I Ask

Can you hear it...........
That sound.......
That sound of things to come..............

Or is it a memory....

I ask you, please............... Can you hear it?

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A Needle's Home

The needle... the thread... the table... the light...
The window grows dim... soon will be night...

The old lace tablecloth is threadbare and worn.. in dire need of mending... I am drawn to work on it so I can use a surprise I received a day ago in my mailbox... from Morna at Bittersweet. I was the very lucky winner of her handmade treasure... I was so delighted!!

Thank-you so much Morna!!

She calls it a "Make-Do" Pincushion.... I call it Beautiful!






It sits there on its little glass pedestal... presenting itself to me, quietly and patiently, asking to hold my needle...
It makes the mending task heartfelt... It makes me smile... and happy... and think of its creator...

...scattered buttons of old and colored pins adorn it...

...created from wool, a renewable resource... recycled from clothing no longer in use...

... care and forethought envelope it...






It is all things I love...

...subtle muted colors... functional beauty... graceful... created by an artist's hands finding new life from objects put aside...


..... a beautiful, unexpected pleasure...


Who would think something so simple as a pincushion could capture all of this........


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A New Day

I am looking through the darkness to a new day risen......


The World saw History happen.......


I Salute HOPE.........




2008 American election... Obama

Samhain.. an addendum to... Be Very Afraid

...an excerpt from The Pagan Book of Days........



"Samhain or Samhuinn, November 1, marks the beginning of winter, at which time it was customary to slaughter livestock. (sorry to all who are vegetarians but this comes from another time when this was necessary to survive) Its Eve marked the End of the old year in the Celtic calendar and its Dawn, the Beginning of the New Year....

Samhain is thus a time Between the Years and Between the Worlds, when the veil between the Present and the Past... the Living and the Dead... is Thin... It is the Festival of the Dead, that time of Year when we Remember our Ancestors and Hail our Descendants....

In the Christian tradition, November 1 celebrates All of the Departed Saints, while November 2, Remembers the Souls of all the Dead not elevated to Sainthood. Materially the nature of the Festival, as with many other celebrations, is the same in the Pagan and the Christian Traditions....
The Festival of Samhain is celebrated widely on its Eve... This is the Christianized Festival of All Hallows' Eve, popularly known as Halloween... which is observed after dark on Oct. 31.... The masks, bats, skeletons and witches hats of present day Halloween parties are a modern expression of the Pagan Festival of Remembrance of Death and the Departed...

In the Natural year, Samhain is the third harvest when in former days, Animals were slaughtered and their meat smoked or salted down for Winter... The tangible link with the Dead at Samhain is present in the custom of Divinations on Halloween...."




I wanted to add this addendum as I think many of us have forgotten what this festival is all about.. I know I like learning more about it...
and it is good to remember the reasons why we do things......



The feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-ain) marks the onset of a darker, more introspective time of year...

Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid

                                                                                           

Keep safe All...
Guard your Souls...
Look oft behind You...
Lock all your doors...


They're on the Loose...
Tie up your Dogs...
If you venture in Shadows...
You may not come home...

October 31, All Hallows Eve.......................





My son Max the Zombie.
Desideratum Art Studio, St. Martins, NB

To Adorn a Girl

Blue and White... Silver and Bright...
Fresh Water Pearl... To Adorn a Girl.

Been busy the last while creating new work for the Christmas shows...



Approx. 2" long including Sterling earwire, Large Fresh Water Pearl, Porcelain, Sterling and Copper ..................... see my web album for details of Desideratum Art Jewelry...

Fall

Days become shorter...

The salt-marsh turns golden...

A Blue Jay surveys his cache...

Heavy dew on petals...

Fall berries ripen...

A few late blooming roses.... just so we don't forget...

The harvest is almost complete...

The sun rises later................

The landscape evolves...

But not these Rocks ...

All photographs taken from my garden on Oct.14. between 8:15 and 8:30 am...
Echinacea purpurea; Quaco Bay on the Bay of Fundy, NB; ripened fruit on Mountain Ash; late blooming Wild Aster; ferny Asparagus; slumbering fly on Rosa rugosa; Russian Mammoth sunflower seedhead and 9' stalks; looking past the garden towards the drifting fog at Roger's Head, Quaco; rockwall at front of the house

*** Note: the rocks and boulders that make up the rock walls around our home are from the wharf, removed  during a recent renovation and rebuilding.. before that many, many years prior, they were ballast on ships that had made their way across the Atlantic from the British Isles... I love this...

To Everything, There is a Season.......

The field has turned golden on the bluff near our home...
.... and I am lost in it...


At this moment in time.... I am reminded of this song


...

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear its not too late

...


I believe it was adapted from a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes...



*photo of the field by our house 

Perhaps a Renaissance

Ripples on the Shore, St. Martins, Bay of Fundy, NB

Regarding what is happening in the world right now to the global economy, I found this article by Carole Brouillet based on Apocalypse vs Human Renaissance ... not a short article... but interesting reading ...

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Quote ... Oliver Wendell Holmes

..... "A man's mind stretched by a new idea...

can never go back to its original dimensions" ....

Oliver Wendell Holmes... (1841-1935)... U.S. Supreme Court Justice... He was called the "The Great Dissenter" as he was often at odds with his fellow justices and was capable of eloquently expressing his dissents.... He had the ability to see to the heart of an issue... He is considered one of the giants of American law...



