by Marja-Leena 4:32 pm
Or, the ex-butter dish. I still have the little pitcher. Both were made by a local potter long ago and were gifts from my husband.
Other ‘breaks’ featured on these pages (this is getting embarrassing):
a broken bowl
another broken bowl
reflections in broken glass
broken glass ornament
by Marja-Leena 3:55 pm
I love the more abstract images where one doesn’t know what one is seeing… just enjoying the shapes, textures and tonal variations.
the promised links to other ‘breaks’ (oh my, too many!):
broken,
butter dish
the broken bowl
broken glass
everyday object
reflections in broken glass
by Marja-Leena 3:42 pm
by Marja-Leena 3:23 pm
Granddaughter Lael’s annual Winter Story is now up! Daddy does the difficult part of animating her drawings, as he has done since 2003. Lael’s family sends this unique greeting out to all their friends and family for Christmas – a unique card, I think. You can see past Winter Stories at the site, if you haven’t seen them before. Enjoy!
Meanwhile, we are enjoying having the whole family here, ten around the table when all are present. Son-in-law J arrived from the UK on Friday 21st; eldest daughter and husband arrived on Sunday 23rd from east of Kamloops (5 hours by car from Vancouver). We’ve been feasting since, first with R’s fabulous butter chicken, then ham for Christmas Eve. Tonight is R’s deboned turkey. All the family pitches in with many delicious vegetable dishes, baking, eggnog and more so this grandmother isn’t too worn out. And Santa was very good to us last night. Oh, and he made a second visit early this morning as he forgot to leave some things for the grandchildren.
As you know, we celebrate Christmas Eve in the Finnish and German tradition with a feast followed by caroling while waiting for Santa. I goofed with the top photo of Lael playing her violin but loved the effect.
Hope you are all having a wonderful Jule however you celebrate it!
Oh, and this is most timely: the Anthropology and Archaeology of Feasts
by Marja-Leena 2:50 pm
What a fantastic day we had yesterday! The gloriously sunny day began with the arrival of a cousin and her husband from Germany. After a quick visit over tea and biscotti on our deck, we whisked them to the ferry over to Bowen Island. Hans-Christian, one of the artists in the exhibition and a resident of the island, invited all the artists and their guests for pre-show nibbles and wine at his home. How lovely it was on his deck looking out over the sea, getting ourselves in a mellow mood for the reception to come. What was very unusual was how many German speakers were present: three of the artists including our host, and three visitors from Germany, plus my husband! Our daughter Erika was enjoying practicing her German with them but I was quite lost beyond the pleasantries.
Anne and I in front of some of my work
Then on to The Gallery at Artisan Square to see our exhibition and be there for the artists’ reception. I was immediately greeted by a beautiful lady – Anne Wadleigh, the amazing 20th Century Woman and her husband Jerry! How delightful that they made it and how honoured I felt that they had made the trip up from their island on the other side of the border in Washington! Though this was our first meeting face to face, Anne and I felt like we’d known each other a long time. Jerry and my husband found many things of common interest while Anne and I talked about printmaking. With her own background in printmaking, Anne had many perceptive questions and comments and was interested to learn about the Capilano University Art Institute. Anne expressed the desire to be able to work in such a place and be inspired by other printmakers. I look forward to another visit one day and to showing her our facilities.
left to right: Michiko Suzuki, Wayne Eastcott, Curator Ann Ramsay, Peter Frey, Linda Robertson, Hans-Christian Behm, Joan Smith, Christel Kleinewillinghofer and I (Bonnie Jordan was unable to attend)
The opening was very well attended and the work well received. It was hard to get good installation photos but the show looked great in this lovely space. Our special thanks to Ann Ramsay, Gallery Coordinator/Curator for giving us this wonderful opportunity to share our works with Bowen Island residents and visitors. Thanks to my husband for taking all the photos, also Erika though I haven’t seen hers yet.
