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.

♡

painting in stages

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

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

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

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

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

♡