UFOs... product of too many projects on the go. ..

We're not talking about little green men and unidentified flying objects, rather I mean all of those UnFinished Objects taking up space in my home office/art room, shelving, and various places around town.. like the hospital’s audiology department, and the Special Event Society Boardroom...  

But where to find the time to finish these objects.....

Chicken Little grows like a weed, and  some days  I want to just stop time for a while so I can continue to marvel at his current stage.  It’s such a lovely stage. He can sit but doesn’t go anywhere and he is so expressive and despite having no words of yet he had a great little personality developing.   I just want to stay home with him for ever...    but time marches on.  I will have to return to work.  Although not in my previous job as it will no longer exist and has been cut as a result of considerable budget “savings” ... i.e. reductions,  which are designed to “strategically consolidate, modernize and streamline services, functions and programs, while leveraging technology and integrating capacity to realize efficiencies and achieve savings” ...  and in the end.... there are few details on what that might mean except that my job isn’t there anymore.   However they did offer me an alternative job which I have accepted.  It is a slightly different and more controversial position...  at the end of the day I should be glad I have a job to go back to.  

But the jist of this post is that  – I’m really not certain how on earth I’m going to fit 40 hours a week into my schedule.   Sure I’ll be paying someone else to raise Chicken Little for the majority of his waking hours so that ought to free up some time... time that I enjoy watching him learn to eat, and use his voice, and move his sturdy little body.   I wonder if I will get to be the one to watch as he takes his first steps, says his first words... or if that too will be taken by the need to pay someone else for “day care”  while I earn the money needed for that same daycare, food, shelter and clothing....    *sigh*.... back on topic.....  the projects..

all the many many many many projects I have on the go....  when will I ever have the time to do all the volunteer works, the art works, the quilting projects (although the three quilts I’m in the middle of are temporarily on hold as I try to fix my sewing machine which suddenly seems to be protesting) and myriad of other projects. 

Yup unfinished  objects – every artist has them – of that I’m sure.   As an aside they have websites, societies, 12 step programs and fully staffed support groups for people and their UFOs....  I’m serious!

Here are a few photos of those things I’ve got on the go... things I better get done before work throws a wrench not only into motherhood but into creative inspiration as well!!

This is a volunteer project to update the panels for the Arts Council float - which is our contribution to the annual Seafest Parade.  I've been enjoying this project and it's a great warm up for the Audiology project. 

A fun Flannel Rag Quilt I've got on the go - something for Chicken Little and I to curl up under and read stories while the rain beats down on us.  

My FIRST.. yup first "real" quilt.  I've actually done all the cutting - and just need to get that sewing machine working so i can start putting the pieces together.  The Pattern is : 

http://www.friendfolks.com/store-detail.php?ID=892 

The above two sketches are another volunteer undertaking - it is my hope to have an entire hallway in the audiology department at the hospital painted in fun sea critters before September.... these are just in the idea stage. 

Just another work in progress..... Watercolour. 

art by panel

Chicken Little is 7 months old today, and the rain and wind that marked his birth has returned full force.  In fact the gusts were strong enough that my exuberant dog turned tail at the sliding glass door this morning, having to be forcefully pushed outside for her morning constitutional .   I was glad my own day’s activities did not include any outdoor adventures.  As I was able to complete my mural panels yesterday!

Yay me!   I know I started them before Chicken Little came around, but spending time in the winter inside that unheated,  tin walled, dirt floored basement wasn’t really high on the priority list as the weather entered sub-zero temperatures.  But I’m done now....  three full panels of jubilant sea life gathered in bright colours and awkward brush strokes.   

outdoor latex on sign board  ~4 ft x8 ft

© RiverWalker Arts

outdoor latex on sign board  ~4 ft x8 ft

© RiverWalker Arts

I gathered up my supplies.... and stashed them in the back of my car for my next painting adventure!!

