throwback thursday

I used to volunteer as a clown for fundraisers.  This was to raise money for assisted living and group homes for people coping with mental illness.  I painted faces all day, it was so fun.

I learned that a little grease paint can go a long way. It changes how others see you and respond to you and It can change how we see others.

The first thing to note when diffusing the “us and them” bias is to recognize what is superficial and how we let it misinform us. A lot humour comes  from realizing something that we might have feared is just our own reflection!

Visiting the Sketchbook Mobile in the Distillery District

The day started out pissing cats and dogs but suddenly the sky cleared and the sun came out and EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT. Again!

I met Cz and her father in the distillery district, looked at a couple of books, helped pay for Czs’ own book and then Y.S. came and we grabbed lunch from a bakery.

I looked at a bunch more books. Very cool. One called “my imaginary friend” was super awesome. Had a wonderful chat about the whole endeavour with the young woman in the bookmobile. She says that they have been to England and Australia, mostly North America but agrees, Japan would be a dream! The really dumb thing is in Canada they had no debit machine and everything had to be cash, hence the scramble to pay for a book. But she got a book!!!!  I can’t wait to see it.  Oh hey, I have to get to work on my own!

It’s like sending a message in a bottle, at least that is how it feels to me.  To get an idea of what it is all about check out the website: sketchbookproject.com

This last photo is of kids caged IN ART. Heh heh, they never saw it coming…

Music Happens Between the Notes

“It’s not about proving anything, it’s about sharing.”

sub rosa

Yo-Yo Ma – in a generous personal conversation with Krista Tippett

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Throw-back Thursday!

 

This was taken only ten years or so, before I was with the Artists Network, then the Artists’ Network of Riverdale. I am holding a painting called, Opening to Opennes. I didnt get much positive feedback for it but I was really happy with it. Making it included embracing some randomness. I had been painting endless “enso” and gaining a better appreciation of “letting go” in general. I was at a wonderful place in my life having been scared out of my usual reticence due to surviving a real battle with a blood cancer, stage 4, NHL.

I felt I took a really big chance with it. I suffered the confusion of those who knew my portraiture work, (it’s worse when I tell them I am making quilts now) but I did sell one: “Epi-graffiti” the last one pictured here. Since then I have seen other local artists exploring mixed media in similar ways, so that is fun to see. It was a good time creatively at least personally if not financially.

I have it still. It still makes me happy. It reminds me that shit can happen no matter how hard we try to hide from it, that doing so can lead to our being frozen and buried. But even trapped by a long winter we can see through it.