phantsythat

avast Crow

2012-01-31T22:53:00.000-04:00

A group of Crow's unusual friends stopped by earlier today to carry him off on a winter cruise. Before he left he mentioned a few things about pirates it's not currently fashionable to know even though there's always been something romantic about the idea of piracy.

We've long been told by those who control information that pirates were thieves, yet the truth is far more complex. Sailors aboard Royal Naval ships and merchant marine vessels were some of the sorriest men alive, 'caught in a machine from which there was no escape, bar desertion, incapacitation, or death' as one writer of the day put it. Many of them were press ganged into service, many were debt slaves or had been criminalized after losing their farms when the English Commons were abolished.

As the great fleets discovered and annexed previously unknown lands many dispossessed people the world over became desperate. The merchant ships of the 17th and 18th Centuries were the engines of the emerging global capitalism but the seamen were totally excluded from the wealth they worked to generate. The decision to 'turn pirate' was a choice made to wrestle back some autonomy, and when they did, life on a ship changed dramatically. Officers were democratically elected. Food was shared equally among men of all ranks. When booty was collected the Captain only took two shares where the lowest took one - income differentials that would make a modern CEO faint. Loss of a limb aboard would be met with a payment of around $30k in today's money - an amazing form of early health insurance.

It could be said that far from being simple thieves, pirates were perhaps the original anti-capitalist protesters. The reason they were hunted down and suffered savage public executions was because the powers of the day were petrified of the consequences of the pirates' ethos. One hundred years before the French Revolution it was pirates who coined the phrase 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'.

Of course, piracy in those days was hardly all fun and games but they were hard times for most people everywhere. We're not often brutalized, beaten, or left unpaid, but our lives are no less reduced, narrowed, and restrained by powerful forces far beyond our control. Wouldn't it be nice to see the Jolly Roger raised again to restore to life some democracy, some fairness, and perhaps a little merriment too?

Avast Crow. I hope you enjoy the warm sea breeze off the shores of far Tortuga.
♡

make room for dada

2012-01-27T13:56:00.000-04:00

Either Dadaism is still alive and well in Halifax or this is what happened to the Haligonian Occupy movement. I'm not sure when the installation was placed (and no one has taken credit) but we discovered it late last year and I kept forgetting to carry my camera until this morning. Oddly enough nobody has bothered to remove these strange characters from the fenced off old factory pit close to the center of the city. I'm glad because I think it looks better every time I see it. Dadaism had only one rule: Follow no rules. It self-destructed when it was in danger of becoming acceptable. Maybe the Occupiers are hiding out at Cabaret Voltaire til spring.

No wonder SOPA and PIPA disappeared without too much trouble. ACTA was signed by President Obama last October.

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
~ Douglas Adams

making things for no reason

2012-01-23T17:26:00.001-04:00

How time flies. Every so often I need to get away from the paper, pencils, pens, and paints but that rarely means I don't do anything. It would appear I have a compulsive personality. I know you probably already guessed that. Continuing with my recent interest in making small containers I spent the better part of a week working on this little thing - and it is little at 3½ inches in diameter and a bit more than 2 inches tall when looked at from the side.

Several weeks before we left Portland I realized I had to deal with the silk dyes I'd mixed for painting since they were all stored in glass jars and bottles that couldn't be packed for the move. I also had a lot of extra white silk pieces. So jar by jar and bottle by bottle I used up all the mixed colors. I wish now I'd taken a picture of my living room floor covered in newspaper, plastic sheets, and everything I could find to use as clotheslines to dry all the bits. It's pretty funny in retrospect. Once they'd all been dried, steamed, washed, dried again and ironed I ended up with a large number of brightly hued scraps for future projects. So here is one of them - cut, stitched, padded, beaded, and every inch was a puzzle to ponder. The inside top is the opposite side of the flower on the front. The inside bottom is padded thick red silk.

I did happen to learn about someone far more motivated than me. Have you ever heard of Baldassare Forestierre? In 1906 he bought land near Fresno CA where he hoped to start a farm. Unfortunately, the land was too dry but rather than give up the idea he began digging. Over the course of the next 40 years he carefully carved out 10,000 square feet of underground living space that included living rooms, studies, bedrooms, a chapel, a fish pond, and a network of gardens, trees and trellises all by hand and without architectural training. He'd been a subway digger in New York. The caverns are supported by Roman arches, columns and domes - many of which are capped by skylights to let in the light. He used only a pick and a shovel and worked at it in his spare time. Now that's what I call true dedication.

I've moved too many times to manage that particular devotion but I appreciate the hearts of those whose happiness lies in making the world just a little more beautiful for no particular reason at all.

Why not?
♡

Crow in solidarity

2012-01-17T18:30:00.000-04:00

Seeking to send Washington a big message Crow will join Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, Graham Hancock, Boingboing, and many others by not posting on Wednesday January 18th. Susan will not be blacking out her blog since she's entirely unsure that

1. anybody would notice
2. that she might never figure out how to undo a blackout

but it's kind of important to pay attention to this stuff. You can check out the news here or just watch the video if you haven't seen it yet.

Over the weekend the Stop Online Piracy Act legislation was delayed as 'outstanding concerns' needed to be addressed. This doesn't mean the law has been defeated but only that it could return once a consensus has been reached. That's why many sites will participate in a scheduled blackout tomorrow.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, Crow swears he isn't going to be soused and falling off his perch, that he will instead be enjoying the sober company of his friends:

♡

this and that

2012-01-13T18:16:00.001-04:00

While looking for something else I never did find (isn't it always the way?) I came across a number of little heads I'd sewn years ago for a doll making project. I did make a couple of dozen little ladies as gifts for friends but never used all the heads. Not feeling like drawing I decided instead to see if I could use the faces as part of the design for small hand-made boxes. Using the front and back of a cereal box, some extra pieces of scarf silk I'd dyed, as well as some glue, this is what I've come up with in the past couple of days of sometimes cold, sometimes snowy, sometimes rainy but always winter weather. It's an octagon 2.5 inches across, 2 inches tall and silky inside and out.

While my hands were busy I couldn't help but come up with some random thoughts about this and that in the news and round about. Here are some in no particular order:

Although you can send most anything anywhere it costs more, takes longer and it's getting harder to find a post office or a mailbox.

Some people can't afford fuel to heat their homes but if they're lucky enough to live in a gas fracking zone they can warm up by turning on the kitchen tap and flicking a match.

Cities can be reached by superhighways and space age bridges but neighborhood streets aren't being repaired.

If a good size storm comes along and washes out the road to your town the government might decide your town wasn't worth visiting anyway.

In some places not only are the streetlights out but they pulled out the poles to save on vandalism and people calling to report the lights are off.
corollary: You may buy a new gadget on sale but you could be carrying it home in the dark.

Many cities have purchased folding buses that are almost too big to go around corners. By the time you walk back to your seat the front of the bus has arrived at your stop.

Apartment building common areas are no longer being heated but management tells you the fans blowing cold air in from outside is a 'feature'. Remember to wear heavy clothing while using the laundry room.

On the plus side, zipper technology is better. I remember a time as a kid when I thought I might spend the rest of my life in my snowsuit.

Atlantis - An inconvenient truth from Simon Prager on Vimeo.

Now I have to go and find a box to put my box in.
♡

passing time

2012-01-10T23:58:00.004-04:00

This is an example from a series of photographs called 'Back to the Future' taken by the very skilled photographer from Buenos Aires, Irina Werning. There are too many for me to post here but if you drop by the site I'm sure you'll be as delighted as I was to see the amazing care she's taken to replicate as exactly as possible pictures taken of people many years ago. The remarkable similarities go a long way to show our looks don't really change as much as we might think.

It seems she began the project when ZeFrank offered a contest called 'Young Me Now Me' for a book they were planning. Some of the pictures there are neat but nothing quite up to Irina's obsessive standards. Still, it might be fun to try. All you do is find a photo from when you were young and recreate it as closely as possible. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
♡

time out

2011-12-28T23:52:00.002-04:00

Hmph. The Solstice is over, Christmas is over, even Boxing Day is over so why isn't it spring yet? It's still quite dark by 4:30 in the afternoon, a situation that leaves me little daylight for getting all those daytime chores done and still have a few hours of natural light for painting. What could be going on?

Is time really speeding up? If you take a little time touring the internet under the search 'time speeding up', you'll find many sites dedicated to 2012 and very few linked to any sort of science. However, I did run into one theory related to quantum physics about the Schumann resonances. Wikipedia describes them as a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum that are global resonances excited by lightning discharges in the area between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere. According to Wiki the planet has had a relatively stable resonance of 7.8 cycles per second for thousands of years. It's been likened to the heartbeat of Earth. Fine. So what could that have to do with time speeding up?

According to many 2012 websites the pulse of the Schumann resonance began to speed up around 1980 and has been measured at 12 cycles per second. That would mean that although there are still 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour etc. that time as we experience it has actually been moving faster. If that's true then we're all actually spending just 16 hours instead of 24 hours getting all the things we need to get done in a day. What an amazing and unlikely claim that seemed to be. If it were true it would be spring by now and that is patently not the case. By then I was sure I wasn't alone in believing there are some people with too much time on their hands. What will they all do for fun when 12.21.12 arrives and nothing happens? Well, nothing obvious anyway..

Perhaps Father Time in this wonderful painting by Edmund Dulac might have a bottle containing a little extra time for me. I'm willing to share. Meanwhile here's another take on time:

UN TOUR DE MANEGE from alexis liddell on Vimeo.

♡

kliban's Cattitude

2011-12-22T13:30:00.002-04:00

This picture, the last on our 2011 calendar, has always been one of my favorites. Cat is alone but content skating figure eights under a clear nighttime sky with the promise of light and warmth in the near distance. You can call me sentimental but that was in truth a rarity for Kliban during his life.

The Cat illustrations were for him doodles he made when he was attempting to realize one of the more bizarre and ironic images that appeared most often in Playboy magazine. (Don't worry, we didn't read it, just looked at the pictures.) He routinely savaged sacred cows, apparently staying up nights on end to see just how far he could force an idea that would still be interpretable to the rest of us. The results, as he incited philosophers to loot small towns and pretty women to fix their makeup in the mirror of a blind man's dark glasses were always fascinating, darkly funny and never comforting.

It seems to me that such a gifted artist, one who struggled with the perceptions coming from the dark side of his psyche, was very involved in uncovering essential truths about our plight as human beings. Another favorite of his cartoons shows a fakir settling down on a bed of nails while saying, 'It only hurts when I exist.' When Kliban died in 1990, a great many people never realized the world had lost a twisted and irreplaceable visionary.

Perhaps you're already familiar with his 'other than Cat' cartoons and you may even own a copy of 'Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head' or 'The Biggest Tongue In Tunisia'. They are wonderfully irreverent and well worth your attention if you haven't seen them for a while. Yet I still get the feeling that even though he dismissed the Cat drawings, refusing to be interviewed about them even after they became wildly popular, that in them he'd found a universal truth. There's a poignant and transcendent quality to them that speaks of finding light even in the deepest dark.

I was relieved to get our 2012 Kliban cat calendar in the mail a few days ago. Yes, there are many other calendars out there - probably too many - but if you need to have a selection of rambling, playful, hedonistic, and somewhat sadistic cat images on your kitchen wall to make the place seem like home then nothing else will do.

Happy Solstice.
♡

lost and found

2011-12-18T23:03:00.001-04:00

It turns out there's an urban art form I'd never heard about until very recently. Next time I go for a walk I'm definitely taking a few posters with me.

Lost: Elephant
Color - Greyish
Size - Largeish
Looks - Like an elephant
Last seen - Halifax area
When - Not for a bit
Answers to - this

(**)

traveling slow with Crow

2011-12-14T16:56:00.000-04:00

So where has Susan been lately you may wonder, or probably not. What happened is that some time ago I decided I should come up with a picture of my own for every new post and more often than not whatever interesting subject I'd considered important enough or silly enough to write about got lost while I was in the process of coming up with a suitable drawing. Frequently the drawings got lost as well. Thank goodness whether or not the world continues to revolve doesn't count on me for its impetus.

This time I'd been thinking about trains and how much more sense they make as the most civilized mode of overland travel left. Once the United States had the world's biggest and best rail system, and Canada's wasn't far behind. Quite a few people still alive today remember the days when fast, efficient rail service connected all but the very smallest towns in America. This is still true for many other countries in the world and we hope they may return. Goodness knows the opportunity to experience beauty and relaxation should trump speed in a better world.

Crow loves to travel in comfort and style so I thought you'd like to see a picture of him as he departed from the Halifax Train Station on his way to visit some old friends before the northern winter takes hold. He'll be back before Christmas and asked me to wish all of you well while he's away.

As for me, I promise to try posting a bit more often even if it's necessary to back off on my idea of completing a drawing for every post. Now I'd better go and make sure Crow's stock of brandy and fruitcake are sufficient for his return.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
~Lao Tzu

sharing lunch

2011-12-06T16:48:00.000-04:00

Some things you just have to show because if simply described there's no way you'd believe the sight. Ever since it began to get cold around here I've been carrying a little sack of peanuts with me whenever we take our walk in Point Pleasant Park. A mile or two along the wooded pathways we have a favorite spot where there's a bench near a rocky outcrop that overlooks the water and the south shore. Usually, well before we reach the spot, a local crow or two will have noted our presence and will start cawing to alert his friends to our arrival. I toss peanuts around the area and then we sit to watch what happens.

Generally, one crow will stay on a branch of a nearby tree while several others land to grab the nuts. For some reason there's always one among them, invariably the biggest one, who takes the first turn and picks up as many as he can find all at once. Often he'll have such a load in his beak that the last ones will fall out but he remains persistent and won't fly away with his hoard until he's sure he can hold no more. I can't tell you how hilarious it looks to see a crow looking like he has a mouthful of big yellowish teeth so I drew a picture. The other crows never seem to mind and just let him get on with his business.

Meanwhile, a little squirrel who lives nearby patiently waits his turn. Squirrels around here are the smallest I've ever seen and this one is always careful about not getting too close to the larger birds. I always save a few nuts for him just in case he misses out on the first feast. A few days ago he came all the way over to the bench where he stood up on his hind legs to ask for his share.

Life is good.
♡

december

2011-12-03T23:27:00.000-04:00

                                         If Spring is a season of rebirth,
                                         Summer a time of happiness,
                                         And Autumn a time of abundance,
                                         Then Winter is a season of reflection and memory.
                                         Winter is a season of the mind.

                                         In skeletal trees and frozen earth,
                                         We visualize leaves, grass and flowers,
                                         And remember birds and bright winged butterflies.
                                         In Winter we recollect things we've lost and hope to find.
                                         Winter concentrates the mind.

♡

sunday with Crow

2011-11-27T18:16:00.001-04:00

I thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of Crow relaxing in his sanctum earlier today when I carried in our tea and a package of dark chocolate digestive biscuits to share. Such small luxuries can make grand occasions of life and we enjoyed some conversation about the world as it is and as it used to be. It seems to both of us that although the past is gone and much about it is best forgotten there are still many things to learn and carry into the future.

Crow likes to surround himself with some of the artifacts he's collected over the course of a very long life. Naturally, some of them he left in place because even though they were originally dedicated to him and his friends moving them would have been impossible as well as rude.

You'll probably laugh as I did when he told me that Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun weren't such bad guys to hang around with once you got to know them. He made a good point when he mentioned that at least they did their massacring, raping and pillaging right up front rather than being sneaky and dishonest about their activities and real motives.

Some of his happiest memories are of the times he spent in company with William Morris who was worried about English society for similar reasons we worry about our own culture now. He said that, in a "true society", where neither luxuries nor cheap trash were made, machinery could be improved and used to reduce the hours of labour. Rather than the clamor made by futurists for faster machines, progress, capitalism, competition and the creation of wealth Morris thought the function of the machine should be to free workers from drudgery rather than displace them. His aim was to create as much beauty as he and his associates could for as many people as they could. It's strange to think that in our own times there's no designer, politician or industrialist who would dare to make concrete proposals for improving the lives of ordinary people.

After a happy autumn spent watching and participating in OWS events we were saddened about the feeding frenzy we heard about this past Black Friday. People get confused and desperate, all the more so when they're being told the only hope for the economy to rise, and perhaps for their jobs to return, is that they max out their credit cards. Crow mentioned it wasn't unlike the peasants rushing to the bakeries to buy cake just before the French Revolution. I have a feeling Occupy will return with the spring flowers..

