shane swift, framed

(Reminder: you can click on the pictures to see them bigger!)

This evening's project: framing a painting I recently bought from Shane Swift - a gentleman I know of through tumblr: http://swiftdeathhorseclub.tumblr.com/.

I've admired his folky paintings (and his dedication to doing them) for awhile now so it was finally time to get one... it's rare that I feel like I have the money to splurge on such things but it was worth it. My only regret is that he didn't sign it. 

I put it in a frame that I found in the basement of my building. I found it at the same time that I found the Laurence Hyde print that I mentioned in this post. The frame seems to be quite old, judging by the wooden backing and the old nails holding it in. The print it housed is a reproduction of a Corot and it appears to have possibly come from the gift shop of the Lourve... or else I don't know what to make of the piece of cardboard that was stuck on the back. (The print is on really thick cardstock. It's quite nice actually but I was tired of looking at it and the frame seemed to suit this painting nicely.)

I even bought a colour-coordinated mat to pick up some of the brown in the painting and double-matted the sucker! (There's a first time for everything!)

Ta Daa!!

Oh wait... frickin' cat...

Ok.

Here we go:

Thanks for looking....

(And Shane, if you read this, keep up the good work! Thanks!)

Treasures from Sara's

There's a strange new glow in my office!!

A friend of mine is moving house and I've been the lucky recipient of some old treasure, chiefly an awesome old light-table (for the small price of some artwork - don't worry Sara - I haven't forgotten!!!) 

Also: a coy Victorian gentlewomen (she freaked out Sara's kids but I like her and she fits in with all my other Ladies of History), a Leroy Lettering Set (haven't tried it out yet because I don't have pens that fit), some old records and games and books, etc. 

The table is a real step up from the tiny plastic thing I have. I haven't used a light-table much in the past but I think it'll come in handy in the future! 

It came with its own graffiti - so I don't even need to scribble on it myself (for that highly-sought patina of age y'know?)

"Don't be cruel. I need you."

I wonder if PC + LM lasted 4ever?

Already putting it to good use... it couldn't stay uncluttered for long...

Thanks Sara!

And thanks internet world for giving me a place to do my showing n' telling...

Container Garden 2012

I just finished planting this year's balcony garden. 

If you've followed this blog for a few years you'll know this is a really pared down version of the container farm. There just isn't as much room or sun on this balcony as the one I had in the past - so I'm sticking to a few sure things: peas, lettuce mix, chives, onions, and some Zinnias (for colour). Oh! And just for fun I planted some PEANUTS. I don't know if they'll work but it will be an interesting experiment. 

We're supposed to be getting a plot in a community garden this year too and I'll put the Sweet Potatoes in there... if we ever get a plot assigned to us...

Anyway, here are the "before" pictures:

Tattooed by Tony

Tony D'Annessa is an older gentleman that tattoos at PSC in Montreal. According to him, he's the oldest and longest-working tattooer in Canada (about 53 years). Back in March I was in Montreal with a friend and had the pleasure of meeting and getting tattooed by Tony. At first he was all business and rather quiet. The small hummingbird flash I'd selected to fill an awkward space on my arm only took about 30 minutes from start to finish. After the tattoo was done I asked to take a picture and then Tony really opened up; told me a lot of interesting stories and showed me a bunch of cool stuff around his office. I think I stayed for about an hour just chatting. I won't recount all of it here because it would take forever and I want to leave some mystery... but I will describe the pictures.

But before I start here are some neat links...

*  PSC (Point St. Charles) is home to several high-caliber tattooers, check out their work here:

http://psctattoo.com

* There's a bio of Tony on the PSC website (I think I know what book it's scanned from but I'm not positive so I'll save myself the potential embarrassment of giving wrong information...):

http://psctattoo.com/?page_id=142

* And I also found this nice interview from TAM:

http://www.tattooartistmagazine.com/issue7/tonydanessa.html

OK.
So here's Tony and me and my triple chins.

Just finishing up. (Good thing he worked fast because this was a really uncomfortable position to hold my arm! Ha!)

There's a lot of cool stuff around Tony's work space. 

Here's plaque commemorating over 50 years of tattooing (which he has updated with a post-it note, 53 years now!) He also loves to fish - so there's a lot of fishing stuff around.

Tony's dad worked as a commercial artist doing fancy flourishes and filigree stuff. Tony does this stuff too but I think he said his dad did this one. Beautiful!

This book was on his shelf! It's from 1958. I've tried to find this book a few times - used copies are still available - if you want to pay over $300! 

If you go to the articles I linked to you will learn the story of the flash sheets on the roller blinds (after tattooing went underground in NYC). That huge sheet on the wall behind Tony is one of those very sheets!

Tony was kind enough to show me a lot of his drawings and also some scrap books. Here he is with some newspaper clippings of himself.

The young Tony/Henry

I thought it was really cool to see the picture of his forearm tattoo in his youth and as it is now (you can click on them to see them bigger). Tony said he got tattooed when he first started working and never since then. So his tattoos are all over 50 years old now. Some of them have nearly disappeared!

