A Foothills Falcon runner admits he’s brain-dead when he has completed a marathon, however, this marathon had nothing to do with running as he was completing a drawing marathon for his award-winning charcoal sketching Real Love.
Alex Ivan, a Grade 12 student at the Alberta High School of Fine Arts in Okotoks, finished third overall for the Calgary Stampede Western Art Showcase in the high school division and picked up $1,500 for his work. The drawing is of a homeless man, sitting on a blanket on the sidewalk with his faithful dog in his lap.
“I spent about 50 hours on that drawing,” said Ivan. “The last two hours of that marathon, I started to zone out.
“I saw the drawing on the Internet and I really liked it and wanted to draw it,” Ivan said, adding fine arts instructor Janie Zwack was the one who encouraged him to enter it in the Stampede. “When I found out I had won, it was the best feeling ever.”
Zwack said she just offered some gentle coaxing.
“Really, it was his initiative to take a risk and put his work out there,” Zwack said. “I just encouraged him. His observation skills are superior and the sense of emotion he captures in his work is fabulous.”
The award-winning student not only has talented fingers for drawing, he is also fast on his feet. He recently broke the 50-second barrier for the first time in the 400m at a track meet in San Diego on April 26 with a time of 49.68 seconds. His time was good enough to qualify him for the Junior National Track and Field championships in Winnipeg this summer.
Ivan was the bronze medalist in the intermediate boys 400m and a silver medalist in the 800m at the provincial high school track and field championships last year. He is a favourite to win the gold at the foothills divisional track and field meet in the 400m today (May 16) at Holy Trinity Academy.
He admitted it’s a weird combination of talent — the all-out explosiveness of 400m and the calm solitude of charcoal drawing.
“It is kind of strange because art is all about patience, not wanting to rush it,” Ivan said. “In the 400m you are trying to go as fast as you can.”
However, they both take precision. Ivan has to focus on the 400m from the second he enters the starting blocks, rounds four corners and finally crosses the finish line.
All the while, his lungs are screaming for air and his legs are burning.
“Most people when they run the 200m their legs will start to burn in the last 20 metres,” Ivan said. “The 400m is almost a full sprint, but by the time you get to the last 100m, your legs feel like they have been in concrete.”
Ivan is a member of the Calgary Spartan Track Club and said the best workouts for the 400m are the ones where you feel like you are going to puke afterwards.
His artwork may not be quite as painful, but it takes painstaking concentration and care.
“Charcoal really tends to smudge easily,” Ivan said. “So, because I am right-handed, I have to start in the top left hand corner and working diagonally down so I don’t smear it while I work.”
He also takes great care to ensure he has the proper shading for his work.
It also allows him to escape and not get too wound up for the upcoming high school track and field season.
“Drawing is a good way to kind of relax and let your mind go,” said Ivan, who plans to either attend the University of Alberta or the Art Institute in Vancouver after graduation.
However, first he has other goals he is trying to track down.
The Grade 12 student will be competing in the 400m and 4x400m relay at the divisional meet today at Holy Trinity Academy and he might also enter the 800m and 200m.
Ivan’s artwork will be on display at the Calgary Stampede from July 6-15 at the Big Four Building.
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