"in keeping with the season"

Gifts from Ruth

In an attempt to try and beat this rotten cold, a nap was in order. Before I fell asleep, I'd been thinking of this time of year back through the decades and some of the things my family and friends did to celebrate in those weeks leading up to Christmas day. Some things were consistent, traditions, I guess you would call them, and other things were new, but sometimes became tradition - or not. It reminded me of an NFB film called "Keepers of the Fire", about Aboriginal women, who are the keepers of the cultural heart and soul of their community - their music, language, arts, food, and of course, traditions.

At the Heart of the Hammer cafe our little "community centre", the key keeper of our communal heart and soul, Rebecca, has asked those who have a creative inclination, to make something for our sparkly Christmas tree.

I hadn't given it any thought about what to make for our festive tree until now. A traditonal craft we made as a family when I was a kid were dough decorations. I found a similar recipe and directions online (@planetgreen.com) and pasted it below. You can use cookie cutters or just use your imagination and form whatever you want with the dough, just as you would with plasticine. This and making those fabulous milk carton candles were good fun for all of us and we could be proud of our creations on display throughout the Christmas season.

Dough Christmas tree ornaments

circles and cycles

Helga at the beach

Circle hands, circle hips - bellydancing is all about sensuous circles and serpentine movements. The dance is beautiful and fluid. Circles are at the heart of life, symbols of the infinite cycle of birth, life and death - we all know this stuff.  Like mice, we run our lives in circles - we don't always stick to the baseboards, but we have our routines which lead us in circles, which lead us home. Circles of friends and family surround us with affection and inspiration (mostly? sometimes?). The cycle of the year - seasons, the days, weeks and months. Everything is generally a round ticket, (until we don't come back). What if for a week, we resisted the circle? What would happen to your brain? Would it loosen things up, increase creativity, or would you just go crazy? And I am not sure how to do this? Linear thought - goes from A to B to C and where does it go from there - does it come back to A? Intersecting lines, parallel lines all stretching into infinity, but wait isn't the symbol for infinity a figure 8 on its side? Are we all stuck in a giant bubble?

All Souls' Day

Annie with a hat

As humans, we come from multiple ancestral origins contributing to the genetic cocktail that helps shape our characteristics, likes, dislikes, interests, etc. In our recent history, my family knows of a particularly strong Scottish influence named Sarah. Sarah was my great-grandmother and when her husband abandoned the family in the early 1900's, she raised five boys on her own, financially supporting her brood by doing domestic work - cleaning houses, doing laundry and mending. From what my grandfather said about his mother, Sarah was frugal, stubborn and determined. Well I guess she had to be. Poor woman, like many other families at the time, after all that work raising those sons, two of them died overseas in the First World War.

Today being "All Souls' Day",  I am thinking of Sarah and others who have gone before me and feeling lucky I know a bit about these people. I try to forgive myself when I am not the person (yet) that I want to be. The biggest thing to remember is unlike my paintings which can be completed, I will ALWAYS be a work in progress, or just "a piece of work" some days.

ignoring squirrels

* "Annie in the grass" 3' x 4'

My dog will often start barking the moment she steps out of the door. And if the barking continues she has to come in. Yet there are times she is quiet for ages - at one with nature, live and let live, as the squirrels go strolling by. She just doesn't seem to make the connection. In nine years she always looks surprised when I call her back into the house for barking. Is this stupid or stubborn? Anyway, she's a dog. And I on the other hand do stupid things too. I am not about to post a litany of stuff here, just to say the stupidest things I have done throughout my life are when I have not listened to my "gut". And there may be a whole bunch of sane rationale and distractions at the time, but if deep down it makes me squirm, even a little, then it's stupid. Now actually knowing this and paying attention ALL the time is tricky; life seems to be a never-ending conveyor belt of choices.

art - an excuse to celebrate

This is an old self-portrait. I am no longer orange, nor do I smoke.

It occured to me this morning that creativity is an excuse to celebrate. Rebecca at the Whitestone Gallery has been preparing for her show all year, making art and more recently, promoting and inviting, cleaning and preparing the space, and displaying her work. Last night was her opening, essentially a party open to friends and the public - a chance to share her art and be together. Every month, this ritual goes on around the world, galleries and artists share their work with others and celebrate; and not just at gallery openings, concerts, dance performances, book launches, etc. At every celebration of life - weddings, birthdays, funerals, the arts in some form are at the heart of the celebration. So, why is it the arts are not emphasized more in schools, why as a society do we continue to chip away at funding for art when it brings so much joy, when it is so essential to everyday life? Maybe it's the way the arts are perceived - to a degree a lot of art seems inaccessible. And sometimes because venues and the cost of production push up the price of tickets to concerts and movies for example, the arts can sometimes seem elitist. But there are lots of other things going on that are free, or close to it. That's why I love what is happening in Hamilton. The veil is lifting and people are starting to see that we need art, not only to be happy, but to attract more "bees" to our city. Now enticing the "new-bees" to stay is another matter.

sticking with it

                                                        "Retro Girl" - Watercolours sometimes take a looooong time to 
                                          do, and it's hard to correct mistakes. But you learn and have fun at the same time.

It's crazy, as soon as I created this space, I wanted to make another one. For me it's all about the process. The end result is important I guess, but I really like to create. So, sticking to this will be a whole other exercise. I have more fun looking at what other people are doing. Blogs are like snowflakes. They are as varied and diverse as the people who created them. And some of them are well-established, they have substance, you really feel like you have arrived somewhere, landed someplace tangible. This takes time, it doesn't happen overnight. Generally a lot of good stuff doesn't happen instantly.

So for today, my lesson is not only to stick with this blog, but to spend more time on the things that I enjoy doing, and do them well. And to pay attention to the opportunities that emerge from the process.

treading water

                                                     "don't be koi"- handpainted table

I'm just jumping in here with my very first blog. Quite early on in life my brother and I learned how to swim. It was a must in our family. And my younger sister was the best fish of us all. Still is. Anyway, fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. It may sound simple, but just doing what you are meant to do can sometimes be less than easy at times.