“What is the next adventure?”  You ask....  well the  the paints from the mural panels are being appropriated so that I can paint a series of completely different panels... these ones being the panels that will grace the float of our local Arts Council in our community “Seafest” Parade.   The Float...  hmm so what will the float look like.... well I think it will look suspiciously like  -   -   My Car!   Yes the panels used to  be designed for a flat bed truck.. but apparently these are hard to come by these days and turns out roof racks make great places to tie plastic panels on to one’s car.   I have no idea what this will look like when it’s done but I’ll try to post some Photos!

Wish me luck. 

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find.

I went for a walk today.  I left Chicken Little with DH and took my first baby – the great big black four legged mongrel I affectionately call an oversized rodent (this stems from a mis-placed play on the R.O.U.S.’s  {aka *rodents of unusual size*}  - anyone get the reference?.. no, I am not talking about the rats in Central Park.. . ok.  well I won’t go into it  - you can Google it if you are interested.)  

So where was I?

I went for a walk today... with the dog.  I love my dog and she is still a puppy at heart and has been moping about the house lately and chewing on things... mostly her own toys but it makes me nervous. 

Oversized rodent...

My conclusion is she needs to get out more.  I used to walk her almost daily.  But then along came Chicken Little...   Not that I mind putting him in a stroller and making it a family affair but the trails I used to take my oversized rodent on are not stroller friendly  and the Snuggli is not conducive to our special brand of weather.   It rains.  It rains whole oceans on this small town and it's always cold and damp and filled with green moss and black mildew.   It's been sitting right at the almost freezing mark for months slipping into snow and reverting back to rain and mostly just slush.  A form of solidified liquid not unlike a margarita… upturned in a hurricane.  It's a very strange variation of the snow globe.  The wind howls the ice chunks and slush slash sideways, and garbage cans go rolling along.  

Don’t get me wrong.   I have great rain gear and several pairs of rubber boots… and I don’t mind gearing up for the miserable weather but it has become much more difficult to bundle up an infant for this special kind of torture.  The dog... well she’s half fish anyway - right down to her webbed toes and otter tail. 

But today I got to don my slicker gear and take her on the trail without Chicken Little.   A little trail, unmaintained and likely established early in this town’s history before they bothered to put the narrow little road in that connects us to the rest of the world.  ( Fascinating fact of the Day: We got rail service in 1912, it took until the second world war before the town was ever connected to the rest of the province via road way)

It’s a little piece of green space in the middle of town, a miniature forest that borders the salmon creeks that run to sea.  It could be a Jewel in our community.  A beautiful green world of dripping moss and gurgling brooks,  the smells of leaf litter and damp moss.  Light filtering down through the trees and the gentle dripping of water.  

a disgrace

But today in the harshness of winter, where the branches are stripped of their leaves, the foliage pulled back to expose the uglier side of the human condition.  I found a disgrace.  A child’s bicycle half sunk in the creek, a tractor tire, pop  cans, plastic bags, beer cans, McDonald’s cups, bits of Styrofoam and plastic Freezie  wraps, bits of plastic in a myriad of colours, things I couldn’t identify that my dog happily picked up and brought to me tail wagging, Bic lighters, and cigarette butts (no they do not biodegrade very fast)  used condoms and a disposable diaper...  so much for responsible citizens... Are some people  really too stupid to work out how to place their garbage in a bin thus happily leave broken glass, sharp cans, dirty food containers and worse on the ground for my dog to find ???

I did in fact  come across something rather neat... a fort of a sort.

 Or rather it would have been neat IF... 

IF - the lattice work lean-to made of trees  hadn’t been cut from the immediate vicinity leaving dozens of 2-3 inch diameter stumps broken off at knee height

IF-  the lattice work hadn’t been lashed together with plastic zip ties – many hundreds of which were also laying all over the ground.

IF-  an old tattered plastic blue tarp wasn’t hanging in shreds over one end of the lean-to

IF-  there were not several garbage bags worth of crushed beer cans and other litter strewn around

IF-  it looked a little more like people cared.

