ferry details – 4
8:11 pm
This ferry to Quadra Island and back was a treasure trove of great details for my eye and for my camera. I think these are the last of the best!
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by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena links
2:31 pm
As most readers know, I love photographing details of interesting things like rusty objects. These are from the ferry that we rode a few weeks ago to Quadra Island and back. As I’m searching in my mind for a title, I think of ‘links’. I know that word has a multitude of meanings and assocations but I’m surprised at how many there are!
These are mostly rusty chain links, but can the twisted rope chain also be called a link or links? I recall taking similar detail photos on a ferry years ago but do you think I could find that link in my huge archives, or maybe I never did post the photos I’m thinking of? A missing link somewhere?
by Marja-Leena too many goodbyes
8:41 pm
Sunday was spent traveling to the Victoria area on Vancouver Island for my late aunt’s ‘remembering’… a sweet event, lovingly and artistically arranged by her daughter, my cousin, at her charming lakeside cottage home. Heartwarming stories and memories shared with hugs, laughter and tears. Another wrenching goodbye was to this house which my cousin has to leave soon.
Our own family stayed at my late mother-in-law’s house where one sister-in-law has lived for many years after her passing. With her daughter and husband joining us, we had a celebration of their coming first child over a traditional family breakfast on Monday morning. Seated around Omi’s teak table with her German china we remembered the many years she used to serve us a similar breakfast. A walk around her lovely garden had me misty-eyed remembering her as she worked in it, as we had to say another goodbye to another home, for this has now been sold, so many years since she left it. (Please see daughter Erika’s lovely post about it.)
The ferry ride home is always so very beautiful – the blue skies, white puffy clouds, sparkling waters, lovely islands sprinkled with cottages….
It’s taken me a long time to write this and I apologize for the wistful nostalgia. I must be getting old.
by Marja-Leena Janet Strayer
9:57 pm
Perishable Goods
Janet Strayer, a friend and past member of the Art Institute, Printmaking at Capilano College (later University) has a large solo exhibition of her paintings, etchings, and mixed media works on display at the Enigma Restaurant in Vancouver during March-April (and possibly extending until June 15). I was very sorry to miss her opening that she so delightfully called “an art-warming event”, held this past Tuesday evening while we were traveling home from our little holiday.
Janet has kindly allowed me to post a few images of some of the work in her show. (Copyright is hers) Please visit her brand-new website to view more.
Grief & Enigma
She says, My artwork has in the past accompanied my career as a university professor and psychology researcher, writer and consultant — somewhat in the way an incorrigibly curious, energetic, and adventuresome younger child accompanies a grown-up. Now, my artwork and explorations into art have themselves become a vital sustaining force that seeks to be known on its own terms. My workplace, Insights Studio on Saturna Island, is a magical place for inspiration and dedication to a process of artmaking that integrates imagination and observed realities. My artwork is both introspective and expansive. It explores the strange and human, adores color, and plays with form, line, memory and visual poetics. I hope that it also communicates the wonder and range of feeling that comes with being human and alive in a living world.
Checkered Frame
To me, much of Janet’s work has captured the magic, the mystery and that little quiver of something a bit scary that exists in the world of fairy tales. I asked her about this and she replied:
For some of my work, I deliberately roam into “the deepest, darkest, part of the forest” (as is a major motif in fairy tales) and I usually trust in something (strange little creatures: things not being what they seem) to see me safely through. In this sense, much of my work has a fairy-tale/mythic motif. But in only some of the work (Hansel & Gretel, for example) do I actually “think” of fairy-tales in any “whimsical” way. I would hope that the body of the work suggests more than fairytale or mythic themes — I am very interested in psychology and psychological development, as you know, and in being human and what that individually means. But, as you noted, this is certainly one stream that runs through it.
The Enigma Restaurant is at 4397 10th Avenue at Trimble, Vancouver. Open from 11am to 1am. Janet says this is a very cordial restaurant and bar, that serves both good cuisine and drinks at moderate prices, and it is hosted in a very personal manner by a lovely family from South Africa.