It wouldn't be a surprise to any of us to see a world economy based on the false premise of infinite supplies of fossil fuel grind to a serious slowdown in the near future and there's no doubt there'll be trouble. It's more than likely we'll see a near future where 2012 is just another date on the calendar, the Singularity is forgotten as people figure out how to grow vegetables on their balconies and keep chickens in the extra bathroom, and the Rapture leaves everyone behind. Then again, as Crow said today there's always the possibility that in the longterm a larger world will be more comfortable for everyone.

We'll just have to wait and see - or at least Crow will.

dream(drēm)n

2011-11-23T00:14:00.000-04:00

dream(drēm)n. from Mary Lai on Vimeo.

It's unlikely I'll ever make a video myself but I'm very impressed with the wonderful effects that can be made to happen using only the simplest of materials - and a good knowledge of computer arts. I found this one very recently and rather than leave it where it was I thought I'd post it here for you to see.

This is a story about a blackbird who lives quite a miserable life whether awake or asleep. How he deals with his situation is what the movie is about.

I'm sure Crow would approve.

it's that time again

2011-11-19T23:53:00.001-04:00

Between bites of dinner this evening I ventured out onto our cold 7th floor balcony to snap a few pictures of the Festival of Lights, Halifax's annual holiday parade. Even though my camera complained about being confused, the pictures it captured were considerably more exciting than the event itself. It's the kind of parade that nobody would go out to see if it happened in daylight. Trucks, buses, the Harbor Hopper, and even the Purolator delivery van covered in Christmas lights drove by in slow procession, each and every one playing 1950's holiday music at the loudest possible volumes their freshly installed sound systems would allow.

If you can imagine Brenda Lee singing 'Rockin Around the Christmas Tree' bumper to bumper with Gene Autry's version of 'Frosty the Snowman' closely followed by Chubby Checker doing 'The Jingle Bell Rock' I'm sure you'll get the gist. I can hardly bear to mention listening to the combination of Burl Ives 'Holly Jolly Christmas' and Bing's 'White Christmas' when a traffic jam stranded them out front for ten minutes. Do you ever wonder why it is that popular Christmas music seems frozen in an earlier time?

Anyway, the pictures are kind of neat in a weird way. Between my shivering and the moving vehicles it actually looks like a high tech art event. Who knows? Maybe they'll convince tons of tourists to stop by next late November. But probably not you.

Did I capture a little bokeh?

lucky to be water born

2011-11-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

During the three hours this morning it took me to wake, drink coffee, eat breakfast, read the news, shower and get ready for a walk, humanity had extracted another 378 million barrels of crude oil, 56 million tons of coal, and 36 billion cubic feet of natural gas out of the planet’s steadily depleting reserves. I'll admit right up front the way I spent those three hours contributed to the depletion. Considering the way things are set up in the western world it's very difficult to know how to live in such a way as to not stress the environment. I hate going to big box stores or shopping malls but the fact is I've been engineered to negotiate those spaces whereas, being left to myself in the woods, I couldn't tell one mushroom from another and neither could I find my way out of a good sized park without a map and the help of a kind hearted park ranger. It's pitiful.

It was only a little more than a century ago people pretty much lived in harmony with nature's ability to resupply our natural resources; essentially, work was done by human labor in concert with animals when extra strength was required and power for grinding grain was done by water and wind mills. I wouldn't last a month in that world. Nevertheless, what did happen was the discovery of the planet's non-renewable resources and the serious mistake that was made was to treat them like they were infinite.

Even if I had the inclination I couldn't afford to buy land, tools, seeds, or any of the other multitude of things required to start a farm. If you're interested in the adventures of someone who actually did make a serious try at it please go over to Gfid's blog North of Sanity where she's been describing a time more than 30 years ago when Canada still had some free land on offer. Her experience provides a very entertaining story about what most of us city bred types could hardly imagine doing.

What I am good for is doing all the things we're able to do with the support of modern conveniences. I can cook, clean, read, write, drive, draw, and even ride a bicycle. What I can't do is figure out how to save the world for future generations to enjoy, but if anything is ever going to change for the better, I think alienation is a good place to start. There's a lot worth being alienated from. You don't have to be ashamed of feeling alienated by a world filled with evil, stupidity, greed, and injustice. We've all fallen into the world as it is but if our children's children are to be free, maybe imagining a different world - a world in which we would feel at home - is a good place to start.

Keep smiling.
♡

little distractions

2011-11-01T17:53:00.001-03:00

Before I say another thing I want to tell you just how grateful I have been for your wonderful and heartfelt reactions to my sad announcement that my friend had died. There are some people we encounter who actually define our lives by their presence in the world. Inger was and is one of those very rare individuals.

I finished this painting a couple of weeks ago and had been planning to show it to you in a new post at the time. Now it's the first and only thing I have available to show you at all so that's what I'll do. It's far from one of my best efforts but, even though the message isn't clear (even to me), it at least changed in mood from the drawing done in late summer when I was thinking about reflections. This one is more about the distractions that appear just as we're on the cusp of some momentous understanding. It seems to me that our lives are often more about the little things that distract us while we imagine we're making our way to larger goals.

There have been many interesting developments these past weeks in the world at large and I'm sure Crow will have a few things to say when he returns. Meanwhile, I'll gather my thoughts and my pencils and will make an effort to be verbal again.

Much love to you all.

♡

you say good-bye

2011-10-24T23:40:00.004-03:00

It was just a week ago I got word that one of my closest friends had died quite suddenly and most unexpectedly. A few days earlier we'd spent an hour on the phone talking about whatever occurred to us as the clouds blew past our separate windows on our shared planet. There were never planned times for talking but every so often it would occur to one or the other of us that it would be a fine time to hear the other's voice. Our conversations, Inger's and mine, were more like duets of love, laughter and shared impressions of whatever was occurring in that moment or something we'd seen or noticed previously suddenly remembered.

When I first met her in Montreal she was a master weaver from Sweden. Years later she had become a Sufi living in Philadelphia teaching peace and loving kindness. More than that it's almost impossible to describe the 40 years we shared.

Yes, I've mourned her absence this past week and will for a long time to come. Here on Earth Inger was the most gracious and beautiful person I've ever known but, all in all and all things considered, there was no one more prepared to step away at a moment's notice. I will love her always.

May the long time sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide you all the way on. *

♡

from A Very Cellular Song by the Incredible String Band

addendum November 7th: I received this beautiful memorial from Inger's husband this morning and felt it should be added to the post:

From Qadir Bibi's husband, Rick Asma'el:

Her leaving was a loss for everyone who knew her. It has been almost 3 weeks since she left, and not a day goes by that I am not sobbing at the fact that never again in this life will I be able to hear her voice and touch her hand and be awed by the gentle light-love upon her face and in her heart.

But she loves God and even in the last hour of her life, she was urging me to trust in Him more than in the doctors who worked so hard to help her. She taught me Love, taught me to trust it and to give it unhesitatingly and fearlessly. Our Sheikh, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, is the light of our hearts and Souls; Qadir Bibi's love within my heart is now inseparable from God's love and wisdom.

She has not gone from my life, but has entered another room in my heart; just as she has entered another room in her Soul-life. My prayer for her is that her intention for surrender to God is accepted and that she becomes comnplete Divine Light, then returns to all our hearts and own love.

I mourn her passing, I miss her every moment, but I am immensely grateful to have had 18 years to love her and to be loved by her.

She would not have us grieve. What she would say is, "Do not miss me, but love each other as God loves you." She would say it humbly and mean it and this is her beauty.

r-evolutionary Crow

2011-10-13T23:42:00.001-03:00

Naturally, Crow couldn't bear sitting around in his library once he heard about OWS so he's gone off to the festivities. Sometimes I get a bit jealous of his ability to flit across world borders without even so much as a passport. Now that he's been there for a couple of days he's sent a list of his favorite sign slogans to share with you. He promised to bring me a t-shirt just like the one he's wearing so long as I remember to save him some brandy.

I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

The evolution will not be terrorized.

Support your local police - Beat Yourself up.

You'd be home by now - if you lived in your car.

Screw us and we multiply.

You're damn right it's our business.

Too broke to fail.

Class war is the best war.

If the system is corrupt, how could reform be the answer?

1% is the loneliest number that you've ever seen.

You can't arrest an idea.

Let's bring on Ayn Rand's nightmare.

NYPD is a layoff away from joining us.

When tyranny is law, revolution is order.

Obama 2012 - Excuses we can believe in.

The beginning is near.

Lost my job, found an occupation.

Growth economics is a suicide cult.

Respect existence or expect resistance.

Due to recent budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Too big has failed.

Man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.

-William Shakespeare

So have you heard any good ones he missed?
:-)

unrealistic utopia

2011-10-11T17:38:00.002-03:00

During my wanderings of the internets recently I found this example of a relatively inexpensive housing project that's under construction somewhere outside of Houston. The idea is to use 500 shipping containers outfitted with solar panels and other green technologies as affordable housing for whoever feels like experimenting with a different community lifestyle. My first thought was that it looks a lot like the Alamo and would probably be just as easily defended but to what purpose is anybody's guess - except perhaps as a retreat during the zombie apocalypse. The executives in charge of the Hive project describe it thus:

The containers will be easily affordable for working artists and creative professionals. Rents will range from $300 to $500 a month, and purchase prices from $10,000 to $50,0000, depending on how built out the container is — many of the containers will be offered as just shells with electricity and plumbing to give tenants creative freedom in their design. A variety of tenant uses will be offered in the square 288-container perimeter, including office, studio, retail, restaurant, entertainment, and residential. The goal is to have everything a regular village has: a farmers’ market, a veterinarian clinic, a daycare, a health clinic, recycling centers, art studios, coffee shops and more.

On the one hand it's kind of a cool idea but there are a few problems that immediately occurred to me and its sustainability is certainly questionable. For one thing, it's going to be built miles away from town on 6.5 wooded acres of land. Cars won't be allowed inside the perimeter but I saw no mention of grocery store, school, post office, movie theater, roller rink, museum, or any place where someone might go to earn a living. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to place such a development close to where people already live? If they built it instead on some huge area of urban blight or rehabilitated the soils of an abandoned industrial complex and placed it there sustainability would be much more realistic.

Oh, nevermind. Let's just watch a little movie I found instead.

In The Fall from Steve Cutts on Vimeo.

Ishmael and Crow

2011-10-05T16:02:00.002-03:00

Since it originally became very popular in 1992, it's pretty likely Daniel Quinn's book 'Ishmael' is old news to you. I'm sure I passed it by any number of times during my weekly sojourns to Powell's in Portland but one day last week when Crow was going through some documents he came across a picture taken of him and his old friend years ago. We talked about Ishmael's views regarding how humanity divided into two distinct groups about 10,000 years ago when agriculture first gained a foothold around the fertile crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The people who elected to stay in one place to farm the land Ishmael called Takers while the ones who preferred to continue their wandering ways he identified as Leavers.

Although his theory is valid, it's somewhat oversimplified for my taste and understanding about the general history of that period. It was just about 10,000 years ago that the last Ice Age ended quickly and produced a climate change significant enough to make food gathering much more difficult than it had previously been. The change to farming rather than following the herds while gathering what edibles could be found among the trees, grasses and tubers produced by nature was very difficult. Archeologists have determined from skeletal remains that the early generations born among the first farmers were noticeably smaller than their hunter-gatherer cousins. However, this soon changed and before long the farmer society formed divisions in its make-up we'd recognize today. Soon there were kings and standing armies to defend the land they had and grab as much more as they could defend. We can well understand that over the course of time the Leavers became more and more marginalized, until today when there aren't many left.

“It's the idea that people living close to nature tend to be noble. It's seeing all those sunsets that does it. You can't watch a sunset and then go off and set fire to your neighbor's tepee. Living close to nature is wonderful for your mental health.”

There's no doubt that the hardships endured by those early farmers has led to the benefits many of us take for granted today but the fact remains that our headlong rush toward continuing 'progress' has brought us to the brink of planetary climate disaster. The first Industrial Revolution began with the use of fossil fuels and since then we've discovered how to dig deeper for minerals, fish the oceans with larger nets, divert rivers with ever bigger dams and canals, appropriate more habitats of other species and cut down forests with more powerful land clearing equipment. One day last week Earth Overshoot day passed pretty much unnoticed but every year it happens a bit earlier that we exceed our annual use of the world's natural resources. It's the kind of debt the bank can't forgive even if was of a mind to do so.

“We're not destroying the world because we're clumsy. We're destroying the world
because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it.”

I see the Occupy Wall St. movement as another harbinger of a growing world-wide movement for a change in the way we live on Earth. It may not be articulated as such but people need something to work for rather than laboring to produce more and more useless stuff from dwindling supplies. Better to do nothing rather than dig one more oil well in deep water or pave one more wetland for a big box store full of goods most of us neither need nor can afford. Now that unemployment has reached massive proportions many of us are already learning to live with less than we thought we needed. Understanding that true wealth lies in a new era of progress without growth might be a smaller step than we realize. The Transition Movement is already gaining some ground in building healthy communities with thriving economies and healthy natural environments.

It's not my habit to write long posts and this one is already quite big enough so I'll end with a final favorite quote from Ishmael:

“If the world is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.”

Yesterday I saw some people carrying an Occupy Halifax sign. ♡

space race

2011-09-29T14:41:00.000-03:00

Alpha from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

When the space programs were in their earliest incarnations I always felt sorry for the dogs and other animals who were sent up in rocket ships never to return to earth. Poor Alpha has been captured and coerced into participating but although the results might not surprise you I think you'll find his journey to astronaut status as amusing as I did.

There are some truly amazing animation studios around these days proving that not all new art is bad.

Far from it.

♡

golden age masters

2011-09-26T23:38:00.001-03:00

Longer ago than I prefer to remember my parents acquired all 51 volumes of the original Harvard Classics, works of literature that were considered by the then president of the university to be essential reading for an educated person circa 1909. In the late '50's I was far too young to be fascinated by Aristotle, Dante, Hobbes, Shakespeare, or Voltaire, to name but a few, but Volume 17 was a different story. In it were all of the original stories of Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen which I got to read before stories like Snow White or Beauty and The Beast were Disneyfied.

It's quite likely nobody reads them anymore but even after all this time I still remember Andersen as one of my favorite writers of children's literature. Unlike Aesop and the Grimm's collected fairy tales he actually wrote the stories published under his name. Many of them are just a little too ironic to be labeled as classic fairy tales with the pre-supposed happy endings the term implies. His stories are more complex and the resolutions don't depend on the type of magic fairy stories usually rely on. Rather than spells and transformations Andersen allows readers to draw magic from the edges of our own imaginations.

Among my favorites is the Little Mermaid, a coming of age story about a mermaid princess who discovers the world above the waters and becomes obsessed by a human prince she saves from drowning. Tragically, she discovers that her current form makes her unsuitable to love a prince and, worse still, that she has no soul. To satisfy her dreams she must become human but only by winning the love of the prince will she gain an immortal soul. (The 'Christian' in Andersen's name was not without meaning.)

A sea witch crone gives her a potion that will change her fish tail into legs but irony dictates her every step is at the cost of continuous pain. The potion has also made her mute - a tragic loss for a siren whose ability to sing defines her identity. Her grace and beauty attracts the prince to love her as a sister, but not enough to recognize her as the girl who saved his life. Now she experiences a double irony since her sacrifice allows her to be close to him but unable to close the gap between them.

Meanwhile, family politics arrange for the prince to be betrothed to another princess, a girl so beautiful that when he meets her he becomes convinced it was she who rescued him. The little mermaid now has come to a dilemma. She has neither union with the prince nor can she she return to being a mermaid. Doomed to spend the rest of her life in pain, she will eventually die without an immortal soul. Andersen doesn't let it happen by supplying a twist wherein the mermaid’s sisters sacrificed their beautiful hair in exchange for a knife she can use to kill the prince and end the sea witch’s spell. In the end, Christian morality wins and the mermaid, who can't bring herself to murder the man she loves, kills herself by jumping into the sea and merging, as mermaids do, into its foam.

In the original story Andersen let it end there, but his editors wouldn't allow such a tragic conclusion to a story meant for children. He introduced air spirits. By becoming one, the little mermaid can serve as a guide for the proper behaviour of children and if she does her job well, will be able to earn an immortal soul. I don't know about you but I prefer the irony of the original ending.

Edmund Dulac, my favorite of the Golden Age illustrators, created some very beautiful paintings for this classic story. I hope you've enjoyed seeing them as much as I always do. Now I'm going back to re-read The Snow Queen which I once thought of illustrating myself just to see if I could.

♡

a walk with Crow

2011-09-23T11:40:00.008-03:00

This morning as susan and I strolled along the beach she mentioned that my absence from her blog had been noted. This is true and I do apologize if this has caused any consternation. The fact is I've been sequestered in my library for long hours in a vainglorious attempt to write a book for my animal friends on the subject of human intelligence. After copious rewrites the only thing I have to show is a pamphlet. Yes, yes you people have made huge strides in all sorts of ways that benefit you - I won't argue that. Yet I wonder who among you wouldn't agree, if asked to take my point of view, that so much of this achievement has a hollow ring. Let me spell out a few of my concerns for you in brief.

You'd think, given a planet that's 70% covered in water and 10% covered by mountains, deserts, and snow covered wastelands in a solar system with no other habitable biospheres that people would be careful of the real estate. You'd think they'd develop an intelligent approach to land use. You'd think they wouldn't fight stupid little wars over useful areas of terrain, wouldn't deploy weapons and energy generating systems that could render the land useless for human and animal habitation for centuries to come. You wouldn't think they'd knowingly pollute their water with poisons. You wouldn't think they'd fill the air with chemicals and the crops with genetically modified pesticides - what you call a pest is dinner to many of my friends. You'd never imagine a sensible race would chop down forests and pave the continents with asphalt and pipelines. Well, you wouldn't, would you?

The worst effects of human depredations could be overcome if you acted in concert to live in harmony with your environment as all other animals do. The trouble is that many of you aren't able to come to this conclusion on your own. The birds I've spoken with have told me you interpret their cries as simple bad temper rather than the urgent communication about danger they've been trying to establish.

We may have come up with a solution. Not only have the birds been studying you but now the parrots who have lived closely enough with humans to learn your languages have returned to the wild to teach the flocks how to speak. Perhaps when the day of reckoning comes it won't be zombie armies or hordes of robot warriors bearing deadly cleaning implements. Instead, you may witness the cockatoo apocalypse when millions of birds the world over stand outside your windows to shout:

I bid you a temporary farewell as I retire once more to my library with a fresh pot of espresso, an old fruitcake, and a snifter of Remy. This search of my files for anecdotes about human intelligence is a trying procedure. Meanwhile, susan has agreed to forward any remarks you see fit to leave for my attention.

Salutations, dear friends.

☀

surface details

2011-09-19T17:15:00.000-03:00

Just in case you've been wondering what I've been up to lately here are a couple of the sketches I've been playing with in the past couple of days. Neither of them is actually done or even close to it in the finished sense but I'm tending to lean toward refining the seated lady more than the mirror woman. Both tell something of a story but the reflection on outward form and stretching time to some machine like plastic being interests me less than the contemplative aspect of the other. I'm curious about what it is the seated lady may be considering.

A long time ago I spent my painting time trying to reproduce modern versions of the work done by the 19th century watercolorists whose work I continue to admire more with passing time. Although I did come up with some interesting images I never did manage to capture the look of both innocence and wisdom I was trying to portray. It's no longer the 19th century or even the early 20th and my imagined version of the tranquility of those times is currently in abeyance. I'm not a particularly realistic person when it comes to my preferred memories or thoughts about the past but I do believe there was a time not so very long ago when mutual respect was more common. Things are going much faster now but nobody knows the ultimate destination.

I think we each must have a better world we dream about in order to allow for a better place to grow. My plan is to continue spending the time I have imagining and painting a prettier one. Whatever your skills and interests I hope you will keep on doing so too.

♡

free ride on space ship earth

2011-09-10T12:17:00.000-03:00

Camtrac from Dan Eckert on Vimeo.

Having found both of these pieces earlier in the week I thought they'd make a nice set. There have been and continue to be some people in the world whose vision is exquisitely clear. I continue to hope a little will rub off on me.

A Letter from Jack Kerouac to his Ex-Wife:

I have lots of things to teach you now,
in case we ever meet,
concerning the message that was transmitted to me
under a pine tree in North Carolina
on a cold winter moonlit night.

It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry.
It’s all like a dream.
Everything is ecstasy, inside.
We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds.
But in our true blissful essence of mind is known
that everything is alright forever and forever and forever.

Close your eyes,
let your hands and nerve-ends drop,
stop breathing for 3 seconds,
listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world,
and you will remember the lesson you forgot,
which was taught in immense milky ways
of cloudy innumerable worlds
long ago and not even at all.
It is all one vast awakened thing.
I call it the golden eternity.
It is perfect.

We were never really born,
we will never really die.
It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea
of a personal self,
other selves,
many selves everywhere,
or one universal self.

Self is only an idea, a mortal idea.
That which passes through everything, is one thing.
It’s a dream already ended.
There’s nothing from staring at mountains months on end.
They never show any expression,
they are like empty space.
Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away.
Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space,
which is the one universal essence of mind,
the one vast awakened-hood,
empty and awake,
will never crumble away because it was never born.

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.

If this is true I wonder why I tend to be tuned in to the wrong channel most of the time?
It must be the fault of gravity.
♡

the rider pauses to reflect

2011-09-07T17:08:00.000-03:00

Although the NASA space shuttle program finished its last mission this summer telescopes on earth and in space have continued to watch the stars. The scientists who operate the Kepler Space Telescope announced a bonanza of distant planets earlier this year, reconfirming that solar systems, some possibly hosting life, are common in the universe. It seems that water is very prevalent in space as are stars with solar systems - more than 700 have been discovered already.

Naturally, once we start thinking about other rocky planets similar in make-up to our own our thoughts will naturally turn to the idea there may be beings that live on them. It's true that the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence has been going on for about 50 years with the advent of SETI and its search for radio signals. Of course, it would be fascinating if beings from another civilization actually did get in touch but it seems to me even more likely that intelligent life on other planets simply has no interest in or physical ability to manipulate technology. Space is such an enormous concept that to my knowledge only investment bankers and Ben Bernanke have come up with numbers to match the distances. Does a trillion or two in debt make a few dozen light years more reasonable in our ability to understand the concept that a message to and from a distant star might take several thousand years to complete? I don't think so.

Anyway, if by some miracle we ever do get to meet an alien species, how would we hope to converse with them? Are there alien beings closer to hand with whom we could communicate? The answer is that researchers in several places in the world have been working to establish communication with dolphins - those beings who have proportionately large, sophisticated brains developed in areas linked to higher order thinking. Some studies even suggest dolphins share their own language. All are qualities we’d hope to see in an alien, and no daydream of contact is complete without imagining a conversation. Yet with dolphins, every attempt has involved teaching them to speak our language, rather than meeting in the middle.. until now:

CHAT — Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry — designed by behavioral biologist Denise Herzing's team at the Wild Dolphin Project in Florida is a device built to help humans communicate with dolphins directly. It’s a small unit worn around a diver’s neck, connected to a pair of hydrophones and a simple keyboard that can be used with one hand or a dolphin's nose. The idea is to sidestep the issue of whether dolphin ‘language’ can be translated by setting up the option of a common artificial language that both humans and dolphins could use. So far they've found that dolphins do some extremely interesting things from the standpoint of possible language. They can emit whistles and barks, use echo location, and seem to understand a basic syntax, which might indicate the difference between a statement and a question, or differentiate between a past or future tense. It would be amazing to hear how a dolphin sees the world.

Besides learning to use tools there is a very social nature to intelligence and to be social, we must be communicative. Learning about how other species on our own planet use their intelligence will eventually help us to learn more about the universe, whether we ever get to meet inhabitants from other stars or not. If the overall lesson for our lives is that we gain mutual respect for other beings on every level that would be good indeed. Looked at that way even Facebook means progress.

I like to think there are beings swimming in seas under alien suns who also wonder about the mysteries of creation. Goodness knows that's what I sometimes do when my wrist gets tired from drawing.

♡

happy new year

2011-09-04T23:34:00.001-03:00

Just this past May Paul Simon played in concert in Toronto. During the show Rayna Ford, a fan from Newfoundland, called out for Simon to play "Duncan," and said something to the effect that she learned to play guitar on the song. In a moment of astonishment and disbelief, Paul Simon invited her on stage, handed her a guitar and asked her to play it for the crowd. When she strapped on the guitar, the audience went crazy. In a few strums, the band played along, tears ran down Rayna Ford's cheeks and Simon stood by her side in smiles. It was so neat I had to show you.

It's September now, the end of summer, the Labor Day weekend, the beginning, in a way, of another new year. My two oldest friends both have birthdays coming soon - Belle's is tomorrow and Inger will see her own new year begin next week.

"You can go through life and make new friends every year - every month practically - but there was never any substitute for those friendships of youth that survive into adult years. Those are the ones in which we are bound to one another with hoops of steel."
Alexander McCall Smith - The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

It's also the fourth anniversary of Phantsythat and I'm so glad to know you.
♡

no man is an island

2011-08-30T13:03:00.000-03:00

“Let’s blow this fascist popsicle stand! Purchase a small island somewhere, and start our own country.”
– Montgomery Burns

Getting away from it all by starting a country is an interesting idea but it appears there are no spare uninhabited islands that don't already belong to some larger country that frowns on claim jumpers. Remember the entire British Navy setting sail for the Falklands? Since it's difficult, bordering on impossible, to find places that don't fall under some national jurisdiction there are those who have become enthusiastic about turning abandoned oil rigs into their own separate countries.

These ideas always seem to be presented by people who have better skills making architectural photo-shop models than they do in the real world where things tend to get messy. In fact, things already are pretty messy. Did you know there are 27,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico, many of which are already abandoned? Since I thought I'd limit this post to old oil drilling platforms as potential living spaces there's not much reason to mention that according to The American Petroleum Institute there are approximately 2.5 million abandoned oil wells in the continental US. I had to mention it because we can't solve problems we don't know about. It seems that ever since the first well was drilled in the US in 1859 the practice has been to walk away shortly thereafter. It's far from being a strictly American problem as experts in the subject have estimated there are likely to be 20-30 million of them globally. Many were wildcatted long before there were any capping techniques or regulations and far too many have never been identified. Capping has usually involved nothing more than pouring some cement down the hole and, as we know from looking at highways and bridges that haven't been continually repaired, things can go badly wrong.

Anyway, back to our abandoned oil platform home sweet home. Although I believe the concept to be fairly chimeric - how many of you would enjoy sitting on a palm tree planted oil platform during hurricane season in the Gulf? - there might be some advantages insofar as people having a reason to monitor further oil and gas leaks. The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster came as a profound shock and wake-up call last year when many of us first learned about the dangerous practice of deep water drilling. The oil industry, inarguably the wealthiest enterprise in the history of humanity, has opted to spend a small portion of its profits by influencing governments to deregulate or not enforce laws on the books. Oil and gas leaks continue to cause massive damage to the environment as a whole and to the ocean in particular.

There are so many problems in the world right now and this is a very small blog but I have to point out the old saying that ignorance of the law is no excuse under the law. It's quite obvious that the same rule should apply equally to environmental crimes. The fact is that there are no islands left where we can start again. As Bill McKibben said:

"We've built a new Earth.
It's not as nice as the old one;
It's the greatest mistake humans have ever made,
One that we will pay for literally forever.
We live on a new planet.
What happens next is up to us."

Sayonara from Eric Bates on Vimeo.

The oil companies have money enough to pay for superfund clean-ups of the areas already defiled. Perhaps the day will come when the uber rich will realize there are no islands for them to run to either.

We live in hope.
♡

everything whirls

2011-08-26T00:11:00.000-03:00

Derviche Tourneur from Réno Violo on Vimeo.

The Mevlevi Order of Sufis of Turkey, the ones we know as the Whirling Dervishes, are monastics whose prayerful dances are rarely seen. When they do appear in public nobody applauds because the audience understands they are witnessing a ritual trance that unites them with God. The Order was founded in the 13th century and named after Mevlana Jalal al-din Rumi who ended one of his poems with the line: 'dazed by the marvels of love, our whirling endures'.

The Dervishes make very precise movements with their hands while turning and every gesture is symbolic. The right hand is turned upward to receive Allah's grace and the left hand is turned down to convey that grace to earth. The left foot is kept as still as possible.

I found a video of a tanoura dance based on dervish technique which is often used to entertain tourists and parties in Turkey and Egypt. I'd never seen it before and thought you might enjoy it too. The dancer may not be a Dervish but you can see just how mesmerizing it is to witness the whirl taken to a whole different level.

A Dervish turns from right to left embracing all creation as he chants the name of God within the heart for the enrichment of this earth and the well-being of all.

Maybe we should all dance for that even though whirling would make most of us fall over.
♡

another story

2011-08-22T17:15:00.001-03:00

There's a new Adventure next door just a few weeks after the last. I wonder if I'm getting back into the habit of writing them? I wonder why the drawing is easier than the writing? I wonder if I'll ever put them in chronological order or if that's even necessary?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. There was certainly a lesson in it for me.

♡

ps: Did you ever have a perm?

2011-08-20T11:56:00.000-03:00

playing for change

2011-08-13T22:44:00.000-03:00

Every year around this time there's a Busker's Festival held at the Halifax harbor boardwalk. These days I prefer avoiding crowds whenever possible - at least crowds of holiday makers whose main interest seems to be lining up at food vending stands. Call me cranky and I won't argue.

Anyway, yesterday we had some business to attend to a few blocks over at a place that's on the direct route to the busy summer waterfront. As we walked across the bridge to the ferry terminal we heard a few young guys attempting to play a Crosby, Stills and Nash song. Strangely, we'd passed the disabled man whose usual summer spot that is driving his wheelchair along Barrington St. a few minutes previously. He busks in the city year round playing Acadian music on a battered old accordion but it appeared he hadn't been invited to the event.

A few minutes later as we made our way through the people thronging the first batch of food stalls we heard something amazing. It was Andean music and the musicians were very, very good. They were set up under a small awning just to one side of the main walk where there was little space for an audience to stand, and certainly no place to sit. We stood in the bright sun for close to half an hour while people walked directly past them, sometimes even kicking the guitar case placed for donations. The four musicians didn't seem to mind as they continued to play their magnificent haunting music. Besides how wonderful it sounded what was really amazing was to see them switch the traditional instruments during the course of playing individual pieces. It's very rare to see such virtuosos in performance and we felt very blessed to be there in person. Eventually they stopped for a short break and we walked on.

As we continued on our way we saw several other acts playing at much better stages. A couple of hip-hop artists were entertaining an audience sitting on bleachers and benches near their space. Further along a large number of people were enjoying a karaoke contest at another well set up performance area. The last act we saw before we left the harbor was a young guy at a prime site who was balancing a power lawn mower on his chin while a couple of audience members threw heads of lettuce at the rotating blades. Now I don't have anything against hip-hop, karaoke, or bizarre balancing acts but I thought it was rude to make the musicians from Ecuador play in the midst of what was essentially a sidewalk.

So in honor of their magical concert I have drawn a picture. I hope it's one that lets you almost hear the music they played.

♡

tiny adventure

2011-08-09T19:29:00.000-03:00

I mentioned a couple of days ago that sometimes all we can manage are tiny steps when the big ones are just too much. Afterwards I found myself thinking about some of my earliest memories and wrote a little Adventure you can find next door. It's not much of a story but does seem to indicate certain tendencies that would develop later. If I'm going to add to the memoirs I figured I may as well start over near the beginning.

If you have a minute I hope you'll enjoy it.

♡

what next?

2011-08-05T16:20:00.000-03:00

Just so you know I'm still here and not completely a ghost of the internets I thought I'd show you a new drawing. At the moment I'm not sure if he'll become a character in a painting whose form hasn't become clear to me or if this is just another of those images that come and go. The good thing about having a blog is that I can leave him here to graze in a place where someone may see him and wish they could pat his soft nose. I love horses. Just the sight of one reminds me of a simpler way of living that's been lost to most of us - at least for the time being.

I've been thinking about writing and drawing a story but just seeing shadows and glimpses instead of an entirety makes it difficult. I prefer being positive. I don't like conflict but struggle seems to be a major part of the reason we're here. If nothing bad ever happened we'd have little reason to talk to each other and certainly no cause for compassion.

Perhaps I should simply continue writing and drawing the Adventures and see what develops. Tiny steps when we're not strong enough for leaps and bounds will have to do.

In the meantime I made some more bracelets.

Now I've put the beads away for at least another ten years.
Sustained acts of compulsive behavior can make a person very tired.
They can also drive you crazy.
I think I may have figured out what's wrong with our culture.
There may be a story in it.

♡

a better summer beach

2011-07-25T17:49:00.000-03:00

Summer days are long and the computer box gets very warm in my lap - a condition I'm sure is no good for either of us. My preferred pool is about 30 miles away at a place called Crystal Crescent Provincial Park where we wandered to one Sunday morning quite recently. The funny thing is that we drove and drove going from one small road to another through charming unspoiled landscapes and seaside villages only to find ourselves on a narrow winding track that was paved by gravel. Sure that we'd found a secret getaway, since there'd been nobody in front of or behind us for miles, we were startled to find about a thousand cars in the first big parking lot with more stopped by the ditches. We traveled onwards and found a second lot a few hundred yards further along where the road simply ended. We got out and started walking to see sights like these. I'd decided not to take my camera because I wanted to play in the water but was sorry not to have it once we arrived so I 'borrowed' these. Scale is hard to show without references but there's more white sand than you can see here and the granite bedrock is colossal. If CR, Marja-Leena, or Randal reads this please note the area is in serious need of good photographers.

Happily we'd already passed the busiest beach so walking through the surf was pretty much as you'd imagine. The water may have been icy but it felt delicious and the sand was only littered by more sand and a few deceased crustaceans. I should mention the seagulls were some of the biggest and most contented looking I've seen.

We climbed the gorse covered slopes and along the granite outcrops that overlook the sea and sat for a while just watching and listening. I loved it but next time we go it will not be on a bright and sunny weekend day. Strangely enough, every little beach we've seen around here has lifeguards on duty but Crystal Crescent has none. Perhaps it's because the water is too cold for swimming 11.5 months of the year. The park is huge, much larger than expected, so next time we go we'll be prepared for a long hike around the perimeter.

One thing I didn't mention is there's a nudist beach further along the shore that we didn't hike to but I did see their list of rules:
'No walking to and from your car without clothing'
'No taking of photographs'
'Keep a respectful distance from other naturists'

Still being occasionally infantile, despite our advanced age, we couldn't help but make up more rules on the way back to the car. Every time I fell over laughing I found a few wild raspberries. Life is good.

Meanwhile, here at home a few days ago I went off looking for one thing and found something even better. Overtime is an amazing piece of work that I hope you'll enjoy as much as I did. All I know about it is that Oury Atlan is a French CGI specialist who currently lives and works in LA. I have a feeling Jim Henson would be touched by this film.

Overtime from ouryatlan on Vimeo.

I hope your favorite beach is closer.

♡

speechless saturday

2011-07-23T12:31:00.001-03:00

Except for a few words written by someone far wiser than I. This is called 'Disappearance' by

by Thich Nhat Hahn

The leaf tips bend
under the weight of dew.
Fruits are ripening
in Earth's early morning.
Daffodils light up in the sun.
The curtain of cloud at the gateway
of the garden path begins to shift:
have pity for childhood,
the way of illusion.

Late at night,
the candle gutters.
In some distant desert,
a flower opens.
And somewhere else,
a cold aster
that never knew a cassava patch
or gardens of areca palms,
never knew the joy of life,
at that instant disappears-
man's eternal yearning.

♡

hidden treasures - other people's work part 2

2011-07-20T16:13:00.000-03:00

The Etsy site has about 500,000 sellers according to their documentation. There's some nice stuff, there's some nasty stuff and every so often I'll notice something that's very clever.. not just clever in this case but ingenious. That's quite rare. I thought, just for the heck of it, I'd show you some items an actual famous artist has for sale there. Mark Bryan seems to have a similar viewpoint to me and to many of you which shows quite well in this painting called 'Republic of Amnesia'.

Now I'll show you one of the cellulose phones Mark Bryan has for sale on Etsy:

Are there monkeys in your head telling you things you don’t need to hear? Let’s face it, we all hear those guys yammering in the background and sometimes it’s just too much. You can “BE HERE NOW”. It’s time to say no to those monkeys. Breath deep and say to them “Shut the f… up!”

In addition to their fine craftsmanship and subversive message, each Lost Horizon Cellulose phone also comes with a generous service plan and user agreement : Lost Horizon agrees to provide free unlimited minutes for you to talk to your phone until you die. Our guaranteed GPS service will always be ready to tell you that you are right here, right now.

Lost Horizon phones are hand crafted (by my own pet monkey) from wood, paper, glue, a brass hinge, varnish, and one eight penny nail. They are approx. 4” tall, 2” wide and 1.25” thick. Included with each phone is a very nice fabric drawstring bag (again, made by my monkey) to store your phone safely. Your user agreement card fits nicely inside. Lost Horizon phones never require charging in order to function. An active imagination is all you will need.

Lost Horizon phones were designed by artist Mark Bryan (he’s famous) and each one features a print from an original oil painting and is hand signed by him. You may see more of his work at artofmarkbryan.com

Tags editgeekery,gadget,art,cell phone

As it's so well expressed on his website:

Humorologist C.W. Metcalf says humor and laughter do not exist in the absence of sorrow and tears, but co-exist as a balance of sanity. Mark Bryan's iconography, loaded as it is with multiple inferences, has the potential to make us laugh and also think about the frivolities and stupidities committed by so-called "enlightened" human beings . "Sometimes while I'm sketching," says Bryan, "I often feel like I'm taking notes at a dark comedy, but the play never ends, and they won't let us go home."
essay by Nicholas Roukes, Artful Jesters

His phones cost just $36 and I can't believe nobody has bought one yet. I think some people have had their senses of humor surgically removed.

I hope you'll have a look at his paintings and other cell phones. We all deserve a good laugh through the tears.

☀

a sunny day at the beach

2011-07-16T23:41:00.002-03:00

It's mid-summer for those of us who live in northern latitudes but we always have a tendency to imagine or anticipate the opposite. This magnificent picture I found is what it looks like around here on a typical day six months from now. I know I'm supposed to be enjoying what I have and considering we experienced five very warm days followed by three wet, cold and rainy ones that other season is bound to prey on the back of my mind.

Last winter was cold and the wind knows how to blow hard in my new Maritime province. I like to walk so worst of all was having a bad coat - a raincoat with a light lining I wore in Portland suited me well there and was roomy enough to cover one of my office ready jackets. That turned out to be a lucky thing because by December last year I was wearing an undershirt, a turtleneck, a sweater, and an old fleece warmer under the coat to keep me cozy in sub-zero blasts on the nastiest days. I'm talking layers on layers. To add insult to injury that coat has lapels that would blow up and flap my cheeks as I walked so I was forced to hold them down. Now I know why northerners have rosy cheeks - it's because they constantly get slapped by flying bits of their clothing.

Anyway, I'd been keeping my eye out for a coat. I hate shopping and rarely buy anything other than replacements for what I prefer wearing but I'd been dreading another winter wearing that one. We walked past a shop downtown that had coats that looked just right and the sign in the window said 50% off. Naturally, that was a lie unless I was in the market for sundresses and t-shirts. The coat was expensive. It was also beautiful and guaranteed to be warm and weatherproof. It's the same kind of coat worn by the RCMP and the postal carriers. It has a coyote fur trim around the hood and even though I was assured the coyote was pleased to donate his pelt I was glad to see I can remove it so no one will ever know I participated in the fur market - even if it is the Canadian fur market and all the money goes to needy First Nations people. That's what Native Americans are called here.

So now I'm hoping all goes well with the immigration news because it appears I've made a commitment. I'm pretty sure I'd have little use for a Canada Goose Kensington coat in southern California, Virginia or the West Indies - my other choices for a nice place to spend winter.

Now let's get back to enjoying summer while it lasts.
♡

calling Qatar

2011-07-12T17:27:00.000-03:00

Now you may be wondering why my artwork hasn't been jumping off the virtual shelves over at my 'Etsy' shop and to tell the truth so have I. Okay, so you might not know I have a shop at that huge marketplace but I've kept it pretty quiet since reopening the spot a few months ago after a 2 year absence. I don't expect my blog friends to be ready to purchase some of the work I've done these past few years because you provide more than enough happiness for me when you tell me you like the pieces I've shown here. Anyway, I've been selected to be in a large number of circles, favorite lists, and a few treasury lists too but although Etsy sellers may appreciate one another not many have the funds for buying art.

It would be nice to be appreciated at a financial level by those who can afford to collect art and just this morning I discovered that the oil rich nation Qatar is in the market for contemporary work in a big way. Just as some of America's wealthy industrialists built up great collections of art in the 19th century now countries in the Middle East are doing much the same thing. Nobody really knows why and, considering the general Islamic proscription on figurative art, I have to think they are buying as many examples of modern Western art as they can simply because they can. Rothko, deKooning, Lichtenstein, Koons, and Warhol aren't well known as figurative artists anyway but their paintings have been sold recently for up to $73 million dollars each. I mean, what are billionaires supposed to do with all that money once they've stolen it? Invest, of course. The collections now moving to the Middle East and further east once belonged in private collections belonging to former wealthy American industrialists. There have also been rumors that museums have been selling works from public collections.

Anyway, I need to find a way to let those rich sheikhs and sheikhas know about my Etsy shop. Once they've bought a couple of pieces from me they can always go and have a look at some of the shops in my 'favorites' collection. That way everybody gets to make a little money and know their work is being appreciated by a sophisticated international audience. It's not like the artists they're collecting now are around anymore to accept the kudos.

I may have to raise my prices.

♡

halifax is hopping

2011-07-09T13:18:00.000-03:00

Boy, it was hot around here the past few days with temperatures that must have been close to 80. There's a line of enormous cruise ships parked at the pier making me wonder who these days has the money to ride around on them? It's the Season in Halifax and if the sparkle from the water isn't enough to dazzle your eyes then the flashing diamonds of promenading matrons will do he job. Many of the tourists here for summer holidays find walking not to their liking but summer provides several choices for getting around town other than hiring a limo, hailing a taxi, or waiting an interminable amount of time for a bus. Here's a picture of one of them (taken by a news service) across the water from George's Island. There are many stories about that little place but this one isn't about that.

The horse drawn wagons travel the city streets at the stately pace of a strolling Clydesdale. I love horses and many times when I hear the gentle clopping and tinkling bells I look out the window to see them pass. It's also not unusual to see a long line of cars forced into a slow moving parade behind.

Another choice for those who prefer spending their time at outdoor bars and cafes or meandering along the harbor piers rather than hiking up and down hills is one of the big pinks. Retired from duty in London, double decker buses ferry weary tourists around the major historical sites of the city. I wonder why everybody seems to prefer the top deck?

Of course there are the boats that will take people out for harbor tours or even whale watching but that's a different thing. When you're planning to travel across broad stretches of water it's kind of handy to have a boat unless one is an exceptionally strong swimmer.

There is one means of transport seen around summertime Halifax that includes both city and sea and that's the Harbour Hopper. It can be quite disconcerting to see something that looks like a cross between a dump truck and a tugboat driving around the city streets and I must say that the passengers do tend to look a bit silly perched up in the back as it lumbers along. Nevertheless, I may have to ride on it one of these days even if I do have to wear a big hat and dark glasses so none of the other locals will recognize me. You see the Hopper is an amphibious vehicle that dives down a steep ramp into the water. It kind of looks like fun:

It's a bit strange living in a city that appeared to be fairly normal up until 2 weeks ago that has turned into a fun park for the infirm. I think I'll keep on walking.

Enjoy your days ♡

celebrations are traditional

2011-07-02T14:47:00.000-03:00

Last night Crow and I walked down to the harbor to watch the fireworks. I liked the ones that looked like chrysanthemum flowers best of all.

Unfortunately, we didn't get ready early enough to catch the Halifax Tattoo Parade but just because we missed it doesn't mean you have to:

This one was filmed a couple of years ago on Halifax's main business street, Spring Garden Road, but I have a feeling they're much the same from year to year. I particularly enjoyed the marching of the clans at the very end.

I hope you're all enjoying a fine holiday weekend.

♡

and the winner is:

2011-07-01T11:27:00.001-03:00

One of Crow's friends came by this morning to help out with the grand prize drawing. Here they are standing at the balcony door with the winner's name they just picked out of the Ming vase Crow received in 1373 for services rendered to the Magnificent Emperor Hongwu .

Congratulations Francis. Let me know what you'd like it to say, wrist size and 2 main colors. I'll be delighted to make a bracelet for you to give away or keep - note: they are a bit girlish.

Speaking of girls, or women, rather a particular girlish woman of my acquaintance - today is Gina's Birthday. Happy Birthday, my friend! In honor of the day Crow has insisted that you also receive a beaded bracelet. I'll make one for you that says whatever you want (but no more than 16 characters). Or you can have this one:

I finally found the macro function on my camera.

♡

other people's work

2011-06-29T17:20:00.000-03:00

If I had a house and that house had a garden and in the garden was a pond and I happened to need a gnome then this is the gnome I'd choose to live in the pond in the garden of the home that I'd have.

David Goode makes bronze sculptures using a lost wax casting process. The results are wonderful and if you'd like to see just how here's a link to his site. Sometimes I think I take a long time doing things but one of his pieces can take 6 months or more.

If you don't have that kind of time perhaps you'd like to see a story about a little guy made of scrap metal who's looking for a home in the world:

origins from Robert Showalter on Vimeo.

I love animation.

Crow or I will be back soon.
♡

mid-summer contest

2011-06-24T16:19:00.000-03:00

A few weeks ago I went digging through some unpacked boxes looking for something or other and emerged instead with another part of my rather large seed bead collection. Are you aware that beading is one of the great addictions once you've been stabbed by a long and very thin beading needle? That happened to me quite a long time ago and after several years worth of projects I finally packed all the beads up and hid them from myself. Now I've found them again and just for the heck of it I made myself a new bracelet. For the further heck of it I've decided it might be fun to make one for one of you.

Here's the deal if you're interested: The bracelet above is 7½" x ¾" and fits my wrist loosely. You may notice it has writing on it (because I never forgot the little beaded belt I got that said Niagara Falls when I was a kid). I can't seem to figure out how to get a really good picture that shows detail and sparkle both so we'll go with this one. Anyway, to whoever wins this contest the prize would be a bracelet made to fit you (or whoever you'd like to give it to) made with the base colors of your choice. It will also have whatever phrase or name you'd like so long as there are not many more than 16 letters. The only thing you have to do to enter is submit a phrase with 16 characters. This doesn't have to be the one you'd have me make.

Crow will choose the winner at random on July 1st. After that it will take me about a week to make the prize bracelet. Then we have to hope the mail strike in Canada ends by then.

What if they gave a mail strike and nobody cared?

Who ever heard of a mailbox with an out of service sign?

kabuki Crow

2011-06-21T16:49:00.004-03:00

Crow here. Favorable trade winds have carried me home from places further away than you'd easily believe. Before returning to susan's castle in the sky (and chasing some grungy pigeons off her balcony on the way in) I made a stopover in Japan for a visit with some old friends.

In Japan dragons have always been associated with the power of the sea. In March we witnessed the awesome destruction caused by a tsunami after a major earthquake. The results of that were bad enough but before any of us could really comprehend the destruction, the events at Fukushima took the spotlight position. Some may have wondered why the nuclear reactors were placed right next to the sea but in reality that's not unusual at all.

During normal operations older nuclear power plants require approximately 15,000 gallons of water per minute to keep the radioactive cores cool. Once the chain reaction begins it never really stops - not in anything close to the possible lifetime of any species currently living on Earth. It would have been nice if the scientists who first developed nuclear power had decided to look for a way to neutralize radioactivity (something that defies the laws of physics) before countries actually started using them as a means of cheap power. Did you know there are more than 440 nuclear plants currently in use and most of them have more than one reactor? The largest percentage of them are also more than 25 years old which makes it extra worrisome when you think of nuclear facilities as old tech. susan's electric toothbrush is probably smarter than the systems installed several decades ago ('You missed a spot', it cheerfully informs her.) Should I even mention that nuclear power plants produce tons of radioactive waste that would require safe and secure storage guaranteed to last at least 10,000 years? Nobody anywhere wants the stuff buried nearby.

