Month: September 2013

Watch a couple of times before you peek at the answer.

Ruth Buffalo’s Father Confronts Her Violator by Helen Andersen. Gouache on Arches paper. Image size approximately 13″ x 9.5″
I have searched for a myth or a story that might explain the subject here, but no luck so far. Maybe there will be a clue in Helen’s journal writings.
Clearly, this small piece is related to the Native Myths and Symbols series. It is also an example of Helen’s occasional use of metallic paint. In this case, she has brushed silver into the background. She used both silver and gold metallic paints on several pieces we have, some abstract, some representative.

I was surprised to find that I captured this butterfly the other day, out on the Leslie Street Spit. When I clicked the shutter, I really wasn’t optimistic, but there it was when I downloaded my photos. Danica and I pay more attention to Monarchs since we launched two of them.

We tested out the car rack today and took our bikes to Kathleen’s house in Guildwood. Kathleen has a nifty new three-wheeler, so she toured us around her neighbourhood.

In the centre shot, you see Danica and Kathleen cruising past the nursing home where Danica used to work and Kathleen still does. So Kathleen can ride to work, and more than that, she can shop at the supermarket which is even closer to home. See that big basket on the back of her Schwinn?
We were not only toured, we were very well fed. Kathleen is an excellent cook and she treated us to a delicious dinner of stuffed ribs with a maple syrup glaze. Having exercised, we also earned pieces of Danica’s banana bread with ice cream for dessert.

Even the most observant of readers would miss a oddity in the background of one of my Leslie Street Spit shots (previous post). White-trunked trees, flecked with black.

The black flecks are cormorants; fish-eating birds whose poop kills the trees they use for nests. The white trunks are probably somewhat bleached by the sun, since cormorants use their beaks to strip away bark, but the trees are also painted with a lot of guano.
“30,000 cormorants destroying lakeside park“, reads the headline of a 2009 Toronto Star item. Perhaps, but maybe the birds are just lakeside developers. Highrise living by the lake is popular with our species, too.

For one thing, we managed to frame a nice picture called View From Our Place, done by Helen Andersen when she lived in Saanichton, B.C. on Vancouver Island. It’s up on our wall now.

After the picture-taking of the picture, we went out to see the sailboats on Lake Ontario… many, may of them out to enjoy the last few days of summer-like weather.

The painting does a better job than the photograph, doesn’t it?

Both Danica and I are pretty green as bike riders, but I’ve been out for a few more rides. Today, she rode for more than two and a half hours… much more than I did on my early rides.

The Spit is a manufactured headland that juts out into Lake Ontario, about a 20 minute ride from our place. What a gift! It’s all natural vegetation, not park landscaping and it’s full of butterflies and snakes and crickets and critters. Birdwatchers with binoculars were out today, as were joggers, hikers and other cyclists, but it wasn’t crowded at all.
The Spit is open to the public on weekends and holidays, but is used by construction trucks during the week because the process of extending the headland is still happening. Loads and loads of clean fill are added constantly.
And here’s a surprise… even on weekdays, the public can use the Spit after 4:30 p.m., when the trucks go home for the day.

Twelve hundred unpainted bicycle frames with wheels are piling up in front of City Hall’s Nathan Phillips Square, being readied for installation of Ai Weiwei’s art installation, Bicycles Forever.
It’s one of over 100 art events planned for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche. Friday, October 5th until the wee hours of the 6th.

Room after room is filled with marvellous colour, amazing patterns, exquisite craftsmanship and Mayan culture. Too much to show you more than a tiny fraction. These are shots I made with a handheld camera in available light. No flash allowed.

The Textile Museum is small enough to enjoy without strain and it’s very well laid out. Lights go up when you enter a room, then dim again when you leave. The Guatemalan floor has many, many pieces to admire, but there is another floor with even more (and different) subject matter. Right now there are rooms about storytelling on fabric and displays of contemporary art in textile, done by Métis designers.
Would you like to see a bit more Guatemalan colour?

That’s Sandy in the middle of the shot, looking out at us. She’s reacting to lines being delivered by the stars of Dine Her, a zombie thriller comedy by RealSpace Theatre. It’s a dinner show performed right in the George Street Diner.

Sandy is the show’s publicist and she got us into the dress rehearsal. It’s a lot of fun… highly recommend it. Don’t worry about the SOLD OUT ticket situation. Rumour has it they’ll be doing more shows around Halloween.