haiku

Musician missing;
Song started but not finished;
Dance class left reeling!

Brian Froude

Anyone who'd like to join me for a toast on Wednesday, January 31, would be more than welcome. My best friend passed away 10 years ago on that date in 1997. He was funny, generous, and talented. Not too many people from that circle of friends are around any more. Most have moved to other cities, looking for work.

I found some wheat gluten flour at the Bulk Barn today. I've been looking ever since reading how easy it is to make seitan, a meat substitute. I had no idea what the stuff was made of until I read an article on the NY Times about a pair of post-punk vegan cooks: We put the F. U. in tofu! We had a power failure a few years ago and I lost some meat in my freezer to the thaw, so I've always appreciated being able to keep various proteins around the house that won't spoil.

I also got a call from another one of the local papers. Looks like we'll be having another article for J's show at Art Under Glass! Woot!

Curmudgeon report

Another sign that I am becoming a curmudgeon: I bought a carton of eggs at the Farmers' Market, and as soon as I got home started to boil the whole dozen to make easy breakfasts all week. Set in my ways, I am not even considering the possibility of using even one of the eggs for any other purpose.
Jeffrey Rossetto got a decent article from The Standard for his Art Under Glass show at the Strega. They haven't put it on-line, so I may consider scanning a portion of it for the blog. Kim's work is all set up at the Fine Grind. It looks great. Rob didn't discourage her from including the spider photos- he encouraged her!
Last night I retrieved one of my sculptures from TuTuTango. Wolfgang Puck will be expanding into the space, so all the artists' work needs to go. J will have my paintings ready to pick up on Tuesday.
Today I start teaching again at Rodman Hall. Good-bye Saturdays. The kids get to make things from salt dough today. I have a big bag o' flour, and all kinds of salt.

Regna2 (Elbows N' Spittle)

salt covered sidewalks
walking home alone again
with salt covered cheeks

my shoes grind what my fists can't
my tongue touches what none can

salt dissolves the white
step by step past others' tracks
footprints vanishing

my feet follow others steps
my mind wanders to the Spring

mud slippery path
"Please don't let go of my hand!"
roses bloom, on cheeks

Walpola Rahula

I found 2 identical books today at the Value Village: "What The Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula. I will release them soon with a Bookcrossing ID # somewhere in my travels. Both books have been underlined, or highlighted, but differently. The irony hasn't escaped me, that 2 individuals have found it necessary to emphasize different elements in the dharma. The book is already a selection of writings from the Dhammapada and various Suttas. So many of the teachings are still untranslated into English. When I ponder how much of the knowledge in the world will always escape me for whatever reason, I feel like I am shopping in a grocery store, but only allowed to purchase items from a single aisle. Then that turns in on iteself, and I appreciate the wonders of the small experiences I do have. Like Thoreau in Walden, I have travelled a great deal in Niagara.On taht note, does anyone have any idea what books Thoreau read to inspire him? Besides Emerson? I'm certain he read some sort of Eastern philosophical texts; maybe Hindu, maybe Buddhist.

Winter Renga col·lab·o·ra·tion

Wind to bare in mind.
Earth to move, fire to quench;
all these, Winter does.

elements gathering here
out of the cold, creation

The seeds lie dormant, quiet
a ghostly form leaves my mouth

warm moist air sculpture fleeting
silent january voice

Dylan returns!

I just realized now that Christmas is over, I can post the image June Etta sent me! The gift has been given! I don't have to hide the painting from the fellow who was to have received it as a gift any longer, and now that I can modify the thing, I can get it to fit properly.

Here's the maze, inspired by the cover for Tarantula, Bob Dylan's first novel. Try to follow the maze from Duluth to Greenwich Village, and get Bob Zimmerman to turn into Bob Dylan. I've simplified the colour scheme for the web, and shrank the thing so we on dial-up can save a nickle or two for the future. I figure people can use their mouse to solve the maze. Or not.

Renga

I bumped into an artist/friend at the mall today. We talked about how the mere fact of having booked yourself for a gallery show sets a fire under your tuckus, and encourages you to make art. She had an artist/designer friend with her. We chatted about booking a show, and the creative process, and in doing so, my best idea yet came to me.

I've already booked myself for July, and I know I want to do lino cuts, but use composite vinyl tiles (CVT). While blabbing about lesson planning, I remembered the Haiku stuff I taught at Mary Ward School in the Falls. Here's some background: Haiku started off like a rap battle - the first three lines are meant to start it off, and the second person needs to respond with more lines.

Here's a paragraph from Wikipedia:
Renga is a form of Japanese collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two ku or stanzas, often many more. The opening stanza of the renga chain, called the hokku, later became the basis for the modern haiku style of poetry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renga

Well, I now intend to find haiku on the web, likely from blog sources, and respond to them with images. I do not intend to illustrate these poems, but go to a next step in some way. Then the CVT cuts will be printed and displayed at the Strega.
It is nice to talk with other artists.

Rebecca Horn

Hey Kyle, this is Rebecca Horn, the kinetic sculpture artist I was telling you about at the NAC. She is the one that opened my eyes as to what art could actually be. I know there are other conceptual artists out there, like Beuys and others, but this is the one I saw first.

I broke my car twice yesterday.

The ice is still covering lots of the landscape around here, making trees seem crystalline. I had to remove ice from my sideview mirroron my car, and it wouldn't scrape away. My car is not as pretty covered in ice as the local flora. Thinking only of tapping the ice away with my snow brush, I broke it. At first the surface looked like a large spiderweb. The ice held fast, so I tapped it again. This time the foil on the mirror broke away from the glass underneath the ice, and the reflected image scattered in every direction. The mirror was broken. Later that day, i also managed to close my door too hard and knock the hook out from the latch on my door. My mechanic got it all fixed though. Now my mirror is blue, while my car is gold.

