Meanwhile I had work in the Penticton Art Gallery show to encourage critical thinking about the Olympics. The Salmon Arm Art Gallery  show of Post Card Art has two of my works on display. In addition, the Learning Centre at Okanagan College on KLO Road has my large pieces on display. They look wonderful in the space. On Saturday, I will have art, crafts for display at Conduit, an evening event at the Rotary Centre for the Arts. The Conduit show goes from 4 pm until 1 pm Saturday night.

My Class on Digital Photographic art is coming up in May through UBC-Okanagan’s Continuing Studies Program.

It is a time of transition. Some of it involving deep grief, regret, a sense of loss. So many members of my family have died or left this past year, I feel as if I am standing nude bereft of the covering of connections that held me protected and grounded. My Buddhist practice is so incredibly valuable as I travel through this stage.

Show at the Learning Centre, KLO Rd. Okanagan College

Sandon’s Dharma lesson tonight was “Saying Stop to the elephant of delusion.” He encouraged us to stand in front of the charging, delusional thought, put up a hand and say, “Stop.” Each time we see the large, looming ego thoughts, we have to recognize them and make an attempt to stop the stampede.

Yellow tulips are on the chest of drawers, calling out to spring. All is new. I am moving into a new space, a new life. To be willing to not know the direction that my life is moving, is difficult. To release expectations and live in the now is challenging. I soften to now. I work on my poetry and my art. I work on my life.

I pushed myself to get the submission done for the Penticton Art Gallery’s upcoming show purposed to enlighten the public about the impact of the Olympics on the arts funding in the province. Writing the artist’s statement was more difficult than actually creating the work. My ability to craft words was impaired by my physical state. Using the computer to generate digital images, however, was simple and direct.http://www.galleries.bc.ca/agso/

Today I will take my work “Tunnel of Time” to UBC-O to donate it for the Art on the Line fund raiser. http://web.ubc.ca/okanagan/publicaffairs/mediareleases/2006/mr-06-001.html The work incorporates a photograph that one of the residents in my neighbourhood gave me of the last ferry ride across the lake before the construction of the bridge. She is sitting in the backseat of the car with a large bow in her hair and distinctive puffed cap sleeves with a peter pan collar on her little dress. I have layered the picture with an upside down image of the lights in a tunnel on the Coquihalla highway. The piece is in sepia and golds and speaks of systems of transportation.

Once I am no longer experiencing so much physical pain, I look forward to painting more inspirational door stops. There is an upcoming show in February 6th at the RCA that is one of a kind, hand made items and I want to have my handmade cards and the collections of white laquered, colorfully painted door stops for sale. I must venture out to take work back from the Summerland Gallery that I submitted for their Christmas sale. http://summerlandarts.com/ At the other end of the valley, I have works on display at the Kalamalka campus of Okanagan College that must be retrieved as well.http://www.galleryvertigo.com/

quirky art cards: feet series

Restructuring is what my life is all about right now. I have cleaned out and thrown away items from our three junk drawers, the pantry, the hall closet and the home studio. Today I am very tired so I will only have the energy to take the Tunnel of Time up to UBC and go to the doctor to have the fluid drained from my surgical site.

I am toying with the idea of creating more handmade books for sale in February because I enjoy making them so much. Upcoming as well are two of my classes at UBC-O. http://web.ubc.ca/okanagan/continuingstudies/welcome.html One is Writing for Children and the other is Digital Photography: From so-so to stunning. I have a potential class at the RCA on the 18th of February. The only other class that is booked for certain is the March class at Gallery Vertigo: Making memories. I teach scrapbooking techniques to make cards and handmade books. It is such fun and people from the age of four to sixty have been fully engaged and joyously creative.

all ages have fun

My goal is to get all of my works that are out in the world rearranged. I have some in a showhome on the Westside, some in a show home at Wilden, some at Coldwell Banker and pieces at the Bohemian Cafe. Tomorrow I will go to the Cafe and collect the work that is hanging there.

two in Canadian Beige series in Coldwell banker

Restructuring and expanding are important. I have currently submitted to a competition that has as its prize a artist’s residency in New York. The theme is treated self-portraits. While the public can vote on line, one of the final judges is Steve Buscemi which is amazing. Just having someone of his stature seeing my art is well worth the effort. To vote for me go to the link below. You can revote every 24 hours.

