The flight home from Trinidad involved almost eleven hours of flying. That's an awful long time to sit in one place and do nothing. The good thing is I was up at 3:00 am to catch my plane. When I discovered I had the whole row of seats to myself I simply curled up and slept most of the way to Toronto. That used up a little more than half of my sitting still time. For the flight from Toronto to Vancouver I wasn't sleepy any longer. There was only one thing to do...

It was time to draw. I had brought a half full sketchbook with me when I left home. Before we neared the home airport I had filled every page with enough ideas to finish the Trinidad project. The sketches were rough and quick, with many notes in the margins but all the information was right where I needed it.

A couple of the sketchbook pages were filled with the drawings for a center statue, needed to clearly tell the story of these special pirates. With the final ideas now emerging and then the final concepts following it is time to begin adding the many things that are hidden but carry special meaning to myself, my crew and the owners of the park, as is our tradition.

The hidden bits are pretty subtle in this piece. Venu's house in Trinidad is all made from hexagonal rooms. And so the planter is that shape. A few years ago I designed a fence and planter for his other business which featured a cute little fish. That project never went forward, much to Venu's disappointment and so the little fish and 'grass' fence reappears here. Good ideas never die - they just lie dormant until the right time.

As we relaxed tonight in front of the TV, I worked up the final finished concept using the ideas I had worked up on the plane ride home. It's going to be a cool piece, full of hidden meaning. You just knew I wouldn't reveal all. :)

You can bet a bunch more fun things will find their way in as we actually sculpt this piece. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan