It can be nasty losing your boot down a hole if you don't have someone able to fly down and retrieve it for you.
After looking at too many pictures of the Canadian oil sands projects and reading the reports I decided I'd rather paint a picture of Crow and company than write a post about my feelings.
I'm just left wondering what will happen if everything that can be burned does get burned.
♡
Oooh, I'd rather look at your gorgeous watercolour than those apocalyptic scenes in Alberta! I love the intense colours in this piece, especially the red, and the lovely bleeds in the paintwork in the "hole" and the sky. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteI think I was really needing to paint something without over-thinking and I'm happy to know you like the result. The cool thing is it was done in the short daylight of afternoon.
DeleteI forgot to add that the award winning Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has taken stunning photos there and many other industrial sites around the world. He actaully finds some beauty in these scenes even while they are shocking. His website might interest you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. I remember looking at some of his work in the past and, like with so many things, he does find beauty in strange places. We do seem to be a particularly incorrigible species, don't we?
DeleteAh, home, sweet oilberta home. The articles you link to don't even touch on concerns about the threat to underground fresh water supplies from steam assisted oil sands 'harvesting' methods. .....Our aquifer is in serious danger. Or the VAST amounts of fresh water used in these methods.... Or how about the earthquake we had a few years ago when things shifted into the cavity that had formerly held oil & gas under high pressure. And. nobody talks about the thousands of miles of aging underground pipelines running under every grain field and and through our forests, and how caustic and toxic the stuff they're carrying is.... Pipelines don't last forever - ever wonder what happens when they start to deteriorate? Don't even let me start on that. But did you know that the wealthiest people in the country live in oilberta....?...... AND the most impoverished. The gap between rich and poor is at its greatest here. Vancouver &. Toronto don't even come close.
ReplyDeleteYou & Crow need to get away from the edge of that big old oily hole. It's not a healthy place to be. Come stay @Miramichi House. I had a peek at the attic the other day, & I think it has scope to become a perfect Crow roost with some renovation.
Oh Gfid, I've been reading about the oil sands and all the peripheral stuff off an on for a couple of months. Once it got down to transcribing Crow's analysis I found I had no heart for the job. What I thought to do instead was to post a link to these pictures and let anyone interested enough find their own way to the rest. One guy I saw interviewed used to work as a pipeline foreman for Enbridge and became an activist for the opposition.
DeleteCrow agrees the attic at Miramichi House sounds most intriguing. I hope you're doing okay :-)
no heart, or too much heart? it's a gawdawful mess, but most everybody's got their eyes only on their wallets. Some days i think i'd ... almost ... like to join Weebo Ludwig and blow things up.... almost. Doing ok, w the occasional slump. we're on the way past it, i think.
DeleteI read a fitting quote by Mark Twain:
Delete'I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me.'
I'm glad to know you're recovering.
When there's nothing left to burn we burn ourselves.....
ReplyDeleteIt would be best if we didn't get that far.
DeleteWell, once the last drop of fossil fuels is used up, just imagine all the neat things we can do with that sprawling pit! Throw dead bodies in just a like a mobster, and probably one other thing.
ReplyDeleteJust getting the place ready for the Old Ones.
DeleteI know it wrong but sometimes I have to look away because the rage and despair I feel inside becomes overwhelming. I fear for my kids and grand kids, I truly do. :(
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way, Lib. There are forces pushing this stuff who are far beyond our control.
DeleteSweet. Now I'm off to google the idiom "Waiting for the other shoe to drop".
ReplyDelete" Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it. " ~John Lennon
I couldn't resist :-) Glad you noticed that.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lennon often spoke with great wisdom.
If boots can be seen as a metaphor for having the ability to move forward, seeing that ability disappear into a tar-sands pit is prophetic. I wonder how much of a role your musings on our fossil-fueled future played in the genesis of this superficially cute painting...
ReplyDeleteMoving forward, sideways, or even a little backwards would be better than staying in place. I tried to write but many have done better, so I drew a picture.
DeleteI have to say, that is one of my favorite drawings of yours! I'm just hanging around waiting for the rapture, or the Mayan Calendar to run out or one of the other doomsday predictions. At the very least, I'll die with my boots on....well, at least one of them. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to you, Susan. Not sure if they do turkey in Canada (maybe Canadian Geese for supper?) Anyway, have a Blessed Thanksgiving.