So Actually it wasn’t so Neat... who wants a fort if all it means is more litter, more garbage, more irresponsible partiers...

But despite my disgust and contempt at those littering slobs who would desecrate what could be a very special place I did manage to exercise my oversized rodent, and she is laying at my feet smelling like a wet dog as I type this many hours later.  

Ancient Drumbeats Rattle Anew

Strong Start is a program put on by the Province.  It’s a free program designed with activities such as stories, music and art, to help children grow linguistically, physically, socially, emotionally...  it runs every day and is open to parents and their pre-kindergarten children and while Chicken Little is still too young to partake in much of the fun it’s a great way for his mother to get out of the house and socialize with other mothers.   

Gathering Strength Canoe Journey

North Coast  2009

Here in the rain capital of the universe we are fortunate to have a rich First Nations culture.  The beating of drums, pounding of feet and the accompanying vocables  is a part and parcel to this place.  I have lived in witness to the hypnotic sounds of the aboriginal drums my whole life, and a couple years ago I was fortunate enough to participate in a canoe journey .  Six Canoes each capable of carrying up to 12 people from the communities of the Nisga’a Nation, the Haisla, Gitgatla and the Gitga’at came together to renew their heritage and build community networks.

Gathering Strength Canoe Journey

North Coast  2009

An exquisite example of form and function, the canoe is inextricably twined with our nation’s story.  For Canadians, to canoe is to be moved.    In one of those canoes I paddled 115 nautical miles in 6 days.  We stopped in the evenings to camp and sat around fires on the beach – singing, drumming, dancing and listening to the legends of the First Nations people. 

Gathering Strength Canoe Journey

North Coast  2009

Some nights the tents rubbed up against each other in the small spaces we could find flat enough and clear enough to make camp.  Other nights we sank into thick moss softer than any feather bed, tents spaced randomly like so many hobbit holes tucked in among the trees and the moss covered old growth stumps. 

Gathering Strength Canoe Journey

North Coast  2009

At the end of our long route we were welcomed with feasting and drumming and dancing in a small isolated community called Kitlakatla, on Dolphin Island, off the coast of northern B.C.  We were honoured with the traditional foods of the community including seal, roe-on-kelp, eulachon grease, smoked salmon and heaps of boiled crab.  We called ourselves the mighty paddlers, the people of one nation.  Chanting, singing to the pounding drums and dancing in the traditional fashion, bare feet slapping on the floor. Dancing and celebrating late into the night.

Gathering Strength Canoe Journey

North Coast  2009

Ok ok... nice story and all that... but what the heck does to do with Strong Start??

Well the lady who runs one of the local strong start programs is from that tiny little community of Kitlakatla and she decided to bring her culture to our Strong Start group.  The project... traditional  Elk Hide rattles. 

This of course peaked my artistic side and I jumped all over like my dog upon seeing a mud puddle!   I cut out  my circles of hide and soaked and stitched and Voila! A Rattle..   and of course I couldn’t leave it at that.  I insisted that the rattle needed to be painted much like the First Nations paint their drums.  But since I can’t claim the traditional art of the First Nations with it’s unique and stylized forms, colours and subjects.  (for a better look at the local art styles see : http://www.tsimshian-gallery.com/cms/drums-sticks/  or http://www.pathgallery.com/itoolkit.asp?pg=products&grp=5)   I decided to put the little hand prints of Chicken Little on my rattle...   and so while he slept – at strong start – on the floor - on an old shower curtain appropriated for the purpose -  I painted his little hands and took hand prints.  Then transferred the best of them onto the rattle using acrylic gel gloss medium... the result...fabulous!!!

A Child’s Rattle

©RiverWalker Arts

“Life is the sacred mystery singing to itself, dancing to its drum, telling tales, improvising, playing”

Missing Paradise..

Rain, storm, snow and hail whipped and battered us today.  A potent post vacation reminder that March is not the end of winter.  But then I think our poor little groundhog blown away in a vicious hurricane force wind back at the beginning of February – so weather predictions by rodent are off the forecast.  

