Sometimes retreating can be a good thing ...

Just back from another of my quarterly art retreats with a group of friends in a little red farmhouse on an island not so very far away.

We started doing these retreats in August 2009, and I love how we've grown together as a group. As a person who plans overmuch, it is a real joy (especially the last few times) to turn up with the rolly cart full of supplies and my head empty of plans ~ letting whatever ideas come to me in that time and in that place be the thing I do.

Along with our mountains of art supplies, and an equally healthy supply of food (or is that supply of healthy food?), we also bring our favourite books to provide inspiration, and this time I let Sabrina Ward Harrison's Messy Thrilling Life give me the visual courage to create a series of 16 collages about the complications of growing up in a dysfunctional family. What I create at these retreats is often a surprise, even to myself. Immediately after I get home I am struck by the fact that something *interesting* that didn't exist before has been created, either by me learning a new technique ~ there is plenty of sharing around the table as we all work on our various projects, or by exploring some heretofore unknown nook of my heart and brain in the process of creating.

Those of you familiar with Sabrina Ward Harrison's work will see at once that I am nowhere *near* as loose and spontaneous as she is (planning overmuch rears it's ugly head again!), but you'll just have to accept that this *is* a step in that direction for me. The 16 collages tell a little story, and I relied on a very limited supply of materials to work from ~ no access to computers or the internet ~ mostly a few magazines, some washi tape, gesso and caran d'ache crayons. I *tried* to write as loosely as she does and make it look good, but I don't think I even got close. But am I happy with my series? You betcha.

A bazillion thanks to the women who make this experience possible ~ for their organizing skills, for their openness and generosity and creativity and even the cooking. Even? Surely I mean *especially* the cooking ~ I may learn a thing or two in the kitchen if I'm not careful. As a person who has stood on the outside looking in for a lot of my younger life, to be inside the circle is amazing ~ it just took me awhile to find you.

Wherever you go, my heart will follow ...

Yet another of the heart-themed projects I created recently. This one was a page in a collaborative book hosted by Jeneen Weekes of the Courtenay, BC Artist Trading Card Group.

In some ways, this little piece (4.5" x 7") is a bit of a departure from my previous work. For one thing (and my friends will spot this right away), it uses a ton of colour. I've recently discovered the joys of digital paper, whereby you purchase a digital image that you can reprint as many times as you wish. This piece uses several layers of digital papers, and since the image is digital, you can layer things on top of it before you print, which is what I did here. I stamped the girl (I love Teesha Moore's quirky zettiology stamps!), then I removed her hat and drew in a suitcase. Then I scanned the new image, and laid it on top of the digital paper, which is a page of vibrantly coloured strips and printed it out. Then I cut out the girl and coloured her coat and stockings with pencil crayons. Torn strips of the digital paper become both the ground she stands on and the wall behind the El Corazon wall poster.

Various other things were done to the piece (obviously!) including sanding, a light gesso wash over a stack of admission tickets along the right-hand edge and overstamping with a flourish behind her head. I created nine separate pages, and on each one of them, the colour from the digital paper fell in a slightly different place (I moved my image around on the page before printing to make sure that happened!).

More Hearts, More Words ...

I thought I'd post another of the hearts I monoprinted at the Richmond Art Gallery a few weeks ago. This one was based on the same basic drawing as the previous one, but I wanted it to look very different ... well, as different as one could expect being exactly the same size and shape and colour palette. The amount of watercolour paint I used for this one was so dense that I was actually able to make three increasingly faint prints from a single base painting.

I always had in mind that I would add text, although I wasn't quite sure what text and how I would add it. In the end I chose the very simple method of writing a poem in white ink over the whole piece. Yes, I know that some of the text disappears and is therefore unreadable, but I like it all the same. I created the monoprinted hearts for a project initiated by Melissa McCobb Hubbell, and she set not only the size and the theme but also the colour scheme ~ reds, pinks, browns, white, ivory, etc. This heart (okay, its twin) has been trimmed to 6"x6" and is one its way to Melissa, but abiding by my always make two rule, this one remains untrimmed and I've kept for myself. I might even frame it. I think.

The poem was written for the project. One of the things I *can* do (apparently) is produce a little verse on a particular topic fairly quickly. A few quiet moments concentrating deeply on something usually gives me a satisfactory result. My mother-in-law claims that I can do this because I am Welsh, and the Welsh are (according to her) able to knock out an ode without any undue effort. For many years now I've been trying to tell her that I'm no more Welsh than the next person, but she insists I am, based on my last name (19th most common last name in Wales). By this logic, my partner (her son) would be Canadian based solely on the fact that his last name is the 10th most common in Canada, although he's actually English (as were his parents, etc etc ad infinitum).

