Elaine's Art and Life Blog

Studio work is coming along well. I am beginning the 5th commissioned portrait of 10. I will post the last two soon.

On the weekend we went toLadner Marsh. It was M's birthday present to me to take me on a paid tour of the marsh area so that we could learn about the tides and other information we would need to know in order to go into the marsh on our own. It was a 3 hour paddle with several other paddlers. One of whom took this photo of us.



M took me for dinner to the pub on the dock where I had steak and she had ribs both with fries in order to replace all those calories we burned on the water.

It was an amazing and wonderful day, windy and cool and felt like a bit of an adventure because we had to fight currents and wind part of the way. Can't wait to go back so that we can poke around of our own in the wilderness area and spend time taking photos and watching wild birds. We saw heron, feral swans and Eagles up close.

Ming and I are sitting in the back garden among the red Geraniums. Vida lies peacefully on her mat all innocence and lovely doggie like. Our friends Ron and Elinor, mentioned previously, left yesterday after a pleasant few days of visiting with us except for the traumatic incident of the chocolate eating dog in the nighttime. Why do pets so often choose the most exhausted and drained time for their people to have their near death, and even, death experiences?

Ron and Elinor's visit meant we got to go touring and eating, mostly eating, in Vancouver. We spent hours chatting and gadding about. We went for a walk in Stanley Park on a glorious sun sparkled July 1st. We ate scrumptious salads and fish N' chips with them and Elinor's cousin and niece at The Tea House.

That evening Ron and I took a trip around the block to Choices grocery store. We selected spiced Bison sausages and Lamb sausages for dinner. We cooked them with Roma tomatoes and served them with delicious fresh Kale sauteed with red onion fried slowly in butter and with red potatoes. For dessert we had Breyer's Chocolate ice cream and Okanogan Cherries.

The next day, Thursday, M and I worked while Ron and Elinor visited other friends. Thursday evening they took us to the renowned Phnom Penh restaurant. We were all thrilled with the menu and mused over it for a long time before deciding on Butter Beef, Fried Chicken with Lime Dipping Sauce, Green Papaya Salad, Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Crepe), Pea Tips and Chaotom (ground shrimp on sugar cane). the Butter Beef, chicken, Pea Tips and Green Papaya Salad were sublime. The Banh Xeo and Chaotom did not live up to previous experiences at other restaurants. Where were all the herbs that were supposed to go with the Banh Xeo? Where were the chunks of pork and large shrimp that should be in the crepe filling?

M and I shared a tall Ching Po Leung drink meant for dessert but we like to have it for an appetizer. It is a cold drink with dark green seaweed, barley, longan, agar, another red fruit that I don't know the name of and crushed ice in a brown sugar water.
For dessert we shared a Taro Tapioca, a Coconut Agar, and Durian Rice Pudding, all delicious. We drank lots of green tea and Ron had a Tsing Tao beer.

We left the restaurant in a state of rapture and wandered around Chinatown enjoying the warm summer evening light.

We arrived home around 10:30, very tired after a long day. We were greeted by the bright eyed, tail wagging Vida. Ron went into the bedroom to put something away and emerged with an empty chocolate box in his hand and a stricken look in his eyes. We all followed him back to a scene of chocolate carnage. Vida got into their luggage where they had stored several boxes of chocolates and chocolate bars that were intended for friends they were going to visit on this trip. The remains of all but one box of chocolates with teeth marks were lying among the strewn about clothing. We were all in shock. We have tried and failed to teach Vida not to touch food we do not give to her and try to be very careful to keep things out of her reach. But, if the bedroom door is not pushed tightly closed, Vida has been known to get it open and we did not remember to warn Ron and Elinor of this fact about our sticking bedroom door.

Thankfully M has some veterinary training and veterinarian friends. She calculated exactly how much real chocolate was in the amount that Vida ate to find out the risk of toxicity and contacted them. With visions of either thousands of dollars of vet bills or a dead dog, we decided to monitor her for signs of toxicity before taking her to the clinic for very traumatic and invasive, not to mention cripplingly, for us, expensive treatment. Shortly she began to emit chocolate from various orifices.

