Lunch in the swaying towers

It feels more like March than April today.
I went downtown to meet a friend of
mine from my old PipeLine days for lunch.
We both worked in the oil and gas sector,
and she still works in energy. Sometimes
it knocks me out how friends of mine
remain the same. She looks like the
fresh faced girl who first walked into my
office when it was swaying high up in
the winds of Commerce Court. In a wind like
this the doors used to open and shut by
themselves all along the hallway. The elevator
would scrape ominously against the side of
the elevator shaft, making an unholy sound of
metal on concrete.

There is a wind warning, which seems appropriate
for April 1. When I was a child my mother had
one excellent prank that she pulled on us year
after year. She used to change the time on all
the clocks in the house, and wake us up an hour
early for school, then shout "April Fools!" into
our sleepy faces. Thinking about that now I can't
help laughing, and imagining my mother as a
young woman, with four children to get off to
school, dying for some fun. Most of the time
our lives were fairly serious. The house followed
a set routine, and we all did whatever we were
expected to do. But every now and then there
would be a mood of extra fun and gaiety.

Most of the parents I know now are not so
earnest about the job. They know how to have
fun with their kids, and the atmosphere is much
more relaxed. Still I think my love of celebration
comes from my mother, and her determination
to see that we had some special times.

I'll have to take a better photo of this
painting. It was on a high wall at our
show, and this is the best image we could
get there. But hey. It's called Friends Waiting.

Have a gusty day.

The Monday papers

Luckily for me this blog is posted in West Coast time, so I made it under
the wire for March 31. Bye-bye March, you big old month you. As the Beatles said,
"I've got nothing to say, but it's O.K., good morning, good morning, good morning."

I taught all day today, so I have pretty well used up my words. I hope you had a good start to the week. It was incredibly foggy
here, and raining softly most of the day. At Seneca I love how the dark, wet trees loom out of a thick swirl of pale grey fog on a day like today. The whole world was wet and mysterious, and excited seagulls filled the sky, backed up with trilling red-wing blackbirds. The bird kingdom seemed to think it was a good day.

On the Allen snow mountain is still there, but
smaller, and covered in brown earth from the roads.
It's a good thing it's melting slowly.

This is an image of a small Bear River painting
from the latest show. I think it's 12"x12".

Have a enchanting evening.

Earth Morning

Hi,

Well we celebrated "Earth Hour"
-- for a planet as old as ours that seems
like short shrift, and enjoyed the
semi-dark. Here's a blurry image
of our kitchen lilies by candlelight
The street lamps kept the city lit
unfortunately, but on the
back porch the stars were definitely
brighter. One or two neighbours
kept their lights on -- parents of young
babies I think, or people suffering
illnesses that keep them out of the loop.
For the most part though the lights
were off. Zoey and I took a walk to
the park hoping for more stars, but
even there street lights were on.

Back home we kept the lights off
all night, like most of our neighbours.
When I did turn a light back on I was
shocked at how bright one little
electric light can be after candles, and we
had dozens of candles lit in the kitchen.

Well Earth -- it was an experiment.
I looked up the dreaded mercury, bad lighting
"alternative bulbs" and discovered something good.
An alternative to those bulbs is the new LED bulbs.
The one problem is the expense, but they don't contain mercury
-- which shouldn't be used in any household item,
and they do last for a long time and give a clean
light. If I bought one every three months, I'd change
the four or five tungsten lights I have in just over
a year. Hmmm. You learn something every day.

Maybe you wonder why I'm going on about this.
But do the math of 30 plus million Canadians,
and 275 million Americans switching to the "green"
mercury bulb. Even if they last a long time, think
of the mercury pollution. That doesn't even touch
on the aesthetic disaster provided by the nasty light
coming from those bulbs.

Some facts about lightbulbs:
http://www.maxmon.com/1878ad.htm

http://www.enn.com/business/article/28932

Have a brilliant day.

Earth Angel

Hi,

If you're reading this between 8 and 9 p.m.
wherever you are, watch out because the
light/appliance police might come and get you.
It would be nice if governments cared as much about the
earth as we the people do. I'd like to see an end to nuclear
power, an end to mercury filled "alternative" bandaid
lightbulbs, and the associated piles of mercury tailings in
places like China. I'd like to see Hummers outlawed, and
grants to help hybrid cars become cheaper and safer. I'd
like to see stores like Loblaws (Atlantic Superstore)
really go green and all organic.