What I'm up to ...

Yeah, I know, two posts in one day, what am I thinking?

I was updating the long column of stuff to the left of my posts, and suddenly realized that probably not many people read that far down, so I thought I'd post it here as well ...

READING: Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich by Stephen Leacock. Written in 1914, a very funny satire of the upper crust of the American nouveau riche at the turn of the previous century in an unnamed but very New York-ish metropolis. At one time considered to be a better read than his classic Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, and I can see why. But then I grew up in small towns, so I already knew their foibles. The foibles of the rich are infinitely more exotic.

WATCHING: Documentaries on TV. Have also recently re-watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, The Time Traveler's Wife and Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, all while working in the studio, so not *really* watching, more like listening while I work.

LISTENING TO: NPR online archives, especially Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me! I think they should do a show featuring the answering machine messages that Carl Kassell makes for the people who win their phone quizzes. Also digging the latest Radio Lab releases.

DOING: Mini-zines, Collaboratives & Tidying Up: I'm still making mini-zines once a month for a swapbot series. I recently launched a fabric collaborative book on the theme of Winter Trees (not due till May). I'm 2/3 of the way through 3 heart-themed exchanges hosted by other people. Prepping for Artfest (what oh what to make for trades!?), and I'm trying the take advantage of the slowdown at work to make some sense of the piles of stuff I call my studio.

ENJOYING: Links my brother sends me: What can I say? He knows my quirky tastes and sends me fun stuff to look at, here are a few that I've really enjoyed lately ...

- Animation of the human body as a machine
- Carl Sagan versus Astronomy
- How birds might use quantum entanglement to sense Earth's magnetic fields - okay, I see you out there doubting that this might be something I was already interested in, but I was just listening the other day to TWO documentaries about this ... one on how carrier pigeons find their way, even when they're blindfolded and driven hundreds of miles from "home", and another on magnetic pole reversal (did you know that the magnetic north pole wanders all over the north?) and how a reversal of the magnetic poles might affect bird migration.

And (since I was posting anyway) the pic is another of the hearts I monoprinted yesterday. This one will probably get stitching and mica buttons added to it.

Okay that's probably enough for today .... now it's back to tidying for me!

The Heart of the Matter

I don't usually work with hearts as a rule, but in the last month I've done three projects using hearts as a theme. What can I say? When you get an invite to a project that looks intriguing, you give in and go with it.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at a new adult art program at the Richmond Art Gallery called "Let's Make Stuff!". The idea is to bring something you're already working on and play in a creative environment with other artists.

Kathy invited us to try using their monoprint press, and since I'd come with no fixed idea on how to proceed except to make something heart-shaped, it seemed a good time to experiment.

I drew a basic heart shape, then overlaid it with a stiff acetate plate painted with gum arabic. Using watercolours I outlined the heart in black, and then loosely painted in the heart in red, and filled the background with a nice woody brown. After everything is completely dry, the acetate plate is put paint-side up onto the bed of the press and covered with a high-rag content print paper that has been soaking in water for about an hour (I squeegeed the paper between two sheets of blotter paper to remove the excess water first).

Sheets of heavy felt are laid over the paper/plate sandwich and then the whole press bed is crank-fed through the rollers. Then the print is gently pulled off the acetate plate, and you get what you hope is a decent print. Kathy told us this kind of printmaking has so many variables (roller pressure, moisture levels, paper quality, how you apply your initial paint to the plate, etc. etc.) that it takes years to predict accurately what's going to come out the other end.

Yesterday all of us seemed pretty pleased with what we got - and we all did wildly different things. Including pulling second and third (increasingly faint) prints off our painted plates (the term monoprint does rather imply ONE print per plate). Some people even ran the same paper through with the plate rotated to get a ghosted image interacting with the initial strong image. Ah, the joy of being a newbie! Wish I'd had the presence of mind to take pictures while we were doing this - it would have been infinitely more informative.

This heart will be the base of what I'm making for one of the projects. I intend to add something to it - probably handwritten text. I might even add some small collage elements if I can find the right touches. And, following my usual "always make two" rule, I have two to play with, so I've got at least a 50/50 chance of getting something I'll be happy to send off, and a 100% chance of having something to help me remember the process for our next Let's Make Stuff! session at the RAG.

PS - Yes, I'll post the other two heart projects (both using anatomical hearts) when the intended recipients have received them. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

What fairy tale characters *really* carry in their pockets ...

Perhaps I've been working in printing too long. Perhaps my access to fun clipart is too easy. Perhaps my brain has too much time on its hands (wait ~ brains have hands?). Whatever the reason, here are a few quirky little business cards I designed for a fairy tale themed project over at swapbot.

