Jury Duty

Above: The first page spread I completed during my recent stint in the jury pool. I was working in a journal I made with Nideggen paper (6.5 x 8.5 inches, approx), using a fresh .1 Staedtler Pigment Liner, and Schmincke Gouache in light washes (with the Niji waterbrush). The gentleman on the verso page was sleeping when I walked in. He was snoring loudly, alternating between wet and dry noises. I worried about sleep apnea! Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Last week I had jury duty. For a self-employed person this can be quite a juggling act. For me it meant working doubly hard the previous 3 weeks to clear time. (It’s one of the reasons I don’t take vacations.) Despite having always been a registered voter I had never been called before. I was always glad of this because of work, and because of the dogs (who were used to me being around 24/7 and could have been left alone, but would have been disgruntled). When my summons came my first thought was, well at least I’ll get it over with before the cycling season starts! (I was determined to be positive.)

I requested call-in status. Jurors are given an update line to call two times a day. That line tells them if their group number is needed the next morning or that afternoon. I had hoped in this way to get extra work done. (In Minnesota jurors get paid $10 a day only if they are sitting in the jury pool.) The first day of my jury duty I was able to work, but that night I was told I would need to report on Tuesday.

I took all sorts of stuff with me: a file folder of notes and printouts for a piece I’m writing, two books to read in case one bored me, of course my journal and pens and paints, and a variety of healthy things to eat (I didn’t want to crash in the afternoon if I had to help make a serious decision).

Above: My second page spread from my day in the jury duty pool. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

What happened was a day of life drawing and note taking. I arrived at 8:50 a.m. and left at 4:35 p.m. During the 90-minute lunch break I ate my lunch, walked around for 20 minutes, and read for a little bit. The rest of the time I was sketching jury pool members and taking notes about conversations I overheard or procedures.

You aren’t supposed to talk to anyone about any part of your jury duty until it is finished, or so we were instructed. Despite that there were several people from Monday’s pool who came back from a selection process and immediately called friends on their cell phones to discuss, you guessed it, their jury duty experience. People have difficulty following instructions.

Above: My third page spread from my day in the jury duty pool. The gentleman in color at the bottom right is the same man I sketched first thing in the morning. After lunch he came back and sat in the next bank of chairs with his back to me, I think because he knew I'd drawn him. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

It was an unusually quiet day for me. I didn't talk to anyone but the clerk (first thing in the morning to tell her there was a typo in her repeating slide show on the TV sets around the room—you didn't expect me to look at a typo all day long did you?) until after 3:30.

I sat in a bank of chairs mostly alone, looking across the room at people some distance from me as sketching models. In that way I managed to go almost all day without detection. At 3:30 with only one case pending the clerk released all but 24 potential jurors. I was in the group held back for possible selection. Another man, who introduced himself as Jay, but whom I had identified in my journal as “Santa,”—hey if you have red cherry cheeks, white hair, a bit of a “bowl full of jelly,” and insist on wearing a maroon red shirt with black suspenders then I think you’re asking for it—came up to me at that time because he’d been released (back to call in status, and boy were the 24 of us held back jealous at first about this). He complimented me on my sketches. He had taken a break and walked around the room and seen what I was up to. We had a bit of a laugh and I showed him the sketch I’d done of him, which he really liked. (Jay is at the bottom of the recto page on my first page spread.)

After he left, one of the women who was also held back and had overheard my conversation with Jay, came up and started to talk. “I know you were sketching me,” she said, “I can see the teal all over the page.” (She was wearing a teal outfit.) I let her see the sketch, but said, “I’m tired and you’re the last drawing [she was so far],” I really didn’t capture the prettiness of her features. "Oh, I can totally see myself there," she said kindly.

I was also worried about showing her the picture because I had been writing about her all day. She puzzled me. She didn’t do anything but look around and stare from 9 a.m. until 2:30. Then she read for about 4 minutes and wrote for about 2 minutes. I wondered about what she was thinking about all day.

Turns out she is a quilter. But the conversation was short and then I was alone again, to take notes and sketch one last quick sketch (though now everyone had overhead Jay and they were all sitting with their backs to me).

Above: My fourth and final (for the day) page spread from my day in the jury duty pool. I noted the time I started and ended each page or spread, and I also noted the time when anything changed with the number of cases pending. Other notes were typically overheard snippets of conversation. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The good news is that at 4:30 the clerk came out and announced that we were being released from further jury duty. We were all being marked as completed.

So my time in the jury pool was over without even going through a selection process. I was grateful. Sitting in an overly hot room drawing all day is doable, but I would prefer my regular routine.  In hindsight jury duty came at a good time. If it had continued I would have worked on my fake journal in the jury pool. Since it didn’t continue I have “extra” time everyday. A relaxing pace for a change. Why it’s almost like a vacation!

Eventually I'll receive a $10 check for my one day in the pool. I spent $8 on parking. That means I made a whopping $2. I like to think of it instead as 8 pages filled. Oh, and a Santa sighting!

