by Marja-Leena 
Here’s another self-portrait, one that turned out rather Andy Warhol-ish, don’t you agree? Maybe it’s also a reflection of my overheated mind and body as the temperatures continue to be HOT here!
Here are the other ones that I’ve contributed to the self-portrait marathon: the first self-portrait, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth.
And the super slide-show of the participants’ portraits. There are a few days left to join in as it ends on July 8th.
by Marja-Leena 
Here’s my latest contribution to the self-portrait marathon.
In case you missed the earlier ones in my series, here is the the first self-portrait, the second, the third, the fourth.
View the fantastic slide-show of the participants’ portraits, for which we must give Sparky a huge thank you! And, the marathon is still going strong until July 8th so it’s not too late to join in the fun!
by Marja-Leena 
One lovely day last week, after an appointment in the vicinity, I went to see a couple of art exhibitions on Granville Island that I’ve mentioned here earlier. The first one was the exhibition of fibre art by Kaija Rautianen & Hanna Haapasalo at Crafthouse Gallery. Their computer-aided tapestry technique is fascinating and the works are beautiful. You can still see them until July 2nd.
Vancouver’s own BIMPE IV, an international mini-print biennial exhibition, was most interesting to me personally as a printmaker. (No, I’m not in it as I rarely work this small.) The numerous works (100?) were all very intriguing in many different techniques and kept me occupied looking at them all for quite a while. I recognized some friends and some names and there were works from around the globe. Have a look at the updated BIMPE website for images of the works by the prize winners. (This will be up for until end of July but moving to another location so check the links for info.)
Then husband, taking the afternoon off work, joined me and we had a little picnic lunch on a bench overlooking the boats in False Creek. Lovely! Afterwards we headed over to Queen Elizabeth Park to see the Abakanowicz sculptures (watch for another post dedicated to that!) and to have a walk around the lovely gardens built around a former quarry.
For the first time in all the years we’ve lived here, we went into the Bloedel Conservatory, which amazed us how huge it is. What a wonderful atmosphere in there, full of tall tropical trees reaching to the top of the dome, trees such as figs, palms, and a lovely African Fern Pine with its very soft needles (left of the palm in the photo above) plus gorgeous flowers, and many colourful tropical birds. One beautiful blue and yellow macaw(?) displayed a big temper – he did not like my husband making some bird whistle and so he squawked so loudly that it echoed throughout and set off a multitude of other birds. Only when his human caretaker came to take him onto her shoulder did he calm down. Oops!
Seeing all the huge old trees in the park and the tropical ones inside the conservatory inspired us to take some photos of them and share them with Dave Bonta’s Festival of the Trees.
by Marja-Leena 
Left: buffalo skulls.
Right: Winter Count Robe (compare to the Lakota ones)
Leaving Lethbridge we headed west towards BC. We decided to take a short detour from Fort Macleod to a place where the foothills of the Rocky Mountains meet the great plains, one of the world’s oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps known to exist –Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump*. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, Head-Smashed-In has been used continuously by aboriginal peoples of the plains for more than 5,500 years.
We had long heard about it and now was our opportunity to see this architecturally interesting interpretive centre built into the cliff side in staggered levels, along with an outdoor viewing area overlooking the jump. It’s a beautifully designed and organized museum depicting the ecology, mythology, lifestyle and technology of Blackfoot peoples within the context of available archaeological evidence. Interpretation of these themes presents the viewpoints of both aboriginal peoples and European archaeological science.
We noticed First Nations staff here including a guide taking a group around, telling the stories and demonstrating tool-making for example. I always thought the “smashed head” referred to the buffalo, but according to the myth of the place, it was that of a young curious lad who went under the cliff to watch the buffalo come down in the hunt. So many heavy beasts came down that he was crushed by the pileup. Another fact that I found extremely disturbing was how quickly the buffalo was decimated by white hunters (in about 2 years, though I can’t remember exactly and I forgot to take a pen in with me!) and how this destroyed the lives of the Blackfoot people.
This place is well worth a visit if you’re in the area. In the meantime, have a look at their site*.