The project actually only called for 4 cards, but the mercurial bot at swapbot assigned me two people who live at the same address, and I thought: well, how much fun would it be to get *exactly* the same thing as the other person you live with, so my brain went into overtime and designed 10 different business cards for fairy tale characters. The first six cards came easy peasy. The next two ideas required a little coaxing. The last two were extracted painfully from the dim recesses of logic (who *hadn't* I thought of in fairy tale land that really needed their own business card?). I'm only showing four of the ten here (so as not to spoil the surprise for those on the receiving end), but I assure you there are ten in all.

My favourite is SHOD ~ Our Shoes are Magic. I love it's simplicity. And anyone who knows me knows that I *so* need some magic shoes. My feet and off the shelf shoes have never agreed. And when I do find a comfy pair, they never last. Sigh.

Cloak & Dagger was a fun card to make. Modeled slightly after Mr. Big & Tall, only my version is more like Mr. Big & Tall & Mean with a Very Pointy Stick. I agonized over how to describe their specialization ~ not wanting to be politically incorrect and assign any real-life people to stereotypical henchman status. I quavered over hunchbacks. I still wonder if I chose right. My apologies to any hunchbacks I may have offended.

I blame the plethora of eHarmony commercials for eMagicMatch (tm). Let's hope their legal department has a sense of humour and knows when they're being *homaged*. But how could I resist communication fortnights and personality inquisitions? They were ideas simply begging to be used.

Stepmother Counseling was one of the last two (that were painfully extracted from the dim recesses of logic). They really have got the short straw in fairy tales, I think. Not *all* stepmothers can be bad, can they?

A few hints at what you didn't see ... Cauldrons 'R' Us has a Boil & Bubble special discount ("Now you're cooking!"), Wand-a-Riffic is located (of course) on Waverly Place, and you simply must use Mercury Messengers for when it absolutely, positively has to be there in a FLASH!

There's also an enchanted food detection service called How About Them Apples? specializing in rooting out tainted teas, poisoned potions and fiddled fruit. Crown Cleaners will handle your messes like magic (you can reach them at 555-PAY-DIRT), and Merlin the Mapmaker promises to be precise in scribing a route for your quest, but lists his own location as "next to the tavern, knock twice", which seems oddly vague.

As you might imagine I had quite a lot of fun making these. When the ideas start to arrive I describe the experience as a kind of "free-fall" through my brain. One of the many things I've learned over the years is not to let a good idea get away. You think you will remember ~ but you won't. Which is why I have a shelf full of journals that take me back to moments when I was on a roll idea-wise.

More altered playing cards ...

Over the next little while I plan to post almost the entire deck I created for the series of altered playing cards I worked on last year through swapbot. I'd like to think I eventually got the hang of it, so some of the early ones will be, well let's say "less good", while the later ones will be brilliant. Of course, I jest. There may be some "less good" ones later on as well. I'll let you be the judge.

One of the quirky things about working on a series is that I sometimes get a kind of affection for the parts of the series completely out of proportion with the *actual* quality of the work. One of the set will have a lovely composition, but alas the colours are less than perfect. Another will exactly be the colour I wanted, but oh my, how badly assembled! C'est la vie. Now ... on to the twos!

The two of diamonds is very tactile. Not merely *striped* paper, but quite strongly corrugated and painted a nice deep red. The background paper is *bubble paper*, created (as I recall) at nearly midnight in a tiny hotel bathroom during an art conference with my friend L. We were up well past bedtime, blowing bubbles and giggling, and thinking that the hotel management would be at the door any moment to chuck us out for being too noisy.

The two of spades has nothing to do with fish, except that it gave me an opportunity to use one of my favourite lines of poetry: "And in the heaven of all their wish, there shall be no more land, say fish." It was finding this single line in another work of art that spurred me on to find the entire poem (pre-wikipedia, I might add!). The poem (Heaven by Rupert Brooke) has several other lines that while deliciously vivid are much harder to work into conversation. When (for instance) would be the right time for these lines: "But somewhere, beyond Space and Time, is wetter water, slimier slime"?. I'd like to think that you are (at this very moment) opening a second window on the internet, googling the whole poem and loving it as much as I do.

The two of hearts has two of my favourite things in it. Firstly, the rubber stamp with the pointing finger. I simply can't tell you how things that finger has pointed at in my art over the years. As you see here, I particularly love stamping it on text, to give it that extra je ne sais quoi. And secondly, the line: Always make two, so you can share. I have a terrible affection for everything I make. Really. I *hate* to give stuff away. Not that I'm stingy, but it feels like giving away one of my children. The solution I've developed over the years is to: Always Make Two. At least. Then I can keep one, and give the others away with a happy heart.

