Kevin

get in my head

TC to Harpham report

Dudes,

You missed it. I floated TC to Harpham Sat and Sunday. Put in at 6am. The first day I rowed all the way to Lower Rainbow, 21 miles. It was a beast of a row, but much easier with the light boat. I'm not saying your fat Jaxon, I'm just saying -400lbs + gear + food, makes a difference.

Anyway, I have no idea why I was the only one fishing dries. I saw bugs in the grass and did what I do, I got jungle on their ass. I caught between 40 and 50 fish on dries. It was insanely good for being this early in the hatch. Every single fish, every one of them, was in shade. 

Anyway, you go on Westfly and their like, not getting much action on top, but nymphing is good...expect it to get good in a week or so. Wtf!?

Everybody was nymphing! They were even nymphing the dry fly water. I guess they were catching fish, and maybe twice as many as me. But when a 17" fish takes your fly, 10 feet in front of you, with it's mouth wide open, so aggressively coming up to the surface that it's entire body shoots out of the water (OK, that was only one fish, but that take was frightening.)...or when you catch 3 15"+ fish in 3 casts under the same tree...or when you catch 4 fish in 10 casts that are over 18"-- I sh1t you not and I'm not telling you where because I think most people overlook this spot...I mean I know they do because their afraid...
...how can you nymph? 

Sorry for the bad English...work through it and you'll understand this weekend was sick!

And, don't post any sh1t about this on Westlfy. Last thing I need is 30 people who were considering going to the D to actually show up there. Be good,

Kevin

kevin smyth
tbd
856 nw bond st. suite 2
bend, oregon 97701

541/388-7558 phone
541/388-7532 fax


Happy Birthday tbd

Today is St. Patrick's Day. In addition to wearing green, here at tbd, we celebrate the 13th anniversary of the genesis of an amazing working environment that just happens to produce great branding work for our clients. It has become the norm to expect the unexpected here, so when Paul announced we were going to have a special exercise on creativity, I made no effort to predict what was to be. With the rest of the team, I arrived at a blank canvas of sorts, a 4x4 foot piece of plywood with an assortment of paints, accompanied by Sarah from the tbd loft community of artists, the Poethouse. Sarah led us in an intentional exercise in creativity. Gasp! We were going to collectively create art.

It's worth noting, my last experience in creating art dates back to 1998 when I used oil pastels to create a piece for my then future wife. It entailed a nice mountain scene with tall timbers reflecting on a peaceful lake. It included a giant man and giant woman, disproportionate, but conveniently naked, lounging in the chaise that was the ridges of the mountains, all in the midst of a colorful sunrise, maybe, sunset, I don't know. It made no sense to anyone including me when completed. I poured my soul into the art for a weekend, and gave it to my future wife. I never painted again. So, you can imagine the trepidation for which I approached today's exercise.

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Through the process, some interesting themes arose. First, when 10 or 12 people are painting at once, your bound to lose control of outcomes. How many times did I put a little dab of red over some yellow, only to find a giant swath of blue tracing behind a 2 inch brush overpower my red, leaving only a slight trail of purple? 

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As we progressed, the decorations of dots and swirls became passionate fusions of color, texture and shapes. We were all getting into it, even me. What started as one layer, turned into five, and then was scraped off the canvas, leaving artifacts of shapes and colors only to be buried again with new colors, blends and imprints. 

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As the painting transformed with each iteration, it became obvious our creation was unfolding collaboratively but without any linear intention or plan. And, it was beautiful to us as a symbol of the team and culture we've created over the years at tbd. It was exciting and refreshing to see each member of the team participate and add. The piece's true aesthetic is probably questionable, but as an account of the spirit of creativity and teamwork it's a bona-fide work of art. 

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Come to the loft for art hop on april 2nd to view our piece and other collected works of the community. We are showing "Who are we?", a collection of work from the Central Oregon community expressing just that. We hope to see you there. Who knows, maybe I'll submit my untitled gigantic love piece. Not.

kevin smyth




Throw a chart in there...

Nick Cernis may not have the genius of Edward Tufte, but his clever social commentary through charts is worth a look:

The science of padding
When it comes to report writing, give someone the choice of waffling their existence away like a sad dough boy in a hot grill press, or expiring in front of their Word document, and most will choose option three: they will stick a chart in it.