As we continued west, the glorious views of the mountains were different again. Soon we approached a huge area of boulders spread out from the mountains on our left and across the other side of the highway on upwards. This is the Frank Slide that happened 4:10 a.m. on April 29th, 1903. A 90 million ton mass of rock fell from the summit of Turtle Mountain onto the coal mining town of Frank, Alberta. Within 90 seconds, at least 70 people were dead – most still in their beds. We’ve driven through here before many years ago (and a few days ago) but now there is the The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre high up above the slide area. Have a look at another virtual tour. We didn’t have enough time to go through the Centre, but another time! It was impossible to capture the entire devastation in one photo, the one below shows only part of it, looking west.
Our destination for the evening was the Bavarian style town of Kimberley, BC. We chose this because we’d never been here before. We stayed in a really lovely and friendly bed & breakfast in a beautifully built house with European styling and quality in the growing new area near the ski hill. In the evening we sauntered around the Platz in the centre of Kimberley, looking at the decorated shops and restaurants.
Here we were approached by a charming older gentleman who lived here and who turned out to be a healer with an interesting life. We ended up having an immensely fascinating and enlightening conversation over dinner. Amazing how one can sometimes connect with a stranger and in short time become friends, something that does not happen to us often. What a wonderful feeling, and we do hope to meet again. (Sorry no photos of Kimberley, we were too busy talking!)
The next day, we decided to head north along Hwy.95 instead of going back the way we came along the Crowsnest, again to see some areas new to us. It’s a lovely valley, especially between Fairmont Hot Springs and Radium and it was an easy drive to Golden on the Hwy.1 or the Trans-Canada. From here it’s a scenic and easy through the Rockies then down the Coquihalla to Hope, and then home. It was a great road trip seeing new parts of some corners of BC and southern Alberta!
(In case you missed the earlier postings about our Alberta Trip, here are Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.)
* March 27, 2014: Links updated due to changes since original posting.
by Marja-Leena 
(photo – Galt Museum)
Husband had a work meeting on this day, so I had a lazy start then went out walking about Lethbridge. It was spitting rain now and then so my normal Vancouver garb was useful. I felt somewhat like an oddity when I noticed that people don’t walk here much, just a few down-and-out looking guys in a park. It’s a safe and clean city but everyone drives. I did a bit of shopping, something I rarely do at home, and visited the museum and the art gallery.
Galt Museum is located next to the coulee with a panoramic view from the huge windows of the new addition, built out behind the original brick building. I enjoyed the two exhibits. Exploring Southwestern Alberta (view the picture gallery) was most interesting especially the history of the First Nations people and the Japanese who were interred here from the West Coast during the Second World War. Fifties Forever was a light-hearted look at that decade – geesh, things were pretty tacky back then! I was a little disappointed that there was only this one large room to see with all the new space here, but it looks like they are still working on that.
I like looking around the gift shops in the art galleries and museums in places I visit for an interesting souvenir, or maybe a birthday gift for a friend or something for our “kids”. Certainly there were lovely pottery pieces, jewelry and children’s toys, but this time I found the perfect little book for me: Stone by Stone, Exploring Ancient Sites on the Canadian Plains by Liz Bryan (2005, Heritage House, BC). It even has a few pages on Writing-in-Stone.
Southern Alberta Art Gallery also had two exhibitions (click on ‘past exhibitions’). Art’s Alive and Well in the Schools made me happy because I believe all children are creative and that schools must nurture and develop that creativity and this exhibition of children’s art is evidence of that. The other exhibition Jeff Thomas – A Study of Indian-ness was a photography exhibition with a very unique and thought-provoking approach that stimulated one to think about the lives of contemporary First Nations people and some of their thoughts about their place in today’s society.
In the evening, we met friends who kindly drove in all the way from their farm near Pincher Creek to share a lovely dinner in a Greek restaurant. (We had dinner with another friend last night too.) So our stay in Lethbridge was short (three nights), very exciting (Writing on Stone) and sweet (a great time with friends). The next morning we headed back west.
Related:
Alberta Trip Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Days 5 & 6
by Marja-Leena 
This fourth self-portrait was inspired by Dave Bonta’s ‘engaging in an odd form of egosurfing with typoGenerator, inserting the text “dave” and “bonta” and marveling at the random images the program retrieves from the web.’
I just had to try it out and here’s what typoGenerator did with my name. Interesting, isn’t it? Do you see the map of Finland, and what looks like little bits from my prints? All I had to do was lighten it a bit. It’s like a portrait of my web presence, of my virtual self, in brilliant colour!