The two of clubs is fairly straighforward. It was obviously created during my red / black / white / ivory / tan colour phase. I finally seem to moving on from this limited palette, and other colours are gradually returning. The background paper was made while I was in mad spray-painting mode. During the summer I got *very* excited about spray paint, particularly after I found some great artist spray paint that comes in about 80 colours and dries so quickly that I could spray and stack the pages as I went. I only have 5 colours so far, but I'm looking forward to when the weather warms up so I can *go get more*.

More number sets coming soon!

Wrapping up a swapbot series ...

Over the course of 2010, there's been a Swapbot group devoted to making a deck of altered playing cards. The project had everyone in the group making 2 of each card and mailing them out to two other participants. I chose to make 3 of each card - mailing out two, and keeping my *own* set as well. I joined the project after it had begun, so I have a few gaps in my deck, but I thought I'd share a few here.

One of the requirements of the project is that the suit and value of the card should remain visible and/or be obvious. In recent cards I've been creating very lean graphic interpretations of the suit and number. I've also been playing with texture (not so obvious on your screen, I know).

The 4 of Diamonds has textured paper glued on the back after the *real* diamonds on the card were cut out. The paper on the front is also textured (oooh, fuzzy!). The 5 is black paint stamped on brown butcher paper with a file folder label. The 6 was created by cutting out six diamonds and playing around with interesting patterns. The 8 is a simple nod to the eight directions of the compass. These four make a nice set colour-wise as well - although that was completely unintentional. I've been stuck in a red / black / tan / ivory colour scheme lately. Can't explain it and don't know when I'll be out of it. Not yet, obviously.

Anywho ... may post more of my cards in the future - but thought you might like a peek at a few of my favourites so far.

Returning to the Blogosphere

I see it's been awhile since I posted. Well, you know, sometimes these *new* habits don't take the first time around. So here's another go ...

I've decided to Post More Art. Which (considering the amount of time I spend in the "studio") shouldn't be hard to do - or so you'd think. I make art ALOT, but often it's for projects that are in the works, and if I posted it here it would spoil the surprise for someone, so I tend not to post what I've just done, and by the time it would be *okay* to post it, well ... I'm off in another direction, and the last project doesn't get posted.

Maybe you have the same feeling I have - whatever it is I'm working on at this very minute is the Best Thing I've Ever Done. And last week's project? Well, just not the same at all. But I've decided to throw caution to the wind in the future and post pictures of stuff I make on a more regular basis. I mean, posting art should be easy, shouldn't it?

But (having just said all that), this post's artwork is NOT by me, but by Theo Nelson, who (out of the blue) sends me postcards of his artwork a couple of times a year - and I always love his stuff - so full of bright colours ~ crisp and clean and makes me want to go make more art (how much more art can I make, I ask?). Not sure how I got on his mailing list, but thanks, Theo!

So here's Theo's latest offering: The Lions in Winter. If you live in Vancouver, you don't have to ask. I look at the Lions at least once a day - at this time of year to see how far down the snow is, and Theo's got it exactly right. To see more of Theo's work check out his website. And make sure to check out his prairie landscapes - if you've ever been to the prairies you will LOVE those clouds. My personal favourite from his prairie ATC collection? "Disappearing Elevator Blues" - now there's a prairie title for you.

Exhausted and well worth it ...

Who knew sitting still all day and talking to people could be so exhausting? Had a wonderful time at Canzine West - sold enough zines to make it all worthwhile financially - but that's never really been the point for me. I love talking to people - finding out what fires their creativity - what artist inspires them (maybe one I've never heard of - hey, it happens!). And when it comes to selling I'm almost more pleased to get trades from other zine makers than cash (I know - how *uncapitalistic* of me!).

Maybe because Canzine West followed so closely on the heels of WOTS (AKA Word on the Street) it seemed like there were a lot of familiar faces today - both behind the tables selling (or trading!)and in front of the tables buying. The fact that the space was large enough to accommodate plenty of both was great. And the diversity was fabulous - it really did have the feel of a *cultural fair* about it. I'm so glad I went - even if my face does hurt from smiling (and laughing, and talking).

One of these days I will *actually* post pics of the zines in question (really, I will!), and maybe (gasp!) even start selling them online, I mean I can't keep waiting for zine events to come around, can I?

Had some really great interactions today ... people who were new to zining and therefore eager to start their first one, and people whose work is not only familiar to me, but I already own most of their body of work (I really am a *collect the whole set* kinda gal).

I know, you were probably hoping for a pic here - any pic, but sorry ... need to go finish making some Artist Trading Cards for our monthly ATC swap tomorrow. Ah, the life of an artist ... never dull, I'll say that much. Photos at 11, or whatever blog phrase is equivalent to that.