Vida didn't look very comfortable and, if I may project a little here, looked a little sheepish as she upchucked and defecated chocolate several times during the evening.

Poor Ron and Elinor felt very guilty, but, quite soon after the incident both M and I felt that she would be alright. She is. 36 hours later she has no signs or symptoms left of any discomfort or bad effects. Throughout the whole nightmare she seemed to be wondering what all the fuss was about. Ming stayed home on Friday to monitor and I went to work tired from the stress and so little sleep. When I arrived home at dinner time she greeted me as the dinner serving mommy she knows me to be with tail wagging and a big grin. My response was "you little bitch". She just smiled her tolerant little smile and followed me to the kitchen . Ming continues to monitor her vital signs for any sign of the effects of toxins.

It is 8:19 AM as I begin to write this and I have been up 21/2 hours. This is unusual for me. I love the morning, I like being up early, but, mostly, I can't seem to do it because I love to sleep more. I got up early because I was hungry. Sometimes, if I do not eat a heavy enough dinner, I get hungry in the middle of the night (or 2 or 3 in the morning). I get up have some cheese go back to bed and then I can go back to sleep. Last night I had a light dinner but I had a large oatmeal cookie, chocolate and fruit and blueberries and yogurt with granola followed by a small bowl of chips but I still woke up at  6 hungry.  Waking up this late means I won't get back to sleep. So here I sit after coffee and toast and peanut butter completely zoned out, typing. I have already checked my email, my facebook, and my google reader. I am trying to decide if I should lie on the couch for a while or begin the computer prep work for my next painting.

The painting is of "The Bichons". I am painting two little Bichon Frise ...Ha Ha, I can't believe it. I am painting cute little fluffy things. I have always been way too much of a snob about art and the thought of painting commissions of cute puppies has always horrified me. Well, no more. I am looking forward to it.




How can I make a painting that is about subject matter that lends itself so often (in my admittedly snobbish opinion) to very bad art ? More important how can I make it and not make a parody of it, how can I make sincere art about Bichon Frise? I want to give the puppies their due.  I will just start and see.  Maybe it will be bad.

I am almost finished "Bessie and Lee", the third in the series of commissions, and I am feeling it is working well.  I will post it soon.

When I look at art right now I look with an eye to a connection to the subject matter that is kind, that gives something rather than spreads desolation.  Not that I don't see a place for pointing out evil in art, I do see that.  I think that irony, blood,  guts, death, anger, politics and/or sex all have there place. I have made a lot of some of those kinds of art.  And, I feel there is a lot of room for humour, connection and kindness too.  One place I see some of the kind of work I am looking for is on Heart as Arena.

I got to get started on my day with the puppies. 

Art I am doing
Studio time has been wonderful time recently.  I am working on portrait commissions as well as the urban landscape series base in and around Vancouver. 

You can find the results on flickr of the first two commissions.  I am finding my way with this.  I have surprised myself at how painting in acrylic from life is coming back to me, well, painting from photos of life.  I am following my nose as I work from one painting to another.  I am learning as I am going and I am being paid to do it.  What could be better.

Lee in the 70's



These are all paintings of the members of one family.  I find the whole thing fascinating and stimulating.  I am a bit of a sociophobe while at the same time I am curious and drawn to people, always interested to learn about them and try to understand them.  Painting portraits fulfills some need to focus on the faces of others that can't be fulfilled in life, people don't like you to stare.  I admit, it is all a bit narcissistic, this painting thing. But I won't let that hold me back..

Art to see
There  is a thing called Drawn, a series of exhibitions of drawings happening around town this summer.  I want to find time to see some of it especially Anne Kipling at Douglas Udel,  Val Nelson at the Bau-Xi.  Carrie Walker at Jeffrey Boone.  The Evolution of Line Drawings at Petley-Jones looks intriguing too.  I also want to go to the VAG for the Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art.  Also at the VAG is Reece Terris who exhibited at Artropolis 2003. I was the Executive Assistant on that exhibition. I remember Reece and his piece there.  He is a committed artist, and hardworking ..to the point of masochism. I am very intrigued to see his piece Ought Apartment.

