The Art Gallery of St. Albert (AGSA) holds a major fundraising event once per year. This year they are doing things a little differently by calling for entries from artists that measure one foot square. I had good intentions. I bought two canvases that were gallery ready, one foot square. Somehow the number of previously priorised items on my list were unusually long for March and April and now into May. I decided that drawing would have to do once more as I had easel table space in which to do it. I managed a nice little drawing of my bird’s nest tucked into lacy folds. My studio is getting smaller. With the major piece I am working on for the series “Grace”, watercolours, the small mural project and the still-life work there is little room for anything else, yet, there is always room in an emergency. We cleared the remaining items in the apartment for our new renter. The boxes went under my main table. The rest I move as necessary and I clear a table for framing. I think I will eat lunch standing up! The AGSA event is coming up on June 7th and will continue until the 23rd. It will be fun to see the walls lined with squares of beauty. Another fundraising event coming up shortly will be for Roots of Change, an organization that is helping people in Nicaragua make permanent change in their standard of living. I will be completing a small mixed media piece during the evening and then auctioned off in hopes of bringing in mega dollars. The last one did quite well. The event takes place at Holy Family Parish in St. Albert on June 1st beginning at 6pm. There is another show coming up at Harcourt House too. The Naked Show displays selected life drawings done over the previous year. I will submit five, one to three of which will be chosen for show. This happens around the end of June. I will keep you posted. The deadlines are aflyin’ and it is time to send out some invites….
I am at my computer with my eyes closed wondering if it is possible to have jetlag without boarding a plane. In reality, I suppose, one could say we were flying low. It is a five hour commute to Grande Prairie from here and we got back in time for me to participate in the life drawing at Harcourt this afternoon. Just got home from being taxi to one of our daughters and I am ready for bed. I’ll just close my eyes for a minute while the rest of my blog surfaces to my typing fingers…. It was a very rich weekend. I ate too much, but how can one resist homemade goodies, soups and treats… all weekend long! My husband and I were attending the regional meeting for an organization called Development and Peace, an outreach to the global south as they call it. Their mandate ties in with a growing concern for the environment and our less than nutritious food supply. We were introduced to the notion of eco-farming for North America and the horrifying reasons why it is a better idea. I suspect the changes will be implemented more slowly than they are necessary. Very few like change. We tend to resist what we do not know or that with which we are not familiar. The world has changed in spite of our resistance over the past hundred and fifty years or so, dramatically. We have thrown our world out of balance and are responsible for the largest extinction of animal species since the dinosaurs disappeared. Our claim to fame may be our undoing if we do not accept the responsibility of redirecting our energies. And speaking of energy, I am about to renew mine. My apologies for not have the latest image to show you…. I forgot to take a picture.
As I wait for the rice to cook I look back at my week so far and wonder where I went wrong… I remembered my blog on Tuesday which seems to be a new tradition. Unfortunately I was in the car on my way to the studio and beyond the point of no return. I thought about when I might slip it in and there seemed no time between then and the present moment. This moment is short too. As soon as the timer sounds I am off to make supper and we shall eat, it is late after all. I got caught this week. Too many deadlines to allow for error. Sigh. I turned my attention to the painting at hand, the one I am going to show at the end of the month. Once that was done I got out my references and my piece of paper for the maquette that was due the next day (today) only to discover that I had neglected to print the reference photos required for the job. Another reason I needed my computer. Sigh again. I packed everything up and went home. Somewhere around seven my dear husband asked me if we were going to eat supper. I could not believe how fast the time had flown. We ate. I began to wilt at around nine thirty as my day begins at five so I left it all on the table and went to bed. This morning I was at it again. Lunch was late and I managed to get out the door at two, just in time to deliver the maquette and be on time for my massage. Whew! Home again and off to visit the grandchildren. My bed is calling me…. Oh, there goes the buzzer!
There are special moments in life that we treasure in our hearts. This is an en plein air sketch that I finished several months later from memory. Every year I get together with the most unlikely combination of four other women, all powerful, all with completely different interests and professions, all with one purpose. We were randomly thrown together in a personal development program called Samari Camp over three years ago; we keep in touch by conference call once per week with one intention: to change the world in which we live. It was during our annual retreat, this time in Jasper last fall, that I shared my love of painting and storytelling. We had spent the morning in conversation over breakfast savouring the minutes and the tidbits as we discussed our accomplishments over the past year. We left with a prepared lunch in the direction of Maligne Canyon pulling in at each bridge as we made our way higher into the gorge. There were some complaints about gerbils in the back (my shocks or spring cushions are rather noisy) but we delighted in the natural beauty and after a short hike decided to lunch and paint at the Fifth Bridge. I chose the spot because the terrain lent itself to easels and such, not that we had any, but there were places to sit. Everyone had their own palette (mine had the good paint in it) and we set about looking at shapes instead of trees, rivers and mountains. This is a keeper. Just done the next task is to generate a few greeting cards and send them off to special people on special occasions or for no reason at all, just because. Life is good.
Just about forgot again! Ideally these blogs are supposed to be written ahead of time and I thought for sure this one was just waiting for me to post…. Confidently I opened the page, feeling delighted that I had actually remembered to blog, even at this late hour, and, well, nothing. I had the picture and the title…. A little more than nothing. Sigh. My mural is done. It was one of the more interesting subjects: Christian churches. Ecumenism is one of my passions. It goes beyond Christian circles and includes the whole world. There is so much good being done in pockets around the world by ordinary people. The scope of this exercise was limited to one community and it was a delight to discover the common themes throughout the various expressions. It came down to people. Church is people. The main activities were prayer, singing songs of praise, mentoring, walking the journey together and celebrating. Helping one another in times of joy and sorrow has connections with the land as well. Pioneers endured much and survived by working together. We have got away from that somewhat. It is time we slowed down and reconnected. It is all about people, the earth and taking care.
