by Marja-Leena

some art reading

Holiday preparations have sidetracked me lately from the more serious business of art. Trying to keep up with reading some art blogs, I found this to be so good that I’d like to point you towards Zeke’s Gallery in Montréal. Chris has posted a very interesting, eye-opening and informative interview with Marc Mayer, the new director of the Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montréal.
And do check out James W. Bailey’s online Art Blog Project ANTI-OPTIONS 05. (Thanks James for letting me know!)

December 22, 2004 in Being an Artist, Other artists 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

winter solstice

The winter solstice is again upon the Northern Hemisphere, and though the year’s shortest day heralds the onset of winter it also promises the gradual return of the sun after a prolonged period of darkness. That there are holidays at the time of this astronomical event is no coincidence. Since ancient times, people have celebrated the solstice and observed it with many different cultural and religious traditions. Some of them survive to the present day though not always in the form you might expect. Read more at National Geographic News

Candlegrove.com is a rather interesting site describing some of the ancient origins of winter solstice and of Yule or jul (or joulu in Finnish), which may have originated in Scandinavia. Note also the references to some of the ancient solstice architecture around the world, such as Stonehenge, Newgrange, and Maeshowe in the UK and the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Update Dec.22.04: Anna L Conti has some really neat solstice photos and links, especially the Chumash rock painting as a seasonal marker. (Strange that we are thinking similar thoughts and referencing each other here!)

And if this subject really grabs your interest, check out Doug Alder’s “Drivel” on the Yule and other pagan celebrations.

December 21, 2004 in Culture, Folk Legends & Myths Comments Off on winter solstice

by Marja-Leena

snowflakes & scary santa

Today’s blog travels yielded some seasonal treats like this lovely photogallery of snowflakes and some of the science behind these nature’s artworks.

In case you missed it, also have a look at something a bit related – frost fractals.

Thanks to Amy for the snowflakes link on the sidebar at Ever So Humble* along with many other neat links. Amy has been writing this month about winter’s wonders and christmas-y stuff, sharing her honest enjoyment of the pleasures of community, home and family. I should have added her blog to my list of favourite things about Christmas!

Then at mirabilis, another favourite blog, I’m reminded of the history of “joulupukki” – Finland’s Scary Santa.

Try out these suggestions for an eco-friendly holiday

UPDATE: Avoid buying these 10 gifts.

UPDATE: Dec.25.04 Another site about snowflakes and snow crystals

*this blog no longer exists, sadly

December 20, 2004 in Culture, Folk Legends & Myths Comments Off on snowflakes & scary santa

by Marja-Leena

Winter Lights

xmas.jpg

A 43-year Vancouver tradition, the Carol Ships travel the waters around the city in December, with different destinations each night. People gather in waterfront parks and house parties at homes with waterviews to enjoy these seasonal displays. We vividly remember our very first experience of them over 30 years ago soon after we moved to the Vancouver area from the very cold north. It seemed magical and unique to us to see these ships and boats with coloured lights reflecting in the water and carols ringing out as we stood on a bonfire-lit beach. There was nothing like this in the wintry climates where we grew up and lived the early years of adulthood, though we still miss the snow, a rare happening here on the west coast. (We have to go up the mountains for that.)

(In all honesty, though the number of nights the Carol Ships are out has grown over the years, the area that we live in has seen a severe dwindling of the number of boats in the “parade” – pity. Maybe the individual boat owners are getting tired of being out there too many nights at some personal cost.)

Another fun tradition for families with young children is Stanley Park’s miniature Christmas train, running from the children’s farm through the fairy lit woods and back. We also enjoy the very beautiful light displays and the choirs in gardens such as the Park & Tilford and VanDusen Botanical Gardens.

December 19, 2004 in Canada and BC, Culture Comments Off on Winter Lights

by Marja-Leena

My favourite things

about Christmas are the things that appeal to the romantic and the child in me. I love the visual delights of little white lights, red candles, evergreens, snow, red berries, pine cones and red folk embroidery on linens. I love exquisitely illustrated childrens’ books like Jan Brett’s The Wild Christmas Reindeer, something I bought just for myself to enjoy every Christmas.

I love Christmas music, especially when sung by young voices like Heintje (O Tannenbaum), romantic voices from the 40’s and 50’s like Doris Day, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby (I Dream of a White Christmas), or powerful operatic voices.

Virtual Finland’s Christmas* appeals to the romantic and the child. Visit Santa or “Joulupukki” in his gorgeous clothes, with his elves and reindeer in Lapland (that’s where Santa lives, didn’t you know?). Look at the lovely cards from Christmases past and recipes for traditional Finnish Christmas foods. I also love these little Finnish folk poems** about the little animals in the wintry woods (click on ‘lorupiha’ then each creature, in Finnish only but sounds interesting). (Thanks to Irma in Finland for sending me this link!)