Another really neat thing was seeing all the old hand-cut acetates. Here's a cool Hot Stuff Devil.

I never quite understood how these things worked so Tony was kind enough to demonstrate. I chose one of my favourite old designs - the little boxer boy.

First, put some graphite dust on the acetate...

...and some vaseline on the spot to be tattooed...

...then stick the acetate on there...

... then work from the bottom-up and be careful not to swipe the image away (which can easily happen, as shown here)!!

(Part of me really wanted him to finish the job... but... I'm not quite ready for hand tattoos yet.)

This is the flash sheet that I picked my tattoo from. I didn't go in knowing what I would get, I just knew I wanted something small to fill a weird spot. I've never been that casual about a tattoo before. 

And here's the sweet little hum-dinger I walked away with!! I'm pleased as punch with it and can't believe how perfectly it fit in there!

Thanks as always for making it to the end of another post! If you want to get tattooed by an old-timer, you know where you can do it! Be sure to check out the work of the other guys at PSC!!

Our Salad Days

A household innovation story:

My dear, handsome Husbo came home from a working week away with big plans for our fridge. See, while visiting the land of Academia he spent all his lunch money at a cafeteria with a nice salad bar and now he wanted that salad-fixin'-luxury at home. 

So, off to the container store we went this weekend (I didn't even know there were whole stores dedicated to containers until very recently). 

Now we have a big box 'o salad stuff in our fridge from which we can throw together delicious, nutritious salads very easily and quickly (because of course the hassle of eating salad is all the annoying chopping, chopping, forever chopping). 

So far, I like it... we'll see if it helps us eat more salad in the long run. I think it will. 

I share this story in case you too have been harbouring secret-salad-bar-fantasies. It can be so!

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It takes up a whole shelf of the fridge - but it basically stores all our veg in an orderly fashion. The actual veg crisper is full of beer and bubbly water. I don't like keeping plant matter in the crisper drawer because it's not see-thru and therefore too easy to forget about... (but I never forget about beer or bubbly water so that's safe).

Easy to take everything out of the fridge in one smooth motion. Lift with your knees!

See!? Orderly!

Look at all that easily accessible nutrition! (The challenge is to eat it all before it goes bad!)

Salad-makin'

Yum! (That was easy!)

The End

Love Triangles in the Royal Courts

Here's a thing I made after I saw one on the Inspire Me Now tumblr and followed the link to the instructions at site, George Hart's website. It has to do with math and stuff... but I just thought it looked neat.

Apparently, "the form derives from the third stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron..."

OK. Thanks George!

Anyway, I had to make one... (something to do while watching my poor hockey team lose their shit.) 

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In progress, fractal moose:

Completed, and sitting with some other novelties:

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I used the face cards to make my card sculpture. 

Some interesting relationships in the Royal Courts were revealed in the process...

In the land of Clubs the king is suffering unrequited love... but not from his wife: 

The king of Hearts doesn't have the same problem... and the queen is pissed:

Everyone's lovin' everyone under the sign of the Diamonds:

...but there is no love at all in Spade-town:

So, this was fun. Try it yourself... if you like puzzles...

Ned Hanlan - Forgotten Canadian Sporting Dude and My Imaginary Boyfriend

OK. Here's another "restyled/remixed" thing. 

I cobbled this together to fancy-up the "gym" area of my living-room. If you live with your workout equipment in the room where you also go to relax, you have to try to make it bearable for your eyeballs... or at least I do. Plus, I have all these odds and ends hanging around that I'm compelled to either purge or make stuff with. Also, it is inspiring to workout under the watchful eye of a sports hero. Ha!

The little heart came from this plastic "Visible Man" I had until very recently when it met it's demise at the hands paws of a clumsy cat.  Sad. I like the old-fashioned word "hale" (meaning "hearty and healthy"). I won't bother describing where all the other little bits come from or what they mean to me (but I'd tell you if you asked).

There it is, hanging in place near Silken Laumann (that's what I call my rowing machine). 

When I started rowing I discovered the story of Ned Hanlan - a Canadian World Champion Sculler. Do you know the site "My Daguerreotype Boyfriend"? Well I nominate Ned for that site. He was a hottie with a body. I think the gay dudes at the nudie beach on Toronto Island, Hanlan's Point (named after the family's hotel that used to be there) would agree with me. There is a pretty manly statue of him there.

Anyway, Ned was quite a character and a tricky/funny sportsman. You should totally read up on his antics in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (because I'm not going to spend time rewriting them all here).

Here's some pictures of Ned that I stole from the internet:

Ned was called the Boy in Blue because he wore a blue shirt. And if you want to see Nicolas Cage portray him on the small screen, YOU CAN! Because they made that movie in 1986! I'm downloading it RIGHT NOW! 

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I hope you enjoyed this relatively uninformative but link-filled heritage moment.

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