Update: Went to see it on March 11th – looking good!
by Marja-Leena Writing-on-Stone
6:52 pm
Petroglyph: The Hunt – Photograph by Ray Rasmussen
On my daily rounds of the blogs today, I was thrilled to discover at wood s lot a photo and link to the site of some wonderful photographs taken by several photographers in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta.
Why thrilled? Some readers may recall that I wrote about our plans to visit Writing-on-Stone earlier this year, which got cancelled because of heavy rains and floods. (I also wrote about the source of the word hoodoos.) Access to the Archaeological Preserve and majority of rock art is limited to guided tours (mid-May to early September only). We weren’t able to make it for September, but there’s next year.
Anyway, back to this excellent site. I really enjoyed the slideshow of the uniquely eroded sandstone and of the petroglyphs, the best pictures amongst the few I have found on the web. At the end is a list of links to additional great photographs of rock erosion including hoodoos, at Dry Island Buffalo Jump, a Provincial Park located in the Red Deer River Badlands. The site also has a good information on visiting the sites.
Noticing that Ray Rasmussen has taken most of the photos and is the web designer, I found that he has his own photography and Haiku web site that I shall be exploring further.
By the way, there are also a couple of images of works by Antoni Tàpies on the wood s lot page. It suddenly struck me how they resemble the petroglyphs in some way – the way he scrapes marks out of his textured surfaces. These made me recall how excited I was to see a large exhibition of Tàpies’ work in a museum in Germany several years ago.
by Marja-Leena a rubbing
7:54 pm
This is a rubbing I made of a wonderful image embedded in the cover of a book I found in the library a few days ago. Indian Rock Carvings of the Pacific Northwest by Edward Meade (1971) has numerous black and white photographs of petroglyphs made by the many First Nations peoples along the west coast from Oregon to British Columbia and Alaska. The above image was found on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
At Nootka are two human figures of a male and female. The unique features of these carvings is that the outline of the figures is achieved by double pecked lines, a technique found elsewhere only at one site, in Washington.
By the way, this is my 500th post and this blog is one year and nine months old today. Thanks to all my readers and new friends who’ve made the ride so fantastic, and inspire me to keep on going! Happy October!
by Marja-Leena Borneo rock art
12:02 am
Stone Gallery Photograph by Carsten Peter
I’m really enjoying this month’s issue of the National Geographic magazine, particularly the beautiful article ‘Hands Across Time, Exploring the Rock Art of Borneo’, also found on NG’s website.
Deep within the cliffside caves of eastern Borneo, 10,000-year-old paintings featuring the hands of the artists themselves may offer clues about ancient migrations. Thus begins an excerpt of the article, well worth reading. Then view the photo gallery.
The interactive image is magical and powerful. Ghostly hands–many decorated with dots, dashes, and other patterns–reach out from the wall of Gua Tewet in the rain forest of eastern Borneo. Dated back to more than 10,000 years ago, the stenciled hands may suggest initiation or shamanistic rituals, perhaps related to prehistoric Aboriginal art in Australia. The French-Indonesian expedition team called hands connected by long curving lines, at right, a “tree of life.” The design may symbolize ties that connect individuals, families, territories, or spirits to each other.
Luc-Henri Fage, the author of this story, wrote on the occasion of this, his ninth expedition:
I’d thought back to my first expedition here 17 years ago. A documentary filmmaker and magazine editor, I had set out on a 700-mile (1,100-kilometer) trek from one end of Kalimantan to the other with a few caving friends. Halfway across the island, taking shelter under a rock, we found ancient charcoal drawings on the ceiling. When I returned to France, I was surprised to learn that no such rock art had ever been reported in Kalimantan. I returned in 1992 with Jean-Michel Chazine, a French archaeologist and specialist in Oceanian prehistory. Two years later we discovered prehistoric paintings in East Kalimantan. In 1995 Pindi Setiawan, an Indonesian anthropologist, joined our team, and together, year after year, we found dozens of caves with paintings throughout the region, some with unique designs hinting at a mysterious forgotten people.
They have found about 1,500 hand prints in 30 caves.