No one ever talks about the tedious business of marketing, inventorying, recording expenditures, organizing shows and display opportunities when one becomes an artist. Some who paint are not particularly gifted or technically proficient artists but they are geniuses at marketing. Some are amazingly talented but have the type of personality that keeps them small. Robert Genn swears in his newsletter that if you just work on your technique and vision long and hard enough, the world will discover you. I am curious as to if that is true.

I know that my short fall is in not following up with people who have purchased my work over the years. It is one of the areas of organization that I must address.

But for this month of retreat-healing I have been mostly reflecting about what I am doing, how I am doing it, where I should be living and how I can make my life better. In some ways although I have been extremely  frustrated when awake and not distracted by a level of pain that becomes the main obstruction to looking down the road. However, with hind site I realize that sometimes just taking a step back, going to earth can be very grounding. There is much to think about as I head into my 66th year of life. Art, Creativity, My physical home in all senses of that word, Moving beyond fear and restriction and living with passion in all senses of that word.

My art, I have discovered by being so hampered by pain and tethered by a healing body, is integral to my existence. I created over 10 pieces and submitted to four shows in the month that I have been re-cooperating. And it was a joy. The work calls to me.

What I am learning by studying Pema Chondron, Sonia Choquette, Judith Orloff, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckart Tolle and others that I must pay attention to my body. I must maintain the conversation with the body and see when I feel joyful, safe, soft, loving. These are the situations to seek out. When I am loving to myself, the well is full and it allows me to make offerings to others. So while some may say I have not been working as I lay upstairs looking out the attic window at the gray sky with the occasional configuration of Canada geese shifting across the screen

.http://www.plumvillage.org/

,http://soniachoquette.com/videos.php

http://www.drjudithorloff.com/

http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/

With Glowing Hearts: Quo Vadis $175

The snow plow has scooped up funding for various organizations in order to clear a path for “the games.” My submission involved research as well into various sociological terms and texts that helped to formulate my artist’s statement.

Quo Vadis

From Wikipedia

“Bread and circuses” (or bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for handouts and petty amusements that politicians use to gain popular support, instead of gaining it through sound policy. The phrase is invoked not only to criticize politicians, but also to criticize their supporters for giving up their civic duty.

In modern usage, the phrase has become an adjective to deride an infantilized populace so defined by entertainment, instant self gratification, and personal pleasures that they no longer value civic virtues and the public life (not necessarily accomplished through deliberate pacification by politicians but through the popular culture itself). To many social conservatives, it connotes the wanton decadence and hedonism that defined Rome prior to its decline and that may similarly contribute to the decline of modern society.
Hofstede’s 1993 “Cultural Constraints…”

• Power Distance
  The degree of inequality among people which the population of a country considers as normal: from relatively equal (that is, small power distance) to extremely unequal (large power distance).This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society’s level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders.

• Masculinity
  The degree to which tough values like assertiveness, success and competition, which in nearly all societies are associated with the role of men, prevail over tender values like the quality of life, maintaining warm personal relationships, service, care for the weak, and solidarity, which in nearly all societies are more associated with women’s roles. Women’s roles differ from men’s roles in all countries; but in tough societies, the differences are larger than in tender ones.

The government’s attempt to bulldoze a path to the Olympics by cutting funding to create, to educate, and to care for citizens will leave an economically costly swath behind. Caring gestures and gentle intersessions provide enormous financial benefits.

All of my working life I helped teenagers in distress. Project Overcome was a US pilot project that took bright teenagers on probation, living a basically hopeless life and taught them art and music. They saw the power, the joy of learning and of expressing themselves which saved society money in probation officers, court time, counselors.