We are busy preparing the house, the decorations, the gifts, and all the favourite foods for our family Christmas of blended traditions. Christmas Eve is our big night, a tradition with both the Finns and the Germans, with a lovely meal, carols around the piano, and then Santa’s visit, so carefully planned to happen out of sight of little children. Oh, such excitement! Happy childhood memories evoked by all the sights, sounds and tastes and watching the shining happy eyes of another generation (a grandchild) make Christmas special for me.

Happy Christmas, Hauskaa Joulua, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux No&#235l, or Happy Holidays! Thank you, dear readers, for making this year’s blog adventure such a great pleasure for me by sharing your thoughts with me.

xmas04.jpg

*Virtual Finland no longer exists but has been replaced with This is Finland. This link fortunately takes you to the new Christmas pages.

** Expired link removed.

December 17, 2004 in Books, Culture, Music 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Wedding Veils

weddingveils.jpg
Veils Suite: Wedding Veils
etching 65.5 x 45 cm.

This piece is about the contrast between the “Modern Bride” western weddings and the mass weddings of the “Moonies”, performed by Rev. Moon on thousands of couples who have never met before this day.

December 15, 2004 in Printworks, Veils Suite Comments Off on Wedding Veils

by Marja-Leena

perceptions

Sensations are the items of consciousness, a color, a weight, a texture that we tend to think of as simple and single. Perceptions are complex affairs that embrace sensation together with other, associated or revived contents of the mind, including emotions. – Jacques Barzun

I like that! This is from Catherine Jamieson’s beautiful photoblog. Her words today resonate with me in how I approach much of my images in my printmaking, in visual terms. I feel and think in images, not words. Words are very elusive, very difficult for me.

December 14, 2004 in Being an Artist, Concepts 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

about Baiki

issue_25.jpg
Cover of issue 25 of BAIKI, with image of sculpture: “NAA”, © 2003 Rose-Marie Huuva, reindeer hide and sealskin

I recently received a copy of BAIKI: the North American SAMI Journal, which ‘is a major English-language source of information about Sami arts, literature, history, spirituality, and environmental concerns. It also covers news of North American Sami community events. “BAIKI” [bah-h’kee] is the nomadic reindeer-herding society’s word for cultural identity and survival, ”the home that lives in the heart. […] Today the Sami are incorporating new technologies into the revival of their language [and culture], and they are in the forefront of the worldwide post-colonial Indigenous renaissance. Moreover, having their own parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland, the Sami relationship with their former colonizers is improving as well.’

There is a huge amount of fascinating information in the magazine and online. I’m surprised, for example, to learn that: ‘At least 30,000 people of Sami ancestry live in North America. Some are the descendants of Sami people who emigrated to the United States and Canada as Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns and some are the descendants of “Lapp” herders from the Alaska Reindeer Project who introduced reindeer husbandry to the Inupiaq and Yup’ik peoples’. These latter people are featured in a travelling exhibit The Sami Reindeer People of Alaska. I’m going to see this when it comes to Seattle next year.

Faith Fjeld is the founding editor and publisher based in Anchorage, Alaska, and has done an incredible and invaluable job in promoting the Sami cultural revival with this beautiful biannual publication begun in 1991 and now in its 25th issue. The current issue’s theme is “Sami Identity in Art, Film, Music and Storytelling” with examples of works by many ami artists.

I’m excited by the wonderful abundance of inspiring material that has opened up for me. As regular readers may know, I have been slowly learning and writing about the Sami or Saami (incorrectly called Lapps or Laplanders) branch of the Finno-Ugric family, the Indigenous People of the Nordic and Northeast Russian Arctic regions called Sapmi (incorrectly called Lapland).

I’ve written about their siida and the Skabmagovat film festival (one is being planned in Alaska in 2005), and about some of their music and their sacred stones or seidas.

Further Links:
Lands of the Sami
Oktavuohta digital magazine of Sami culture
Samediggi – the Sami Parliament in Finland and in Sweden
The Norwegian Sami parliament link does not seem to work, but there is this on the Sami of Norway

December 12, 2004 in Culture, Ethnicity, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

The Crowd

thecrowd.jpg
Veils Suite: The Crowd
drypoint 59 x 90.5 cm

December 11, 2004 in Printworks, Veils Suite 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a printmaker’s blog

This is why I don’t want to shut off the comments against nasty spammers. Recently Linden Langdon*, a new visitor to my blog, wrote in a comment. I am excited because she is also a printmaker who has a blog. From Hobart, Tasmania (Australia) she has written about the challenges of her final year of art schooI doing lithography and etching. It’s an attractive site with much information on her processes and project. I suggest a visit!

Update: Linden’s original blog no longer exists but she has a lovely website, so the link above has been changed to direct you there.

December 10, 2004 in Being an Artist, Other artists, Printmaking Comments Off on a printmaker’s blog