And then there is their marvellous website Le Kalimanthrope, about past expeditions and amazing photos of exquisite prehistoric artwork. Most of it is in French, but the numerous pages of photos with almost 40 photos of Gua Tewet speak for themselves.
by Marja-Leena life is art
2:23 pm
Actually life keeps interfering with art these days! I spent Friday preparing for houseguests, some good friends from Winnipeg on their way home from a holiday on Vancouver Island. We had a wonderful visit. After they left on Saturday, a gorgeous sunny day, we started to prune some trees in the backyard to keep a good neighbour happy and to give more breathing space and light to our adjacent rhododendrons and camellia. It was a big job continuing into the next day, with my husband high up in the cedars and yours truly nearby chopping up branches to a manageable size to be taken to the green recycling depot. In between, I was happy to tackle the long overdue job of cutting down some perennials and doing some cleaning up. It always feels good to work outdoors.
Yesterday, I did do some art work on the computer, making some modifications to my continuing work. There was some business involved too in planning what prints to send off to an international print biennial in India and doing the paperwork for that. This morning I had to stop by the studio to pick up the mailing tube that I’d been using to carry work back and forth, and which I judged to be the most suitable one.
Since I was out with the car, I stopped at the garden centre for some spring bulbs for my garden, to plant sometime soon, I hope. I had to go a bit farther to get some birthday gifts, which I thought I could do quite quickly. But I was stalled at a train crossing by the longest and slowest freight train ever, and never before at this location – fifteen minutes of sitting there unable to go anywhere!
Birthday gifts found and bought, I passed a favourite shop that imports fair trade crafts and clothing from SouthEast Asian countries. I must confess that I’m not fond of shopping, especially when I MUST find something for a special occasion. So, I was thrilled to find a lovely two piece dress in a rusty red (colour above isn’t quite true) that feels like raw silk but is rayon and linen, a bit expensive, but very artistic and unusual, and dressy enough for the opera or Christmas parties. I’ve lost weight and have been frustrated in lacking time to sew or shop for new clothes, so this was a great bonus finding something when not looking, for a non-shopper like me.
Back home, I wrapped the prints carefully in acid free paper, put them in the tube, sealed it and labelled it. Now I must take them to the post office! (I dread finding out the cost of mailing!) I’ll let you know more about this biennial if my work is accepted.
by Marja-Leena Tomoyo Ihaya & Helen Gerritzen
12:31 am
R E C E N T WO R K S by Tomoyo Ihaya & Helen Gerritzen
November 1 – 27, 2005
Opening reception: Thursday, November 3, 7 – 9 pm
at Malaspina Printmakers Gallery
1555 Duranleau Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC
Hours: Mon-Fri 10-5pm • Sat-Sun 11-5pm
Another print exhibition to go and see! Thanks to Tomoyo for the email notice, all the way from India where she has been for some time and won’t be back for the exhibition. Helen Gerritzen will be flying in from Edmonton to be present at the opening.
I’ve written before about Tomoyo, who is a friend and past member of the Art Institute and who exhibits amazingly frequently.
by Marja-Leena Bill Laing’s Silkscreens
9:06 pm
Bill Laing – “Terrain of the Domestic Landscape #2” – Silkscreen
Yesterday we spent a few enjoyable hours poking around the always lively Granville Island. Amongst other pleasures, we stopped in to view Bill Laing’s exhibition PARIS: Recent Silkscreen Prints at Malaspina Printmakers Gallery.
Magnified patterns from nature; leaf vein patterns, ripples on the surface of water and patterns that mirror nature; floral lace patterns, leaf motifs on drapery form the source of inspiration for Bill Laing’s recent silkscreen prints.
These patterns usually obscure hidden human figures that you would not know were there until stepping back farther – an interesting visual play. I was pleased to see a body of his work together, having only seen one or two in real life before. Bill Laing is a well-known Canadian printmaker, a professor and head of printmaking at the University of Calgary, Alberta.
It’s well worth visiting this exhibition if you are in the area, and it is still up until February 19th. You can read more about Bill Laing and see some of his works at the Herringer Kiss Gallery site.