Rocket Man

Saturday night I got to experience something really special. My friend Isabel invited me to the symphony and it wasn't just any symphony, but the VSO with CMDR Chris Hadfield! Being a huge fan of space exploration and this exceptional Canadian astronaut as well, I jumped at the chance.

I have to say this goes down as one of the most amazing experiences of my life. First of all, there was the music. Having lived with a hearing impairment my entire life, when I listen to music, it's very one dimensional to me. The Orpheum where the concert was played was built for sound so it felt like I was enveloped in the music. Usually I am all about the strings, but the epic scores they were playing really made the percussionists shine. I was fascinated by the endless variety of sounds they could produce. I couldn't take my eyes off them!

The highlight for me was hearing John Williams' score for the closing credits of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. His music is unmistakable in the way he layers sound and hearing that piece performed by classically trained musicians was incredible. My other favourite piece of the night was something I'd never heard before, but instantly fell in love with Holst's The Planets: Jupiter. Such a gorgeous piece! They paired it with photographs from outer space that were projected onto two big screens. It was really cool. Here's a link to a sampling of it. (The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is performing this version.)

CMDR Hadfield performed a number of songs from his album, including I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) which is my personal favourite. It was originally recorded with The Barenaked Ladies. Here's the video:

 

At one point, he was singing a new song, Beyond the Terror and I was sitting there thinking "Why is he singing about terrorists? That's a little harsh." The next day I was reading through my program guide and saw the song was"Beyond the Terra". Uh...yeah...okay that makes more sense! This is what happens when you have a hearing impairment. Fun times! 

CDMR Hadfield also performed David Bowie's Space Oddity. He talked about the emails he exchanged with Bowie leading up to the video and cover he did while aboard the International Space Station. He said that Bowie expressed such joy that this song he'd written about how he imagined space travel to be was being recorded in the very place he he'd written about. CMDR Hadfield said it meant so much to know that he'd given Bowie joy in the final weeks of his life, when no one knew he was dying. Very poignant.

The UBC Opera Ensemble performed a piece from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace that was super creepy and dark. It was pretty powerful. I had no idea that UBC had an opera ensemble.

I had such a good time with Isabel and I feel so lucky to have seen this concert. It allowed me to cross two things off my life list-1. To hear CMDR Hadfield play live and 2. To hear John Williams' music played live by a symphony. Two things I will treasure forever. THANK YOU Isabel!!

Hello TO!!

Last week I flew to Toronto to meet with the Canadian MS Society's Personnel Grants committee. It's mind blowing that it takes the same amount of time (just over 4 hrs.) to fly 3/4's of the way across Canada as it does for me to drive through the mountains to my in-laws' in the interior.

Along the way, I got to see two of the Great Lakes-Lake Superior (left) and Lake Huron (right). When we were landing in Toronto, I was stunned to discover there was no snow on the ground!! Here I'd purchased brand new snow boots just for this trip and there was nothing! It's a good thing I'd packed a pair of shoes. Crazy!

I took the Rocket bus from the airport to Kipling Station to catch the subway (left) into downtown. It reminded me alot of the subway in NYC. So different from our skytrain here-it's a much older system and runs almost entirely underground. I was also surprised that they have actual people sitting in the subway to collect fares, rather than having automated ticket machines like we do in BC.

It was about an hour from the airport to the hotel I stayed in, which was a Hilton right downtown, just a block away from St. Patrick's station. The photo on the right was my view from my hotel room.

Monday night, the Canadian MS Society took our team out for dinner at The Queen & Beaver. We had a lovely dinner and then everyone headed back to the hotel to rest up for the big meeting the next day. I won't go into detail about the all-day meeting on Tuesday-that's another post, but let's just say it was intense, hugely interesting and I came away with a full heart and a deep sense of satisfaction for the work our team did together.

Wednesday, I had the entire day to sight see before catching an evening flight home. My friend Jenna, whom I write with on NMO Diaries lives in TO, so we finally had a chance to meet. We had dinner together Tuesday night and then she picked me up on Wednesday morning and drove me all over the city. I really appreciated her taking time out of her busy life to be my tour guide. She did a fantastic job.