A decade spent in the North allowed me to work with some living in unconscionable conditions. By experiencing the rewards of disciple, they learned the satisfaction of putting on a play, or playing in the school band. They were lifted above and beyond the boundaries that were defining them. Cutting school programs to the arts will cost society money.

As a video making, acting and creative writing teacher in Rutland Senior Secondary I witnessed the arts allowing the student to conduct a very necessary examination of value systems, to see the importance of an individual assuming responsibility for his or her choices. Through the arts, they began to forge a more knowledgeable and more personal sense of being in the world. The results saved society money.

Glowing Hearts Bulldozer: Quo Vadis

digital photographic print, limited edition print with certification of authenticity by artist

framed 17 ¼ inches by 14 ½ inches

ink jet with archival paper and ink

$175

After completing my entry and sending it off into the world of air and hope, I tottered out into the world in order to mail christmas cards. I felt so fragile and unprotected. I could only hobble and crossing the street seemed eerie and strange after being in bed for eight days. I purchased three flowes, a vitamin drink, chocolate pudding, a gossip magazine and shakily climbed the stairs to regroup.

After dinner, I found through face book that Salmon Arm’s Art Gallery is having a post card show, so I snuggled into my down covered nest of pillows and worked on a post card which has as its topic :Wish You Were Here.

here as in a joyous place of energy and creativity

Creating art is healing and energizing. I felt quite content to sleep after my adventuresome day. It is so very quiet in my isolation that I can hear my own drum.

doorstop for sale on etsy

The sky is a sickly white with a scattering of snow on the rooftops that I can view. I have been moving little after my initial burst of enthusiasm. Four days of migraine, vomiting and horrible pain let up and I continuing to be unwise and a “busy body” decided to watch three movies on the couch and trot up and downstairs a couple of times. The evening of my folly found me sobbing into my pillow in agony. Taking more opiates than I had all day, finally got me into a strange, fibrous, drug induced sleep.

I pay homage to the great guilt God by remaining in bed the last two days and finally I slept without waking up sobbing with nightmares. I awoke in the full steam ahead playing out of a musical in which I starred. Taking the centre of the shot in a beautiful park, I spread my arms and sang gorgeously. Waking myself up with the sound of a croaking, dry throat that was not producing any “song” per se but rather random words, I decided that perhaps more time was needed to heal my body and get myself out of the drug induced world of pain killers.

from knox december

I am reading Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel again in lieu of actual physical freedom. While his use of language is pleasing, intellectual and deft, I do find him to be rather lachrymose. He is so British in his dampened appreciation of life’s pleasures.

Yesterday, I spent too much time trying to dis-spell the loneliness of lying in the 300 feet of our upstairs retreat… unable to descend and un-willling to entertain my husband’s sad, gentle inquiries as to my condition which is improving beneath the pain, I am sure. I was on facebook and checked my email. It exhausted me.

Today, I didn’t even open the beast of a computer until noon after three naps. What a pleasure to see that Jason Woodford had put a lovely image of my donation to the Okanagan Film Festival Society on his site.http://okanaganfilmfestival.com/ I am awaiting news as to who purchased it so I can give them a certificate of authenticity. Too done in by the operation to complete that task, I left it for another day.

tari

My friend Tari informs me that she had made her spectacular Christmas cookies again this year and asked the artists of the RCA to her house for a luncheon. She mentioned ice skating on Shannon Lake with her friend. Now I hold two lovely, traditionally satisfying pictures of Christmas in my head thanks to her email. I wrote to her, “You can always make me laugh. I just pictured you eating while ice skating. A turn, a flourish, the hand raised and at the top of the spinning wonderment a cookie which pops into your mouth at the last moment. Beautiful. ” http://www.misstari.com/

Finally, the image of my granddaughters was soothing to me upon awakening suddenly with the shooting pain in my side. Rhane so business-like, abrupt and non-nonsense requested a cleaning set so she could clean her home sparkling clean, “If some people would let me.” When I asked her if it was a toy set, she paused in impatient disgust then informed me that it was in fact a real set. Stupidly, I had thought her to be trivial or playing simply because she is four years old. Tegan on the other hand is mainly concerned that the star on top of the tree doesn’t sparkle. She is a leo/monkey and knows the importance to bling in existence. Without shimmer, life is dull.

magic of little girls

Judith Jurica continues to work her magic and sent through an email publicizing my show at Kalamalka campus even though it is “the holidays”. She is another who creates a very real shimmer to the existence of art in the valley through her works.http://www.galleryvertigo.com/

So these snippets of life create images. Along with the unfinished kitchen wall that has yet to be re-enclosed after the new electrical service was provided, the pile of unfinished christmas cards that I had anticipated having the strength to send out by now.

