Thursday, July 31, 2014

And Now for My Dark Side

There is no accounting for the human psyche.

I am totally obsessed by 'Vikings'.

The combination of sex, religion, survival and the supernatural in this Canadian/Irish production is just too much for me.  

I'm hooked.

I'm sitting here waiting for some glaze to dry on a new piece of paper and with nothing better to do I thought I'd share a trailer.





Ah Ragnar, you can lie your shield under my bed anytime! 

:)


Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Adrift on a Sea of Sand



This picture isn't finished but I like it and I posted it to 'Francie McGlynn Art' on face book so I'm posting it here, too.

I suppose I was about six when this was taken.  

We are at a mystery beach.  

It isn't likely Lake Ontario because it is 1955 and my parents think Lake Ontario is full of polio bacteria just waiting to lock their kids into iron lungs.

I'm adrift on a sea of sand but I am also watchful - the way kids who are never sure which way the wind is going to blow, are watchful.

It's hard to be small.




Friday, July 18, 2014

1934



My newest mixed media picture.

It is called '1934'.

It is the middle of the Great Depression.  My mother is about 17 and she is the figure in the centre.

Times are tough but the great thing about the picture is the 'attitude' they have.

Cheeky teenagers!


Some things never change.  :)




*

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Sacred Blood


According to MotherPeace 6 is 'a peak number on the scale of experience' and it usually points 'to good feelings'.

Which well describes how I feel about the Travelling Women's Art Journal so my contribution includes 6 female figures based on the prehistoric Venus figurines.

They float on the cosmic sea encased in ribbons of blood which represent the flow of time.  

There, in Time, the blood that has flowed from their (our) bodies is mixed not only with each others but also with the blood of our mothers, grandmothers, grandmothers grandmothers grandmothers back to the beginning.

And so my part is over.



The journal will be mailed on Monday.


Thursday, July 10, 2014

Women's Travelling Art Journal II


 I decided today would be the day I prepared the paper.

First the India ink.



Next came the gel.  

I've found if I put this down I can actually erase if I make a mistake. I sketch whatever I'm doing with a neutral coloured oil pastel so the pictures are usually big - I'm already wondering how I'm going to work so SMALL.

eek


After the glaze it was time to measure - and that's when I found this!





Messages!  

Secret letters from one woman to the next.  I can't look at them now as my hands are all mucky but I can't wait.  Notes of encouragement and good will I'm sure!  

Ana this is a marvelous experience, can't thank you enough for being the one to set it n motion!



My new canvas is sitting on the left next to a picture I have been working on off and on for awhile.  

Quite a difference in size.


eek (again)




Four more days.

This will be interesting!



Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Bee Cause



This picture started out full of symbols of creativity.

I was thinking of calling it "Birthing Instructions for the Post Menopausal Woman." 

But then I heard more bad news about the bees and my picture started to change.  The tiny passage to the womb closed - you can see it in the bottom right.

Three bees became impaled on the spikes that protrude from the fish. 

Mother is suffering.


I've seen one honey bee this summer.


***

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

The Women's Travelling Art Journal



The Women's Travelling Art Journal landed on my door step today.  

Actually it was handed to me by a man in a red station wagon at 7:30 am just as I was letting the dog out and wasn't really awake - but that's another story.



To be a link in a circle of creative women from all over the US and Canada is spine tingling and once I had seen the book I understood there were many messages in it that I was meant to see.

Two examples:








***



Now it is my turn.

I have seven days.


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The Unquiet City

Canada Day Celebrations at Niagara-on-the -Lake


I took my dog for a walk after I returned from the 

Labour Day Festivities that go on every September in 

my home town of Merritton.  I expected my street to 

be quiet in the old Sunday sense, i.e. businesses 

closed and everyone relaxing.


But a large garbage truck rumbled and clanked to a

stop in front of me and a man jumped out and 

started emptying the recycle bins into the back of 

the truck.


I was shocked.


"I'm surprised your union let's you work on Labour 

Day!" I said to him.


"What union," he said grimly.


***


Today isn't Labour Day.


But it is Canada Day which is a national holiday.


It should be quieter than the normal work day.

People who aren't essential workers should be 

gathered in groups to celebrate.


But it wasn't quiet. 


Non-union workers were everywhere.


***
 

The noise of a city at work continues 7 days a week

in 2014.


sigh


The unions are dying and I'm beginning to think

they may take our sanity with them.