Month: September 2013

Left: Spirit of Beaver in a Landscape (Tlingit) by Helen Andersen, 1988. Gouache on paper. 21′ x 29.5″
Danica’s impish nickname for this picture is too catchy to let go, so we have taken to calling it SquareBob. Actually, the image derives from the frontlet typically seen on chiefs’ headdresses.
There is a lot going on in Helen’s Myths and Symbols series of paintings and frankly, I find some of the iconography difficult to interpret. This owes, no doubt, to my unfamiliarity with the aboriginal stories that inspired the pictures, but also to the personal and original ways Helen represented some of her ideas. The West Coast landscape, the totem poles and the central Beaver face are obvious enough, but the foreground elements mystify me.
The chief’s frontlet motif held an abiding fascination. Here it is again, this time rendered as a batik. This example was done nearly 2 decades earlier than SpongeBob.
 

Tribute to Max M. by Helen Andersen. 1985 Gouache on Arches paper
Helen Andersen painted this tribute to Max Maynard some 3 years after the latter’s death. She knew Max well and joined with other friends to help him as much as they could in his last years of failing health. She hints at Max’s troubles in the title, identifying him as the anonymous Max M.

 

My sister Joni will be in the editing room today, no doubt. Yesterday she was recording the 26th annual West Kootenay Toy Run charity ride. Motorcyclists round up donations and toys to help fill Santa’s sack. I swiped the picture of the band No More Madness from Joni’s sound check video of a practice session.

When the Indian Children Were Sent Away to the White Man’s School by Helen Andersen. Photo by Thorne Won
It’s appropriate that this is the first of the rediscovered Helen Andersen pieces to be reframed. It is going into the collection of Pat and Dennis Ekland, the couple who found the cache of paintings and brought them to our attention.
We asked Victoria artist Elizabeth Allen to frame the piece professionally as our thank you gift to the Eklands. Pat identified the mother and daughter piece as a personal favourite. Good choice. The theme is a recurrent one in Helen’s work. It was important to her.
Meanwhile, framing activities are beginning in Toronto…

This playful rendering of a toy carousel just needs its glass and it will be ready for the wall. We left the original mat on it because it was in good shape and the colour suits the painting.
I cut my first double mat today, with my new (used) mat cutter… botched it but I learned a lot from my mistakes. The next ones should be perfect.

Remember that search engine everyone used before Google? No? It was called Yahoo (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle). Well, Yahoo is trying to recover from its loss of top spot, so the CEO ordered a new logo.
Somebody is lampooning the new look, inviting us to make our own “Yahoo!” logo online. Full disclosure: I did not pay the $500 fee requested for my copy.

A lady was shopping for something she could put on the seat when she rides on a streetcar, bus or subway. “I’m tired of sitting on the filth,” she said.
I helped her look through the placemats, for something that could be wiped clean pretty easily. One of the mats reminded me of that rubbermat shelf lining that comes in rolls, so we took a look at that, too.
My choice might have been one of the cushions in the photo. Not only a good filth barrier, but a bit of comfort to enhance the flocked steel seats that replace the old upholstered ones.

Public Private Partnerships (P3s). The darlings of politicians who are afraid to ask taxpayers to pay for anything. Let the private sector foot the bill!
So what do we get? Today, I sought shelter from a downpour under our PPP street furniture. The “canopy shelter” is to bus shelters what the thong is to underwear. The foot-wide strip of dry pavement in my photo didn’t stay dry long, either.
Note that Astral Media’s big ad space isn’t skimpy. That’s their part of the “partnership”.
I first heard the phrase Public Private Partnership in an interview of some Ontario health minister. He said we should build P3 hospitals.

Almost any bit of popular behaviour can be explained this way. As a non-texter, I needed a translation.
Because You Only Live Once and have a Fear Of Missing Out.

You may know the place as “Dollywood“. Paul, Kathy, Kristie and Nicole stayed in the cabin called “Moose Tracks” (above)… all part of their summer vacation exploration of southern culture. Thoroughbred horses, the Grand Old Opry and a visit to an Elvis recording studio were also involved. I think they more than made up for missing this year’s CNE in Toronto.