We started our day having coffee (tea!) at Casa Coffee in this cool little neighbourhood. Jenna said that in the summer, they close the street here to traffic and it becomes a funky street market. I love the indie of this coffee shop-it had a whole old school candy counter at one end and the ceiling was decorated with a ton of globes. The photo doesn't really do it justice. The conversations of the locals were highly entertaining-it's such a small space that you can't help but overhear what other people are saying. I kept catching snippets of things like "She was only wearing a g-sting and a fur coat..." and "Here comes the Russian Mafia!" and "I am totally dressed for fashion week man!". I had to keep my back to the locals because I couldn't stop laughing.

Here's Jenna and I in the coffee shop. I think I need a selfie stick!

 Afterwards, we made our way to the alley ways where Rick Mercer does his rants for his show. Of everything you could see in Toronto, this was the one thing I was most wanting to see. 

The lane ways seem to go on forever. There's so much amazing graffiti and I only managed to see a small fraction of it. Part of that had to do with how cold it was: -13C. It was too cold to be standing around for too long and taking off your mittens to take iphone photos. I might have fared better with my DSLR camera, (I can operate it with gloves on) but I opted not to bring it this trip. I did however record my own rant which I will be posting to Rick Mercer as soon as I get a chance to upload it. Silly but fun!

We did a drive by of the Hockey Hall of Fame, or as die hard Canadian hockey fans would call it, church. (Hockey is a religion in Canada.) Really cool building-Toronto has some gorgeous architecture. 

And then there was of course, the obligatory viewing on the CN Tower. Jenna very kindly offered to take me up, but as we were sitting there on the street, the observation deck was being swallowed up by clouds. No point in going all the way up to see absolutely nothing! I was fine with it-I've done the Space Needle in Seattle, so it wasn't really a big deal to not go up.

I loved the little trolley buses. This shot shows the old ones. The new ones look very much like Japanese bullet trains. I had hoped to find time to ride one, even briefly, but just didn't get to it. 

For lunch, we went to Trattoria Nervosa in Yorkville. It was a really cool Italian eatery. We ordered a traditional Italian pizza and a Caesar salad to share. The selfie (right) was taken in the entryway. I loved the medallion on the floor. The bike was just around the corner in front of one of the many trendy little shops. I had a great time visiting with Jenna and getting to know her. We'll see one another again in early March when we both fly to LA for NMO Patient Day.

Jenna dropped me off at one of the subway stations after lunch and I made my way back to the airport, just in time to get through an enormous backlog at the security checkpoint. Fortunately, I was able to go through an accessible line, which was a life saver. My flight home was rough-we had major turbulence the entire way and I didn't get out of my seat the whole time. Normally, I don't mind turbulence-that's how you know you're flying, but I was feeling a bit under the weather and so it wasn't as much fun as it normally would be. Fortunately, our flight arrived 1/2 hour early, so that kind of made up for it.

I really enjoyed my trip to Toronto. I'd never been before and that's now as far east in Canada as I've ever been. I plan to write about the actual work I was doing there for the Canadian MS Society, but it will be posted over on their site, when I do. 

So...I am home now and playing catch up with various things-laundry, emails, blogging, etc. (Oh the glamour of it all!) I have a few projects in motion that need my attention. I'll be making a list first thing tomorrow morning. No rest for the wicked!

Things Worth Celebrating

Back in March, I went to Whistler with the Para Nordic Cross Country Skiing is Believing program to do some photography. My friend Andrea had asked me to come do some photography for them to provide to their funders. There was also the possibly some of the photos being published in a BC XC ski magazine. I was more than happy to support this amazing program. (Which, if you missed it, I posted about here.) 

I now have copies of the magazine! This is it:

It's distributed BC wide.

Two of my photographs appear with an article that talks about the program. One is at the top with the header (two sit skiers racing) and the other is the second down on the right. (A group of sit skiers practicing what to do if they should tip over.)

