the studio 2011

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

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?

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 *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

♡