Instead, I am floating upstairs with a plastic bulb draining out of my stomach. Looking out of the window at the dull day hanging without the energy to deliver snow. Laying under my blanket thinking about another nap before I return with Alain to the Lake Country and Wordsworth is the reality of now. Transition.

transition moving from one state of being to another

FROM AN OLD PATTERN BOOK 50

Some days are cold, some are cloudy. The shrivelled leaves are caught in the trees. Seemingly, they don’t have the energy to fall all the way to the ground. We don’t have snow. The sunshine is intermittent and catches us by surprise rather like a sudden light being flicked on in a dark room. We raise an arm to cover our foreheads and venture out. Blinking at first, we decide to go for a walk or putter around the yard. These moments lead to contact between neighbours and exchanged greetings on the Mission Creek Pathway or on the road up Knox Mountain.

hand made card class

But many people I know are sick. Cameron and I have been entertaining a low grade infestation. Just enough of an illness to not feel well and some days waking up to a serious case of the blahhhhs. I am not a winter person although I have chosen to live in Canada since 1972. Most of the winter goes by in a kind of depressed funk. I feel like some English Victorian in a cold moldy house in the country that sits by a feeble light and attempts to write but all is dispirited at best.

christmas wreath 08 image for sale

My house is not moldy and it is wonderfully cozy but still the lack of light coming through the windows and the cavelike aspect of winter existence create a decidedly gothic ambience.

Every day, I say to myself that the answer is to get exercise. But for a semi-depressed person to find motivation is difficult. Each morning my intention is to shove off of my couch and briskly move through the cold knives of air.

I remember our lovely cat who has passed on. The first blast of cold was hysterically funny. She, who had a fear of and an attraction to the out of doors would run like a bullet to the opening between our legs out the door. Sudden shifts in the weather to truly cold would catch her like a wall. Her back legs would continue running because of the velocity she had achieved but her face, neck, chest would collapse into one another as if she had hit an obstruction. Her front legs would plant themselves and her rear would keep going. She would mound up like a slinky toy. Not only was she horrified by the unwelcoming air but now she was humiliated by our laughter. She would attempt to flatten out and turn in a slow dignified manner and then run like hell for a bed with blankets to try to soothe herself from experiencing the horror of winter air.

Perhaps we laughed so deeply because we identified with her.

I have my surgery on Tuesday and will be pretty much down for a while, so the chance to get out and walk should be calling me. But I look out the window and the dullness does not beckon.

Basically, most people in Kelowna turn on the weather network to deal with winter depression. It is rather like someone with arthritis looking at a neighbour with a wooden leg. At least, we don’t have to put up with that, we say in a smug voice.

catching a few rays in our new bathroom

I need to feed my Etsy sight and write Christmas cards today. Wish I felt more like doing things. But it is as it is. The stomach, ears, throat, chest, neck pain, headache all are whining and complaining. At least I am not as sick as some of my friends. We seek solace in comparisons. The deluded mind is well conditioned.