Then a lovely ferry ride home again. I was a little tired from all the excitement and had dinner to prepare (thankfully I’d prepared the main dish the day before). Our family circle around the table was larger and richer with the German cousins and we were grateful for this wonderful day.
by Marja-Leena 9:38 pm
This morning as I sat at my computer next to the window, some movement caught the corner of my eye – six big crows were strutting about the lawn, looking for grubs perhaps? I was too slow getting the camera. Usually they are on our roof and chimney top, their heavy thumping often startling anyone alone in the house into thinking someone’s breaking in.
Yesterday evening was very memorable – we had Miguel and Mika here. Miguel is very much in love with this region after his two weeks here. Mika, who has only been here a couple of days loves what she has seen of Vancouver so far.
Delighted to meet her, we were very impressed with Mika’s accent-free English, thanks to Miguel’s coaching. During a little tour of our home and some of my art, Miguel made two interesting comments that really pleased me – how he could recognize our home and setting just from my blog descriptions, and how my art work looks so different and much better than on the web. We enjoyed much conversation and laughter in the evening sunshine on our back deck over a meal centered around BBQ’d sockeye salmon. As it cooled down, we moved indoors for dessert of blueberry kiisseli with whip cream and a few wild blackberries on top. After driving them back to their hotel by English Bay, we felt sad saying goodbye to them both but hope we’ll meet again someday.
Roundabout meanderings on the net led me to this exciting discovery: Sky Mirror by Anish Kapoor. Remember the Kapoor piece we saw in Brighton but didn’t know it’s name? That’s it, how beautiful! And, this surprised me:
The artwork itself, which was manufactured IN FINLAND is a six-metre wide concave dish of polished stainless steel weighing ten tonnes and angled up towards the sky. It reflects the ever changing environment, season to season, day and night. (caps mine)
—————
PS. Evening of Aug.27th – Things will be quiet on this blog for a few days. We’re going to the islands to enjoy some of the last glorious days of summer! I’ve been too busy getting ready to write another post, hence this short note.
by Marja-Leena 9:48 am
washing hands
soap dish needs cleaning
lovingly made by a local potter
first an object of desire, then a gift
then utilitarian, everyday-ish
cracked
yet still worthy of admiration
just look and see
by Marja-Leena 12:04 am
I’ve just put our treasured collection of Easter eggs on display. Most of these lovely eggs have been made over the years by our youngest daughter. I decided to photograph them and post them here because I was so inspired by Finnish blogger blogisisko’s photos of her very unique international collection of Easter eggs, some exquisite wood and marble ones and contemporary ones. Also a link to Fabergé brings back memories of seeing these in a lovely exhibition many years ago in a New Orleans museum, I think it was.
As with many of our religious holidays, Easter has elements of old pagan practises. There seems to be some uncertainty to the sources of some traditions like the giving of eggs at spring festivals. This “was not restricted to Germanic peoples and could be found among the Persians, Romans, Jews and the Armenians. They were a widespread symbol of rebirth and resurrection and thus might have been adopted from any number of sources.”
Read more interesting information about Easter at Wikipedia, also in Finnish.
Easter in Finland* mentions a traditional Easter dish called mämmi – I remember my mother making it – it tasted delicious even if it did not look pretty.
Spring is here with the tulips, magnolias, camellias and other spring flowers in full glory. The weather has caved into cold and rainy, so we are hoping for sunshine so we can hide the Easter eggs in the garden for our grand-daughter to hunt. Now, dear readers, I wish you all a sunny, warm and wonderful Easter long weekend.
Hauskaa Pääsiäistä, Joyeuses Pâques, Frohes Ostern, Happy Easter!
Update: Some not-to-be-missed Easter posts at mirabilis: Ukrainian Easter traditions and the rabbit of Easter. Or is it bells?
Update: April 23rd, 2006: A little late for this year, but I want to save this for the archives: Ukrainian easter eggs-pysanky
*expired link has been removed
