sven

after we left our campsite at fingal, we headed in search of coffee and brekky on the way back to brissy.  as i googled ferociously looking for the "best" coffee on the gold coast, i stumbled across piccolo espresso.  might be alright i thought, so we used the ever present technology to guide us to the source at miami beach. getting a car park is one thing, but getting a place to park your bum at piccolo is a feat in itself.
this place was busy - maybe cause it was brekky time, maybe cause the food and coffee is good, or maybe cause it's owned by Robbie Mcewan, which make perfect sense as to why there seemed to be so much lycra.  just so happened that Robbie was there on that day, as was (we think) Mark Cavendish.  oh, i know, it's all cycling talk, but no amount of good cycling can make up for some of the bad lycra that these folk wear.  there's bulges in places that i don't need to see bulging and when it gets threadbare - these people should have the common decency to retire these pieces.
this story, however, is not about cycling, world champions, lycra or in fact coffee. although, perhaps that was a little story about all those things, but anyway, it is no more, cause this is about Sven.
dave ordered our sustenance and i took a place at the back of the shop in a lounge area. it was one of those spots that is perfect for people watching.
after a while a guy came and sat near us and he had a notebook. usually those people can be the ones who often talk to them self and write down their ramblings, and generally look nervous, but not sven, he seemed to have it all under control. and on opening his book, i noticed drawings and as he found his way to a blank page, we just kept an eye on him.  not in a creepy way, but out of total curiosity.
he looked around the crowd for a while, and then he began creating.

 

next minute my mouth is open and the words are just falling out. i don't know whether he finished his sketch or whether my interruption drew an end to it, but either way, it was one of those moments where you had just been a part of something really cool.
is that a hobby or your day job i ask. this was Sven's hobby he draws and had an entry in the Archibald prize, which sadly for him was returned but the portrait is now the cover of the subject's book. it's an Australian poet and i can't for the life of me think who it was.
Sven also sculpts and creates in bronze so the conversation about having the talent such as his was really great.
i asked him if he ever gives his impromptu sketches to his subjects and sometimes he does, but on this occasion he offered it to us. what do you do here, i felt obliged to buy it -but no, he gifted it to us.
so as Sven signed his work, i began snapping, cause this was a blog in the making. seems only fair that i shared it with others.
and below is the new piece of art that will be framed and hung somewhere in our home.
i don't believe that the gift of creating stops or that talent just disappears, and i'd like to remind my sister that she has a gift to create through her incredible talent and hopefully one day, she will find it in herself to start drawing again.
so thank you Sven.