Planes of Gold 40 x 40 $1040 mixed media on canvas

I have frequently visited and learned a great deal from Art Blogs. Other artists teach me much about defining what it is I am doing in terms of the business of art. However,I still feel like it is an up hill battle. Most of the Art Biz is about being brass balls as far as I can see. There are those I know who have a depth of talent that makes me gasp in wonder. The technical ability is stunning. They have a committment to a vision. The work ethic is in place. They do not cycle in and out of creating but are caught up in the passion. What stands in the way of taking that talent out and showing it off is frequently just shyness, an interest in not taking the focus off of others and a feeling that if they promote themselves too loudly, they are being unduly unkind or competitive. So when does being an artist shade into being an aggressive, self-promoting salesperson? When does selling start to become the focus ahead of working on oneself and one’s skills? When does being a salesperson start to erode being an artist? It is an interesting question and finally, one has to ask oneself what the goal is. When the exploration of self, technique and expression become secondary to standing in the market place ringing a bell and yelling,” Art for sale. Come and get your art for sale.” is actually taking the time and energy away from inspiration it is a creativity killer. I was listening to Lips and his bass player from ANVIL the Canadian heavy metal due who were the first and best in the metal scene. They inspired all of the major “successful” metal bands. But they missed out on success. They have mundane jobs and have garnered little notice until the documentary ANVIL: the documentary on ANVIL was produced. In the interview Lips said something that really resonated with me. He said that if you are depending on your art to make you money, you have to give up being an artist. If you make your money in another form, the art can have a life of its own. It reminded me of the advice that I had read when I was taking a M.F.A in creative writing poetry at Western Washington. If you want to write, don’t get a job teaching writing. It just sucks the soul out of your own writing. How do those with amazing talent such as the musiciansin ANVIL get overlooked and others with repetitive,bubble gum music make it big? The question is about walking the thin line. Staying in the “light” and operating from a deep, soul driven place. Yet somehow being able to capture moments when a profit can be made from the beauty that you have been given the blessing to produce. Stepping back and looking over the landscape of marketing and being an artist, the final words is about staying focused on the act of creativity. Staying active and being willing to constantly learn from life and from others while at the same time believing in that which you are called to create. Make sure that you know what success means for you and that you are not using your art to fill a hole in your self-esteem. That is like making love to a ghost. Very little fulfillment in the romance can ever be achieved. 50 x 38 $1235 mixed media, brilliant experience on canvas For me, the main work is always internal. Knowing what I want to say and why is the main focus. Feeling the security of being alright in myself as I work my way through a competitive world is the major difficulty. How big is yours? Ego, sales, voice, bell ringing. The struggle is internal as I recognize that my sense of self cannot rely on what others reflect back to me. It is not a competition as my husband so often reminds me, “Life is an exposition.” As we live, we expose more and more of who we are. To ourselves and to others. Now I have to go do a mail out publizing my writing workshops for UBC-O Continuing Studies. After all, the bills have to be paid.

The questions as to when the residents of Kelowna lost interest in the electoral process, springs to mind. Is there a gradual decline or a eschewing of voting suddenly? What does the refusal to vote mean in terms of the future of the city? How can the relationship between the electorate, the citizens and the city be revitalized? We constantly talk about revitalization of the downtown core, the big structures we are putting in in the name of “progress” but what about the vitality of citizens who feel a part of the social structure of a city.

I am really curious as to what is going wrong. One thing that is happening is that because of the exodus of young people, we do not have the army of volunteers that keep most organization going. Many neighbourhood associations are dying. Many long term groups in the city are hungry for those who have time to keep the board vital. Will it become a place where people live separate from one another, isolate and uninvolved?

Hopefully having a young person on council will help to move the city to creating a more tech and boho friendly city where those under 35 will find employment and enjoyment. It will be interesting to watch.

this gorgeous piece is $1,135 for 50 by 34

Christmas is coming rapidly with no snow. Tonight I saw 20 Canadian Geese flying against a pink autumnal sky. We have neither low winter temperature nor do we have snow. Between seasons, we are sitting on shoulder season even while the rest of B.C. is headed to winter. The flu, the Olympics are discussed frequently. Many arts groups are creating pre-Christmas sales with beautifully made hand crafted gifts but it doesn’t really feel like Christmas yet.

I will wrap the gifts for my family and ship them off next week because recovery from surgery will keep me quietly at home for the next month or so. The last vestiges of my brush with death will be gone. The long, deep scar from cancer surgery is to be excised and a newer more elegant scar will replace it. I look on it as a new beginning. Setting out in January with my stomach muscle reattached and the extra skin and scarring removed, I intend to concentrate on becoming stronger and less focused on work. Follow along to see if that actually happens.

