It is almost the end of summer and I have not posted… been busy with travelling during Covid to see My new grandson. And I’ve been working hard on an art course.
To that end this is how my growing looks at the moment…
so I have been wondering
Yes, I’ve been wondering how to get past these last couple of posts. They were necessary for me to move back into this space but they have also made it hard to move on. I found an answer from another poet, whom I read regularly on her website : www.ahundredfallingveils.com
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer wrote on May26 a poem called Renaming the Chapter
In it she lists a number of things we can use to rename this past year.
the year of : “ Loss-Bringer, Choice-Maker, Teacher.”
Her Last three, bring me back to here and now. She is much kinder than I would have been and that is why poets should read other poets, why artists should watch other artists, and readers should read as many writers as they can.
Otherwise it becomes very hard to grow!
And as my yellow star tulips are now finished, and spring has truly begun in this harsh Western Canadian landscape.
I am preparing to go to the Uk to help care for my daughter and her soon to be wee one. Anyday now I will be booking flights and taking tests and complaining more about government regulations but those are all just hoops to pass trough to the real joy of my life. And maybe I’ll get to make some art as well. Bonus!
books about societies and politics...
If you haven’t read some of these I think they are quite important to the trials and dangers of the world right now.
They are not all new but they speak of things I think we should be watching out for or at the very least know how easily these ideas become commonplace and “normal”
The most recent is ‘Fascism A Warning’ by Madeleine Albright. This is very readable and not depressing.
The oldest I think is ‘Wild Swans’ by Jung Chang. This is a family history of women that spans the century
The next two are novels ‘The Noise of Time ‘by Julian Barnes tells the conditions in Stalin’s Russia as Shostakovitch was writing his music.
‘Do Not Say we have Nothing’ by Madeleine Thien tells a story about conditions during the cultural revolution in China
may and such a long absence
By way of explanation for my absence…
It has been a very long time since I wrote about anything here. Today I thought I should offer some kind of explanation, and I think this will only happen once, but Im not guaranteeing anything.
Everyone is having a hard time with this pandemic . I am not alone but I have been avoiding this site simply because I am too tired of using the computer to Live my life. It seems Everything must be done through a tablet or a keyboard and I am old enough that I find that quite exhausting. When I first started this online journey it was a fun thing to do, to launch a conversation with the world even if noone listened. I didn’t worry about that, it was just part of the way I approached it. I don’t do all the promotions or have a presence on any social media, which yes I know, limits my exposure but I always felt that if there was a like mind out there I would be found. I am no longer sure that is true. I still like to share my work and my thoughts but with the huge number of people now trying to get their voices heard and new products before eyes that might purchase them I feel that my small voice will be lost in the ether.
I am also very concerned about how we are handling this pandemic. I feel the Government has grossly mishandled the whole affair. I never thought my generation who worked so hard to put universal health care into place would somehow be held ransom as people to the system . When in the history of humankind has the healthy population been put into quarantine. It seems that this event has happened because governments are fearful of overloading and the backlash that hospitals might just become places to go to die instead of places of care. And that the tax payers might be a little upset with the cost of all that. Instead we have shut down the whole economy and the governments are busy increasing deficits and future debt that will still have to be paid somehow.
We have also been made to be afraid of everything and anybody. It reminds me of the way travellers used to be suspect when they arrived in a small community… the us and them syndrome. We in this latest round of restrictions are also being told that we have the right to report those we think are breaking the rules. WE seem to have just accepted that this is different than when the Nazi’s encouraged the brown shirts to turn rulebreakers into authorities, or when the young of Communist China exposed anyone who thought independently during the cultural revolution. I sometimes wonder if most people have read any of this and if they just think they are stories. We are being fed as much propaganda as any population that has fought a war. This is a pandemic revolution. where Public Law courts are closed. It is apparently thought possible to convict someone of a civil dispute over a video hearing. Criminal matters are still being heard, we wouldn’t want the land to become lawless but justice in a civil matter would put too many people into physical contact which the powers that be have decided is a more serious side effect.
Don’t get me wrong. I do not think this is a huge conspiracy but I do think the government is wielding some pretty suspect powers in the name of protecting health.
Enough, I think you get my drift.
I am still making art, in fact I have advanced , I think, to a different level simply because of the time and concentration that have been my gifts in this situation. But I’m beginning to think this is at quite a hefty cost, and I would like to have less computer time and more face to face interaction even with strangers who might infect me. It would be better than stopping all that I find stimulating in life, thoughtful theatre, carefully practiced music programs that reach my ears without electronic amplification, and travel and the food and museums that always enrich my life experience.
Hopefully I will find the energy to take some photos of my current work and post them and get back into some kind of balance, and perhaps I will begin again to trust that someone, somewhere is listening and watching just as thoughtfully as I think I am
POWERED BY SQUARESPACE
another exercise that surprised me
If you can read my handwriting you will understand what the exercise was all about. I first rearranged the pieces with no limitations. and it looked quite a lot like the original image but concentrating on the brown bits as the guiding focus made it more interesting.
What I learned from this is the fact that an abstract shape can come develop from something that is already part of an image. if you focus on it and change its relation to the rest then it might lead the eyse to see something completely different. kind of fun!
Feb 11
At minus 30 there is not much growing outside today but… I am discovering more about visual literacy. It is fascinating to read and see that over the years I have learned a lot about this by just doing it. I love to collage and placement is more than half the battle. there are some examples of my bookmarks in the paper gallery. I move and rearrange things all the time and I find there are combinations of shapes that contrast and add energy and that just where they are on the page is important. I always thought that was just me being fussy but no, it is part of how we communicate with pictures.
Interestingly, using my camera and photoshop has also taught me more than I realized about composition. For example when I’m cropping I always have the overlay of one of the “third rules” shapes. And you won’t be surprised when I tell you that I do not rely on the rectangular division of space into thirds, I prefer to use the spiral or the triangle.
I did some exercises to see if I could relate what I was reading to something I might draw or make. We all know that line is one element that is crucial to drawing or painting, another is the dot. And I learned this in a fabric painting workshop a long time ago discovering for the first time I could begin to see how one added perspective by using dots. Those of you that draw regularly and cross hatch or shade to create depth will laugh, but it was the single dot massed here and there that taught me how that happens. So I proceeded to play around with dots on a small piece of paper. On the second one I used lines, and realized how line is a big part of tentangle patterns if you’ve seen any books on that art -doodling form.
Almost the end of January
So here we are almost to the end of the month where nothing grows except our minds. Winter is harsh here, and it has been flexing its muscles this past week, leaving the trees and bushes beautifully coated with hoar frost. I think hoar frost is the only reason anyone should allow winter. It is magical.
It is the perfect time to sit inside ,look out at my trees ,and cozy up with a wonderful book. Given that we are still in the throws of the pandemic, I stocked up on books just before Christmas. (Smile, i just corrected the spelling of stocked… which I had spelled stalked…. and actually that wouldn’t have been so wrong…) I have been missing travelling terribly so I went searching for reviews of travel books and ordered some. The one I’m reading now, “This is Happiness” by Niall Williams, is amazing. It is a novel which I think fell into the “travel book” category simply because of its sense of place. Your are taken there with wonderful language that sings in your ear. You see it, feel it and know the rain ,the smoke, the soft air of Ireland even if you’ve never been there actually. I have been savouring it. Phrasing, rhythm and cadence bring you into the place, the story, the minds of the characters and into your own youth, all at the same time. It is just as magical as hoar frost, and a wee bit warmer.