expressions

Fifteen years of marriage comes to an end overnight as I discovered my husband was “not happy” and moved on. Had I known that things were not going well, I would have been willing to work with him. But past is past. I have managed to keep going ;although, the grief has felt to be so massive at times I felt that I would not survive.

Day by day I deal with that which I have to deal with. My practice has been a balm. To stay in a place of love and forgiveness even while dealing with emotions is very, very difficult. I have turned to prayer. When I awaken at night, I pray. When I come home and the emptiness hits me, I sit and meditate.

I am so very thankful for my friends who have spent much time handing me tissues and listening to me snivel on. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such wonderful, supportive people but I am blessed. I know that I am meant to be a wife and a partner. I have so much love in me to give to one who treasures it and me.

So I concentrate on my teaching, on trying to make it through the days, on what I can do to help my students and on my health.

I will have two pieces in the SOPA art show coming up. I have pieces up at the KLO Okanagan College learning centre. Now is not an expansive time because of the adjustments. But I will be looking for opportunities and shows in the coming future. My class on digital photographic art is full so that will be something to look forward to.

Kelowna is finally coming out of winter and headed to some spring like weather. I look forward to working in the garden and assisting in the beauty of the flowers. I look forward to a time when my heart is not so wounded. Now I sit meditation, pray and enjoy the love of friends. Expect nothing. Give thanks for what pleasures are present. The urge to see over the hill, to see the trajectory of a life is so strong. And a delusion.

Recently the CBC held a forum on support for the arts in Kelowna on the Day Break Show. It amazed me how optimistic the program sang in tone. We were told that 200,00 people were in the Rotary Centre in the past year. The issue of how the community supports the arts was totally by passed because there was no discussion of what “supports” means.

from photo up knox mountain

If by support, you mean they attended a musical event or play that had an ’80s rocker or a play that was popular in other cities in the 90′s, then yes. I guess that is support. But what of the local artists, musicians and performers. The real question is what is happening to make sure that we keep these people alive (as in fed), give them an audience (as in inspired) and build a fan base (as in future security). Is that happening? Most artists and musicians that I know are working on their art at a cost. It is financial with the need to find other sources of income to feed the fire. It is emotional in the attempts to garner a respectfully paying gig, or customers who will buy enough to keep them in paint.

the bridge is the answer to all problems

Why were there 50 fewer artists in booths at Propera this year? The economy is down. But it has always been “down.” We rely so heavily on outsiders to support and appreciate our local talent that most artists end by feeling like creative buskers in a tourist town.

Further to the issue of passivity and apathy, is the up coming by-election. I am really curious as to what percent of individuals here will bother to go out and vote. The last major election it was under 20%. What are you guesses as the interest of Kelowna residents in their future?

The all candidates forum is on Wednesday, November 25th. How many care? How many will come to the forum? Which individuals will have the energy and commitment to the future of the city to go to a polling booth? We will have to watch and see.

where are the dolphins

Meanwhile, I am tired and happily in bed after the Potters and Artisans Show at the Rotary Centre which has just one more day. Hope to see you there Sunday and at local voting station November 28th. We deserve the kind of government we get.

Red swirl done this summer

As I am turning 65 tomorrow, I have spent the week uncharacteristically. I got a manicure with candy apple red nail polish which turned out to be a very bad job. It is the fourth in my life and I was loathe to go in and get another one until the proper 15 years had elapsed. I had my teeth bleached today to a lovely lighter shade of yellow-gray. Instead of going to work, I went shopping and bought six tee shirts for $80. I am having tea with not one friend on one occasion but with two friends on two occasions. This week I have had three naps because turning older can be exhausting… and perhaps starting work at 9 am and working until 9 pm might be a contributing factor. I walked past a spider web. My to do list has remained in the dark crevices of my purse and my mind. We have gone to bed early and watched the comedy network on computer

art work layered as backdrop

and laughed.