Where to find me Saturday (hm ... sounds familiar)

This Saturday, October 16, I'll be selling zines at Canzine West. They invited me to be a vendor and since I already have all my zines ready and priced (from Word on the Street), I thought I might as well. The hours are more to my taste (starting at 1 pm) and I'm curious to see what Canzine West might look like, and well, I was going to go check it out anyway, so going as a seller isn't much more difficult. The table rental was amazingly reasonable, and it includes a subscription to Broken Pencil Magazine.

In fact, it looks pretty much like Broken Pencil is part and parcel of participating, even as a spectator ... I see the $5 entry fee also gets you a copy of their fall issue. It's been awhile since I had a look at Broken Pencil ... I remember it as quirky and fun and well, interesting. I look forward to reading it and hope it jiggles loose whatever writing/reading block I've been experiencing ever since I started making art.

Back in the day (pre "art making") I used to be well-read - not a voracious reader, but always in the middle of two or three books at a time. I even wrote on a fairly regular basis - then everything went visual. Not that I'm complaining, I love making art, and words always manage to be part of what I do, but lately I can't seem to get through even a full page of text before my head begs off and my hands want to "do" something instead.

Here's the specs for Canzine West ... if you find yourself in downtown Vancouver and zines are your thing (or you wonder if they might be) and you'd like your own bright shiny new copy of Broken Pencil, come say hi ... I'll be in there somewhere.

Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1pm - 7pm,
W2 Storyeum, 151 West Cordova Street
Cost: $5 at the door.
Includes a copy of the fall issue of Broken Pencil.

Giant Zine Fair: Over 150 zines from across Canada on display and for sale! The heart of the event, indie publishers both in print and online come from across the country and the continent to show their wares! Be amazed at the creativity, ingenuity, and sheer weirdness!

Where to find me Sunday

This coming Sunday I'll be at Word on the Street, Vancouver's Annual Book and Magazine Festival, go here for more info. More accurately, I'll be at Word UNDER the Street in the Alma Van Dusen Room, from 11am to 5pm - selling zines and other fun stuff with my friend Dawn (AKA Misti Ko). We had such fun last year - not getting rich by any means, but there's more to life than money, like trading our zines with other zine creators, for one thing! I wanted to post a picture of all the zines I'm selling, but (you guessed it!) they're still in production. I'll try and post a photo before Sunday, but I can't guarantee - life just got exceedingly busy again ...

I had a funny feeling that some of my *art* deadlines were getting away from me, so last week I started a spreadsheet to keep track of them (yes, I know - how *virgo* of me), and between last week and mid-November I have 16 project deadlines. Some are little (and will be quick to complete) some are huge and still in formation. Some are even *done* (fancy that!) and just waiting for addresses to be assigned (darn you, swap-bot!), but I will definitely be keeping my nose to the art grindstone for the next two months. But hey, better an art deadline than any other kind, I say.

And speaking of art deadlines ... here's a funny thing that happened this morning. Or it would have been funny had it not happened at 4:30 am (did I mention I'm not a morning person?). Over the last month or so I've been mulling over ideas for one of my larger, as yet unstarted projects. I would mention which one, but some of the people who read my blog (and who are also part of the project) might be surprised to find I haven't even started yet ... anywho ... at 4:30 this morning my brain wakes me up with a great idea. Well, okay, my brain thought it was great, personally the jury is still out, but on with my story ... darn brain wouldn't shut off. Anyone standing outside my window (quite a feat considering I'm not at ground level) would have seen my light going on and off multiple times over the course of two hours while ideas continued demanding to be written down. One thing I've learned is that when ideas arrive you darn well better pay attention to them or they wander off and are never heard from again.

So there's me ... scribbling down strange ideas at 4:30 am - and practically giggling with glee to boot, if it's possible to giggle while only partially awake. So now it's problem solved - got it all worked out - just have to create I what saw in my mind's eye, and (in my dream) physically held in my hands. Well ... at least I know what it's supposed to look like.

Just wondering ... do any of you pre-visualize your finished artwork? I mean like actually *see* it in your dreams - complete, framed, mounted, published and being enjoyed by others in your dream, while your dream self is busy memorizing what it looks like so you can *make* it when you wake up? Just curious.

Okay ... well, back to the art mine! But I thought if I didn't tell you where I'll be, and why I haven't posted lately you'd all think I got lost on my way to the keyboard. See you Sunday? Oh, and bring a brolly for the outside Word on the Street stuff, but down at Word Under the Street, we'll be warm and dry, so come buy our zines. More info about us here, where we are listed as "pengrafyx & ko"

Birthdays - and looking forward & back ...

