W.I.P.

Newest W.I.P. with nine processes. Will do at least five more before stitching.
Things are just rotting and brewing all over the house!

Loving Mold

Just love mold this time of year. Found a dark and dingy wall that was sprouting all kinds of inspiration and very graphic shapes.

Digging Underground

Photograph taken underground with a cel phone!

I spent last weekend crawling around an old mine at Britannia Beach. Underground...all soggy, dark and spooky. The same mine tunnel where the new Red Riding Hood was just filmed.

There was so much inspiration to the point of overload.

I have submitted a proposal for a show there this summer.

Today we went for dim sum with Frank, Anna and Karen. I gave Anna a small piece of calcite and we both learned that calcite double refracts. Frank is fascinated with gemology and got talking stones.

Tim and I spent the weekend creating frames and shadow boxes. Mostly he did the work and I told him what to do. He is on his home week and leaves for the North in the morning clothed in double long johns!

The frame thing is important because I have just costed out that part of art making and realise that framing costs at least twice what the art work costs me to make! I am always being asked to throw in frames with a sale. No longer!

Contact Quesnel this week and start artist statements and photos.

I started my new medication recently and am actually experiencing pain free days for the first time in eight years. Energy up. Mood pretty stable. Creative urges uninterrupted!

Rust Experiments

I give Tim instructions and he exceeds what I am attempting to do every single time.

He doesn't listen to instructions.

I explain 3 cups of water to one cup of salt because I want him to make me some rusty wire ...he uses 1/2 box of salt and one cup of vinegar
and the experiment develops a life of its own.

What a man!

Ours and Yours

Here's to you and yours,
And to mine and ours,
And if mine and ours come
Across you and yours,
I hope you and yours will do
As much as mine and ours,
As mine and ours have done
for you and yours!

Slainte!

No Words

Source of this photo is unknown but is perfect for what I feel. Thank you to who-ever took it.


I checked through many of the posts I usually read and have discovered that many people are wordless in the last two days.

I spent two days wordless.

There isn't a single thing to say about how very sad I feel about what has happened in Japan.
Part of me is now broken.

A few people from Japan check into this little blog. Personal inspiration comes from artists like Yayoi Kusuma, Issey Miyake and many others. Please be safe. Exchange students have stayed in my home and one beautiful boy named Kimataka is from an island that appears to have been wiped out. Please be safe. Setsuko, Mariko, Zen, Mas, Yuriko...please be safe!

Tim said,"This world is so big and I feel so small."

Cupcakes and Satisfaction

I am up to my neck in cupcake dough for Hilary and Jim's baby shower tomorrow.
Collected up decorations, gifts, wine glasses, bubbly, tea and have managed to invite
enough people to do a decent celebration. Everyone is excited about this baby girl.
Celine and Scott offered the community room in their apartment.

Hilary has the gorgeous look that women get shortly before they give birth, everything full and sumptuous. Jim is a bit of a wreck but is as protective as any father I have seen. Less than two weeks until due date. I get to be Studio Surrogate Aunty!

I spent today with the most inspiring and wonderful women at my creative circle. We meet every couple of months and share ideas, inspirations and our work. We have snacks and no structure except that we each have about 1/2 an hour. The group is small. We show and tell, share ideas, challenges, and expose new and sometimes unfinished work. We end up talking about displays and ways to do proposals and gallery contacts. Sometimes we share techniques and favorite artists. We "cross pollinate" with respect. Each one of us works in a different media but also border cross.

I arrive and feel like I might be taking too much time away from responsibilities to do this and have a terrible time leaving because I feel so full and energized. It is so valuable.

Art making can be lonely and isolating. You end up learning all these skills and spending time inspiring yourself and countless hours experimenting and making things. Most often alone.
Your passions can get lost unless you are constantly surrounded by other artists. If you are constantly surrounded you risk losing what is unique to you. Touching base is important.
That is the value of Guilds and Organisations. Being with a small group with very different specialities opens brand new doors.

Each one of us in the group is working on art most of the time. Everyone experiments with a number of mediums. There is a jeweller, a weaver, a costumer, a sculptor and me. Each one presented work that was stirring. Work done with thought. Today I shook with inspiration when the group was finished. I can barely contain what was given to me by every single person there.

So now I go back to making cupcakes and preparing for baby tomorrow!

The Terreno Hanky

This hanky really speaks for itself. It was stitched by women who were arrested for fighting for Women's Rights and for the vote.

Stolen shamelessly from Hoopla the Radical Craftzine.

Today is International Women's Day. Honor the ones that came before!

http://radicalcrossstitch.com

Wish I was in Wisconsin!

Thar She Blows

I have this thing about wind. I am afraid of it. When I was a little child my family experienced Hurricane Hazel. I lived on a boat once and was caught in a ferocious gale that tore boats away from moorings and roofs of boat houses. The Prairies had Chinook winds that made my spine crawl.

This is not an illogical fear. It is just out of proportion. It just keeps me awake and on the edge of my chair.

Vancouver has wind warnings this morning. Expected wind speeds are between 80 - 100 kilometers an hour. Power is out all over the place. There is a huge an unkempt old cherry tree in the neighbours yard that is starting to wave about. There is a rickety old power line in front of the house.

I couldn't sleep and ended up packing emergency bags with lighters, candles, plastic garbage bags, changes of socks and mitts. I put food and water, hiking boots, blankets and medical stuff in my wheelie cart. I also tidied the house and finished the laundry. When I finally fell asleep I kept the radio on only to wake up to hear my husband's old work place had a chlorine leak and that it had been evacuated. I thought I was dreaming but I wasn't. It took me a minute to remember that he was fine and up in Fort Nelson.

Fear is an interesting thing. Things are rarely as bad as we expect them to be.

The wind has speeded up. My ivy is shaking and so are the power lines. I think I will just turn up Janis Joplin and draw the drapes and keep sewing all these components for my next show.

I am ready for the worst!