Here's my photo credit! I am really chuffed about this because it's the first time my photos have been published outside of artistic publications. I am still not quite comfortable labelling myself as a photographer-I am not technical about it at all. I shoot and edit with what feels right to my artistic eye, but I can't for the life of me tell you what a f-stop is, nor do I care. All I know is that I enjoy shooting and editing and I really loved the opportunity to have this experience.

Speaking of Andrea, last Tuesday, I went out to UBC with my friend Courtney to support Andrea as she defended her thesis, which was her work on AthletesFirst. Andrea did an fantastic job staying cool under pressure. I think the Doctors who were hearing her defence were very impressed with her as well because in the end, she was granted her Doctor of Philosophy degree! We are all *SO* proud of her!

This was the final slide of Andrea's presentation. Recognize anyone? It was sweet of her to include this photo. (I guest blogged for AthletesFirst at one point, which is why I was included in the presentation.) Another lovely thing about attending Andrea's defence was that I finally got to meet Josh Vander Vies and Meyrick Jones. Both great guys-Josh is super smart and Meyrick is really funny.

Soon Andrea will be off to the UK to do some post-doctorate work. Congratulations Dr. Andrea!!

Time Well Spent

I spent the day yesterday working on Gelli plate prints with Penn. The first day of Autumn was a windy and wet one, so it was the perfect day to be holed up in the studio with a good friend, creating.

As you can see in the photo on the left, I created quite the stack. There were thirty one 8 1/2 x 11 sheets and then about a dozen book pages that I used to clean my brayer off on in between prints. Nothing goes to waste! The print on the right was my most favourite of the day.

I also really love the one on the right. 

These ones are more subtle. They kind of remind me of Basic Grey, which is my favourite paper arts company.

I have also been working on Roben Marie Smith's You've Got Mail Art class. I haven't been doing the projects so much as working on technique right now. Don't get me wrong-the projects are great-I just want to focus on developing a looser style right now. I've been using what Roben Marie teaches to experiment in doing that.

These are four pieces where I just used card stock as my substraight:

I will probably take them to colour copy when I make copies of my gelli prints. I like to colour copy my originals so I can use them endlessly in future art projects.

I find these two particular ways of making art very relaxing. I just lay paint down and there's really no wrong way to do it. If I don't like something I've done, I simply paint over it. It's quite freeing.

Penn and I also spent some time looking at some zines from each other's collection. She just did a zine swap with her art group recently and I realized I really need to finish the zine I've been working on for some time now. I love making them, but they are a considerable amount of work. I tend to work on them in stages, so it takes months to put one together. I have the art created, I just need to decide what the content is going to be. (No mean feat!) My goal is to have Manual Dexterity 4 completed before I have hand surgery. I see the hand surgeon on Thursday and then I'll have a better idea if that's even possible. Here's hopin'!

Catching Up!

Hello! I know I've been scarce around here in the last week or so. Two reasons: 1. my laptop is on its last legs and keeps crashing and 2. volunteering! The laptop issue will be alleviated this weekend, thanks to a sweet friend who has recently upgraded her computer and has offered me her old one. (Thanks Michele!)

I have so many things to share!

Last Sunday, I got up early and headed to the park to volunteer with the annual Terry Fox Run. I finally got to meet Leah Pells and her beautiful Pads service dog Smokey who is a black Lab. You know how I feel about black Labs! Smokey helps Leah serve the students she teaches and connects with them in a way only sweet gentle dogs can do. He is a beautiful boy and so incredibly mellow. Indy desperately wanted to play with him, but he was working.

The Terry Fox Run was lovely. My favourite part was all the message people wrote in chalk on the park sidewalk where the run ended. I took the selfie posted above in that spot. I love that people did that. There was also a banner for people to sign saying who they were running for. I put my husband's name and also added the name of a little boy who was diagnosed 2 weeks ago with a rare brain stem cancer. I only know of this child through a friend, but I wanted his parents to see a photo of his name on Terry's banner and know that they are not alone as they face this terrible thing. This is exactly what Terry was hoping to put a stop to when he began his Marathon of Hope.

  The Vintage Pearl and Curly Girl Design partnered for a giveaway and I was lucky enough to be the winner! The necklace & note cards that were also part of the prize arrived yesterday in the magic mailbox. Had to giggle that they *almost* got my name right! 