---Nunly
I'm glad you liked it. There's not much any of us can do but at least we do the best we can.
DeleteThanks for the good wishes and the same to you. I miss American Thanksgiving but Canadians celebrate their own on Columbus Day. Our last national holiday was Remembrance/Veteran's Day.
hi my dear susan,
ReplyDeletethis is too depressing as it much more ... someday it will all be over and we will have caused it, i am without doubts on it.
i think i like this painting most of anything you have done (that i've seen)and strangely it comes from a sad, desperate, infuriated place. emotional painting is good for the soul, no? in the end, that's all the power we really might have. i am not even going to look....... my imagination is good enough.
this is why i live on a mountaintop far from people, cars and such excepting the pollution is finding me anyway so what to do? paint, grab color, cry in my watercolors. as i get older i fail to take much seriously anymore because my impact is really so small. i do what i can and try to be happy about it. not easy... no fear, no doubt, no hope.
xoxox to you.
If humanity really is the most intelligent species on Earth it seems tragic that, using this intellect, we so blindly (and dangerously) endanger the ecosystem that is our own prime support. Much of the industrialized world's approach to the planet is based on the simplistic belief that the world and all upon it is meant for us to use - after all, didn't God give us dominion over everything?
DeleteI'm glad you like this image that came tearing out of me and noticed too its angst. I agree with you about the unlikelihood of humanity doing a massive turnaround of its destructive practices. Meanwhile, I still believe that as individuals we have much to be grateful for - like friendship and mutual understanding. We also have the advantage of knowing there is a spiritual dimension to our lives that science hasn't figured out a way to measure or their employers a way to sell.
Be well, my friend.
xoxoxo
geez, google is so dumb-i think it just sent an empty comment your way but anyway...
Deleteyes, there is the spirit and spirituality that cannot be touched and that's what keeps me going. if i get caught up too much in what "man" is doing to both the planet and to one another, it literally drives me to drink. well, maybe not as i don't but drives me mad and that's entirely plausible. the wars that are erupting around the world are an example of it...shall we nicely call them engagements or conflicts?...bullshit is about all i have to say about it. i was watching crisis numbing network a couple of days ago about the congo and the refugees trying to escape. it was heartbreaking. i think it was the congo-a bit distracted at that moment in time. on the continent anyway....very very sad and then they schoolyard in syria and and and...... omg...
so between our departures from this plane of existence through our art and our practice, such as mine is, we will survive to tell about it. we have a small orbit but we can make a difference. it's when we begin to feel too small that it is crazy-making in my opinion. there is only so much without billions of $$$ and even then, not really. blogging as you do and sharing what you know is extremely beneficial and imagine those you don't even realize are reading your words? i like to think that somehow we do make a difference in just sending out compassion to not only each other but to the other sentient and non-sentient beings in the universe. i suppose it's a bit pollyanna-ish but i'm too old to change now. :)
and that was my hand, my dear. :))) i assume you thought it was perhaps, a grandchild's? made me smile anyway it went. much love and many blessings to you. xoxoxo
In many ways it's probably true that humans were better off in those early days of our race when we still remembered what it was like to be prey. Ever since the advent of agriculture and organized religion, things have been going rapidly downhill for humanity's spiritual well-being. But that's in the aggregate and not in particular - although it's very hard to maintain that balance required to witness the horrors people wreak on one another as well as on nature and to maintain some clarity. I often feel like a hypocrite living in relative comfort as I do while also being aware of how much even my simple lifestyle depends upon the culture of mass destruction. It's in insoluble conundrum of awareness and I'm not nearly far enough along in my practice to not feel the pain and guilt of association.
DeleteStill, we do what we can and, as you say, try to bring some peace and compassion to the table. I've always loved the story of the hundredth monkey. I still believe we live in a totally sentient universe that will reveal itself to us as we mature. How many lifetimes will that take? Another mystery indeed :-)
Yes, I thought it was the hand of one of your grandchildren. It's a lovely little hand.
xoxoxo
This is so sharp and snappy. I love the colors and how they make me feel better even though I'm now mulling over that last line of yours.
ReplyDeleteIt's always best to keep our spirits up, isn't it?
Delete