As an artist I know that my work tries
to beautify the planet. I compost, I recycle.
I do most of my dishwashing and clothes
washing late at night. In summer I use the clothesline to dry
most of my laundry. I've owned some of my clothing
for more than 20 years. I buy as many antiques as I can
afford. But I also know that all of our efforts count for
nothing if wars continue to pollute land, water and air.

I think I'll turn out my lights and look to the stars for
the answers. I just wish there were more environmental
stars down here. Then we wouldn't need an "earth hour."
Meanwhile I'll snuggle in with my earth angels here at
home and just be happy I can turn those lovely lights
back on when it's over. There are many countries in the
world who only have electricity between certain hours of
the day -- every day.

Stop. Isn't this supposed to be about art? Yes. But light
is art.
The picture is of Christopher on his 21st birthday. It's
one of the few night shots I have.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/26/business/safety.php

Have a dark and cheerful night.

Late night

A long, long and wonderful day today.
I went to the McMichael Canadian
Collection to be a resource for my
English class. My students are all doing
essays related to a work in our text,
Elegy in Stone by Stephen Heighton.
The essay is about Vimy Ridge and talks
about art in relation to the Canadian psyche.
So each student had to pick a work by
a Group of Seven artist. Then I counseled
each person on how the piece tied in
with the essay. It was fascinating to see
which paintings they gravitated to.

I hope they enjoyed the experience as
much as I did. It's hard not to be moved
by the place. You have to approach the
gallery on foot down a path bordered on either side
by tall pines. The physical setting echoes the images in
the works inside. After spending the day with
those magnificent painted landscapes every cloud
and tree I saw on my drive home seemed lifted
from a Group of Seven painting.

Then... we had the last little evening of our group
show at the library. In a way it was more festive than
our first opening, because afterwards ten of us met at
Finn McCools at St. Clair and Yonge and had
dinner together. The musician tonight was wonderful,
and played every kind of music beautifully. All of us
had a bit of wine and sang with great abandon. Josephine
had just lost her mother, we had just taken down the show,
Peter and Caroline love to sing, and so does our son, Sam.
Helena was there and she loves singing too. The musician
warmed to us and started doing longer and longer segments.
It was just wonderful. Such a great and upbeat ending to a
pretty special day.

Here's to great art, great friends and great music.

The photo is a detail from a painting
called Before the dance in the red dress.

Have a song-filled day tomorrow.

Next up?

I hurried home from school today
because I thought I had a portrait
client coming. So I vacuumed and
washed the kitchen floor and the hall
floor as fast as I could. I had my
lunch, tidied the studio -- put
out my paint and 2 o'clock rolled
around and... Nothing. I double checked my agenda and wrong week. Whew!
Because we're having another
little opening "meet the artists" tomorrow before
we take the show down and now I can bake cookies,
buy flowers, make calls, get fruit, pack up and be ready.

Here's another painting of a mother I admire. She fits
nicely into my Dance series. I like the ironic touch and
pop of colour from the book. She looks like she's
saying, "Oh are we ready to go now? I was just reading."
Like me, Ann is always reading unless it's time to get
active. I just hope she's writing too.

Meanwhile the painting I'm working on now does call
me -- and the lush colours sitting in my egg cartons.
I just got Bob Burridge's newsletter today, which has a
great idea on how to store large quantities of paint.
I'll let him tell you. Check out Bob Burridge
and sign up for his newsletter at:
http://www.robertburridge.com/

Have an bountiful day.

Missing Pugwash

I'm too tired to write much tonight.
I'm marking to get ready for my
class tomorrow, but I found this picture of Claudia walking along my favorite strip of beach
in Nova Scotia, near Pugwash. The photo was the backdrop for my computer's desktop for three or four years. It isn't a particularly good image, and it doesn't show the beach at it's best -- (at low tide it's spectacular), but it brought back one particular summer vividly. So I kept it for sentimental reasons. It seems fitting today. Claudia and her cousin Veronica
made everyone cry at their grandmother's funeral this morning, when they choked up doing
the readings.

These two cousins are like very close sisters. They stood
together comforting each other in their loss, and walked
back to their families holding hands. They were honest
and moving in their grief.

Back to the beach... it's too bad Nova Scotia is so far away.

Have a summer thoughts day.