More from The Four Seasons Show

Claire Bonenfant with Portal

Found objects ( a table) and acrylic

30 x 27 inches

Claire Bonenfant © 2019

There is a great variety of work on display at The Four Seasons
in Climate Crisis show on view now until the end of the
month at the Heliconian Club at 35 Hazelton avenue.

An artist I'd like to talk about tonight is Claire Bonenfant shown
here with her painting The Portal, painted on a small table, and using
the table legs, as the legs of the fox which encircles the elements.

The painting is absolutely beautiful.  I recommend that you go and see
it.  Claire says, "Every being which makes its home on Earth is also a member
of the Greater Whole, kept alive, as part of a single integrated organism, through
the beating of one heart."

The portal at the center of the painting made up of two seeds is a vision
into the universe beyond.  It was emphasized over and over again in
this exhibition that by seeing ourselves (humans) as separate from the
whole of nature, only catastrophe can result.  And that is happening.  When
we realize that we are the fox, the morning glories, the water, the fish in
this magnificent piece, we understand that we must protect the beauty
around us, and care for it as if it is our own child, or mother, or ourselves.
Nature on this planet was designed to be integrated and we have lost sight
of that leading to the climate change crisis we are facing.

Claire says it beautifully, about Portal, "we are all present: biome, fungi,
insect, fish, fowl, mammal, earth, rock, water, wood, and vegetation, with
fire and metal implied in the stars and planets. The large seed is a symbol for
the source from which all life germinates."

I love both the painting, and Claire's wonderful integration of beauty and
symbolism in a spiritually rich whole.

Have a caring about your world day.

More from the Heliconian's Four Seasons in Climate Crisis Show

Faye Jordan with The Interdependency of Water and Clay Series

Gouache on paper -- 8 pieces

Faye Jordan © 2018

Featured this month at the Heliconian Club,

In the current show at the Heliconian Club on for the month of

November at 35 Hazelton Avenue in Toronto, the artist Faye
Jordan is exhibiting a series of eight paintings called The 
Interdependency of Water and Clay Series.  Four of
the images are abstract references to the human body, which
like clay, depends entirely on water.

Faye's thoughts on climate change center in part around the materials
she uses as an artist, and their effect on the environment.  She
has committed to using up her current art materials, plus she
is going to source out eco-friendly and plant based materials
for all of her future art projects.

The water and clay interdependence in her art work are
a metaphor for how completely human beings depend on
water because we are 60% water.  Faye points out that only
2.5 % of the water that covers 70% of the planet is fresh, and
we absolutely require this water.

But Faye's thoughts on water, art and pollution extend even to
how she hung the work, with all natural materials, that can be
reused, and the art can be rolled up and rehung, without requiring
heavy framing or transport costs.

A wonderful series.  More from the show tomorrow.

Have a caring about the environment day.

Fabulous show opening today

Me with The Light of My Life (left) and The Heart of the Neighbourhood (right)

Acrylic on canvas

Both are 30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

Hi everyone,

I will write more about the Four Seasons in Climate Crisis
exhibition that opened today at the Heliconian Club in Toronto
in the next few days.  I am incredibly tired tonight, and it has
been a day of enjoying the show, and then spending time with
family, so not much time for writing.

The photo today is of me with my new work I created for
this exhibition, of two places I love very much.  The painting on
the left is called The Light of My Life and depicts a pond we visit
when we go to one of our favourite parks out by Lake Ontario
to the west of Toronto.  The one on the right is called The Heart of
the Neighbourhood and is about the breathtaking scenes we see
at our local park a couple of blocks from our house.

The opening featured two amazing dancers, and
musical performances on the cello, flute and piano.
These contributions were inspiring and magical.  Plus there
were two poets reading poems about climate change, and two
young activists talking about their plans.

It was a wonderful afternoon and very moving.

More tomorrow.

Have a caring about the environment day.

Art show and performances tomorrow at the Heliconian

Please come out to the Heliconian Club tomorrow for an art show
from 1- 4 p.m.  I will be there for the afternoon and would love to
see you!

See the address in the ad for the show above.

Have a going to an art show day.

In Toronto -- fabulous Halloween

Our porch on a rainy, windy Halloween night.

The canvas pumpkin princess reigns supreme.

She is pinned at the bottom, and

stuffed with newspapers.  We 

recycle the paper.  She goes flat and

rolls up to be put away for next year
when the fun is over. 

Once again I stuffed up our very practical Halloween pumpkin
princess, that I created last year to counter all the extremely
expensive ghost and demon machines in the neighbourhood.
I am championing Halloween's sweet side, which for the kids
in our neighbourhood is the whole thing. (As in candy and then
some.)

So my art for the night is the princess.  It was raining pretty
much the whole night, not very warm, and finally very windy.
But parents braved on with their children and little babies --
the parents dressed up too as Penguins, and Panda bears.

I loved the incredibly wide range of costumes children wore
when they came to the door.  And of course the sound of
Trick or Treat.  Steven carved the pumpkins and I drew the
faces. Our neighbourhood squirrels had eaten most of one of
the pumpkins. That was a delicate carving job for Steven,
to let the pumpkin be part of the celebration, but he managed it.

Have an enjoying the celebrations of the season day.

Happy Halloween -- here's another one I'm working on

Untitled (work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

Have to go to bed.  A very early morning tomorrow.  So enjoy this scene.

More about this and about everything on Halloween.  

Have a great day! 

What I'm working on -- a fascinating day

Untitled (work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

This painting is about the wonder I feel walking around my own neighbourhood.
Clouds certainly do captivate me, and I get to see them perform their
incredibly awe inspiring and beautiful dance when I go and walk my dog
in the local park.

Much as I love traveling, my own neighbourhood means the world
to me, and makes me want to record what I see.  And surprisingly
some of my scenes of this community's spaces have sold to people
in New York City.

It has been a happy, crazily frustrating, and ultimately very satisfactory
day.

Have a loving your neighbourhood day.