One of our town councilors who has had recurrent cancer died Monday. I think about the close calls and am so thankful that I am still here to see my grand daughters, to be a friend, to enjoy the partnership with my husband, to become a better person. To have died at 38, 52, 55, 57 (from hemorrhaging almost 1/2 of the blood from my body, from cancer, an horrendous car accident, or from a live electrical line hitting our car would have meant that I would have come back as a chicken or a turtle or something perhaps.

Rhane, Dominique, Teagan, Cherie, Alexandra

I am only now starting to get “it”. I am only now starting to see that I am only starting to see. I am grateful for all of my teachers and all of my lessons. And like a piece of leather in the jaws of an Inuit woman from history, I have become softer with age and stretchier. I have been chewed on by time.
Planning to see a plastic surgeon soon about another eye lift…. So I can see without the flap of skin in the way.

Blessings.

Nonsense. Not if you are living in a 600 square foot area and all of the tools, sink, toilet, paint, bags of dry wonder mix are all over the floor. We have only four days left and we are both dead tired.

Niches to the left for storage are planipatched

Cameron got the pocket door framed up, put trim on the windows, panipatched the niches and exposed wall end where he built out to enclose the tub, installed the in floor heating and put thin set on it.

Must be shaking with excitement, faucet ready for sink

I did laundry, cleaned the floor, cleaned the floor, went out…guess where? Oh yeah! The hardware store. We ordered the mirror from competition glass that will also act as a backsplash and I finished the painting for the Almost Famous show at Gallery Vertigo.

I donated a piece to the Penticton Art Gallery, the Kamloops Art Gallery and will drive the piece up to Vernon for Gallery Vertigo tomorrow. Cameron has a gig at the bliss cafe so we will sand and prime before the gig, I will drive to Vernon and then join him in Peachland. After that we come home and get back to work. Only four days left before deadline on this project.

Painting for Gallery Vertigo is a rendition of a Raphael work I find very sensual.

I am teaching the children’s writing class in the afternoon tomorrow and had fun working through some exercises. As I sit here in the studio a huge windstorm is blowing trees around and the building is creaking.

Today I made more connections on face book, finished projects for two clients and completed by ETSY shop. You can find it at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6695712.

The small magnets that I painted for weeks this winter are selling. I enjoy doing them so much that I want to continue to have an excuse. Because I have been so busy doing graphic design and putting shows up and taking them down I haven’t completed the silk screen shirts I wanted to put into the display cases on Sunday. I teach all day tomorrow and on Sunday. So I am mulling over how I can make the display case more installation pieces than a store window.

The centre is very quiet tonight except for the gothic wind sounds tearing around the building. The signage is tied on in some areas and makes a high screaming sound in the wind. Very Tim Burton.

The North End Neighbourhood Association meeting was wonderful because Mari MacIntosh called the new councillors and they can to address NERA, KSAN and Glenmore neighbourhood associations. After all these years of each of our groups working alone, it was wonderful to have us all in one room. The last time that happened was over five years ago when I called all of the Presidents of the neighbourhood associations to have a meeting. The last time before that was when David Lovell, Valerie Hallford and I put together an all candidates meeting in the name of neighbourhood associations in the downtown core.

This evening, I am planning to watch the Ritches, eat popcorn and just snuggle down in our small beautiful house. We will look up from our respective computers and hey… maybe even talk.

We are planning our trip to Vienna in May for the group art show. I am anxious about the money, but open to wonderful possibilities. Open heart, open mind.

one of my magnets for sale on Etsy

Today I worked a few images that  are processed in the manner that is my practice. I selected photographs, worked the images in the Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and then layered, highlighted and dropped worked images into worked images. Layering, distortion, filtering leads me to the jpg image. If a customer wishes to order an image from my bank… I print it out on canvas and the fun begins.

another sample at higher resolution

It is at this point in the process where I apply acrylic paint, metallic paint, India ink, metallic foil, various mediums including glass bead and tar.

The original pic of winter trees

Layer upon layer of processes lead me to the spot where I have a piece which has shifting planes and an energy that challenges the eye. It is all a dance of discovering and I joyfully lose myself in it.