Everything came wrapped in this mission statement bag.

Curly Girl sent me a stack of 25 of their greeting cards. When I saw a card set was part of the prize, I figured there would be about a 1/2 dozen, not 25! I think they sent me one of everything they make! The cards are lovely and I predict some very good mail days for friends in the future. 

The Vintage Pearl prize was so prettily wrapped.

Inside the box was this silver necklace which was *so* meant to be mine. I put it on right away and I don't think I want to take it off. I love how the little pearl tinkles against the silver when I move and reminds me its there.

THANK YOU Vintage Pearl & Curly Girl! I feel so spoiled! Now I just have to decide what goodies to treat myself to with the $25 gift certificates from each of them that were also included!

I have begun volunteering with the organizing committee for the 2014 Wheelchair Curling Championships which are being held in my community in late January. So far it's been a challenge with my computer crashing constantly, but the work has been interesting. 

I had dinner with my friend Courtney last Sunday and she asked if I would be willing to work with the Skiing Is Believing program this year. I was very touched that she would invite me because I know how much this program means to her. I was thrilled to accept. (It was a no-brainer!)

I also got the official word that I will be working with a new group of students for the Interprofessional Health Mentors Program for 2013-2014. I'll be finishing up with my current group at the end of the year, so they will overlap briefly. I met with my current group last week and we were all kind of stunned to realize we will only meet one more time before their program wraps up. The time flew by so quickly! Our last meeting is going to be over dinner somewhere nice. I am pretty sure they will remain in touch-they are such lovely women. I am excited to meet my new group at the end of this month and see which disciplines they are from.

I'm meeting up with my art partner in crime, Penn tomorrow and we're going to spend the day Gelli Printing. She is heading off to England shortly to visit family, so it will be nice to hang out and have an art day before she goes.

Autumn officially arrives tomorrow. I am already enjoying hearing Indy crunching through the fallen leaves in our backyard. I wait all year for this season-it's my most favourite. I think this says it best:

From my heart to yours, HAPPY AUTUMN!

Of Note

1. One year ago today, we sat in our family doctor's office and heard news that no one every wants to get: my husband had kidney cancer. This past year has been incredibly rough on so many levels and we're not out of the woods yet. In less than 2 months, we'll celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary and I am just so grateful that this man that I love so much is alive and fighting for his health. 

2. My blog turned NINE (!) at the beginning of the month and I'm just getting around to mentioning it now. Yes, I started blogging in the dark ages of the internet. This post is number 1548. Go me! I am humbled that people are still interested in reading about my art, my life and the random stuff that rattles around in my head. I will have to plan something great for next year when my blog turns 10!

3. I sent Peter Grande and the good people of MV-1 Canada some event photos and a thank you card for being such generous corporate sponsors for the inaugural NMO walk/run. This week they sent me a thank you card for my thank you card. This is the epitome of what it means to be Canadian. Funnily enough, I've had this happen before-Canadian sportscaster Brian Williams has twice sent me thank you cards for my thank you cards. Its charming and sweet and it makes my heart smile when this happens. I've hung MV-1 Canada's card on my inspiration board where I will see their kind words every day.

4. My friend Deryn Mentock, who is a stunningly talented artisan has published her first book, The Jewelry Maker's Design Book: An Alchemy of Objects. I am so incredibly proud of her. Years ago, when we were starting out in the mixed media art world, we formed an artists' circle made up of good friends who  supported one another as we built our art careers. It's so fantastic to see her having success and to know how hard she's worked and how far she's come. I couldn't be happier for her. Congratulations Deryn!

Magic Mailbox: I've Got Mailart!

On my way home from picking my husband up from the ER the other day, I stopped at the post office and this beautiful envelope was waiting for me: 

                           

Isn't it gorgeous? It was full of goodies from Roben-Marie Smith! I am going to put it up on the inspiration board behind my desk so I can see it every time I sit there to work.

Roben-Marie has taken her beautiful work and turned it into collage (left) and sticker sheets (right). These are destined to find their way into my art journals. The colours and textures are so delicious!