The rest of my life
The day job is going fine  ...very busy right now, but not too busy (just the  way I like it).  I work at a place that provides programs and services to the communities that I am part of. I feel lucky to be there. 

Home life is humming along. I have had a few camping and boating trips with M already in May and June.  Last weekend was spent cleaning and gardening and this weekend I plan to get my hair streaked, work in the garden, go to a baby shower for the dykes who are expecting twins and, on Sunday, work in the studio. 



I am expecting visitors from Newfoundland at the end of the month who put me up for a week when I visited in 2001.  They were wonderful supportive friends to me for many many years before I moved away from Newfoundland in 1992.  I am looking forward to seeing Ron, the retired mathematics professor and gourmet cook and Elinor the storytelling belly-dancing librarian again.

It’s another glorious day in May. It’s the very end of May and I have nothing to report to you today except that I am sitting at breakfast writing in my journal trying to slow down time, wanting to not fill my spring days with so much that I can’t measure them, live them in a measured way.

It’s still spring, the days will be getting longer for another month. There’s a feeling of growth and movement.

I’m measuring time in earnest now …only another month and the days get shorter, only another month and July begins. Then we have July and August before the end of things; the end of summer, of warmth, dry, light, biking in short pants and sandals. Still, I love the time from March till June because, despite the measuring, this time feels fecund, glorious, beautiful, and I can almost forget, at times, the end of summer.

During July and August the measuring continues but feels speeded up and at the same time flat. Summer is here; if we are lucky it is dry and warm. Each day brings us closer to fall. There is not enough time for measuring but I try anyway, try to slow summer down to a measurable pace.

When summer is over I start to love the fall …”the flush on the face of a dying man”*, the reminder of the glory that life is, the good, the bad, the banal. I love the fall too because I can give in to it, to the end, relax and stop measuring till spring signs begin again.


*Perhaps I’ve misquoted here from a poem that I read years ago and only remember this line, this way. I have searched for the actual quote with no success. If anybody knows which poem and author it is from and if it is misquoted please tell me.

It is Tuesday, studio day, and I have not been in the studio for 2 weeks because I have had two long weekends in a row and took last Tuesday and Wednesday as part of one of the long weekends.

So far this morning I have washed dishes, rolled out the kayak to dry, uploaded photos from the camera and, finally, started working on the next portrait by printing off photos to work from. Takes a while to get going. Now I am diverting myself writing this before I make lunch and take it into the studio.

The first of our long weekends was long because I took a Monday off work as a vacation day so that M and I could get outdoors for a few days. We went to Golden Ears Park and camped for 4 nights. I posted a blog about it here.  It has photos and not too much text to read.

This past weekend was the Victoria Day Holiday weekend and I cleaned up from the trip, bought things for the garden and did some gardening and took a kayak day trip to Widgeon Creek with D and her friend M from Argentina. Then we went out to dinner with them. If you click on the photo of the Beaver Dam you will see 5 photos on Flickr that we took while we kayaked in the rain.

So, we are happily paddling away on Widgeon Creek with the dog in M's Kayak giving us grief with her constant shifting about.  But all in all it is great to be out there on our mild paddling adventure.  When we get to the end of the part of the Creek that is accessible to us we come up against very strong current and I am swept into the bank on the other side of the creek from M where the icy water is deep. Widgeon Creek is usually a very mild paddle but at this time of the year, on the right fork, there can be fast deep water. I am now pinned against the bank behind a bunch of branches that will not allow me to paddle out. I can't go forward or go back and the current is pinning me from one side up against the bank. I use my paddle to push the kayak away from the bank. It is not long enough to get me past the branches. The branches are hooking in the camera strap around my neck where my new camera sits in a, thankfully, water proof bag and into my hat and fleece collar. I lose my hat and grasp my glasses so they will not be pulled off by a branch. The Kayak tips dramatically and water pours in. I look down at the clear cold water and decide I am not going in there. I am now soaking from the waist down. M is trying to be helpful from the other side and I ask her to let me figure it out. I figure out that the only way to get out without swimming is to lift the branches and, somehow, I manage to do that without getting hauled out or losing my glasses and I move forward away from the current.