Well, it's happened. I've just celebrated one of those milestone birthdays. You know - the ones that are supposed to give you pause, make you examine your life and see where you've been, where you are and where you're going. Oddly enough, having spent my whole life not celebrating birthdays, this one passed in a similarly uneventful way. As it happened, we were on vacation at the time, and we managed to find a low-key (but charming) heritage house turned restaurant on the extreme western edge of Vancouver Island where we had a lovely dinner. I had the steak, it was wonderful. They did everything to a steak that I can't do, or more accurately, they DIDN'T do to a steak what I would do - which is turn it into shoe leather. There was a shocking absence of singing waiters, presents, cake/candles and the like. Which suits me fine. Honest.

On the other hand ... I HAVE been reviewing my life in the last few days, but not because of my birthday. I've been working on a swapbot project about fairy tales. One of the options is to write your own and (coincidentally) I actually wrote a fairy tale of sorts lo, all those many years ago when I thought I might become a writer. The only trick was to find it. Somewhere in my many journals - I knew that much, but what year? Good question.

So I've spent a few evenings reading back through my journals looking for the story ... essentially time traveling backwards through my life, becoming younger and younger, more and more naive, more and more self-centered the further back I go. While it's sometimes excruciatingly boring (and even embarrassing) to read what my younger self has written, it is heartening to see that I have actually progressed in my life. I'm not saying I wish I hadn't written it all. I'm just saying that most of it will be burned in the event of my death.

The other shocking thing (and a positive shock at that), is the sheer amount of *writing* I've actually done. I've been sticking a post-it note on every page where I think I've written something of interest, particularly poetry, or a pithy bit of prose, and I now have a virtual forest of post-it notes poking out the tops and sides of my journals. Weirdly cool and satisfying to look at. And some of it I hope to gather in some form, since the idea of indexing my journals makes me queasy (oh my heavens, the sheer *volume* of content is daunting, let alone trying to think of keywords for most of it!).

I don't want to sound self-congratulatory, and I wouldn't want to get anyone's hopes up about the *quality* of my writing, but I find I have quite real affection for the body of work, as flawed and unfocused as it might be. As I read each bit, I get a vivid picture of the where and the why of the writing, and I see myself as I was then - young, naive and self-centered sometimes, but always trying to see the good in things, to see the way forward, to find my purpose, to make sense of life, as I believe we all do.

So maybe there's something to this milestone thing after all ... the two events are merely coincidental (birthday + a project that has me reading back through my journals), but I do feel that I've been looking forward & back, and (for the most part) liking what I see.

Giving & Receiving & Where it can take me ...

You know I mentioned Swapbot and how I'd been trading there recently? Well, sometimes a project will lead me into new, strange corners of information ...

Exhibit A: "The Discover a New Poet" swap
... what I sent: a postcard with Mervyn Peake's poem "Conceit", it's lines of text cut into strips and remade into the branches of a tree, surrounding the a single black and white line drawing of a bird. The poem (in case you're not familiar with it):

Conceit

I heard a winter tree in song,
Its leaves were birds, a hundred strong,
When all at once it ceased to sing,
For every leaf had taken wing.

... What I received: Poems by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, a poet I've never heard of, including 2 poems from her collection "The Gospel of Barbecue". And though my mailing partner mentioned that Ms. Jeffers had an excellent blog, she didn't give me a link, so I went off in search of it, and found this in the process. And after you've listened to a three-year-old reciting Billy Collins' poem "Litany", you might want to go here and listen to the man himself. Poetry lives!

And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street ...

So here I am, a beautiful Saturday morning in the studio, with the sun shining and yes, the sounds of the city all around me ... thinking about how I grew up in the country (we called it The Sticks), and reflecting on how different I am from everyone else in my family, a couple of whom have *tried* the city but in the end decided to move back to The Sticks. About how much happier I am with the sound of the city around me. The birds - the seagulls, crows and whatever the heck that bird is that wakes me up about 6:30 am every day with the repetitive twee-whoo call.
How much I love the the sounds of people living ... children laughing (and even fighting), lawn mowers, and barbecue parties (oh, the tasty aromas! why wasn't I invited?). Then there's the sound of fireworks ... closer to home at Nat Bailey Stadium or the Symphony of Fire out over English Bay, both of which I can hear (they sound like distant popcorn) but neither of which I can see. I love my *quiet* Saturdays at home in the studio.

My neighbourhood is *in transition*, and even though I loved this neighbourhood *before* we moved here, we are a part of its gentrification. In our case, this meant tearing down a near-collapsing old house and replacing it with a new one. To be fair, we originally thought we could resuscitate, but one look at the foundation, and the plumbing, and the wiring, and oh my, that idea went out the window pretty quick. Anyway, the thing is ... in the summer when there is no rain, there is always something under construction within earshot ... a new roof going on, a fence being repaired, and yes, I admit, even more old houses being replaced by new ones.