                       

She has also made these delightful postcards! Roben-Marie has two online stores if you'd like to order some artsy goodness for yourself. There's her Etsy shop (which for right now is on vacation, but be sure to add it to your favourites so you can find it later when she resumes business) and there's her Paperbag Studios shop where she has a whole host of rubber that is perfect for art journalling.

She also has some really cool online workshops. My friend Greta has been taking You've Got Mailart and recently sent me this envelope she'd made in class. I hope to take this one in the near future-it looks like it would be really fun and inspiring. She is one exceptionally talented woman!

THANK YOU Roben-Marie for your perfectly timed gift. It arrived on a day when I most needed some mailart love. You are extremely generous and I am deeply appreciative of your kindness.

Now I want to sit down and play with paint!

The Magic Mailbox: Postcards & Ephemera

Yesterday was an good mail day!

Teresa Robinson and I decided to do a postcard exchange and this is the one she sent to me. She's been working on an index card a day for some time now. You can see some of them here.

I love how the message is so serendipidous. I'm going to hang it on my inspiration board behind my desk so I can read it often! I like the part about being of service (the foundation of my life) and becoming "an evergrowing channel for the light". I've talked about luminaries several times here on my blog. It's a theme that comes up over and over in my life.

This was the stamp on the envelope Teresa sent. I am a fan of unusually shaped postage. I'll be keeping this! I'm going to peel it off carefully and put it in my journal.

The second piece of mail was a package from Jessica. A couple weeks ago, Janice of Papier Valise and Janine of Uppercase Magazine hosted a Paper Stampede in Calgary, Alberta. I emailed Jessica to tell her about it (talk about enabling!) and the lucky duck went. There were all kinds of amazing goodies to be had and she very generously sent me some of her purchases! Have a look see:

Fabric ribbons with numbers & x's and o's, a  matchbook style package of 5c hardware store tags, a foxy "Got Craft" button for my button collection, bird book pages...

...a copy of Wordbasket from 1978 (they always have the most amusing ads), a packet of 90 joss papers...

..charming letter press postcards...

...Canadiana postcards...

...two packets chock full of emphemeral goodness...

(the reverse of both packets)

I was absolutely delighted to find vintage medical labels, which I collect inside, along with some really cool film canister labels! There was so much amazing stuff to add to my journals.

And then there was this: a Canadian Land Inventory map from 1971, the year I was born. I have an affinity for old maps, especially those from Canada. I opened it up to find this:

The colours are actually more vibrant than they appear in this photo. I was delighted! I have several ideas of what I'd like to use this for. I'm going to colour copy it-it's just too amazing to cut up!

Thank you sweet friends for such a great mail day! I loved everything and can't wait to play in the studio over the long weekend. Your timing was perfect!

An Art Date

 

It's been an artful weekend so far. Yesterday my pal Carol came over for an art date, to try her hand at Gelli Plate printing. While she was busy playing with paint, I put together this journal for myself using some of the prints I've made. I absolutely LOVE it!

Here's a quick flip through video I made to give you a peek of what's inside. Several friends have encouraged me to make similar journals available in my Etsy shop, so I've decided to do it. The one in the video was a prototype so there will be some improvements to the ones I will be making for my shop. I'll let you know as soon as they are ready! 

I wanted to try printing on labels yesterday. I think these would be fun to add into my journals. I bought a box of labels, so I have plenty left to experiment with.

Carol had a great time creating. She ended up printing about 30 pages and she said she could see why I said bring a whole package of cardstock. Once you start, you can't stop! She made some great papers and I think she will be hunting down textures to use for next time!

We had a nice lunch-I made my favourite chicken, brie and fig jam sandwiches and Carol brought a yummy chocolate cream pie to share. It's amazing how quickly 6 hours can fly by when you're having fun!

Playing With Paint

Yesterday I spent the entire day making papers on Penn's Gelli Plate. This was the end result of 6 1/2 hours of non-stop printing-a 1 1/2 inch thick stack of yummy papers EIGHTY IN TOTAL (!!!) I can use however I please! (Made with a fracture wrist, no less! I've decided that either I am insane or just really hardcore about art!)