Whew! That was exciting. A moderate twist in our mild to moderate adventure.

We are carried easily down the creek to the Pitt Lake and after another 45 minutes in the pouring rain we are at the boat launch. I recover my hat on the way. I am warm enough while paddling but once I get out of the boat I go straight to the large port a potty with my dry bag holding dry clothes and wait outside for far too long, getting more and more chilled, for the occupant to emerge so that I can go in and change.

Have you ever tried to pull fleece tights over wet legs? It is a very good feeling, though, once they are on and I change my now soaking wet fleece jacket for a dry one. We drive home thankful that we now have a car with a working heater and a properly working defogger.

Time to move from trip mode to studio mode. I have 10 commissions waiting for me and I am now ready to go back to work on them. I am in the studio today and tomorrow, in the office Thursday and Friday and off to Alice Lake near Squamish for an overnight camping trip with D and T and M on Saturday .

I have a feeling we will be having some quiet weekends at home after that so that I can have one more day a week in the studio.

I will plant the rest of my garden in the evenings ...the lovely long spring evenings. And, I will trim the bamboo, clean up the weeds and mow the lawn too.

I found this on Heart as Arena.  It delights me to come across odd useless pretty things  in the street.    It is art by Knittaplease

Remember this photo. One year ago Vida had surgery to remove a large lump from her back. When the tests came back they showed it was cancerous and the Vet told us it would come back quickly and she would have to be euthanized. M decided to treat her homeopathically and every evening for 6 months she prepared a remedy and administered it by giving her a dose of remedy every 10 minutes for 1 1/2 hours . After 6 months she administered the remedy in the same way every week and continues to do so. She will continue the treatment for another year.

Vida has shown no signs of re-occurance of the tumor. She bounced back immediately after the operation and has been healthy and happy, glossy and active all this time.

I attended my second same sex wedding last weekend at Manning Park. The beautiful couple, as seen in their engagement party attire in the portrait, are not only married they are expecting twins in about 4 months. This portrait was my wedding present to them and is part of the series (mentioned previously) that I am presently working on.

I found this interesting article written in 1995 about the art of portraiture. 

I have updated my website at elainemari.com. You will see that I now have a link to my new paintings and that I have updated my bio, art statement and resume. I am finally publishing the paintings that I have been working on recently and am presently finishing up the painting of the seawall that you will see documented on flickr. You can also click through to those photos from the "paintings" link on my website.

I will publish new work as I finish it from now on.

I have begun to take commissions for portraits as well. So contact me if you are interested for prices and other info.

Things are picking up around here in the land of infinite spring.  The sun is shining the temperature is climbing and I am thinking I have to water the plants before I head out for a short hike here.  The week has been full of work at day job and in studio, some socializing during the week and getting my hair cut and dyed. 

Yesterday I attended a birthday brunch and spent part of the afternoon wandering around Denman and Davie with M and Vida  trying to find steering fluid to replace the fluid  in the puddle that we found under our car when we emerged from brunch.  While running in and out of Seven Elevens, London Drugs, Safeway and the like we also did sweeps of  the parked cars for a likely replacement for the ailing 1989 Celica.   We have been sweeping for a new car for a while now what with the heater and defroster not working, the steering fluid leak,  the radio and cd player dead, the right door  handle missing and a leak in the hatch back area that is forming mold. The cost of repair is much higher than the value of our little car.  We have settled  on a Toyota Matrix, good for the camper, dog owner, right price range, reliable, fuel economical and all that car talk stuff. Colour preference red, after that silver, or a sweet metallic yellow.  It is coming soon.

I checked out Jeffrey's gallery (Jeffrey Boone Gallery) and his present show of Steven Hubert's work  much of which I liked.  Some of which I felt was a bit surface and which I did not feel came from what the artist knew.  There were some very interesting painting techniques for the artist in you to learn from.

Jeffrey is my friend. He gave me a solo show a couple of years ago.  He was my art dealer for a while.   I like him and I like his vision for his gallery.  He takes risks and shows work that can be challenging which is important in a town where there is too little of that.