...detail of a watercolor (not of O.W. Holmes) I did in the spring...

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The ABC's of Patterns..... J

A little book I made...



J for Japanese Fret...



...cut-work fret design from my little book...



... used as background decoration for textiles, cloisonne, lacquered work, screens, and much more





... from Suggestions in Design, 1880 by John Leighton... amusingly, at the time Leighton's conception of Japanese decoration was held as old-fashioned... I wonder what they would be thought of as now... also makes me wonder why we have distinct ideas of how and where particular designs are appropriate...

... old fashioned things...or modern... both suit me... if they are designed well...



... details from Japanese instructional manuals..... taken from Grammar of Japanese Ornament, 1880 by Thomas W. Cutler, an architect, had a excellent understanding of the information required to design in the Japanese manner...

... these patterns although they appear quite complicated, are very simple, when basic steps are followed, layered and embellished...



The Japanese Fret is based on geometrical design and works well as a background... and once you start looking for it... its influence abounds...



...from my "ABC's of Patterns" book ... Click for the introduction of ABC designs....... the DEF designs ... and the GHI designs posts

approx. 6" x 7" x 1"... ...handbound...

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Just One More

Another beautiful September day... Out front the sunlight glistened on the tides of the Bay of Fundyr...



Out back the woodpile waited... it's been waiting for months now.. no ignoring it any longer especially with the threat of big rains coming...




The woodshed door has been propped... all ready for another days work...




The dogs are making good headway on their side of the shed... the wheelbarrow is almost empty...




John's been working hard to keep up with them ... You heard the expression Working like a Dog..... it's one of those dog days...




Just one more load... one more load... one more load...



... Just one more....




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The Studio... Part 3

This little old sign has been with me since 1993... Just painted on an old cedar shingle .. it hung outside on my last house in Springfield, New Brunswick, for 7 years before moving along with us when we came here. It hangs by my bead desk now.




Thing 1 hangs over the computer desk... I found him in a bag of toys we bought at a flea market for the dogs to play with... He is a tiny finger puppet and was just too cute to have his head ripped off by those rambunctious rascals... it is much safer here for him ... but he had to promise not to get into mischief !!




As boring as this picture is.. I have to tell you, that in it is one of my most favourite things in the studio.. the electric pencil sharpener.. Ahhh.. yes... It's still a baby... only 1 year old... so it gets special care and sits on my main desk...

I had a rotary model for 16 years and I still have it but nothing will compare to this... I absolutely love sharp pencils!!



This is the copper counter top we made for the sink... I don't worry about keeping it shiny with heavy polishing and cleansers... I mean I do keep it clean but not with harsh chemicals that alter the surface... I just let it develop its own patina... I think it tells a story of a sort and seems to become more beautiful with use... and copper is antibacterial, by the way...




Our son, Max, made this Map of Canada, 24" x 35", as a project several years ago when he was 10... he felt very good about his achievement and I thought he did a great job on it, so we hung it in a place of honour in the studio.

... Max collects all things science and nature so some of his butterflies and moths have come to light here... the Luna Moth is rather large... surprisingly it's bigger than Newfoundland!





Some of the books that I keep up in the studio... science.. art... jewelry... design... nature... geography... literature... history... fables... pop-ups...




Quite a few belong to Max but we all share....



.... art... design...calligraphy... rhymes... weaving... quilting... pattern making... even some cook books...



I liked the way the sun was shining in on these trays of colored beads... rather cheery...




A coal heart... a stone heart and a thick rusty metal heart... all found on the beaches of the Bay of Fundy... The Luna moth was found in a service station parking lot...



This post holds things that make me feel at home in my studio ... they inspire... and lead me here and there in my mind... I can come here to think and they are waiting for me... I am very grateful for this...

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The Studio.... Part 2

Since I am on the topic of the Studio I thought I would share a few details from around my drawing desk that give me inspiration... past drawings, paintings, sketches, reproductions I have done....





...my Whale line drawings, inspired by the profusely illustrated pen and ink by Warren Chappel in the famous book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville...
... Duane Kaiser's a painting a day, "a dozen eggs"... my Picasso attempt... a gray scale... my watercolor attempt of a Francis Bacon Portrait by Lucian Freud.. the oil attempt is in the first photo... oh and our Simpsonized selves..




Oh ... I can't forget Leonard Cohen for his input into what comes from the paints and brushes





... some more play...a floral and an attempt at an acrylic of my son... coffee cans make great containers...





... idea search... I especially love the Annotated Mother Goose, describing the reasons for the rhymes.. better understanding now... and more profuse illustrations by Caldecott, Crane, Greenaway, Rackham, Parrish.. this is an amazing book that I recently found at a book fair held in the village this past summer... The local librarian, Betty, who is a sweet heart and I think she has read every book ever written, had some of her treasures for sale and she dearly sold this to me...




A beautiful poster that was put together for promotion of the cultural interests of St.Martins... featuring art and fine craft by artists of the village..... our Booktown, first one on the east coast of Canada.... the amazing landscape and the treasures from the beaches... on the back he drew a map of everything... Click image to enlarge...




More tidbits... color and nature... sand dollars.... on the right, a treasured postcard received in the mail... on the left, my attempt to do a small painting of a photograph by my blog friend Ruth ...



Well, just a little tour of my drawing/ink/and painting corner... I'll work my way around the room, slowly but surely... Thanks for coming along...

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