Wandering days at home

I've neglected the blog and the drawing lately because of house-guests and a general end-of-winter malaise... but here I am again, back at it.

This bird painting was done, destroyed, dead, and resurrected about a week ago (making it old news) but I'm posting it anyway because some of my reasons for keeping this blog are showing process and archiving progress. 

(This was my first painting on different paper. It was frustrating because I am an old dog.)

Ok. So we'll go backwards through time with this one. Here's how it looks currently, hanging on my wall:

Here it is right after I took a shit-fit and ripped it to pieces because I felt I'd over-worked it, ruined it. This was disappointing because I'd spent so long fiddling with it. I'm actually glad I ripped it up because I think it looks cooler taped back together...

This is the stage when the bird looked the best. I'm not really sure why I messed with it... 

Pre-colour:

Here's the source material, a book of antique bird prints. This is a humming bird with a crazy tail.

This is the reference for the look of the banner. The text on the banner comes from another page in this book. It reads, "Ora, Lege, Lege, Lege, Relege, Labora, Et Invenies". 

This translates roughly as, "Pray, Read, Read, Read, Reread, Work... and you will Find." 

This book was really interesting. I'm not an alchemist but I enjoy reading about the history of it and how it helped grow/shape modern chemistry/science. I like the characters and the imagery a lot. I enjoy how dense and complicated and contradictory it all is. I went to a talk at the library by a lady who did her masters on Esoteric Imagery. I don't think the experts even know what to think about it all. Here's a CRAZY image that sums it up. What is going on here?! 

This is another image from the book. It is about the alchemical stage of Putrefaction. 

I based the painting below on the image above ("As above, so below"... hahaha... little alchemy joke for you there!) 

Anyway, I guess what I'm getting at with these artistic-stumblings is some sort of airing out of myself. Getting the stinky-stanky gloom out of me and preparing the vessel the some other new experience.

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the daily snippet

Down the road at the snow-zoo, Mr. Wilson has been at it again. One day he had smushed all the dying/melting animal carcasses together and the day after that this dragon appeared!

On the homefront, since none the Penguins knocked on my door and asked to sign their autographs on my All Stars/Starr Skates painting, I went ahead and filled the page in with some other hockey-related stuff.

And lately I've been on a Buster Keaton kick. I'd never seen any of his "talkies" and found one at the library called "Free and Easy". I won't get into the whole MGM/Keaton tragedy here except to say MGM misused his talent for sure. Still, there were a few great Buster-moments in the film. 

Today when I went for a walk I saw this sticker right outside my building. I'm not sure if it's newly placed or  if I just noticed it now because I have a fresh association with the phrase "Free & Easy"... 

Anyway, it made me think I should share this little snippet of Buster. The song n' dance starts at about 1:30:

"Start out breezy... if you pleasy."

From there you can go on your own little busta-link-fest. Enjoy!

more ice time

Continuing with the ice-theme, I wanted to see if I could replicate this idea from Andy Goldsworthy (though I'm sure he probably did it with ice picked our of a lake or something). 

It took a couple of tries (and very cold hands) but eventually it worked. 

I forgot to set up a good background (important when trying to get a decent picture of ice) but still a fun little project completed over a lazy Sunday breakfast. 

Photo credits to Husbo. 

I'm not sure that the project/image below is by Goldsworthy but I like the concept - whatever you think the legacy is that you're building, it will disappear over time...

And click here to go to some really cool iceberg pictures:
http://blog.2modern.com/2010/08/ice-ice-baby.html

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Chill.

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Snow Zoo - An Ongoing Saga

A thing I really enjoy about my street this winter is the "snow zoo" that one of my neighbours is building. I've never met the person responsible for it but I admire their snow-skills. 

It all started with just one bear - which was fantastic enough. I thought this was the best variation of a snowman I'd ever seen. My mind was already blown at this point...

And then one day, suddenly, the lonely bear had a bunch of new friends!!

I took this picture while going by in the car. You can't see all the brilliant details so I'll list some of the finer points:

• The dog in the background has a big tail, front legs, and big ears all separate from the main structure... (like, not just "packed on" to the body), 
• The kangaroo actually has a little joey in its pouch, and it isn't "stuck onto" the mama, it's a fully-fledged little sculpture, separate from her body. 
• The detail of the hair in the lion's mane, face, and paws.