I wandered on Granville St. before going to the hair dresser and saw some gallery windows where nothing interested me.  In particular I was not interested in: Gathie Falk at Equinox, of course I only saw the piece in the window, I thought it bland and more of the same and Find Love, Find  Art at On the Rise Artist's Collective; sorta pretty but without much depth, nice to add a little colour to your living room and will not threaten your guests.  I actually went in this gallery, they were having an opening after hours.

Gotta go vacuum now because I am having an overnight guest staying on Monday night, the very adventurous sounding partner of my nephew whom I want to make feel as comfortable as possible while sleeping on my couch.  Did I tell you how many relatives I have?  I am always having  exciting drop ins by people traveling the country and the world.  After the vacuuming I am hiking then having a quiet evening with Caroline Quentin and Blue Murder.

Last weekend M and Vida and I walked on Iona Beach again. Yes, we go there a lot, it is close; less than 30 minutes from our house. It is calm, quiet, very few people, a good place to spend the day. Vida loves it. As part of the new series I am working on I painted the parking lot at Iona, empty at the end of the day except for one lone van in the beautiful light.



I am working on this series and on some portraits. I was asked by someone to paint a commissioned portrait and I accepted. I am finding it educational and, so far, enjoying it. I have not enjoyed commissions in the past so I think I have jumped some sort of self imposed hurdle with this new one.

I missed a couple of painting shows this past few months, this was one http://tinyurl.com/dk97kp. I think I would have liked it, but I find it very hard to tell from a photo. It feels bold and joyous the way he makes marks and works with the paint. I am also interested to see the work of Alan Wood http://tinyurl.com/cjvqkz that was showing at The Winsor Gallery a while back though I have not yet seen anything at The Winsor that I have enjoyed . I find Wood's use of colour, texture and shape intriguing. The Winsor website says "His interest in the dynamics of light and colour of the Ocean, Beach, Forest and Sky has dominated his landscape work throughout his career". This would explain why I am drawn to it.

M and I are off to Belcarra Park today for our day in the sun. Till next time....

More drawings uploaded to my drawing blog here. 

Working on a painting that may be coming to the end of it's making.  I am soon going to post photos of what i've been up to in painting.  It is very different from the drawings, very.  Stay tuned.

Coming to the end of the painting makes me in a limbo sort of state.  What will I do next?  Usually I have an idea of what I will work on next before I finish a piece of art.  Now I am all eyes, all over the place looking and feeling out what exactly feels like the right place to go.  I can't really describe in words where that is, it is where I am right now and I just have to recognize it.  See, can't describe it in words.

What's with this Arctic Outflow crap?  Love the light though.   Still pretty warm considering it is Canada.  Don't like not being able to take my bike to work, like yesterday, when it was so slippery (for Vancouver) that from the bus I saw a nice little black hybrid with it's front tire up on the sidewalk, it's pretty little front crashed into a pole and the driver's side window in pieces on the ground.  It's emergency lights were flashing orange and nobody was in sight.  Looked like they had just ran off to call the boss, from somewhere safer, to say they would be late for work, like me, sitting on the public humiliation that is our public transit. My punishment for living in 'unprepared for winter ' Vancouver is the # 17 Oak, crawling down hills, leaving long lines of frozen potential passengers in it's wake.

What is a snow day in Vancouver without a complaint in every single blog and facebook update?

Otherwise things are good, the usual ups and downs, but nothing to make note of today but the weather.

Going to take Vida for a walk in the bright cool afternoon with my eyes all over the place and a camera.

Vida finds the sunny spot.

I have not read her book, but I enjoy what she has to say about artists and genius in this video. Smart and funny.