So above are today’s images.

the image was sent in as jpg then printed

The Los Angeles public turned out

The show in Los Angeles sent through pictures of the opening at the Los Angeles centre for digital art. I am happy to share them with you. My image is tourquoise and was of a “reconstructed” aluminum paint tray.

Tourquoise aluminim paint tray second from top

All works were printed on paper

My image is high up on the wall

The castle

One Woman Show by artist Cherie Hanson

Unitarian Fellowship 1310 Bertram Street

November and December

Viewing available to all who rent the space

Open to the public 11:45 to 12:30 Sundays.

#2 New Works are up at Energy Gallery and the lay out is great http://www.energygallery.com

#3 four pieces are off to Italy for the Trevisan “Traces of Memory” exhibition in Ferrar, Italy.http://www.trevisanarte.com/eventi-eng.htm

We have just returned from Portland where the sun was glorious, the art galleries plentiful, parks around every turn and the possibilities for exploring constant. Compared to other American enclaves that we had experienced in our stops on the drive down, the Portland resident seems to be either the cause or the effect of an environment that produces slim, healthy, astute citizens. Women in flowered skirts were carefully helmeted but got around the city on bicycle.

Perhaps, all of the “done to the eyes” matrons were up the hills and not mixing with the populous. At any rate, most of the fashion is studiedly casual. Thrift Chic has become looks like thrift chic.

One fair we attended had brilliantly redesigned recycled clothing which was carefully and fashionably restructured. We found this fair thanks to an email from Greg Pitters, a Portlander I met when he selected some of my designs for his modern, edgy wall decor (check out http://www.designyourwall.com). His wife and her business partner helped to organize the event. Even his young son had work on display and has had three one-man shows. The packed-full-of-art event was held at the Doug Fir Lounge. Cameron was very pleased to find his long-sought after lime soap. Three years ago he found lime soap at a high-end design store in Portland and has been yearning for that clean expression to waft in his bath ever since.

Portland has done so many things right that it is hard to discuss them all at once, so I probably won’t. Parks abound. We went on an urban hike up through the Washington Park area that took us up to the look out. The white puff of smoke from the Adams fire was visible and the mountains were hazily visible. People played cards, had pic nics, read books and just sleep on the grass. The feeling of safety, of utility in the public space was wonderful. It was an outdoor livingroom.

Only once did we experience the presence of poor tortured souls who were trying to find happiness in a self-destructive manner. A group of four who were stoned and drunk got on the train and sat around us. The obese, highly flammable (gauging from his breath) man sat next to me… after he asked me if it was alright. Then he apologized for spilling over onto my seat. Even in the depths of what ever depths he had chosen to visit, he was polite.

After returning from hours of walking freely along the river, riding transport throughout the city and visiting over ten art galleries in a four block area, It is easy to see why Portland is considered to be one of the most liveable cities in the U.S. In addition, the people were answering the questions we posited to one another about when or where as we negotiated the city. They are discreetly helpful. No in-your-face questions about hidden tattoos or birthmarks, just a desire to be of use was the motivation.

Granddaughter On the Phone

I cannot hear what your little daughter says

on the phone.

You are teaching her how

to speak.

She holds up her doll

for me to see.

And you and I,

my daughter,

both laugh

as you translate.

Thank you

for helping us

bridge the gap.

Images of Rome

becomes a stare of
antique amazement

Yesterday, awoke to find a picture had sold from the show that isn’t even open yet. The Pine Beetle Express arrived in the mail and I was so happy to see who had joined me between the covers. I got a ping back from a UK company that posts best language in blogs, a German artist who won a digital show in Chicago left a laudatory comment about my work, I was asked to introduce Gary Geddes when he speaks at the Okanagan Institute, the Designyourwall.com site put me up as a feature artist. When I was invited onto Greg, the owner’s site, I discover that he has done the wallpaper, vinyl etc. for dozens of popular movies.

After years of slogging, so much came together in just one day. I woke up twice with just sheer excitement. Today, the opening of my show.