Beautiful moments blossom in each day. Sitting and drinking tea. Sharing a laugh with my husband. Chatting with friends on facebook. These are what makes life such a gift.

detail from Peace inspirational door stop

After notifying all of the neighbourhood associations in the city that they could make their presence known by asking a question of one of the fifteen candidates, I sent out an invitation to the candidates. Anyone who has ever organized an event knows that this part of the structuring is always needful of minding. Plant the seed, water the seed, replant the seed, water the seed… Well, you get it.

Now we have, I believe, all of the candidates confirmed. Six of the ten groups invited have prepared a question. But most happily of all, we have an event. It is an event that is in the media. Radio, internet, newspaper reporters are… well reporting. It looks as if there will be six media representatives in attendance, if not more.

10 inch door stop prosperity inspiration

Now comes the part where I take my husband away from his work as an electrician and ask him sweetly to spend the day setting up the sound. Thankfully, he is a skilled sound technition. KSAN has said they would do all the niceties, coffee and cookies. How wonderful when neighbourhood groups help one another out and contribute to building community strength.

I got my cards to city hall in a timely fashion, saw the plastic surgeon who is going to reattach my stomach muscle in December and cleaned the house. Once the forum is done, I will take cards and door stops around the various Christmas shops to see if I can get some sales over Christmas.

hand made each drawn into archival cards

Judith Jurica of Gallery Vertigo has hung my art work at the Kalamalka campus of Okanagan College so some works are “out there.” http://www.galleryvertigo.com/ I now have to go into the Authentech home and move a few pieces around as well as rethinking the work I have up in the Bohemian Cafe on Bernard so they show better.

The opportunity to just lay down in bed and heal will mean that I can upload some ETSY items and read. Wind in the Willows always impressed me with the wonderful winter scenes. All of the animals in an underground cave, looking at the fire and reading.

So, the adventure begins. How many people in Kelowna will leave their houses to vote? How many people will be looking to buy locally made gifts? When will it snow? So many questions to see answered over time. It is why life is so interesting.

Corey Doak sang his Scruffy the Elf song

So many great musicians and bands donated their time that I felt that there was compunction on my part to attend. I have been less than healthy for over 7 weeks but kept chugging along. However, I do have only a few items to complete and my list can rest until the new years.

Corey entrances the audience

Some of the images that I took of the bands I worked with Paint Shop Pro to reflect the sound of the music. I really enjoy recreating the feel of an original situation and keeping the energy in my final piece. Nixie is a band I have been following for several years now. Moving to Vancouver, B.C. from Kelowna, they have now stepped up to move their career to a higher point.

Corey Doak award winning song writer

Corey Doak is a musician that Cameron has played bass for on some of his CD’s and his sound is creative and full of his personality. He stood alone on stage and held the audience. His fan base is large. Playing Christian music at his church, he has garnered a big following.

Nixie singing their set

Currently, I am completing 110 Christmas Cards which will be used by the City of Kelowna. Each is unique because I have drawn into them with metallic ink and Indian ink pens.

over lay of picture of Nixie

It was a laborious, time consuming task but it means they are NOT the type of works that are churned out by a factory like process. I cannot by my very nature ever work that way.

Nixie playing in Kelowna

Loading to my web sites, attending to my on line galleries is the next task for the business.

final image that I really like

Next week I will finish a very large committment to my community with the all candidates forum that I have organized. And not least, hopefully not last, is the wrapping and mailing presents.

paint shop pro layers

Since I will be a hermit for a while after some surgery, I want to have things all complete.

Cameron is working full out on the electrical jobs he is getting.

electronica, rock

He finished working on two houses in the last two weeks and is completing a garage. He must also replace the service to our house in the next two weeks to comply with the insurance companies proviso.

bright sound, big sound

Hopefully, there will be time to knit, to read and to enjoy the “cave” existence of winter. For every season….

Looking forward to cinnamon spice tea, naps and dreaming.