I drove to my school to meet with the teachers for Learning Through The Arts. One teacher remembered me from a class I had designed for a summer camp years ago at the Pumphouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She wanted to adapt the idea for her Grade 3 class. Her children still have the project around the house. Who am I to argue? The project is a bit of a pet for me, so I agreed. Here it is: The students design their own chess set! I will add details later, so I don't just waste time typing while I'm online. (I still use dial-up!)

Today I met with a photographer who wants to show at the Art Under Glass. He brought a selection from his portfolio, and we narrowed it down to a series he shot of blues musicians from Kansas City. We'll set his show up to coincide with the Grape & Wine Festival in September. (Only real old-timers and locals will call it Grape & Wine Festival. That's how you can tell us apart from new people.) He'll play some blues on guitar at some point as well. I'm looking forward to it. He also has some cool shots of ships and boats in the canals.

Books books books

On Thursday night someone finally snagged the Leonard Cohen. Let's hope they get a posting into the Bookcrossing website, and not leave us hanging.

Yesterday I picked up a 1st edition Out of This World by Lowell Thomas Jr. at an antique store for $5. Published in 1950, it tells the story of 2 Americans going to Tibet before the Chinese invasion, just before. The book has a gazillion pictures, including some nice ones of the Dalai Lama before he left for India. I've already read Forbidden Journey by Ella K. Maillart, so it will be nice to compare the two.

My brother dropped off a brand new copy of The Practice of Vajrakilaya by Khenpo Namdrol, now that I've received the empowerment.

And! To top it off, Value Village had an odd book - The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, by Levi. Looks like Jesus went to Tibet in the missing years. Who knew? There's a whole chapter telling about Him in India. Anyone else notice how much the word "Brahma" looks like "Abraham"? I've always thought that the baptism by dunking looked like the dunking in the Ganges you see in India. Maybe John the Baptist was a transplanted Hindu?
I also snagged a couple of old cookbooks from the 50s for my mom. One has some seafood recipes from Maine. Cheese on your fish, anyone?

I'm still reading Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das.
Scored a $10 tip at today's birthday party. I'd like to thank April or Kyle for putting the space on the form marked "Tip?" because it gives the clients the hint in a subtle but not too subtle manner.

Disease-free at last

Back to work and the snow is almost gone again. Last night I taught someone new how to draw. This woman has some interest in Toltec spiritual practise, and works for an interesting agency: Katimivik (sp?) Very good energy. Kelly has also booked a collegue from the LTTA to have a show at the Strega. Welcome Kathy! Rumour has it we'll be seeing some architectural renderings. Kim's flyers are living up to their name - flying off the shelf at the Fine Grind.

Stayed home all day, sick

My brother stayed over last night to get away from all the dust from my mother cleaning at their house. I'm still sick - folding laundry made me tired and made my heart pound. We both pretty much read all day, drank tea and ate soup.

TuTuTango sent out an email yesterday telling the artists about the impending closure of the restaurant. I sent out a 'reply to all' email to the TuTuTango artists inviting them to submit to the Art Under Glass, and I got a reply within hours! There are some motivated artists out there. I did enjoy meeting the artists from TuTuTango. I made it to a wedding for one of them this summer, and at least 3 of them have become Art Under Glass artists. Looks like all my Saturday nights are going to be free for a while. Just in time for me to focus my 'group dynamic' energies into the Thinner Smarter Younger Collective, I guess.

I seem to have really just discovered 'blogs' and can't believe what is out there! This is a complex literary format! I'd love to see what professors have to say about it in an English class, never mind a Pop Culture class. I may be browsing blogs for entertainment for a few weeks.

No Lost, No Found

All day I thought I had lost my mala beads, the ones that had been blessed by Lama Namse. I had looked for half an hour this morning before going to clean the Mansion House. Turns out I had left them in a shirt pocket during some kind of cold/medication/exhaustion delirium. By the way, no one has found the Leonard Cohen novel yet. I may have to re-release it if nobody snags it inside a week. I wonder if Bookcrossing has some kind of protocol on that?

Conveyor Belt paintings

Jeffrey got his work installed at the Strega last night. There a couple of pieces I like.
I just finished hanging 80 paintings at the Niagara Artists' Company. I painted 78 little canvases with sunsets and birds for Mad Science. The technique was partly inspired by the one used to make those cheap canvases people buy at the mall: those $20 paintings were done on conveyor belts, people! 39 of my sunsets are 'fakes' and will be paired up with their 'originals' when they are delivered to the various Mad Science franchises across North America. I also added two paintings on rubber, depicting the day after a blizzard several years ago. The rubber was used to print up ads for Jack Astor's. I've added images of fire hydrants surrounded by snow banks. To me, they look like little saints in their little cubby holes.
My arms are sore, my legs are sore, my head is sore, my back is sore. I can't wait to get into bed. Every one at the bar is sick.
I've just released a book at the NAC with bookcrossing dot com.

Need a Band-Aid

I picked up some stone to carve today - and sliced a good two inch gash into my thumb, right down to the meat. Good, flat, green Virginia slate is easy for me to put pictures and text on. There's a carving of the Dalai Lama I did on my website made from the same stone. The lighting is pretty dramatic because I took the photo at TuTuTango.

I'm releasing "Beatiful Losers" by Leonard Cohen tomorrow at the Mansion House. I've read it already, and since I only paid 69 cents for it at the Value Village, it seems like the thing to do.

Art Under Glass needs better coverage on the Arts Council website, but I can't seem to email them right now. And one of the artists is still in Toronto from the long weekend!