So this morning, in the middle of my thinking all these things ... I slowly became aware of a rhythmic pounding (not unusual, as I say) ... and then realized the rhythm had a ... tune? ... and the tune was ... wait a minute ... ah yes, there it is: You Are My Sunshine! Sounding like it was being played by a hundred sets of silverware hitting a hundred chandeliers. Well, that's odd, I thought, and I went to see where the noise was coming from, and it was coming from: my street.

I ran down the stairs (foolishly forgetting my camera!) and went out to see what was going on ... and it was a Parade! Stretching as far as I could see in either direction ... marching bands! people in costume! flowers! colour! children and old people and dogs, oh my! I hustled upstairs quicklike and fetched the camera ... who was going to believe me without photographic evidence? I should point out that we don't live on any kind of major street so parades are not the usual thing at all. One of the people passing handed me a flier saying it was the First Ever Filipino Cultural Street Parade, and it was really, really amazing. Brought a tear to my eye to see everyone out there smiling, waving, dancing, singing ... BEING. Made me wish that I had an ethnic community to march and celebrate with (does an artistic community count?).

All my neighbours were out on the sidewalk, too. People who are familiar, that I wave to in passing, but don't really *know* at all ... and I was suddenly reminded that this new neighbourhood I live in is multi-multi-ethnic, which is one of the reasons I love it so much. 'Cuz amazing things can happen ... like a parade when you least expect it.

Work in Progress: I Heart Zines Exchange

Today I'm working on my contribution for Alma Stoller's annual I Heart Zines Exchange, so here's a little teaser photo of some of the latest bits I've done. The red paper bags will hold the final zine. I've made them with recycled photocopier test sheets (for the lovely black inside) then spray-painted through paper lace on the outside and hand-stitched the bottoms. The little birdie envelopes will go inside the zine and hold, well ... to say too much is to give everything away, but obviously birds will be involved. I made them with leftover vellum strips, a bit of tissue tape and an appropriate bird stamp. I'm still going through a "I love red & black" phase - but maybe this project will finally beat that out of me. I know there are other colours out there, really I do.

The funny thing about this particular zine, and the way I've been working lately, is that it started off being about one thing and somehow morphed into something else. A few months ago I started doing some trading on swapbot, and it's really encouraged me to be more spontaneous and to trust my creative intuition. There are a ton of people on swapbot swapping all kinds of things, including things that make me shake my head and wonder why. It's kind of like a lobster - you can ignore most of its bulk and just go for the tasty bits you enjoy most. For me, that's zines, mini-zines and the occasional "hey, that sounds like fun!" project.

I also swap ATCs on swapbot, but swapbot ATC swaps are often 1 for 1, and I'm used to a more, how do you say *numerous* approach to ATCs, thanks to our *very* active ATC group in Vancouver. We usually have between 15 and 20 people each month at our trades, so to show up with less than 10 (and for me, less than 20!) seems a shame.

Now, must get back to working on the mysterious bird-related I Heart Zines exchange ... that deadline is coming up FAST!

One of those ideas I wish I'd thought of first ...

This happens to me quite often ... I'm poking around the internet and see something so quirky and simple and neat that I wish I'd thought of it first. Take for instance Marc Johns' lovely: deluxe carrying case for an ampersand.

I'm not sure how I got to Marc's blog (ah, the wonders of endlessly clicking ...) but once there I had a good look around and smiled several times, outright giggled several times more and felt a pang of creative envy (in a good way, of course) several more times than that. It's not like my brain is devoid of creativity, but there's nothing like a jumpstart from someone who gets at least as many good ideas as you do (and probably way more), and has the drawing and organizational skills to Get It Out There. Thanks, Marc, for a creative kick in the pants!

To see more of Marc's work, I'd recommend his website. I'm particularly fond of his sets of drawings on sticky notes and rat traps (yes, I said rat traps, go look). Uh oh, I feel another pang of creative envy on the way ...

*Image & link published with permission. Thanks, Marc!

A night at the CBC with A.M. Smith

Just home from a wonderful evening at the CBC (that's the MotherCorp, the Canadian Broadcasting Company for those of you NOT North of the 49th). I was lucky enough to be invited to a North by Northwest taping of Alexander McCall Smith. If you're familiar with the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street and (my personal favourite) the Portuguese Irregular Verbs Series, you'll know his name already and may even be knee deep in at least one of his ongoing series of books.