Since people are often short sighted and greedy, it seems quite likely that when nuclear power plant operators have to decide between profit and maintenance it doesn't take much guessing to know which one they'll generally choose. Human beings tend to believe only in dangers they can see. If nuclear power plants spawned real dragons instead of particles that kill either fast or slow then everyone would demand they be shut down immediately.

Nuclear power is deadly to children and all living beings. Remember that the sun will always shine and the wind will always blow somewhere.

Now I'm off to have a snifter of brandy and a taste of the fine fruitcake susan just carried in on my favorite antique silver salver.

***

This is the painting I finished just as Crow arrived home. Please don't give me too much credit for the dragon since much is owed to the famous Japanese print artists Hokusai and Hiroshige. The mistakes, including weird color combinations, are all mine.

ps: The sign over the gate is the best copy I could make of the 'three non-nuclear principles' kanji which promised that Japan would not possess, manufacture, or introduce nuclear weapons. If only they'd passed on the rest.

the studio 2011

2011-06-18T12:36:00.000-03:00

I've been tempted several times in the past few days to show you the current Crow portrait through it's drawing and inking stages but I'd rather save showing it until it's finished. Likely as that is to be a few more days I thought I'd show you this year's version of my workspace. Tiny, isn't it?

With the exception of a block of standing shelves to the left and slightly behind where the scanner, more paints, inks, and other supplies wait close to hand my studio occupies a corner of our living room on the wall furthest from the west facing windows. It's not ideal but there's a natural light artist's lamp that lights the work well enough throughout our frequent overcast days. There's another lamp I can use as required but no space to leave it permanently. My portfolios are under the left side of the table leaning against the wall and behind my saddle stool are the sketchbooks, two boxes filled with silk painting supplies I'm loathe to unpack, and a tall but narrow chest of drawers that holds peripherals.

Stretcher frames, sewing machine, boxes filled with silk and fancy fabrics live down the back hall where we luckily have some enormous closets. The framed artworks we brought with us are also still in their professional moving cartons in one of those closets. After eight months in Halifax we continue to wait for news from the Canadian government that my husband will be welcome to stay. Immigration allows itself almost a year to complete its review and in the meanwhile we'll remain where we are. Why add confusion to a complicated process?

I still feel like an ex-pat American far from home. Nova Scotia is a quirky place but the world is full of them and it's friends who make a place comfortable. You all help a lot with that.

My paper should be dry again now and Crow is calling.

♡

still slacking

2011-06-15T09:33:00.001-03:00

If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me they can't draw I'd be a thousandaire by now. In actuality, I can't draw either and that's why it takes so long for me to come up with new bits and pieces that entertain me and occasionally a few others.. like you, I hope. Anyhow, if you'd like to try something fun while you're waiting for the next scandal to break, your muse to speak, or if you have a little downtime at your job you might like to try the Scribbler at zefrank.com. That's where I came up with this interesting rendering of two of my favorite characters yesterday.

If you don't have time for such nonsense you may enjoy a little story about how the panda ended up being black and white in a world of multi-colored animals:

TIJI "COLOUR" HD from AKAMA on Vimeo.

Keep up the good work, whatever it is. Come to think of it, doing nothing at all may be our best bet in the long run. Slackers of the World: Untie!

♡

still here?

2011-06-10T23:56:00.000-03:00

I keep on having this feeling that I must draw something or paint something before I post anything. The problem is that the more I feel as though I have to do something the less I feel like doing it. Am I alone in this or do you think it's fairly common?

Meanwhile, some stray thoughts:

* Age is far too high a price to pay for maturity.

* Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.

* If you have to choose between two evils, pick the one you have never tried before.

* Nowadays my idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

* Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

* If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

* Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three days before you need it.

* Experience is a wonderful thing. It allows you to recognise a mistake when you make it again.

Zerebrale Dichotomie from motiphe on Vimeo.

Making decisions can be hard. Good thing Motiphe made a cool video or I'd have nothing to show other than the very sweet picture of the Grand Hamster d'Alsace. Poor thing is almost extinct and the French want to build a factory on the only piece of land it's known to still exist. Things are so bad the Belgians aren't even speaking to them.

:-)

diving Crow blues *

2011-06-03T22:49:00.001-03:00

Now if the river was brandy
And I was out diving with Crow
Now if the river was Remy
And I was out diving with Crow
I would dive in that bottle
And I'd never let go.

If the world treats you badly
You could go diving with us
If you got only hard times
We'll take you diving with us
Just grab your suit and flippers
There is nothing to discuss.

The river flows to the ocean
As you can surely see
Those oil guys were brazen
With their lies and treachery
Why these rich folk are so greedy
Is a mystery to me

Now they tell us Fukushima
Is just as calm as the sea
There is nothing left to see there
Things are good as they can be
But we know that they are lying
Though there's no news on tv

It's just money that matters
And they know they won't get caught
Cause they paid the politicians
Who said they never could be bought
There's no truth in what they tell you
Is what my dear mother taught

If the river was brandy
We wouldn't need a cup
If the river was Remy
We'd have a fine roundup
We can swim to the bottom
And we'll drink our way up.

So if the world treats you badly
You could go diving with us
If you got only hard times
We'll take you diving with us
Just grab your suit and flippers
There is nothing to discuss.

* With apologies to Sleepy John Estes

♡

more walking in Halifax

2011-06-01T16:55:00.001-03:00

Yesterday, the last of May, we awoke to clear skies, green grass, trees in new leaf, flowers, and little zephyrs of warm breeze all conspiring to coax us into the great outdoors. Of all our favorite places to walk in Halifax the best by far is the semi-wild and lovely Point Pleasant Park. Here are some highlights from that two hour stroll.

The main entrance is right next to the port so the first thing seen is a wall of huge containers which may or may not be empty. Although it would be fun to cut some windows and doors and move in, the idea of finding ourselves on the back end of a train heading to Medicine Hat is too much of a risk. Winters are already cold enough in the maritimes without venturing to northern Alberta.

As we walked up the first long path I turned around and photographed the previous hundred yards. I don't know why the tree was cut down during the winter but I can tell you the stump carved into a chair is best not sat upon as it's quite juicy with sticky pine sap.

Speaking of pines, this next picture is typical of the very tall ones that grace the hilltop. What seems to happen is the taller they grow the more savaged they are by the winter storms that blow in. There are many completely stripped of boughs and bark that stand silvering in the sun.

These are some of the paths where I planted the sunflowers last month. There wasn't much growing at the time but I have a feeling now my project may have been in vain. Tall flowers, small flowers, flowering bushes, young trees, old trees, all interspersed with happy beach grass means the suns may have a problem. Still, they're pretty strong too so some may survive.

Along paths similar we eventually arrived at the waterside that overlooks the south shore. I have to mention this park is doggie heaven as most of it is leash optional. Over to the left of us when I took this picture a spaniel was out in the water trying to catch an otter while his owners laughed. The photo I took just showed a tiny dot that was the dog's head and an invisible otter. All the rest was water..

This is just to show you how much water. It's a bit like looking over the edge of the world.

There's a huge grassy area where people fly kites, picnic, lie in the sun or sit on benches watching the sea. The WWII gun post is decomposing fast so can't be approached unless you feel like going out for a wade to get a closer look.

Here's one of our seaside home possibilities.

Lastly, I couldn't resist this shot of a grandfather and his grandson watching the crane boats preparing to unload a big ship that was on its way in.

I hope I haven't bored you too much with this one. I promise next time I'll take pictures of the shopping malls the local government keeps far from the view of tourists arriving to explore historic Halifax.

Hope you're enjoying sunny days and your favorite beverages.
☀

encore Crow dreams

2011-05-28T17:37:00.001-03:00

When I was very small, long before we were formally introduced, Crow would sometimes come to call wearing his fairy godmother disguise. This is one of those rare shots from the old family album where he can be quite clearly seen as we visited strange places that only Crow and very small children are able to behold. Parents may laugh to see their child chasing dandelion fluffs in the back yard but who knows what wonders may appear to those without preconceptions?

Imagination is a funny thing and not strictly a human prerogative. Do you know the type of dog that just keeps on barking and barking and, well, barking? The small but very noisy hero of this story is just one of those dogs. So, his owner invests in a collar which will dispense an electric shock if he barks.

Unfortunately for the poor dog this new gift coincided with some really momentous world events going on outside his little window:

Dog With Electric Collar from Steve Baker on Vimeo.

Steve Baker is the very clever Australian animator who won a Film Institute prize for best animation with this one.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to my American friends. Let the summer commence!

♡

win some, lose some

2011-05-22T00:05:00.000-03:00

If you've been wondering what I've been up to since last time this is partly that. Since I'd had pretty good luck with the results of the last two paintings I decided to work on this one drawn a few months ago which you may remember. I love the image and want to get it just right but this is as far as it got before I threw it away. I could see some things were acceptable but realized the colors weren't what I was looking for and I had definitely overdrawn the leaves and flowers in the tree - impossible to erase once I'd laid in the first wash of color. So rather than spend many hours working on something I wasn't going to be satisfied with I decided to start over.

Maybe the next version will look more like this:

I seem to have developed the funny idea that I have to put up a new picture for every post which is kind of difficult for me as I don't work very fast. Besides that I've been teaching myself a new way of painting these past four or five months. Old dogs can learn new tricks but it takes longer.

I think I'm going to have to find more silly stuff to talk about around here if I'm going to hold on to my blog party membership. For instance, a bagpiper was skirling outside the window a few days ago and I looked to see 50 or so cap and gowned graduates walking behind him down the middle of the street. It's a good thing this is a very quiet town so far as traffic is concerned or the country might have lost some PhD's.

Good too it was only one bagpiper as there were enough dogs howling as it was.

woof
☂

expedition with Crow part II

2011-05-14T23:56:00.000-03:00

A few years ago I came across a concept in one of those ginormous space operas I sometimes read that amused me more than usual.

The idea was that people on earth at some future date finally got their act together, stopped having wars, cleaned up the environment, and made peace with all the animals. Ridiculous, I know, but we can dream. I hate it that I can't remember what book it was part of but I've searched my failing memory, searched the diminished bookshelves, and googled til my eyeballs ached without result.

As I recall it was one of the more minor plot points among a multitude of larger issues going on during the course of the story. Anyway, mankind had finally cobbled together a couple of starships and set out to explore the galaxy where they found, much to their surprise, a race of advanced humans who were part of a galactic civilization. It turned out that for thousands of years aliens had been dropping by earth and taking away small groups of people to planets where they could be introduced to polite alien society.

We keep looking and hoping for some sort of quantum leap toward planetary maturity all the while our leaders and power mongers can only involve themselves in wars and processes that lead to short term gains for themselves and continued self-aggrandizement. It's frustrating. No wonder I like science fiction

Next time I'll tell you about the books that postulate a superior and enormously powerful alien race who are Buddhists. They only allow beings who have never deliberately or accidentally on purpose hurt another sentient being to leave their own solar system. Any who attempt to do so die the second their spaceship passes beyond their star's gravitational influence. You have to admit it's a good way of keeping the neighborhood peaceful.

Anyway, it's Saturday night and getting a bit late here east of the east coast. I think Crow and his friends may be looking for some friendly aliens willing to take them and all their friends to a world that will be a kinder place for them. I wish them well and hope they'll invite us to go along.

♡

picture a walk in Halifax

2011-05-09T11:48:00.000-03:00

The spring weather around here has been colder, wetter, and foggier than is apparently usual according to the locals and it's raining again today. Last Friday was pretty nice so I took the camera along one of our usual routes and didn't take a picture until we were some blocks away from here.

I remember lots of virtual walks taken a year ago and not being any wiser about what Halifax looked like if it was indeed a city. Having lived in the south end downtown area for seven months we've come to the conclusion it's really better described as a large college town, one that has many interesting walks but fairly small and easy to navigate if you enjoy walking.

There's a cluster of bank skyscrapers near the old city center on Barrington St. but the street itself is mostly empty shop fronts and the facades of historic buildings with nothing behind. We didn't walk that way on Friday, nor did we go to the harbor front, the big wilderness park, or through any of the neighborhoods where the houses are grandiose. Instead, we crossed the street out front, went south and then west before I took the camera out:

The first is a picture of some typical saltbox houses in a low-key neighborhood near the further end of the Dalhousie University campus. There's nothing special about them other than the fact almost every one you see is beautifully maintained.

This is part of an older dorm on campus and the section on the right is a very beautiful old dining hall. We peeked in the windows to see the old furnishings are still there but the hall itself appears unused.

The original quadrangle of the Dalhousie campus, established in 1818 which makes it one of the oldest in North America. Very pretty on a spring afternoon and other days too.

This is one of my favorite back yard gardens with a little studio cottage at its end. I wouldn't mind living here. A few weeks ago we saw a small and pretty house with a 'for sale' sign. When I looked up the real estate listing it was priced at $625k.

I rather like this house too but can't understand why there are so many without proper roofs. The sidewalk to the left leads to a large old graveyard.

(I refuse to take pictures of the 10-15 story apartment buildings that have been plopped into these neighborhoods.)

Truth in advertising.

The Public Gardens opened a few weeks earlier than scheduled and it's very nice to walk along its serpentine paths again rather than on the sidewalks that surround it.

The last photograph, the one I posted first because it's the prettiest, is one of the ponds near the main entrance to Spring Garden Road. Our place is just a block away but we had to shop for groceries so I packed the camera.

One of these days I'll take it with me again so I can post more pictures and continue writing my impressions.

Let me know if you're bored.

♡

expedition with Crow

2011-05-05T12:23:00.001-03:00

One thing about living in this out of the way place is that mail doesn't come very often or at any specified time. However, that which arrived today brought a letter from Crow he asked me to share with you:

Dear Friends,

You may be curious about where I''ve disappeared to these past long months. I hope you'll accept my apologies with the understanding my new found companions and I have been making great efforts on behalf of all the animals and good people in the world . What could that be, do you wonder? I will explain.

During my late winter sojourn to ancient Aegypt I came upon a cartouche of profound antiquity which took me many long nights to decipher. It told of a path that leads to lands of unimaginable wonder where all can live in peace and harmony. I'm aware you may be skeptical that such a path exists but remember it wasn't that long ago most humans agreed the world was flat, that Earth was the center of the Universe, and man was the pinnacle of creation. We all know what became of those assumptions and who knows but there may be others that will be overturned as wisdom grows.

As we search for signs of our route across this mighty desert I've taken a moment to send you fond greetings. There are trails to mystery and beauty in unexpected places, some of which you may have found yourselves. Always remember the journey itself is what brings meaning to the destination. In other words, enjoy yourselves and why not try something new (like a piece of fruitcake)?

I will send further dispatches as space and shifting time lines allow.

Meanwhile, I send my salutations.

Crow

ps: susan will try to clarify yet another sun and sea damaged picture.

and that's his letter. I'm rather looking forward to hearing the rest of his adventure and sharing the details with you.

Best wishes and have a good weekend if I'm not back sooner.

♡

painting in stages

2011-04-29T17:51:00.000-03:00

As I'm sure any of you who write, paint, or work on any self-generated creative endeavor would agree, sometimes the most difficult thing is knowing when the piece is done. Would a change of syntax, a different word, an extra paragraph, another chip with the mallet, or one more brushstroke make or break the object of so much focus? I have no idea but I do know, well, I'm pretty sure I know, that this one is finished.

There were some stages between that I remembered to scan. My scanner will only accept slightly larger than normal documents so I've lost some of the border but I'm sure you get the idea. Here's how it went:

I'm still not used to showing work in progress but now that I'm relatively, reasonably, possibly sure this one is finished you can see how I got to the one at the top in the past 9 days. I'm lazy; so sue me.

Have a wonderful spring weekend (and if you can think of a title please let me know).

♡

misty morning thoughts

2011-04-27T13:37:00.001-03:00

I realize I haven't done much diarizing about Halifax since our first few weeks here early last fall. The reasons for that are several, high among them is the fact I'm not a very good photographer but what good are stories without pictures? I've noticed there's a very big difference between what my camera sees and how I prefer to interpret what it sees. Neither is necessarily truly real. The picture at the top was taken here from our 7th floor balcony at 10am Atlantic Time this morning and then spent 3 minutes in my sample photoshop elements program. Although this is exactly how it looks on mornings when the sun is burning through, the view as my camera saw it looked like the next one and would be called by Haligonians a misty rather than a foggy spring day. When the fog does roll in I might manage to get a picture of my hand at arm's length but certainly not of the park across the street.

