First Facebook Post.

I have added the Wordpress application to my Facebook account. Apparently when I post here at Wordpress, the details of my post should show up in Facebook. It seems like a good idea and a way of increasing traffic. I do enough talking to myself at home, I am hoping to have an audience online... Now the pressure is on to have interesting posts.

Amazing

I have been sick, a usual side effect for me when I travel. The aftermath is always a series of me resting and reorganizing my world. I think the reorganizing is as much mental as physical. Traveling changes my view of the world and it takes some time to digest it all and redraw those paradigms, those maps I previously had to describe the world. Alaska was a place desperate for tourist dollars. Each business, cruise, or little stand by the road pleaded with every passer-by to stop and drop some cash. The season is limited and locals struggles to make what they can before the flurry of outsiders head back home again. But outside of my cynical view, I also saw areas of vast wilderness. It sounds like a cliche, but there really is no other way to describe the space. This photo was taken on a glacier cruise of a place called '3 hole rock'. As the boat slowed in front of this view, everyone was silent. Even with the world of sat-tv, internet, and iphones, people can still be awestruck by nature. Amazing.

damp, but not dampened.

I allowed the hundreds of people to pour their gazes over my face as we slowly moved through the line. I was unable to see the end, just a snaking cord of strangers who glanced, then looked away. This was the last of many lines I had to negotiate before entrance through the gates of homeland security and onto the flight that took me to Anchorage. For those who know me, you know that I am not good in crowds. The energy pulses off of each body and assaults me until I want to run to freedom, wherever that might be. It's a huge contrast to the amount of space in the unpopulated areas of Alaska. My family has been traveling for 3 days by motorhome from one spectacular location to another. Today has been a day of new experiences starting with a visit to Sea World in Seward. Not like the ones in California where carefully coreographed routines are played out by bored sea mammals, this place was very natural and allowed us to view creature behaviour without disturbing them. Later we braved the 3 mile hike to Exit Glacier while the rain poured on. We were not disappointed. My daughter was struck by the deep azure blue of the crevases and the cool wind that forces its way off the glacier and down the path of its retreat. I smiled contently and watched through water-spotted lenses as the kids ran down the mountain. Tonight we are clean, dry and relaxed thanks to this wonderfully run RV site, which also has wireless internet access. Tomorrow we take a 6 hour cruise to the whale feeding grounds and the tidewater Glaciers. If I run into another wireless location, I will let you know how that goes. The weather report is calling for more rain...in fact, rain all week but I will not let it dampen my trip!

one more thing...

If you know my guy, the Dad-guy, please wish him a happy birthday today. Yes, today is his special day!

North to _____

If you are Canadian, you will likely be able to finish that title. Alaska. As I had posted on my 'other' site, I am leaving today for Alaska. I will try to post while I am gone. It will depend on how many campsites we hit with 'wireless'. Yes, the Dad-Guy has actually printed out a map via the internet of where those sites are. I can just see it now...me..."but honey, the view is better over here!"  him..."there's no wireless, I can't log in to my Facebook account!"  Pity!

a dash of high hopes

Quiet, peaceful countryside. Folks wave to one another as they pass on the road, the one road which leads in and out of this community. It is about 11 kilometers long, paved and winds gently downhill, over a set of train tracks until it ends in someones yard. Beyond that is the Fraser River which travels in a semi-circle around the farms and acreages near the end of the road. I live in that semi-circle.

My neighbors to the west are an older Jehovah's Witness couple who have been raising two of their grandchildren. On the east is a mystery. It is a 5 acre property that was once inhabited by an older couple, retired from sod farming. There is a modest, but well kept house and a large shop, fully insulated and wired. Several groups of people come and go from this place whose gate is always locked. They stay anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours before leaving the gate carefully locked once again. There is a pattern to their visits. The shiny black truck comes each day around noon for 1/2 an hour. Every second week a couple in their 50's, wearing dark glasses and driving an old, noisy car come and mow the lawn. About every 30 to 40 days, a brown pickup truck sporting a canopy, all with tinted dark windows brings its drivers out. The rough looking couple (in dark glasses day or night) will arrive for 3 or 4 days, back up to the shop and load mystery items into the truck for 2 hours. Some months they have help. A woman in her 40's, wearing the required dark glasses and driving a blue mini-van (again, tinted windows), comes out and helps. Once the bustle settles down, the black truck is seen each day again. None of the occupants acknowledge me if I wave or look into their faces as they occasionally pass me on the road.

When the place sold several years ago, I had such high hopes for friendship. But the place lays quiet most days, its curtained windows and gates sternly closed to the activies within.

Shhhhh!