Comments

[Tgarrett]

Great Post Roz! I loved the comments and the pages- glad you were excused!!!
Still snow in our yard up here-
Terry

[Mary Olson]

What a great way to spend your jury time. Your drawings capture so much personality. I'm in Oakland right now. I tried to sketch people in the airport on the way here and plan to do so on the way back but it is tough when they notice. I was sketching an overly madeup lady and she looked irritated so I didn't look at her anymore but just sketched from memory. My stuff looks more cartoonish if I can't really study someone.

[Roz]

Thanks Terry, sorry to hear you still have snow in the yard up there. There are places here that we have snow and ice (ice still on some of the city lakes in the center) but it is really starting to look spring-like around here—until of course we get another dump of snow. Though the weather report says it's going to be in the 50s this week! We'll see.

[Roz]

Mary, it's a problem when people notice you are drawing them. I recommend you draw people that are quite far away from you (at least 30 feet, or several banks of chairs over from where you are sitting). The typical person is uninvolved in his surrounds beyond a 10 foot radius. Also if you can sit at an angle to them, most people look only up and down in front of themselves, not around.

And the other thing I recommend is that you look up and down more yourself, and throw in a couple looks at other areas so that if someone does look up his is unlikely to see you are staring right at him. The next time he looks up you're looking somewhere else and he'll put it down to a coincidence.

Like you, I have to look at what it is I'm drawing. And in general I look more at what I am drawing than at my paper. But sometimes when I am drawing people in public I will look down more just to throw them off. And I'll work on shading for a long time before looking up again (hence the faceless man with the very detailed chair on one spread).

Have a safe trip home. Hope you are back in time for SketchCrawl at Como!

[Owen]

"before cycling season starts" ? Man, I live in Canada and I've been out on the bike since late March! OK, ok...I truth is where I live in Canada is south of anywhere you live in Minnesota. In fact, I'm south of Deroit, heh heh, a concept not a few Americans can't figure out.

Great use of your jury duty time and I too am glad you're free of it now.

[sandyz]

Enjoying your sketches a lot.

[karen]

Roz, these are wonderful. Love the color and the guy snoring. Looks like you made good use of your time there.

k

[Nina]

great post, Roz - wonderful spreads :)

[Roz]

Owen, you're a braver sort than I. I won't ride until the ice is off the roads, and sadly until just recently there was still some snow on the edges of certain portions of River Road, along which I like to ride.(Shady areas and places where it was piled.) I don't want to increase possibility of slipping.

Then of course there have been some nice warm days since then, but my bike needs a tune up and new tire before I hit the road and I haven't had time to do that because of jury duty.

Also I don't ride if it isn't at least 45 degrees.

There are lots of hardy souls here who have been riding ALL WINTER!!!

That's not for me.

I should have specified MY cycling season when the above criteria are met.

I'm glad you've been getting out. I hope it you've been having a great time.

[Roz]

Thanks Sandyz.

Thanks Karen, I wish I had a tape recorder. No one would believe this guy's snoring. It was loud and "inventive" in its musicality.

Thanks Nina.

[Pam]

Oh, Roz, I LOVED the typo thing! I thought I was the only one who couldn't help but edit.

[Ricë]

love this use of your time, roz. only you would be able to make it so productive (i think they would frown on stitching, but who knows?)

[Nona Parry]

Hey Roz, if I ever get stuck w/ jury duty again, I will be sure to take my sketchbook! What a wonderful use of that mind-numbing waiting! You were fortunate to be released so soon! While I genuinely appreciate the idea of a jury "of one's peers", I don't actually see myself as a "peer" of most of the folks accused, and find that listening to the charges is horrifying! Clearly I am NOT cut out to be a juror.

[Roz]

Pam I started life as a copy editor. Know that you are not alone. I have a vast collection of friends (copy editors and designers) who have your back! Some might slip by, but we remain vigilant.

[Roz]

Ricë, there was one woman in the jury pool who was knitting.

If you get called up to jury selection you have to surrender anything that is a weapon (my lunch fork would be an example) and then knitting needles and scissors and needles would have to go. In that way stitchers and knitters are more limited. I would have been allowed (based on the jury rules I read before hand) to take my journal and pen (which of course we all know is a dandy weapon) into the jury selection stage.

But you could stitch etc., in the pool.

[Roz]

Nona, I understand your problems with jury duty. I have different issues, the self-employment is first and foremost (I make more than $2.00 a day when I stay in the studio).

Second, I tend to profile people and come to quick judgments. I'm not sure that is good for jury members, though I am open to reasonable argument, but I'm very stubborn.

Lastly, it's such a huge responsibility to have the power to change someone else's life. At first I thought it would be best to let someone else do that, then after a day of listening to all the conversations in the jury pool I realize there is a place for someone like me there. Whether or not I would make it into a jury, is another question. I've been told that my past employment (I used to work for a large legal publishing firm and was one of the editors of a legal encyclopedia) and some of my other activities would cause lawyers to bounce me.

Now I'll just have to wait and see what happens the next time I'm called.