So let me tell you what you're seeing. In the forefront is a fence encircling a big green box. Underneath that box is the base of an old fountain protected by the parks department until tourist time - known as The Season around here. Further away to the right is a cathedral where a bagpiper played for an hour our first Sunday morning here but who never returned. I'm not sure if that was because of the rotten tomatoes my husband threw at him or not. Left of the church is a rather elegant retirement home handily placed next to Victoria General Hospital, the more shadowy building further left.

Had I pointed the camera more to the right you'd see a construction site next to the cathedral where they're taking an enormous amount of time building.. you guessed it, another retirement home. I could equally have shown you the hazy forms of more low-rise and high-rise apartments. Next door to us they're building The Trillium, a luxury condominium where a penthouse will cost $4.5 million. Next door to that is Halifax's famous Lord Nelson Hotel where the Queen stays when she gets bored with the palace. Right next to the hotel is the local YMCA.

Halifax is a small city of many contrasts. In the misty haze beyond these buildings is the enormous main campus of Dalhousie University where approximately 50,000 students are working on degree programs. Considering the fact there are 5 other universities here in the south end you can imagine the balance between the elderly, middle class, and boisterous students is pretty stark.

The autumn and winter months belong to the kids and keeping in mind our huge 1960's building is relatively inexpensive for people willing to share and double up in apartments the weekend winter parties that spill out into the halls can be both loud and disturbing. Drunken fights well after midnight were the norm during the cold months as was seeing the glass doors at the front and back of the building smashed every other week. Management try their best to keep a lid on the recklessness but considering there are 420 units here it's often impossible for the small night security staff (one guy) to find the culprits.

We lived in Portland apartments near the medical school for a number of years and thought it would be okay here too. What we hadn't taken into account was never having had to share space with undergraduates in their Animal House stage of social development. I'm not even going to try to describe the stench from the garbage room that permeates the elevator lobbies, nor the fact our walls are painted brown or the carpets stained and burned by previous tenants.

When we arrived last September we were lucky to get the place at the same time the main student body was returning. Yes, we'll move eventually but we want to keep our current address until the Canadian immigration service sends us the documents for my husband's permanent residency which might not be until August. Bureaucracy is getting worse everywhere (take a look at the proposed new regulations for a US passport). Since we have to sign our new lease in June it's likely we'll be here another year. Much as I'd like to unpack the artwork and the other boxes of goodies stacked in the closets that will have to wait.

Now it's almost May, most of the students will be leaving for the summer and 'The Season' will begin. All the open air cafes, pubs, and shops are preparing for the tourists and the Public Gardens just up the street opened a few weeks earlier than planned. The sail boats and novelty ships are out of dry-dock ready to carry their passengers on short trips around the harbor and part way out to sea. Last week the first cruise ship was docked at Pier 21 right next to our grocery store.

It will be our first full spring and summer here. Now we've gone through a winter with the locals we're accepted as true Maritimers and we'll make the best of it. In case I made too much of the rowdiness I should mention most of the other tenants are relatively normal, considering I have a wide view of what constitutes normal.

ps: May 1st is International Sunflower Planting Day as called by the Guerrilla Gardeners. I finally remembered to buy a few packets of seeds that will be in my pocket on Sunday for planting in likely spots. Maybe I'll remember to carry a pencil for poking holes in the dirt.

I promise to take more pictures too.

♡

beadazzled

2011-04-25T17:56:00.001-03:00

Hmpff. I had been planning to write about something topical today once I'd spent a couple of hours working on the new painting. Yes, it's coming along fine and you'll see it soon. Anyway, once the grocery shopping was done I dragged out my scanner and decided to see if it might be possible to scan some jewelry pieces I made a long time ago. My friend Marja-Leena gave me the idea by showing some of her extraordinary scans of both natural and made objects. The beads, silver, and other sparkly bits made my jewelry difficult to photograph so I'd pretty much given up until today. I'd say this one looks pretty okay.

It's kind of stunning when I dig through the few items left of things I used to make and see just how time and determination can manifest truly cool things. Nobody taught me how to bead but about 25 years ago I bought a book of beaded treasures featured at the American Craft Council Museum in New York and I wanted some of them. Unfortunately, I had none of the kind of money they cost and, besides that, none of them were for sale anyway.

The only bead store close to our place in Providence was a Native American shop on the outskirts of Worcester MA. I went there and spent nearly $300. buying hanks, scoops, jars, and individually counted beads in multiple colors as well as a bead loom and beading needles. Then I purchased a small book that showed several techniques. That was only the beginning of my love affair with bead stores. It wasn't long before I got pretty good at designing and making my own stuff - maybe not as good as the best I'd seen but good enough to please me. Would you believe I sold and gave away a number of pieces without even trying to get a picture?

The one shown here was done completely free-hand using peyote stitch for the necklace itself (32" long and very sinuous) and square stitch for the centerpiece made of glass, silver, and carnelian which I based on the idea of a Tibetan prayer wheel. Making it was kind of like climbing the Everest of beading but it's meant to be played with.

Anyway, I hope you like it. I'll probably post a few more one of these days and may even get around to posting that topical piece soon.

ps: Spring has arrived in Halifax and it's beautiful.

oh well, may as well show you one of my bracelets while I'm at it:

♡

traveling Crow #3,249,001,683

2011-04-21T17:03:00.000-03:00

Crow has sent another postcard from Egypt in which he appears to be enjoying himself enormously. He's even taken to wearing one of the costumes he favored during the reign of Ramses I. There wasn't much room for writing on the card that seems to have been through a sandstorm or two on its way here except for:

My friend the Sphinx is a little irked about his nose having gone missing and has wondered aloud 'What is wrong with you people?'

I know you've been drinking my Remy Martin but under the circumstances you're forgiven so long as you purchase more. Bag of dates on the way and me too.

Crow

ps: I wonder if NYC will still look this good in 2500 years?

I always wanted to go to Egypt but along with so many places I'd prefer to go there at least 100 years ago before the tourists arrived. Wouldn't it be fine to be sailing up the Nile toward Karnak in 1923?

♡

not all frogs are toads

2011-04-17T23:51:00.000-03:00

I once read that Dakinis are the beings responsible for all life energy on Earth. It's not unusual for me to spend a day or more drawing a character who has no particular place in any planned painting but I understand the image will eventually find a place. Since photography hasn't progressed to the point where it can capture imaginary beings (a much more interesting concept than cell phone cameras if you ask me), I draw them and then they sit inside one of my sketchbooks waiting patiently until an inspiration rises. So if you think you've seen this sky dancer before you're right.

I don't know if you can see this very well as the picture is actually larger than can sit flat on my scanner but it's good enough to give you an idea. Sometimes it's hard to hold onto the dreamlike concepts I prefer to paint. Sometimes I even wonder why I keep on doing it. Sometimes I read too much news, or happen to see too many other wonderful artworks, then find myself picking up a book rather than a paintbrush.

Anyhow, the frog showed up, a frog not only with opposable thumbs on his hands and feet but one who also had wings. I'd heard of frogs mutating as a result of all the weird chemicals humans have been flushing into the environment and wondered if perhaps somewhere a frog has experienced an episode of punctuated equilibrium. Next time I stroll past a pond I'll be looking closely to see if there are tadpoles with tiny wings. Nowadays nothing surprises me.

In the meantime I'll be painting this one and hopefully will be able to make reasonable scans of my progress to show you.

Point to remember: all toads are frogs

♡

sayings of a Buddhist Rabbi

2011-04-12T22:48:00.000-03:00

There's so much nonsense going on wherever we look these days that sometimes the best we can do is find something that makes us laugh. I found this painting by an old favorite artist, Charles Bragg, and it turned out it fitted very nicely with these wisdom lessons sent by a dear friend several months ago.

If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?

Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

Drink tea and nourish life; with the first sip, joy; with the second sip, satisfaction; with the third sip, peace; with the fourth, a Danish.

Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.

Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems. What would you talk about?

There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?

Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.

The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao has no expectations.
The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao is not Jewish.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.

Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as a wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with such rounded shoulders.

Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers.
Each flower blossoms ten thousand times.
Each blossom has ten thousand petals.
You might want to see a specialist.

Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions. Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.

The Torah says, Love your neighbor as yourself.
The Buddha says, There is no self.
So, maybe we're off the hook.

♡

if wishes were camels

2011-04-08T22:24:00.000-03:00

No, no, it's not quite time to get our hopes up that Crow has returned to the east coast of Canada in spite of the fact I told him the snow was gone and the temperatures have actually hit the high 30's. You already know he went to the Middle East and rather than return, he's taken it as a good time to go exploring. He may be looking for magic inscriptions left by the ancient pyramid builders. I hear there's a rumor they knew some aliens who might have some answers for the mess we're in.. or perhaps they know of a nice planet without humans he can take his friends to til we wise up.

Meanwhile, he told me a joke he wants me to share:

One day, a man was walking along the beach and came across an odd-looking lamp. Not being one to ignore tradition, he rubbed it and, much to his surprise, a Genie actually appeared. 'For releasing me from the lamp, I will grant you three wishes,' said the Genie. The man was ecstatic. 'But there's a catch,' the Genie continued. 'What catch?' asked the man, eyeing the Genie suspiciously. The Genie replied, 'For each of your wishes, every politician in the world will receive double what you asked for'.
'Hey, I can live with that! No problem!' replied the elated man. 'Then what is your first wish?' asked the Genie. 'Well, I've always wanted a Ferrari!' Poof! A Ferrari appeared in front of the man. 'Now, every politician in the world has been given two Ferraris,' said the Genie. 'What is your next wish?' I could really use a million dollars ... ' replied the man, and Poof! One million dollars appeared at his feet. 'Now, every politician in the world is two million dollars richer,' the Genie reminded the man. 'Well, that's okay, as long as I've got my million,' replied the man. 'And what is your final wish?' asked the Genie. The man thought long and hard, and finally said, 'Well, you know, I've always wanted to donate a kidney ... .'

You may notice it's an old joke because of the modest nature of the guy's wishes.. or perhaps he's just not especially greedy. Take care til next time. I promised Crow I'd clean up the crappy postcard he sent but I may surprise him by turning it into a painting. If I do you'll see it here first.
♡

april fools

2011-04-01T17:02:00.000-03:00

Do you ever feel as though you're living in a far different world than the one you knew just a few years ago?

I remember when bankers were supposed to be the most conservative, sober, and law abiding of all of us, so naturally it comes as a shock when we hear about them doing things the rest of us would be slung in the clink for attempting. Lying to Congress, fudging mortgage records, front-running stock options on financial deals are just a few of the crimes I've read about and only one person, Bernie Madoff, has been charged and convicted. Meanwhile, judges in the US rule that evidence is not necessary to hold Guantanamo prisoners for the rest of their lives.

Another case that makes me believe I've stepped through the looking glass is the current situation with agri-business. When I was young the representatives of agricultural companies wore cheap suits and visited farmers once a year to sell seed and talk about tractors. Now we all know that Monsanto not only sells seed that is infertile so it can't be saved for the next planting but also sues organic farmers if any of their genetically modified products blow onto the organic farm next door. I actually had to read that one twice to see if I was understanding what's going on.

Ah yes, then there's nuclear power. Supposedly it's as safe as houses but that's only if you were fortunate enough to not have owned a house on Japan's west coast last month.

The problem with writing about any current current affairs is that there's no logical place to stop and, as you well know, one could drown in lists of atrocities. At a personal level the only answer to this stuff is for us to keep in mind the truths we know to be real. Bankers are supposed to be conservative, farmers are supposed to take care of the land, and nuclear power is far too dangerous in a society whose rulers can't see beyond the next election.

Meanwhile, spring arrived in Halifax a few days ago and stayed long enough for us to walk along the shore of the beach park without our coats on Wednesday and dressed similarly through the university neighborhoods yesterday. Today we're having the first April blizzard. Ah well. Our walk was shorter than usual so I came home to bake a loaf of bread (it's a bit flat but tastes fine) and get involved in another drawing I may be able to show you soon.

In the meanwhile I grabbed a picture of an idyllic springtime scene painted by my hero Rudi Hurzlmeier. For a bit of further amusement to allay the news there's this:

They hate it when we laugh.
♡

how do I know when it's spring?

2011-03-25T15:54:00.000-03:00

arigato...

2011-03-18T10:30:00.006-03:00

as far as the ongoing tragedy/disaster in japan, & the helpless horror & sorrow i feel when i dwell on it (which is often), i simply have no words...

without ever actually having been there, this weird little island, thousands of miles away, has had an enormous impact on my life over the last dozen years. as i came to feel more'n'more a 'stranger in a strange land' in the u.s., i also began to feel more'n'more comfortable within the bent, chewed-up, 'east meets west' revised version of u.s. (& all western) culture that the japanese have proven so capable of imagining. my culture, as seen through this kaleidoscope, became alive again. while, along with it, came insights & entryways into another one, one old enough, & rich enough, to have pulled this off...

so, unable as i might be to speak about the current situation, i can at least extend my appreciation to some of those who have enriched, entertained, & enlightened me over the last decade plus. they have, through their craftsmanship, become part of who i am, & have made my life a more joyful, & magical, experience...

akira kurosawa - a director who can do everything from 'cast of thousands' epics to extraordinarily low-key character studies, & never fail to imbue it all with a sense of universality, reminding us of all we share, for better or worse, wherever we are...

shigero miyamoto - the personification of nintendo, & father of mario & link (legend of zelda). has likely evoked more laughter, frustration, & ultimate gratification among more 9-12 year-olds than any one in history...

haruki murakami - when it comes down to it, my single favorite novelist. jazz club owner turned writer, his ability to effortlessly slide back'n'forth between the mundane & the surreal, without ever becoming either disruptive or incoherent, captures reality as it's experienced, subjectively, & results in stories that penetrate on a level most others can't...

"Whiskey, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it's time to drink."
— Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

"I've wanted to find out as much about China as I could. But that China is only my China. Not any China I can read about. It's the China that sends messages just to me. It's not the big yellow expanse on the globe, it's another China. Another hypothesis, another supposition. In a sense, it's a part of myself that's been cut off by the word China.
I wander though China. Without ever having boarded a plane. My travels take place here in the Tokyo subways, in the backseat of a taxi... all of a sudden this city will start to go. In a flash, the buildings will crumble. Over the Tokyo streets will fall my China, like ash, leaching into everything it touches. Slowly, gradually, until nothing remains."
— The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

"So what can I do now?" she spoke up a minute later.
"Nothing," I said. "Just think about what comes before words. You owe that to the dead. As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself. Is that too much to ask?"
"A little," she said, trying to smile.
"Well, of course it is," I said, trying to smile too.
"I doubt that this makes sense to most people. But I think I'm right. People die all the time. Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if posible, sincerely. It's too easy not to make the effort, then weep and wring your hands after the person dies. Personally, I don't buy it."
Yuki leaned against the car door. "But that's real hard, isn't it?" she said.
"Real hard," I said. "But it's worth trying for."
— Dance, Dance, Dance

"You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper. The fire isn't thinking 'Oh, this is Kant,' or 'Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,' or 'Nice tits,' while it burns. To the fire, they're nothing but scraps of paper. It's the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there's no distinction--they're all just fuel."
— After Dark

"At a certain point in our lives, when we really need a clear-cut solution, the person who knocks at our door is, more likely than not, a messenger bearing bad news. This isn’t always the case, but from experience I’d say the gloomy reports far outnumber the others. The messenger touches his hand to his cap and looks apologetic, but that does nothing to improve the contents of the message. It isn’t the messenger’s fault. No good to blame him, no good to grab him by the collar and shake him. The messenger is just conscientiously doing the job his boss assigned him. And this boss? That would be none other than our old friend Reality."
— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

fumito ueda - the bad news: he is only now working on his third video game (which has been in progress for 5 years). the good news: the 2 games he has completed, 'ico' & 'shadow of the colossus', are for me (& many others) the 2 greatest video games ever made...

nobuo uematsu - the god of video game music composition. he's done everything from samba to ragtime to surf to full orchestral, & the popularity of some of his soundtracks have come to equal or exceed the popularity of the games themselves...

takeshi kitano - former comedian turned writer/director/actor/celebrity. his yakuza/gangland movies, while unapologetically violent, usually end up going to some strange, & sometimes surprisingly reflective, places in betwen the rounds of gunfire. his other movies are pretty much all over the place, &, well,... never, ever dull? :) ...

osamu tezuka - the godfather of manga & the creator of astro boy, the first manga (via cartoon) to appear in the west. while his 'renegade outlaw unlicenced surgeon' series, 'black jack' is my personal favorite (tezuka actually was a doctor before he did manga, & the illustrations are often amazing), i'd strongly recommend 'buddha', his 8-volume version based on the buddha's life, to beginners. think you could never be 'moved' by a comic book? think again..

keigo oyamada - aka 'cornelius', pop star/composer/guitarist supreme. a musician sooo clever, inventive, & often extraordinary, that i've pretty much been bored with all pop/rock ever since first listening to him...

hideo kojima - genius behind the now 20+ saga of 'metal gear' / 'metal gear solid', the anti-war war game series. always topical, always knowledgeable, always tinged with humor & high weirdness, always innovative every-which-way (graphically/musically/gameplay-wise), & always featuring the most over-the-top casts (of both good & bad guys), not to mention boss fights, of them all...

hayao miyazaki - often described as 'the walt disney of japan', but, if you've seen any of his movies, you know that this isn't quite true. miyazaki's stories always manage to ground the exaggerated elements of classic disney in generous doses of simple, down-to-earth characters, environments, & situations. which makes the surreal aspects that much more striking, & memorable...

toshiro mifune - i'm guessing just about everyone, even if they might not want to admit it, even if they don't even consciously realize it, has an image somewhere in their mind of what they imagine the 'ultimate bad ass', that 'quiet, intimidating (tho, beneath it all, kind-hearted) loner who goes his own way, & plays by his own rules' would be like. well, that's what toshiro mifune is for me - the consummate 'ultimate bad ass'...

ichiro suzuki - before finally passing on what had been a life-long interest in the game, my last 10 years following baseball were spent as a seattle mariners fan. &, of course, as an ichiro fan. &, if like me, you feel that baseball, at it's core, will always be more about grace & speed than raw power, seeing ichiro play was seeing baseball at it's very finest...

my most heartfelt prayers, & gratitude, to the people of my adopted 'home away from home'. may you find the strength within you, as you so often have before...

