Loading the Globes

The piano is here and I spent most of the day trying to learn to play John Lennon's song "Imagine".

And then I was looking at the piano and some of my art that is starting to crawl into the main living area at Sweethaven. The domes peaked out somewhere near the buffet. They migrated to the top of the piano waiting to be loaded. Art out of storage once again.

I am so tired this week. Cancer seems like nothing but a weight over my being.

I woke up and just missed Tim. The energetic buzz we were before cancer knocked us both over. Our sensuality. The purposefulness of raising our family and connecting.
We talked about how hard we both tried to make this work and be happy and that mostly that was the truth.
He said he would tell anyone who asked that we had this happy, happy marriage that allowed for growth and a real life. And time to bake bread. And that he was never bored one single day with me. I didn't know that.

This weekend I made his favourite kind of food. A chicken and garlic scape pie. A huge kale and pickled beet salad. Nice wine. Berries and mango in Grand Marnier and pepper.

He has never stopped loving the Beatles. When he gets back to Sweethaven I hope I can play "Imagine".

Globes in the sandy fish tank.

Egg and nest. Felted poly . Machine embroidery  It is opaque.

Globes on the piano waiting to be loaded with my little sculptures.

Jaw Bone

This is the jaw bone of a little newborn deer.
I saw the mother fussing over it.
It was either still born or died shortly after birth.
It had been picked up and dropped by an eagle
who had torn it's belly open,

Sad. Precious. But the way of nature that I am learning more in the
forest on this little island.

Some things, no matter how sweet, simply don't survive.

These little bones will be sent to the painter, Corey Matthews. She and I exchange these things.
She was trained as a biologist. But she paints beautifully.

I need to document my bone collection. I have so many. Started as a child when I was digging for fossils
while spending weekends with my grandparents near Drumheller.

Still born baby Black Tail Deer jawbone and teeth. Size of a five dollar bill torn in half.

Nap Time

The Elf and her Uncle Brendan take a long nap after chasing the ducks all day.

Woodland Palette

Inspiration from fallen logs, lichen and bark markings.

Walls for Ideas

Samples Patricia Chauncey Sweethaven Studio Wall June 2014

Web

Imprinted forever.
with ruby smeared petals

Touch ever single fiber.
Follow lingering twists.
Wrap and loop.

Spiders shoot fluid
that will be woven into
a home then shake
the very connection.

The stickiest labyrinth.

Wrap small morsels
for tomorrow.
and suckle into paper shells
what was there once.

Creatures in Domes. Patricia Chauncey 2000-2012

Checklist

Checklist of bad things I do:
No commitment to solutions.

1. Pretend to be listening when I am noticing patterns on the floor.

2. Eat fries.

3. Swear. Too much. Like a dock worker. Still...

4. Bite thread. Always.

5. Slurp Bloody Mary's. Only when it gets past the ice.

6. Read upside down and backwards and snoop when other people are writing notes.
A habit learned in detentions while in school.

7. Check for clean toilets. My toilets are always clean.

8. Sniff people I like. I know! Sick.

9. Threaten my ducks. And take it personally when they stand and look at me or ignore me.

10. Read Pinterest.

11. Read my horoscope. Every single day. And I know there is no science there at all. It is like a little guide. I like I do. No like. Don't do.

12. Keep myself awake to listen to European news. Or watch the night sky.

13. Have this arrogant thing. I hate when Tim does it. I am more arrogant than he is.

14. I have a bad temper that only comes out at people I really love. Or at the evening news.

15. Plot out activities and do none of them. Make lists and ignore them. Plan menus and order in.

16. Eat shrimp even though I know it will give me itchy hives.

17. Tell little lies to my granddaughter. Her shoes are not lost. I just don't want to go out for the twentieth effing walk. Her shoes are on the bookshelf

18. Forget birthdays of everyone except for those who don't care enough to return the favour.

19. Brag about my kids. Because they are the best that were ever born. Ever.

20. Have a sense of entitlement about love. Love fiercely. (Tim loves me fiercely and tells me that it is because he can take me for granted. He means it. And he does!)

21. Cry. I used to be so hard assed. Now I cry when other people are crying or when I am telling people something important. Or at lost socks from the laundry.

Chauvet Caves

Went with Jen Osh to see Werner Hertzog's movie about the Chauvet Caves.

The film was so delicious. The knowledge it allows us. Sacrifice. Fundamental need. Tribal interaction.
Desire to communicate and create. Celebration. Fear. Awe. Tentative victory. Sensuality. Forcse of nature.
All there. All recorded in time 58,000 years ago.

I love caves, rock paintings, found stone tablets, shards and broken pottery. Remnants of the long past.
Stories not really known but reflected through object in such a moving way.

This film captures our overwhelming need to control and understand that which doesn't belong to us.
All revealed by a rocks that hid this chamber for nearly 60,000 years.

Chauvet Cave images that were scratched into the soft mud. Hidden for more than 50,000 years.