Penn gave me a quick demo and then I go to work playing with all the possible colour combinations I could come up with. She and I own a fair bit of cheap acrylic paints, so there were lots of colours to choose from. Penn also owns a ton of stencils, to the combinations really were endless.

Here are a few samples:

Left: Made using a simple circle stencil. 

Right: I used a number stencil, which I put on backwards, but I really don't think it matters-it's still cool.

Left: Using a Cathedral Windows stencil. 

Right: The circle stencil again, but printing the black circles first and then over printing them with straight colour. This is one of my most favourite papers. It's very Basic Grey-like.

    

Left: I used a rough organic like material that is loosely grid-like. This is my other most favourite paper. Again, very much like Basic Grey's style, which I love so much. 

Right: I used a grid of plastic letters which are actually stickers. Penn took the sticky off using baby powder. The letter are sort of the kind you might see in old fashioned restaurant menu boards.

Sadly, the colours here are not as vibrant or true as they appear in real life, but at least you get the idea. I took some photos of the process of using the Gelli Plate so you can see how simple it is:

All you need are cheap dollar store acrylic paints. The paint needs to be thin and runny, so save your Goldens for other projects. Bright primary colours work so much better than earth tones or muted shades. My favourite magic colours are always bright turquoise, a bright true orange, bubble gum pink and a grape purple. Add a dab of these to any other colours you are working with in any medium and you've got magic.

Stencils don't need to be store bought. Penn and I used a variety of things that were just lying around in our studios-old doilies, laces, plastic bottle caps, tools for making marks & scraping, etc. The lace doily pictured here is from the dollar store and is actually rubber. 

First you squirt a small amount of paint onto the Gelli Plate and use a large brayer to spread it out evenly. You only need a thin coat. Next, you press your stencil into the paint. In this case, we used the number stickers I mentioned.

Next you lay your paper down on top of the plate and smooth it either using your hands or a brayer. We used cardstock weight papers to print on. Penn had some old tabbed dividers we used. The weight of the paper matters-it has to do with how the paint gets transferred, so regular computer paper doesn't get the best result. The paint needs somewhere to go, so thicker paper seems to work better.

Once you have smoothed the paper into the paint, you just peel it up gently and set it aside to dry. It dries almost instantly, so you can move on to your next print. If there's paint left on the Gelli Plate, that's great-we didn't clean it off, ever-we just kept adding paint because part of the magic is the wabi-sabi effect of having random colours and bits of left over stencil shapes show up in a completely different print.

I especially loved over printing my pages. If I got something I wasn't keen on, I just printed right over it. Some of my best papers were done this way. There really is no waste of paint or paper-everything is usable, including the stack of book pages we were using to clean the brayer off on, in between prints.

My plan is to colour copy my papers to use in future art projects. Penn and I are also copying our pages for each other and we'll trade. Since all our pages were made using binder tabs, they are already 3 hole punched, so I will trim the tabs off and pop them into a binder for storage.

Now all I need to do is get myself a Gelli Plate! The 8 1/2 x 11 is $30. That's very inexpensive when you consider how much you can create with it! There are tons of video tutorials online of ways to use it too, so the possibilities are endless! Penn says the plates are only available online via the Gelli company so far, so if you want one, you have to order it through them.

When I got home, there was mail waiting for me from my friend Lisa Call. Don't you just love the presentation?!?

Lisa is a very talented Precious Metal Clay, jewelery and mixed media artist. Her work is exquisite. Years ago, at my first Artfibrefest, we met in person for the first time. She said she had a special gift for me and gave me a letter "L" charm. She was surprised to know I'd never owned anything with an "L" on it till that moment. I put it on my silver bracelet and I treasure it still. It was one of the sweetest and most unexpected gifts I've ever received. 

Yesterday, she sent me this adorable camera charm she made for me, to add to my bracelet. If you look at the back, there is "XO" on it too. LOVE IT! I will treasure it forever as well. I was so surprised. Lisa, THANK YOU! You are so thoughtful!

All in all, it was a very lovely and productive day.