I have spent the last 10 days in paradise.  A lazy lounging of beach reading and pool side drowsing.   Don’t get me wrong I did my fair share of snorkelling, swimming, and exploring.  Chicken little spent time on a boogie board and got to eat his first fist full of sand.  Amazing how the sand can be so tasty and yet the pabulum is met with tightly sealed lips and a violent turn of the head and ends with more of the goo stuck in his ears than in his mouth.

While I did not touch paint or put pen on paper.. I did drag my camera along and managed to capture  a few memories of paradise...  

Hawaiian sunset in sepia.... at the Kalahuipua'a Fishponds

©RiverWalker Arts

Moorish Idol

©RiverWalker Arts

Volunteering among other things...

6”x8” Acrylic on Canvas

© RiverWalker Arts

The Creative Jam  - huge success.  Very stressful.  Worth it all in the end.   About 50 people came together in the end for a weekend of intensive creative expression.  Music folks, photographers, visual artists and creative writers.. all jamming together on the theme of “Light and Motion.”  One of the most gratifying things as an organizer was that a professional photographer came up to me and said.. wow I’m glad I came it was great,  and a gal with nothing more technical than a point and shoot camera  who had never done anything more than the odd family snap shot raved about the same session. 

As for me… I took Chicken Little with me for the weekend.  And ended up putting paint on canvas and explored a relatively unfamiliar medium… Acrylic. 

"West Coast Storm Approaching"

16”x20” Acrylic on Canvas

© RiverWalker Arts

More than one person laughed and photographed me painting with one hand while holding Chicken Little with the other.  Marvelling as I  fluctuated between mothering – organizer extraordinaire –and student painter!   So much fun. 

Next up for organization…. Postcards from the Edge of the World - Art Show  We are calling for submissions from the community and surrounding areas…. To make a postcard with 70% recycled or repurposed material... 4x6 inches... submitted to the Arts Council … and we'll hang it in an art show – with a viewer’s choice award of $50.  How could you go wrong??

Should be fun. 

In high seas sometimes you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck

I’m here.  Perched on the edge of time and life. And I’m very excited, as I have a friend coming to visit.  The plan is to have me pick her up from the ferry terminal at in the early morning on Friday… but a quick look at the forecast and I’m starting to fret.  Pointless to fret really as there is absolutely nothing I can do about the weather other than invest in rubber boots and put rocks in my pockets to weight me down in the wind.  

 Photo      © RiverWalker Arts 

 The wind wails and whistles through the power lines.  I make a mental check ensuring that the garbage cans have been picked up from the street and brought inside – last week I had to go on a rubbish bin hunting mission and managed to find the big plastic green can lodged in the trees at the end of the cul-de-sac.  I couldn't find the lid and ended up having to send DH on a garbage can lid hunting mission.  I have since re-tied the cord connecting can and lid.  As for the bricks I normally keep in the bottom of the can to prevent loss of empty garbage cans.. well it seemed they were ineffective at keeping it in the vicinity of the end of the driveway.   

 Photo      © RiverWalker Arts

'Storm' force winds of 48 to 63 knots are occurring over the strait and seas are currently 6 meters building to 7-9 meters by Friday morning.  While I may not be an expert on weather patterns nor a ship’s captain, but what I do know is that a 9 meter wave (close to 30 feet)  is taller than my house and not something I’d relish floating around in.   So here I sit listening to my baby snore.. and the wind howl…  (I wonder if the groundhog blew away when it popped out of it’s burrow today?)

I’m guessing the ferry won’t sail.. but I’ll cross my fingers and try to think positively…. Like for instance on the positive side of things…  my pipes did not freeze and I have been able to successfully spray the worst of the mud off the dog following her expeditions through E-V-E-R-Y   S-I-N-G-L-E puddle she comes across.  Nose down - mouth open - she ploughs though any water with gusto, mud flying everywhere.  **sigh** I love my dog…  when she is dry and clean and snuggled in the hollow behind my knees.