Tile: Fini!

Maureen fired our tiles and had them ready for the Art Club to paint this past Thursday.  She provided the black paint for the background and wax based metalic paints to subtly provide the last embellishments. What a great project!

On Putrid Slough

The sewage smell is diminishing and ocassionally mixes with the scent of fresh greens as buds begin to emerge.  Today I noticed flocks of the tiniest shore birds I've ever seen.  Apparently these conditions provide some good eatin' for a ravenous, migratin' little bird, so that was a bonus. The greenspace behind Roy Wilcox has become an amazing bird sighting place in spring; you really never know what to expect.

Now I have to figure out what kind of bird they happen to be.

Update, 2 minutes later: They're Peeps! (found my peeps) and are the smallest Sandpiper in the world.
http://www.surfbirds.com/Features/coxpeeps1006/coxpeeps1006.html

Memorial In The Woods

Ten years ago today Jessica celebrated her 18th and final birthday.  Three months later she died near this spot in a single vehicle accident where the car skidded off the gravel road and rolled into a ditch smashing Jessica into the windshield.
She was her parents' only child.
This was one of those situations where you feel scalded by the news and know that recovery will take a long, long time.
That fall I saw her mother, out for the first time at the craft fair.  It was overwhelming so she couldn't endure it for long but before she left I offered to teach her painting as a diversion, therapy of a sort and transition back into a bit more of a social life.
Shortly after she phoned and we arranged to have her come by once a week; this arrangement lasted for over a year where she came to learn much about drawing, painting and to remember and grieve.
She taught me a lot about grief.
I wish I could say I did it for lofty reasons.  No. I may have offered in empathy but was all too aware that as I continued I was trying to make a deal with God.
"See God? I can help, I can do this for someone...I don't have to be a member of The Club...let me keep my children, all of them...please?"
Mother's Day is an awful time for my dear S.
Her status update last year read: I'm a childless mother and a motherless child, having lost her own mother at the age of 15. 
I'd love to be able to lift all that sorrow from her overflowing heart but that will have to wait till she is taken home to be forever with her sweet, sweet Jessica.  For now I will simply pray the best I can and think of them each time I pass the memorial on Forest Avenue.

Spring Sewage

This is our Spring.
Temperatures rise abruptly and the soft tones of winter -  pearl grey, amethyst, white and every shade of ultramarine blue retreat from a ravenous tide of fungus and sludge. Oil slicks, naturally generated, line the edges of every muddy, rusty slough and the smell?! The wind stirs up an olfactory assault of sewer type gases mingled with the scent of warming mud.  What a delight!

Once we dry out I suppose real Spring will begin and I must admit it's never, ever been this disgusting...there were entire fields of this mucky brown business.   Must have been the amount of snow combined with rising temperatures which means I have to hose the dog down for 10 minutes following every walk.

Three or four weeks from now though? we'll be at our best!

Spring Craft Fair 2012

If this is Craft Fair there must be Meat-On-A-Stick and there it is displayed by fellow Art Club member Judy.  It was available from 2 or 3 different food vendors who did a brisk business all day long.  Not so for many of the artists and crafters; Judy did manage to sell 2 smaller paintings but I was completely skunked!  And I did so well last few Craft Fairs...*pout*...probably never put sooo much time into preparations either.

TwinB's little piggies brought a smile to the face of anyone passing by and I'm glad I placed it down here at what turned out to be perfect kid height so they could enjoy it too.  Had I the foresight to make prints I probably could have sold a dozen.  Ah well - hindsight.  Took care of that today in Terrace at Staples and they turned out beautifully.  First one goes to Kitimat's former sign painter who has donated countless items and services over the years.  She asked about the price which given the amount of work on the original had to be placed at $300 - too steep for a retiree getting by on an extremely modest income but now I can simply hand her a very nice print/copy.
TwinB called today to give me the great news on the Art History project we collaborated on....*drum roll*....93%!!!! (less 15% late penalty which puts her at a respectable 78%)
Can't believe what a huge weight has been lifted!

Tile: Two Hours

We are fortunate to have a high school art teacher in our membership and last night she treated us to a tile making workshop.  What intense fun! We all ended up sweating up a storm while rolling out the clay so we were glad when that part was over but all became completely engrossed in the designs.  The others took theirs home to complete but I have so much on my plate I decided that my dining room table and my schedule didn't have space for one more ongoing project so...I worked like one possessed and managed to make sure concept to completion occurred in a little under 2 hours.  Now it's drying at the high school, will be fired in a week or two and then we apply a black glaze and the beautiful metallic paints that Maureen ordered for the tiles her classes created last year.
Can hardly wait to see what everyone's done!

The Queen

...presides over this year's batch of paintings to be displayed at the Spring Craft Fair.

I transferred a drawing originally composed by TwinB, putting it on on this piece of watercolour paper that I'd smooshed paint onto a couple of years ago.  It helped determine the choice of colours.  I was informed that it originally was a fop (note the Adam's apple) but TwinB liked the colours I chose.  So, it's all framed up now and sitting with the other 10 to 12 pieces that I've been frantically finishing and framing.  It's supposed to be the Art Club's display but I'm not too optimistic about many other paintings joining ours.  Always good to knock off a whole batch.

After this I have to tackle the sets for The Sound of Music and then create a design for an award winning mural!  The Award Winning component isn't part of the criteria but I figure it will motivate me.