander, he found this easier. Some of these pictures are so detailed and accurate that they are still used today for studying anatomy. One page includes the first accurate drawing of the spine, showing the neck, back and tail components drawn with the accurate spinal curve.

In the drawings he pioneered the used of exploded pictures to show how things fit together and rotation series to show the same object rotated on an axis with a drawing from all sides. Some of the pages were reproduced on the walls with translations of the text. It explained in detail how the muscles and tendons worked and was written as instructions on how to write the book.

It was amazing to be able to stand within six inches of these pages and see the incredible detail--knowing that they were hand-drawn 500 years ago by such a brilliant man. It reminded me of the examples of his brilliance I saw in Florence last year. Even on a Tuesday afternoon the exhibit was quite busy.

On the front of the Art Gallery is an enormous hand painted mural by Michael Lin using patterns based on traditional Taiwanese textiles.

After the Art Gallery I wandered around downtown to see the sites.

The countdown clock in front of the Art Gallery which has been running for years is almost done.

In front of the Art Gallery this reporter from Belarus was interviewing some Canadians.

This young athlete from New Zealand was walking down the sidewalk in front of me. His jacket, backpack and shoes looked like he had just unwrapped them today. It is easy to spot athletes in their uniforms.

At the Hudson's Bay store, in addition to the Olympic Superstore of Vancouver 2010 souvenirs, there is a shop upstairs that sells "team wear" from other participating countries. Russia had a large shop that was also filled with clothing for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

The local CTV station (the host broadcaster) was busy finishing their outdoor studio to move their newscast out onto Robson Street.

Olympic directional signs have been installed at street corners.

And if the signs don't work, just ask one of the helpful volunteers wearing the yellow sleeve indicating that they are ready to provide information.

I had lunch at the Yaletown Brewpub. They were ready to start tallying Canada's medal haul.

There are flags everywhere. Vancouver's largest flag store (not this one) had their busiest month ever in January. They made and sold over 100,000 flags.

Despite all the roads that are closed downtown around venues and pavilions, and the fact that the Olympic Lanes are now in effect (VANOC vehicles and buses only) traffic has been moving relatively well so far.








On my way home on the bus a woman that works for the City of Vancouver told a few of us that she was carrying the Olympic torch on Friday when it will be in downtown Vancouver. She is not passing it off to Arnold Schwarzenegger (yes, he is also carrying the torch on Friday morning--don't ask me why) but she is passing it off to Rolly Fox the father of Terry Fox. (Terry Fox was a teenager from British Columbia who started a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research running with one prosthetic leg. He was forced to stop half-way across the country when his cancer returned. He died less than a year later. He is considered one of Canada's greatest heroes and is celebrated internationally every September as people participate in the Terry Fox Run, the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research.) She was very excited about participating in the run and getting to meet Mr. Fox.

The torch relay goes through my neighbourhood on Thursday. I hope to be able to see it again. The crowds to see the torch in and around Vancouver have been large.

Well with just two Olympic volunteer shirts and after two Olympic volunteer days, tonight is Olympic laundry night. I'm sure I'll get a gold.