I have been feeling dragged on by the change in weather, the uncertainty all around me and my precarious "lifestyle".  To give myself a lift I decided to spend the weekend outdoors.  On the weekend I went hiking both Saturday and Sunday. It felt great to be out in the woods and by the water all on the same weekend even if the weather did not obliterate the melancholy. M and I took Vida to Buntzen Lake on Saturday. I got in a 2.5 hour walk , part of which M sat out under a tree. We went to Spanish Banks with the Kayak on Sunday afternoon and planned that I would walk down the beach for an hour or so and she would paddle down and meet me and hang out while I had a paddle. The plan was she would paddle back. We figured this way we could avoid loading a wet dog dripping with icy water into the boat because Vida could be with the one on the beach. We would still both get a paddle in. As it turned out we did not get to the beach till around 1:30 PM and M had to put the folding kayak together. So, I just took off with Vida to get the most of the time left in the afternoon. I walked for 1.5 hours. M caught up with me in the boat. It was, by now, pouring with rain. The Kayak was getting a lot of water in it but M was happily paddling in the choppy windy conditions.  I decided to walk back as neither of us wanted to change gear and I was really into the wet walk by that time.

On my walk I came across two men dressed in oilskins and safety gear seemingly processing a huge log into timber on the beach. One of them was emerging from what he told me, when I asked, was a homemade barge boat. They were using a power saw! I asked them if they were salvaging, "yeah", one replied. hmm. Vida growled at the guy coming from the boat. He had a long gray beard and took up a ton of space, she doesn't take well unusual facial hair and space taking men.

I left M paddling back in the kayak and hiked back over the rocks in just a fleece shirt and water proof pants with the soaking Vida, arriving at the car just before M where I changed into dry clothes in the dusky deserted parking lot.

Our little adventure ended with me cobbling together a dinner of turkey sausage, edemame and buckwheat noodles tossed in Mirren sauce, and rice vinegar.

I am drawing regularly and working on paintings. I just posted the following drawing to my drawing blog.

 

Philadelphia looks like a good place to visit.

It is almost 3 weeks since M went to Vietnam and it feels like a week. Many people asked me if I was going to be lonely when she was gone, or if I was going to miss her. And I have not been lonely. I will be happy when she returns but I also like the change and time to myself. Truth be told, I have not been alone that much since she left. I work 3 days a week, I have had visiting puppies, I have Vida, I have done more socializing these past three weeks than M and I do in 3 months. That has been great, like a little holiday from the regular day to day routine. The time I have had to myself has been quiet and reflective and nice. M and I are very independent. We like each others company and our own and it works out great that way. She will be back on Wednesday and I am looking forward to her return, to all the things we will catch up on that you cannot do justice to on email, blogs and skype. It will be another reinvigorating change like her being away is.

I have not had nearly the time in the studio that I planned (due to doggy day care, and more socializing than usual and broken up studio time) but that is ok, now i will go back the the routine reinvigorated by the break in routine.

I have uploaded another drawing to the Drawing Blog and put another layer on the present painting that i am working on.




Today I begin my usual studio routine again, it is as follows:

it is tues. morning and i am getting ready to paint; get up, go to bathroom, weigh myself, wash face, fix hair, take dog out to pee, put on coffee, slice bread, put in toaster oven, feed dog, find clothes, put on clothes, eat breakfast (peanut butter and jam tst. & coffee) for at least 1/2 hour, listen to radio, ...then check email and facebook, reply to some, take dog to park; remember the poop bags, cell phone, ipod, leash, chuck it, come home and resist more computer, more facebook, tidying, doing dishes, vacuuming, laundry, paying bills, ...... sit on couch (or if back in studio sit on chair) read or look at art books/mags, turn on music or podcast, look at painting, decide what I will do next on the painting, hope for the best for the rest of the painting day.

Long slow quiet process going on in art. Completed two paintings in my new series. Moved studio into living room while M'azing is traveling because it is too cold in the garage when the temperature outside is lower than 5 C.

Working on third painting



Weekly uploading the last drawings I did to the Drawing Blog



Finished Vida's sweater.



In the past month lost 4 of the 8 lbs I gained last year.

I like these lines from the song i am listening to (A Plea From a Cat Named Virtue).

And listen,
About those bitter songs you sing?
They're not helping anything.
They won't make you strong.

So, we should open up the house.
Invite the tabby two doors down.
You could ask your sister, if
She doesn't bring her Basset Hound.

You can here it here.



Enjoying spending time alone while getting to see lots of people and talking to M'azing on Skype as well as email, facebook, and blog. Ain't technology grand, Asia feels right around the corner.