More recently a gorilla and a baby elephant were added to the zoo (or is it a circus?)... however I wasn't quick enough to go by with my camera and, unfortunately, the warm weather really took a toll on the sculptures. 

So, this used to be an awesome gorilla...

And this used to be a cool, little elephant... 

(Sidenote: the elephant is on the front lawn of the neighbour's house - the zoo is expanding!)

 

At this point, due to the thaw and the traffic, the bear is starting to look pretty gnarly but you can still see the profile of the gorilla really well in this picture...

I walk or drive down my street pretty often so I'm fairly amazed that I've never caught the creator in the act... but yesterday the local newspaper featured a picture of the zoo (in better days, before the gorilla and the thaw) and I found out the name of the creator!

So...

Dear Roger Wilson, 

Well done and keep it up! Your work has warmed my heart this winter, especially on the dreary days! Thank you for being awesome and sharing your zoo with the neighbourhood!

An admirer, 

R.

ice ice lady

Judging by my POD (Picture Of the Day) progress over on Tumblr (click here to see) I've got an obsession with ice these days...  

In the process of trying to make an ice sculpture (not yet successful) I became a bit fascinated with the actual formation of the ice in the yogurt containers I was using: from the top down, in razor-thin sheets, made up of cross-hatched crystals.

Here are some pictures* (you can click on them to see them bigger):

* These are up-side-down, taken out of the yogurt containers they were in while only partially frozen.

"catchy title"

I didn't know this was Mental Health Awareness Week when I posted my "List" (the last post). I've been slightly uncomfortable about leaving it up these past few days, like I committed a major over-share... but now I'm considering it my small contribution to raising awareness about Depression. I'm not going any further into the topic right now though - except to say that the sun has been shining the past few days (literally) and this has helped brighten my mood. Talking, going outside, getting exercise, taking small steps...

Sidenote, Clara Hughes is awesome. 

Anyway, here is an "alchemical" painting I had started a few days ago and is as "done" as it's going to get. It's about Putrefication but isn't (personally or metaphorically) as ominous as it sounds or looks. It's another in the "In-Betweener" series.

Next, a little framing project I just did yesterday. Some nice signage/type and a trip down memory lane... 

These are all old pictures (6-8 years old from when I still used my non-digital-point-n-click). I found them in an old tin. 

Except for the "State Theater" marquee (which was in Michigan, taken on my honeymoon) they are all from Nova Scotia (mostly Truro) and we (my husband and me) actually stayed in 3 of the 4 motels. The 4th was on the way to a friend's hunt camp - where the old stove with "Merit" was found. 

I think I will let the Husbo take it to work to hang in his rather bare-walled office... since Nova Scotia is where all his higher-higher-education happened... which is why he is now in the bare-walled office...

A nice touch that you probably can't see in these photos of photos is that the State marquee was featuring "Spellbound" and "Together" while the Acadia was showing something called "Wilby Wonderful". This made for a serendipitous, romantic statement: 

"Spellbound, together we'll be wonderful." 

(awwww...)

Lastly, since I had the framing stuff out anyway, I matted this little poem-thing that came out of a cool, old frame that I wanted for another use. Something to hang up when guests come by.

I'm getting pretty handy with the mat-cutter and sprucing up old frames. Maybe I should hire myself out as a discount framer...

Thanks for checking this out!

List (depressing and self-indulgent)

New hopes.
New doubts.
Still-young-enough.
Past-my-prime.
I'm great.
I'm lame.
Mothering.
Smothering.
Unmotherly.
Unlovely.
Too soft.
Too hardened.
(too judgemental and way too cynical)
Ripe for a break-down.
On the cusp of something potentially great.
Fear of failure.
Bigger fear of success.
Stagnant.
Stanky.
In-a-rut.
In-the-mire.
Hopeless.
Afraid of new hope.
Too heartbreaking.
but heart is already broke.
Too broken?
I'm pretty lucky
so why do I feel so fucked?

Unproductive.
Unreproductive.
Empty.
Barren.
Void.
Useless.
Invisible.
Repellent.
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flippin' a V-bird

Just painting on this crazy little hummingbird tonight.

Excited to add colour... maybe something... crazy!

(Too lazy to give all the bibliographical/copy-cat information right now. I will when it's done.)

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