(murakami quotes from here - arigato!...)

Kodo (鼓童) : O-Daiko from Jason Minnix on Vimeo.

change in plans

2011-03-09T00:10:00.000-04:00

It appears the excitement I may have generated yesterday by telling you about Guillermo delToro making a film of 'At the Mountains of Madness' was premature in the extreme. Today the whole plan was shelved when Universal Studios decided not to risk spending $150 million.. a veritable drop in the bucket now that we're used to hearing about trillion dollar deficits. Ah well, maybe another time.

While looking through my old pictures I found this one (I apologize for the picture quality but I scanned an old snapshot and upsized it.). It was called 'polar bear spring' and was probably painted in the mid 70's. At the time I had no idea that polar bears might eventually be trying to make their way through field of daisies come spring rather than virtually endless miles of ice flows. Maybe I should paint another one where they're back in the snow.

☀

lovecraft at the movies

2011-03-07T23:20:00.000-04:00

At last some good news, especially for those who are fans of that most famous author of macabre stories from Providence, RI, H.P. Lovecraft. His story 'At the Mountains of Madness' gives us all a good reason to last until 2013 since that's when Guillermo DelToro's version of the film is scheduled for release. For those of you who might not be familiar with the tale (not you Randal), I've provided a synopsis written by someone else because I'm too lazy to read it again right now.

"Miskatonic University of Arkham, Massachussetts, sends a scientific expedition to explore the snowy wastes of Antarctica. Once there the team uses experimental drilling equipment to search for fossils from the days when Antarctica was a steaming, prehistoric jungle. In an icy cavern members of the expedition discover perfectly preserved specimens of a winged, column-like creature and bring them back to camp for study.

Informed of the momentous find by radio, the unnamed expedition leader and a companion race to the scene. When they arrive they discover the camp destroyed, the men and sled dogs alike slaughtered and dissected. The mysterious specimens are missing along with some scientific equipment and one team member. Suspecting mutiny or perhaps insanity the team leader sets off into the mountains, following the tracks of a hastily constructed sledge and footprints that are decidedly inhuman. Almost willfully blind to the truth until too late, the scientists realize the alien specimens were only hibernating and now seek to return to the ancient prehuman city that is their home. What follows is a story told in hieroglyhs, recording the rise and fall of an alien empire that genetically engineered man as a buffoonish, ape-like jester to amuse their inhuman intellects. The explorers must try to escape not only the city, but also the mindless, protoplasmic slaves who built it for their slumbering creators."
Greg O., Resident Scholar

I'm not a fan of horror movies in general but I've seen quite a few and DelToro's 'Pan's Labyrinth' is one of the very best, so knowing he'll be directing this amazing story written by H.P. Lovecraft is exciting. 'Re-Animator', 'Die Monster Die', 'The Thing' and even, 'Alien' are all either adaptations or contain ideas borrowed from H.P. Murray Groat's remarkable Lovecraftian Adventures of TinTin are one of the more witty and remarkable versions of how the stories keep reappearing. I can't help but wonder if there's some essential truth behind this madness but that's something you can discover for yourself if you read him.

The bad news about this story (well, there had to be a dark side) is that the studio has insisted that Tom Cruise play the lead. With any luck Cthulu will eat him.
:-)

public art

2011-03-02T15:45:00.000-04:00

I probably spend far too much time reading news and opinions on the current affairs web sites and find it all too easy to become overwhelmed by information, depressed, or both. When that happens, those times when I don't have a project I'm involved with or a book I can't put down, I have a few places on-line I can retreat to for comfort and solace. One of them is The Wooster Collective, a forum for street culture and graffiti artists from around the world.

Most of us are familiar with Banksy, a character impossible not to love in my opinion, but there are many others who do wonderful work that's focused on topics as diverse as politics, ethics, and culture. In public spaces, street art represents the voice of the community, marginal groups, and young people who strive to be heard, often defying the notion of private property. Graffitis have become a rich medium for the unrestricted expression of ideas and statements about how to make the world a better place without resorting to anything more utopian than being willing to share space and dreams.

“Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.” 
–Banksy, Wall and Piece

Faith47 from The Ginkgo Agency on Vimeo.

There are so many great examples it was hard to choose just one photograph or video but since I limit myself to one of each I thought I'd show you a picture of just how effective something small can be. The artist in the video speaks for herself.

♡

new adventure

2011-02-28T17:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, I lied when I said I was being lazy the other day. Realizing I was in imminent danger of having my artistic license revoked I've been working on a new Adventure. I bet you thought there'd never be another. This one is called 'the art class' and is just next door if you'd like to read it.

ps: Be warned it has absolutely no redeeming cultural, political, or social value. It's just another of those silly situations I remembered from my wasted youth. I probably need a new hobby.

♡

lazy (me, not him)

2011-02-26T22:59:00.001-04:00

It was just too cold and windy outside today to exercise the dog so I built it one of these.

Well, actually I don't have a dog but I've gone to look at this video
a few times now and it always makes me laugh.

Maybe it will work that way for you too.
♡

impossible dreams

2011-02-22T13:52:00.001-04:00

Although I'm not much of anything when it comes to religion, I couldn't help but be impressed by a man who has devoted the past 50 years of his life to building a cathedral all by himself. The simple story is that he was unable to continue his life as a monk when he contracted tuberculosis and was ejected from his monastery by those who feared contagion. Another I've read is that he was so devout he fasted himself close to starvation and when he became ill the worried Benedictines decided he'd best not return. He did recover and resolved to build a cathedral on part of his family's farm near Madrid, selling off parcels of land to buy what he could and scavenging at building sites for what he could use. With no architectural training, or any drawn plans, Don Justo simply started to build.

Looking at the galleries of pictures on the website you can see pillars made from cement cylinders that were moulded in plastic buckets, concrete heads of Christ and the Apostles standing on spikes, a staircase built of misshapen bricks, and circular windows whose forms were made from tires. The rickety ladders and scaffolding are enough to make any building inspector cry in frustration but Don Justo has never had an accident.

I loved this quote by him, 'I appreciate the art in many things but all beauty now is ruined by money. There is so much confusion and distraction in the world so I see myself as a martyr. Every man should be a saint.'

El Loco de la Catedral from James Rogan on Vimeo.

It's nice to know there are some who try.
Best wishes to all who do.
♡

making waves

2011-02-17T16:30:00.000-04:00

Painting waves in watercolor has always been a bit tricky for me but I decided to try again a few days ago. Since it's impossible for me to just paint nothing in particular I added a couple of characters who obviously have some sort of entertaining game going on between them. It's not perfect but it's kind of neat and I hope you like it.

The very good news I read today has been far more difficult to obtain than my forays into painting a pretend sea. It seems that after 23 years of Japanese fishing fleets heading of to the international waters of Antarctica to 'research' whales (more than 10,000 of them have been killed), the fleet is going home, hopefully forever.

For many years the Sea Shepherd group has been chasing and harassing the factory whale ships of Japan and it's definite that a lot of the kudos belong to them. It also must be noted that a lot of international pressure has been directed at the country's whaling industry. Chile has banned the practice in its waters and their navy closely monitors Japanese ships in its territory. Whale meat sales have plummeted in Japan largely because of international disapproval.

It's wonderful that the barbaric slaughter of these gentle and intelligent beings may be ending. Perhaps the next step will be to stop the US navy from using the Sonar that deafens the animals.

Hurray for all the wave makers that do it the hard way like: Ray McGovern, ordinary Egyptians, and your average Wiscontonian :-)

There may be troubled waters ahead but you have to admit there's enjoyment and great benefit to be found in surfing these waves.

☂

it's the end of the 'world'

2011-02-15T10:39:00.000-04:00

as we know it,
and I feel fine.
REM

No, I don't mean the end of the larger one we all inhabit but I must admit it did make me smile a few weeks ago when I read that the 'World Islands' in Dubai are showing signs of erosion and deterioration and are gradually falling back into the sea. The islands, 70% of which have been sold at enormous prices as the ultimate in luxury retreats, were created from dredged sand which is now dissolving back to whence it came. It's depressing to understand just how much of the real world's resources are being wasted to prop up the vanity of the super-rich so I take comfort where I can and this was a good one.

On the other hand, there are continuing developments in applied sciences that could make the world a better place and begin healing some of the damage that's already been done. One particular example was unveiled this week in Boston where artificial trees made of recycled plastic from drink bottles won the SHIFTboston urban intervention contest. We all agree trees are wonderful but it's not possible to grow enough of them in our cities to clean the air. The TREEPOD systems are capable of removing carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen. Their design is based not just on regular trees but on the human lung. The giant white, translucent trees can be installed among existing trees or on their own and at night they can light up in a bright array of colors. Anything that can help solve two essential problems at once that's also beautiful gets my vote.

One of my favorite artists in the world today is Andy Goldsworthy who works entirely with the materials nature supplies. He once said, "I enjoy working in a quiet and subversive way":

Me too ♡

trailblazer

2011-02-13T23:34:00.000-04:00

Liberality of Liberality had very generously nominated Adventures Ink and Phantsy for a blog award called Trailblazers.

I'm not very good at the award thing and I'm very glad it appears to have come with only one requirement - that it be passed along. So far as I can see it began (in this neighborhood) with A Feather Adrift who passed it on to Okjimm who gave it to Penolan who bestowed in on Liberality. Each and every one of them are Liberals in the best meaning of the term.

In turn, I'm going to gift it to a guy who takes Trailblazing so seriously he travels all over the country by car, truck, and his very favorite conveyance - a motorcycle - to visit old friends and new. Spadoman is a proud veteran of the Vietnam War who embraced peace and forgiveness. He has joined with Native Americans to learn and celebrate the teachings of the Great Spirit. He is generous to all he meets, takes wonderful photographs, and writes great Haikus. He's also a very kind and loving family man who takes great joy in his wife, children and grandchildren.

I'm glad to call Spadoman a friend and happy to be able to pass on the Trailblazer Award to him.

♡

garden cats

2011-02-11T23:16:00.000-04:00

Ah well, here I have a fresh new blog design and nothing new to show for it yet. New things are fine and dandy but as I've admitted before, I don't always work very fast. If truth were told I sometimes hardly work at all - those times when procrastination rules or the times I find myself wondering why I'm compelled to keep painting at all. I guess the answer to that is I'm the only person who sees things as I do which should be reason enough, but it's not always the case, is it? A few years ago when I began blogging I'd pretty much stopped painting but what I did was post pictures of the ones I still had access to either in originals (that mostly live in my portfolio) and a few photographs of ones sold or left behind. I was amazed when you liked them and asked for more.

There is a new one in the works but it will be a few days more before I can show you - or it suffers a major mishap. These things happen. In the meanwhile here's one of those older paintings so there's something different to look at on the revised background.

I hope you're having a fine weekend and are seeing signs of Spring.

♡

bankster vs deadbeat

2011-02-10T13:10:00.000-04:00

Whenever I tried to talk to co-workers in the US about fraudulent bankers actively encouraging people to take out home loans they couldn't afford they'd often try to end the discussion with the "deadbeat" argument. This piece is really effective because the deadbeat concedes that from the start and focuses on the larger systemic damage done by the banks.

This video was on Zero Hedge yesterday morning and is much more fun to watch than a two hour presentation with graphs and pie charts.

By the way, did you know Morgan Stanley is the largest processor of food stamps in the US? Oh the irony.

and now for something completely cute - a baby beluga whale with his mom
♡

You may notice I've changed the template for the first time in 3½ years. Now I'll be able to post larger pictures and also have the occasional youtube selections show to size. Please let me know if you have any trouble looking at the new format.

Time marches on :-)

wistful weekend

2011-02-04T16:07:00.001-04:00

Here it is the end of another week and I've come up with yet another illustration. Usually I draw something and then start painting right away but somehow lately I've been more interested in getting the drawings down on paper while the ideas are fresh. Then too is the fact I've ordered new paints from a supplier in the US and am kind of holding out for their arrival. The figures here are pretty close to what they'll look like in the finished piece but the background is just lightly sketched to provide context. Once again, I hope you're able to view it okay now that I've darkened the pencil lines and changed the shade of the paper to my favorite pinkish shade.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Everything looks better with the tv turned off :-)

❍

Crow in Egypt

2011-02-02T10:23:00.001-04:00

It was very irritating to hear the US government in concert with Israel had suggested the Egyptian people weren't ready for democracy. Are we supposed to have forgotten Iraq and Afghanistan were ready once we'd prepared the ground? Naturally, my friend Crow has taken another detour on his way home. Some events he prefers to see for himself; the rest of us have Al-Jazeera and Common Dreams among many others.

This is not an anti-American revolution but a revolt against an American backed regime. It appears that another piece of the Empire has removed itself from control and that's a good thing. As Pepe Escobar said yesterday, "This is about the millenarian heart of the Arab world possibly on the verge of a seismic shift." We should wish them well and look to their methods when our turn comes. The heart of the world longs for change.

I hesitate to write about larger issues in the political world because there are so many better equipped than I but I would like to share a song by another Canadian whose heart was forged here and honed in the US - Leonard Cohen:

"Democracy"

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

♡

offering

2011-01-25T22:13:00.001-04:00

This drawing isn't really pink, in fact it's a pencil sketch on a fairly large sheet of white watercolor paper which is too large to sit on the bed of my scanner so I did what I could to make it visible.

It's also not really about anything because, if I could write it down or tell it, what would be the point of the lines?

The flu came and went leaving me just a little lighter, or perhaps it's just that the days are noticeably getting longer.

With luck and time the image may turn into a painting but for now it is what it is and I hope you get the idea.

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,  or being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
 to find its source,
and how the moon wept 
without her lover’s  warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts.
We wither  like fields if someone close 
does not rain
their  kindness 
upon  
us.

Meister Eckhardt

♡

Crow & Toad

2011-01-19T22:06:00.001-04:00

Have refined the postcard sent by Crow a few days ago into something that could be from 1908 when Kenneth Grahame wrote 'The Wind in the Willows'. It's funny to think that there were only a handful of cars on the roads then and no highways at all. The west was industrializing and people were leaving the countryside in droves to get jobs in factories. It would be true to say life for most people wasn't as bucolic as appears in the Golden Age stories but if you were middle class, as Grahame was, then the countryside was pristine and as beautiful as the story implies.