Sometime it is nice to have nothing planned and nothing doing. But is it okay to have a mind that refuses to think of anything important and a mouth that doesn't want to talk much. It makes me wonder what it would be like to take a vow of silence, just for a short while you understand. I'm thinking I will snap out of it pretty quick. Does silence include the written word? Oh, I hope it doesn't include symbols and drawings. I guess that depends on whether the vow is not to speak, or not to communicate. Hmmmm. I googled 'vow of silence' and found an interesting site called 43 Things. This site is a place where people have posted on things they want to do, and once accomplished, were they worth doing. I will think some more on this.

independence!

This letter opener belonged to a unique man, Edwin Stewart, my grandfather-in-law. If you look carefully you will see that it has been sharpened on one side so that it will act like a knife. Why is that? Well, Ed spent his last few years in a seniors home where he found life to be quite 'restrictive'. Each mealtime he was seated at a table with his wife and a woman who could not speak english very well, I'll just call her Queen Bee. When eating fruits or vegetables, Ed used to push his silverware aside and pull out a 6 inch hunting knife, cut his food and place it gingerly in his mouth. Apparently, 'the Bee' did was frightened by this action, so the staff took the knife away from Ed. Ahhh, but he pulled out another, and another. Soon all his knives were safely tucked away in a locked drawer in the nursing station along with various other household tools that he had been using in his room; his soldering gun, which had set off the fire alarms, his hammer, several screwdrivers, a glue gun, and some plyers. Determined not to be treated like a child, he sharpened this letter opener and used it in place of his knives and screwdrivers. We found it hidden in his chest of drawers after he passed away. I will always admire his independent spirit!

I purchased art by Opie Oppenheim

The Native Art Gallery that I once managed has announced that it is closing its doors. I was sad to hear this after all the work I did there. Well, as most closing businesses do, the gallery is having a 50% off sale. I went in to get a little momento and came back with this print by Opie Oppenheim. Opie came in the gallery last spring and it was a pleasure meeting him. He is very funny and that is reflected in his work. This piece has a set of numbers in the top, left hand corner. Many people have speculated on what those numbers represent. It was suggested that they are a salmon count from the year the print was made. So I asked Opie what the numbers were for. "Oh, that's my bowling average." he says. Apparently this piece was never intended for reproduction, it was a scrap, a 'work in progress', but he loved the way the drawing and the casual 'chicken scratch' interacted so he had prints made. I now have this unintentional art hanging in my house. I am sad that there will no longer be a place where memories like this can be made.

Why is this dog so fat?

Maybe it is because for the last 8 months he has arrived at the Middle School exactly at 1pm each weekday. He knows that if he times it right, there will be dozens of food goodies littering the school grounds, and he's no dummy! If he arrives as the bell rings, that means the kids will all go back inside that grey building and he can eat in peace. Oh his poor arteries!

The dad-guy's day

It is a special day for all of you who are a father to some one. They look up to you, they model on your behavior, and they love you. Above are two drawings of Kevin, the dad-guy in this family. I did the top drawing in 1997 and the bottom drawing today. He wasn't very cooperative today. He kept sticking out his tongue and making faces, so the chin area is not as accurate as I would have liked. None the less, here is my tribute to the man who spends so much time parenting our kids with love.

you wouldn't!

Friday turned out to be very interesting. I was relieved to know that I did not embarrass my 13 year old at his school on Career Day. Right after breakfast he gave me a serious look and said, "I hope you'll be good today." Of course I couldn't resist going through a mock presentation that started with a badly sung song and some pathetic footwork,

"hi, I'm Alec's mom,
I'm a designer,
I can do it...."

"How's that?" I asked. "YOU WOULDN'T!" he said. There were 30 presenters and the 750 students could choose 4 sessions to attend. Although I wasn't as popular as the Coroner, the room was full for all 4 sessions. Not bad for someone who can't sing.

the words have stopped

I haven't written anything deep or thoughtful for a while. I just haven't been into it. It seems that when the imagery comes out on pages and canvases in bright splatters of colour, the words stop flowing. Perhaps they come out of the same tap. Funny how they don't mix. Physics says they should, after all, hot and cold water mix. Maybe it's like our water system at home, if the filter needs changing then everything else gets messed up.

things are happening...

I received a phone call tonight saying that 2 more of my art pieces have been juried into a show in Vanderhoof at the end of this month. Juried shows look great on a resume as your work must pass through a panel of individuals who evaluate it and decide if it is thematically and technically skillful enough to include in the show. I have a painting and an installation about pine beetle kill in this area which will be included. I further heard that the show received funding and may go on tour! Kevin and I just finished making a crate for my last set of work that is going on tour for a year. Wow, things are really happening. It is exciting, but a lot of work. I thought I was going to be gardening all summer, now I have two software programs to learn and a bunch of art to crate...hey, I asked for it :)

who am I?

trying to keep up with all the login information and passwords for my 'online presence' is making me crazy! Someone needs to come up with a better way. It is almost as bad as having a plastic card in your wallet for every store you shop at!