It’s a long way from the first self-portrait, from hand-drawn to web-generated! Here are the second and the third portraits.
by Marja-Leena 
This was the big day, the main reason for this trip. We finally made it to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta, a major site of hoodoos, petroglyphs and pictographs.
Some readers may remember that I wrote about Writing-on-Stone Park and how we had planned to visit it a year ago, but unusual heavy rains and flooding had forced a postponement. New readers may want to read that post, as well as one I wrote about hoodoos.
With cameras, lots of water, lunch, snacks plus hats and sunscreen, we set off from our hotel in Lethbridge. Heading southeast towards Milk River, the drive was pleasant and took about an hour and a half. Coming in, we had a fantastic first impression of the huge site overlooking the river. We knew that the Archaeological Preserve with the majority of the petroglyphs is protected from vandals and access was limited to guided tours daily in the afternoon. We found the park manager who informed us that the tour guide was away for several days on her days off and no one else could do it! There is only one guide now, compared to the two who were there last year. Blame the cutbacks in government funding (this is in Alberta where the economy is booming because of oil!) The park website has not been updated in years, phone service is a taped message, and tours cannot be booked in advance. It seems almost like they do not want visitors there! What’s a traveller from far away to do? You can imagine my disappointment.
Anyway, we were told about the self-guided walking tour of the sandstone rocks and the locations of just a few petroglyphs on that route. After a quick lunch we set off, heeding warnings about staying on paths to avoid rattlesnakes – a first time for us! It was getting hot but we were quite mesmerized by the amazing rock formations, spending a lot of time taking photos. It really was an amazing, almost mystical experience, indeed a sacred place. And we did come to an area with about four discernible petroglyphs.
We ran out of time to go to the very end of the more than two hour walk, one way (without stopping to take photos I bet!) where we would have seen more. (Again, more information beforehand would have allowed us to plan better. We had to be back in Lethbridge to meet an old friend for dinner). Back near the parking lot we found some descriptive panels about the petroglyphs and the Blackfoot people who lived here and created them.
There were disappointments but nevertheless we loved the immense area of hoodoos here. We got about a hundred excellent digital photos (thanks to my husband) and some film ones that I took of close-up details and still haven’t developed because the roll hasn’t been fully exposed. I”m having a difficult time choosing photos to post here, that will look good in a small format! I’m really excited to have the rock photos to use in my continuing Silent Messenger series. But I hope to go back again to see the rock art and the rest of the park sometime!
Related links:
Writing on Stone Provincial Park brochure (pdf)
some nice photos of WOSPP
Alberta Trip Day 1, Day 2, Day 4 and Days 5 & 6
Addendum July 16 and July 31, 2006: See more of our photos here, here and here.
by Marja-Leena 
Onward with the marathon of self-portraiture, and inspired by the Hockeneyizer from Flickr Toys, here is my third self-portrait. Compare to the first and the second self-portraits.
What do you think of this 27,000 year old portrait? I’d seen the news item a while ago, and now Anna kindly emailed this to me, probably inspired by the self-portrait marathon.
(Note to self – must continue writing about our Alberta Trip somewhere in the busyness of my days! This marathon is just another distraction, fun though it is.)
ADDENDUM: July 3, 2006:
Check out the other ones that I’ve contributed to the self-portrait marathon: the fourth, the fifth and the sixth
by Marja-Leena 
Many Finnish bloggers have jumped on board Valokuvatorstai or Photo Thursday. Each week on Thursday a new theme is presented. You are to take a digital photo inspired by that theme, post it on your blog, then email the link to the site above within the week. I’ve been asked to participate a couple of times and this week the theme of ‘hands, paws and limbs’ got me thinking about the self-portrait that I did the other day. I’m discovering an irresistable connection here.
Our digital camera is big and heavy, so it was challenging taking a photo with my left hand, a finger over the shutter button while the right hand is ‘drawing’. I really should have set up a tripod. But, ta da – here it is – the artist’s hand at work!
LATER: Maria, who is Valokuvatorstai’s co-author along with Tui, commented below that Valokuvatorstai was modelled on several other similar “inspiration” blogs, but is not associated with Photo Thursday. That was just my translation of the Finnish name for non-Finn readers.
by Marja-Leena 
Here is my second self-portrait conribution to the self-portrait marathon. As a late-starter because I was away, I’m trying to catch up just a little and must say I’m having fun.
Do go have a look at the fantastic variety of work as more and more are coming in.