He's just launched another series, beginning with Corduroy Mansions, which includes (as well as many human characters) a vegetarian Pimlico terrier named Freddie de la Hay. Mr. Smith has written something like 70 books, although he claims that some of them are childrens' books and therefore shouldn't count, even though they do have covers and page numbers. He claims to write between 4 and 5 books a year (I believe it - he is hard to keep up with!), and says it's not so much that he sits down to write, it's as if his characters go on living when he's off writing other things, and then he sits down one day and asks what they've been up to while he's been gone.

Amongst the interesting facts he revealed this evening ... that he's just in the last day or so begun the next in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Series (a lot of which he says he writes when he stays here in Vancouver, where his sister lives), that he has an inordinate fondness for a musical group called Kenny Young and the Eggplants, and that he can't possibly explain why 97% of his readers are women, except that perhaps the men who read him still haven't come out to their friends and families.

I was expecting a Scottish accent of some sort, but he sounded decidedly English to me (and I should know, having cohabited with one for more than 20 years now). He was terribly funny, but in that dry, understated way the Brits are famous for. Although at one point he nearly joined the audience in a fit of gleeful giggles while reading a particularly amusing passage from Corduroy Mansions. He seemed genuinely and shyly pleased by the attention, applause and laughter from the audience. He very kindly stayed afterward to sign books for (and take pictures with) anyone so inclined. My face hurts from smiling - and that's always a good thing.

P.S. As well as a future podcast, the interview will be aired on CBC AM the next two Saturdays from 8 am to 9 am (PST) on North by Northwest. Go here for more details, and if you hear someone laughing while you listen ... well, yes, that was me.

And another P.S. - Mr. Smith mentioned that he's been serializing several of his books online lately, and indeed if you go here you can hear Andrew Sachs (AKA Manuel of Fawlty Towers fame) reading the next book in the Corduroy Mansions series: The Dog Who Came in From the Cold.

Creative rewards of another fabulous art retreat

Just back from another wonderful artist retreat ... four days of nothing to do but Make Art (and share and laugh and eat, too, of course). Imagine nine creative women with WAAAAY too many art supplies in a idyllic saltbox farmhouse on a sunny island. It's always amazing to me how relaxed and casual it all is - and yet how productive we wind up being. I find I create things that weren't even in my imagination when I arrived.

Ever since we started these retreats, I've been inspired by Celeste's handmade journal - which is this amazing ongoing collection of quotes, labels, lists and other interesting stuff from her everyday. There's something so rich about putting your real life on the page - including the things that touch you, not editing out what is usually deemed to be trivial, letting yourself play intuitively as the page and the moment decree.

I love the structure of her journal - the "looseness" of it - the fluidity of the stitches, the non-preciousness of the page material, the seeming randomness of its content, and I decided this was the retreat to make one for myself. Since we had an ample supply of red rosin paper (thanks, Michelle!), and magazines to collage from, (and did I mention the WAAAY too many art supplies?) so I started folding and slicing and reinforcing folded page edges and stitching .. and then a few little twists and turns later, it turned into something similar-ish, but not much like her journal. I realized that if you change the size, the page materials, the stitch construction and a few other things - you get something entirely different - in my case "La Musee d'une Vie Inventee" (that's Museum of an Invented Life, by the way).

But the next day Celeste (and Paula!) decided they liked my new journal size, and created their own versions. Celeste's version used maps for the page-edge reinforcement and was stitched with oh-so-appropriate red thread, so now I may have to make one of those, too. I love this group!

Busy, busy, busy ...

Have had a couple of very busy days ... mostly art-related. Sunday was the monthly trading session of the Vancouver Artist Trading Card Group (of which I am the current coordinator). As well as our usual ATC trading, it was also "hand-in" day for our spring/summer collaborative project: a book of decorated and stuffed envelopes on the theme of "Mail Art". The next step is to collate all the books, bind them and return them to the group at the August trading session. I've had some very generous offers of help in the collating & binding department, and I'm no fool - I said yes to anyone who wants to come help. Besides, we'll finally be putting my sunny patio to good use (I'm hoping it'll be sunny on the day in question!). Who could say no to an art party?

One of the things I LOVE about these collaboratives is how much variety we wind up with. How everyone interprets the theme differently, then uses whatever materials, skills and interests they have to share their best work with each other.

Since Art has become such a big part of how I spend my time, I think it bears saying that 10 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed about capitalizing the word "Art", or feel qualified to call myself an "artist" if it hadn't been for several years of positive feedback on my work from people who I thought of as artists and whose work inspired me to create. I know I'll never get rich making art (I'm not nearly ambitious enough), but I believe being able to tell the stories that live inside us - to express ourselves in a creative form - is a strong force in humans, and the form (for me) is visual as well as verbal. I never know what's coming next - and I've stopped worrying about it - I am happy to create and happier still when people have a positive response to it.