A couple of nights ago I looked up my favourite chapter in the book to see if I could post a link. It's called 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' if you'd like to read it. A baby otter has gone missing from home and as his father waits by the riverbank with fading hopes for his return, Mole and Rat decide to search.

Now I'm off to bed a little earlier than usual. We both have the flu and I'm looking forward to Crow's homecoming so he can ply me with brandy for once. I'll be back when health and inspiration return.

Stay cozy and take your vitamin 'C'.

♡

celestial graffiti

2011-01-16T09:27:00.002-04:00

Here's another of those innumerable odd and fascinating things I never heard of until recently. I swear you could write a book about the things I don't know. The photograph above is a composite image of the sun taken at the same time and from the same place about every ten days over the course of a year. The resulting picture is called an analemma, although it could equally be called a figure eight or an infinity sign depending on your point of view.

Of the few pictures of analemmas available I chose this one because it was captured in Turkey in 2005 when a full eclipse of the sun happened during the year. All of them are very cool to see and apparently very difficult to make on one piece of film (they say more people have stepped onto the moon than have been successful) but I liked this one because it was extra mysterious. The foreground picture is usually taken as one separate image for clarity and in this case the photographer chose the midst of the totality. Yes, it's convex and we know that's not right but perception is only something we agree about in general anyway so I won't try to find a satisfactory explanation. Maybe one of you knows.

Our world spins round on its axis and wobbles back and forth over the course of a year as we spin around the sun. The sun whirls through the Milky Way while the galaxy itself pirouettes around the universe. I wonder what lesson are we supposed to gather from signs in the sky or is everything just coincidental?

If you're bored, try not to think about penguins.
☀

traveling Crow

2011-01-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

For those who wonder where Crow has been lately I received this hastily scrawled postcard from him today:

'Apologies for my delayed return but I needed a respite from the 21st century. Please warm the brandy and have my hot water bottle to hand. This Toad is not a skilled driver but he is most amusing company.'

♡

you call this winter?

2011-01-08T15:46:00.000-04:00

Although you might be thinking this is what it looks like outside our January window the fact is this isn't a great photograph of a snowy Canadian landscape, in fact, it's no photograph at all. Instead, it's a pencil drawing done by a Russian artist whose work I found completely by accident and whose name I don't know because the web page is almost all in Cyrillic. If you click on the link you have to scroll down to see the other drawings but I promise it will be worth a little of your time.

So far winter here has been surprisingly mild. It's snowed a couple of times but just prettily and none has stayed but there are still months to go and the parking bans that went into effect in December don't end until the last day of March. I mentioned to someone today that I was going to miss seeing crocuses and snowdrops in February and he asked what they are. I'm hoping he's one of those people who don't pay attention to flowers rather than that early spring flowers don't grow here at all. Time will tell.

I'm still drawing and thinking of a story I'd like to write to go along with the pictures. Sometimes I can't fall asleep because images and colors race through my mind. Does anything like that ever happen to you?

℃

x-rayted image

2011-01-06T12:20:00.001-04:00

Before the year gets too old I had to show you this image from a calendar produced last year for deserving clients in the medical industry by a German company called Eizo. I'm pretty sure they aren't real x-rays but the images are pretty memorable.

Of course, it could just be a government plot to encourage cultural acceptance of full-body scanners at airports. Have you noticed nobody's talking about that in the news anymore?

:-)

evolution of a painting

2011-01-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

I think this one is done, or perhaps I should say I'm done with it. I'm not very good at doing practice paintings since if I'm not seriously involved in trying to get something just right I have a tendency to scribble. Nevertheless, there are a few techniques I need to work on so this is a practice painting done over the course of the past few days.

This is the first drawing from my notebook of a young girl sitting in a doorway. Well, the doorway idea didn't sound too interesting and the flowers were very uninspired.

However, I liked her enough to place her in another setting and replaced the flowers with a wary looking bunny and a lamp hanging from a branch when I transferred the drawing to the watercolor paper.

Before I began painting I got rid of the lamp and added a few magic bubble spheres. I've been trying to figure out how to paint glowing bubbles and seem to be making some progress.

It took me a day or two to paint in the background - really the biggest difference since I usually paint the central figure first and then paint and detail the rest. It felt strange painting in a way that was backwards for me, even though it's a more traditional method, but I think overall the result is okay.

I have to mention that right here was where I could have made some decisions that would have made the final painting a better one in my opinion. I should have left more light on her right side and darkened the left including the underside of the fungal seat. Oh well, it's practice.

I have a couple of large drawings that are interesting enough to turn into paintings but the big ones take weeks - it's rather like painting in miniature on a large scale. I need to tighten up my palette before I work on them and some others I have in mind so there will be more small ones as I get comfortable with color again. This is what I accomplished over the course of five days, which means it really is my first painting of 2011. I wish I'd scanned a few times in the between stages of painting but I was too caught up in the action :-) I've never posted a how I did it before so I hope you found it interesting.

We're always looking for that perfect note, aren't we? May we all make good progress in the coming year.

♡

dancing in my mind

2010-12-30T16:18:00.000-04:00

Here at the almost end of another year I find myself in a strange place. Not Halifax. Yes, still here but the city is anything but strange. In fact it's about as normal as any small city in Canada could be - cold, quiet, and somewhat sleepy now that winter's here. So far there's only a little snow but there are still a few months of potential weather excitement ahead.

What I mean by strange place is the one I find myself in on the inside and the fact I haven't posted much lately because I've been drawing a fair amount but don't seem to be quite in the mood for painting. I'm feeling a bit color shy if the truth be told, tired of painting fantasies yet too tied into the images. Any mythology I envision is strictly personal but always returns to a sense of sacredness I feel about our human experience of the world. Reverence for a spectacular view rises up in us unbidden but there's also a sacred aspect to whatever is in front of us right now and that's what I'm trying to capture in my own limited fashion.

Do you have plans for New Year's? If I could go anywhere for a party I think I'd like to visit Yokohama the night La Machine's 'La Princesse' and a sister arachnid showed up for a stroll around town. I, for one, welcome our new spider overlords.

Imagine how things could be if more people could see all the possibilities and wonders in this life. Oh well, c'est la guerre. Meanwhile, Happy New Year :-)

♡

time to relax

2010-12-25T09:49:00.000-04:00

Wherever we wander may a warm light always welcome us home.
Peace of the day to all

susan, numb and Crow
♡ ♡ ♡

waiting for Father Christmas

2010-12-19T12:04:00.008-04:00

needing more light

2010-12-16T23:46:00.001-04:00

Speaking of magical lights (as I did a few days ago) a Norwegian photographer has made a timelapse video of the Aurora Borealis. This beautiful dance of light that happens only in the northernmost reaches would be wonderful to see, but since few of us are likely to go to Malmo, I decided to post the film. It's too beautiful not to share.

I hope you are keeping well in the long dark.
Brighter days are coming by and by.

♥

street life lights

2010-12-12T17:59:00.001-04:00

One of the cool things about this time of the year is the sparkling lights on Christmas trees. It's always a shame when the holidays end and we're left with long dark nights and streets lit by ugly phosphorous street lights that make you eager to get back inside. Street lights are, of course, important for lighting our way home and for keeping the streets safe but as well as shining in a somewhat poisonous spectrum, they're also very costly to operate.

A group of scientists in Taiwan recently discovered that placing gold nanoparticles inside the leaves of trees causes them to give off a luminous reddish glow after dark. They were looking for a way to create high efficiency lighting at low cost without using toxic chemicals. Essentially, the gold treated leaves act like little solar panels storing up UV light throughout the day and glow softly through the night.

There was no discussion in the article I read about what happens in high latitude cities where the leaves actually drop in the autumn but it would give us all another good reason to look forward to spring. Considering the current price of gold it's also certainly true that there'd be lots of people eager to rake once the leaves began to fall. A world lit by bioluminescence would be pretty neat but it all sounds pretty complicated and I'm a bit nervous about nano-anything.

What I know would be nice is being able to see the moon and stars again.

☀

moonscape to landscape

2010-12-09T17:12:00.004-04:00

What looks like an ordinary field of grass, flowers and baby trees is actually quite remarkable because, just five years ago, it looked like this:

A group of scientists at the Technical University of Munich wondered how to best restore a natural ecosystem to an open coal pit not far from the city. Rather than haul in tons of soil and carefully place vegetation, what they did was cover the pit in a layer of clay and let an artificial water basin form. Then they left it alone - other than taking samples to check soil enhancement.

They noticed the first cloudburst created furrows where water ran off and washed away the clay. The next rain made the furrows wider and deeper determining the future course of the water flow and where the plants would grow. The first trees weren't expected for at least 20 years but black locust trees germinated and their root's nitrogen fixing bacteria make them an excellent early colonizer of the disturbed area.

Five years later the scientists who have been been able to capture a lot of information about the natural development of a new ecosystem have been astounded by nature's resilience. It certainly goes to show that Mother Nature really is a brilliant designer and doesn't need human interference in her affairs.

After having read Alan Weisman's 'The World Without Us' a few years ago, I'm confident Earth will do okay but it would be nice if we could be here to witness the healing.

♡ - a little good news is always welcome.

late night pussycat

2010-12-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

I never post pictures of cats because I don't have one anymore but I loved this photograph the minute I saw it. Nice, hmmm?

Have you ever considered this?

When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands buttered side down. Therefore, if a slice of toast is strapped to a cat's back, buttered side up, and the animal is then dropped, the two opposing forces will cause it to hover, spinning inches above the ground. If enough toast-laden felines were used, they could form the basis of a high-speed monorail system.

☺

energy levels

2010-12-04T15:59:00.001-04:00

Spaceship or cloud? What looks like the apocalypse is a supercell thunderstorm that was photographed near Glasgow, Montana last summer. If you look closely you'll see a little smudge on the lower right.. a tree. We did run into some high winds and a couple of storms as we crossed the country, including Montana, in August but I'm very glad we didn't see one of these along the road. The picture's even more amazing if you enlarge it.

I'm not usually a storm of activity anyway but December is always an especially low month for me. I think I'll go easy with personal expectations for a while and simply post things that interest me, what I usually do, but with much less commentary. Has anybody else been having problems with personal energy levels lately?

☁

neptunia and her beachball

2010-12-02T16:04:00.000-04:00

It occurred to me if scientific thought and education based on cooperation rather than competition was encouraged, we'd have a much better chance of not simply surviving but flourishing. If the world was run on evidence-based science we'd be investing in major projects to develop and deploy clean renewable technologies. We'd work toward ending the spate of curable diseases and the hunger that kill eleven million children every year. Instead, we're seeing huge amounts of money being funneled into the hands of the super-rich who have no long range plan in mind at all other than increasing their own wealth in a world that's at the brink of disaster.

In the last 50 years, we've moved away from collective thinking - all over the world people are educated in the western style to compete. Higher education in much of the west is now so expensive that students have to plan on a high paying career that will allow them to pay off their loans rather than look forward to using their knowledge and skills for positive ends. We have impoverished graduates who can't find jobs in their chosen fields and a large segment of the general population that hates science. That's not only sad but also dangerous.

I like to read and there are so many fascinating discoveries and developments that sometimes I can get lost exploring for whole sections of days. The world is an intriguing, magnificent place where, if we were to admit it, we've caused many of our own problems. I've made it a habit of stopping reading the minute somebody says, 'We should all do so and so to fix this, that or the other thing' because that will never happen. I've heard it said that not everyone brushes their teeth and what could be more basic than that?

I guess what we can do is remain open to the possibilities of a better future for everyone and learn as much as we can on our own. That includes sharing what we learn with each other until we have a society that recognizes that large things matter.

Meanwhile, I give you Neptunia, one of those paintings that didn't work out as planned.

:-)

sublime or ridiculous?

2010-11-26T18:10:00.001-04:00

I was wondering what it might be that the uber-rich like to spend their ill-gotten gains purchasing. I know about yachts, mansions, fancy cars, fabulous jewels, antiques, famous paintings, and other trinkets but the strangest thing I found was this - the world's most expensive house.

I was so unnerved by it I had to post this extra picture so you could see it against the skyline. It's a recently completed building in Mumbai, India and is home to India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. The house, which cost more than $1billion, is 27 stories tall but at 568 ft would be a 60 storey building if it had normal ceilings. It has 398,000 sq ft of living space that requires a staff of more than 600 people to care for him, his wife, and three children. Mukesh Ambani wasn't from Dharavi but his father, who made the original fortune, came from very modest means. It's sad to see such a bizarre example of conspicuous consumption in a country that's one of the poorest on the planet.

Speaking of spending money wisely for housing, I came across an article from last autumn's NY Times about a Wisconsin forester-architect who uses small, whole trees to build houses, greenhouses and larger buildings. The economic slowdown has put several contracts he'd anticipated from non-profit companies on hold but not so strangely, a lot of people have been asking him for small houses. At $100 per square foot, imagine how many nice little houses Mr Ambani could have built for the price of his personal skyscraper? I'm sure there would have been enough for homes for his 600 staff members who likely do live in Dharavi.

Yes, wealthy people do what they like with their money but the fact is that they mistake the true wealth of the world in their calculations. In today's culture of profit, we don't produce goods based on human need. We don't build houses based on population needs. We don't grow food to feed people. Instead, we're decimating our renewable natural resources to rip non-renewables out of the ground.

There are many clever and talented people in the world like the forester-architect and lots of room for other ways of doing things. I don't know what will happen in the future but it makes me feel better about today knowing he and others like him are here.

happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T18:30:00.001-04:00

This painting isn't quite done and the colors of the photograph are off but it's what I've been working on the past week or more. So why am I posting it now? Simply because it's the only new and potentially lovely thing I have available as a gift to my friends on the eve of my favorite American holiday.

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safe
when we feel safe in ourselves.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

hold on, it's coming

2010-11-23T16:56:00.001-04:00

With Thanksgiving upon us and Christmas coming sooner than we like, I thought I'd share an amusing Catalonian tradition I just learned about. Since the 17th century during Christmas, a large model of the city of Bethlehem is created along with the usual nativity scene. Tucked away in a corner of the model there has always been a little figure of a defecating Catalan peasant, called the Caganer.

It's considered to be a good omen and a sign of the earth being fertilized. In recent years, instead of a peasant wearing a red hat squatting in a corner, modern Caganers are caricatures of famous people.

It could be said Caganers represent the equality of all people and I rather like that definition. Then again, it could mean other things too which I'll leave for you to decide.

hats off to the winner

2010-11-22T16:35:00.001-04:00

It's not even December yet and already the weather here in Halifax is colder than I'm used to at this time of year. I guess that's no surprise, except to me who thought they were just kidding about winter woolies and boots heavy enough to hold your feet to the ground when the wind blows a gale. Guess what? They weren't kidding.

Anyway, for the sake of a little prettiness to go along with protection from the elements, I made myself a hat. It's not the best hat, or the most fashionable hat, or even the warmest hat, but it's not bad for a first attempt at making a hat. I may even make another, quilted and lined with patchworks of painted silk.

Before Crow left for his annual flight around the Andes with his condor friends he pulled the name of the birthday card winner out of the hat and asked that I let that person know. Since he's the wisest being of my acquaintance, I'm always delighted to follow his wishes.

The lucky winner of a small Crow portrait is Marja-Leena, a very fine artist and collector of treasures new, old, and natural.

Thanks to all of you who left birthday greetings. I told Crow not to give away the date but now I'm very glad he did. Warm wishes are the best body and soul warmer I know of. I wish I could send a birthday card to all of you. Given enough time, I may do just that.

♡

birthday card

2010-11-20T23:31:00.006-04:00

Crow here. It will soon be midnight in the land of fog and squalls but before I finish my perchtime brandy, I wanted to let you know tomorrow is susan's birthday. In recognition of her friendship and good company over the course of many years I offer this seaside portrait she painted one early autumn afternoon. Since there is only one, and not a dozen or two, it will be awarded at random to one of you. Perhaps you could just mention you've stopped by.

Quite frankly, considering her quirks and odd concepts, it's always a relief to find her at home waiting when I return from my own travels. I can attest she's growing older but her sense of humor remains intact, a trait that helps sustain us all in difficult times.

May all your journeys be flights of phantsy.
(^^)