Month: October 2013

Patrick invited me to sign a petition asking Google to stop selling ads that promote the sale of ivory. By enabling marketers to easily display ivory products around the world, Google supports the slaughter of elephants for their tusks.
Not wanting to “pile on” if Google had already amended its behaviour, I checked and saw that Google made a reply back in February, stating that the ivory ads are against Google’s policy and that when such ads are reported, they are removed.
That would be good, except the ads are not being removed and Google isn’t enforcing its policy very rigorously it seems. So I decided to “pile on” and sign the petition. You can, too, if you like.

Small study on paper, by Helen Andersen. Unsigned. Image size approx 10″x14″
Helen was always interested in what her contemporaries were doing, both locally and internationally. During one stage, she began to explore hard edge compositions and colour fields. Her edges were never that “hard”, neither on the small studies we have nor on the large, finished pieces we would like to locate. I don’t believe it was in Helen’s nature to produce really geometric work. She liked the human, handmade look and texture too much for that.
In fact, I like to think that the one shown below may have come into existence partly by accident. Perhaps a band of colour got smeared and Helen went with what happened. It appears as if she added the irregular, rough bits after she painted the stripes. It is an artist’s prerogative to recognize something effective when it happens, even by accident. The art of identifying such moments and extending the results lies at the very heart of experiment. I like what happened here. I wonder if she worked up a large painting based on this study.

Small study on paper, by Helen Andersen. Unsigned. Image size approx. 10″x11″

Can an 89 year old peace activist make an impact on the behavior of a major federal institution? Damn right she can.
Audrey Tobias wants Canada to know that Stats Canada is paying tens of millions of dollars to the war machine known as Lockheed Martin. You know, the same people that are peddling F-35 jets to Harper. Stats Canada is buying scanning software and hardware from Lockheed Martin, to handle the millions of census forms it processes.
Audrey doesn’t want to feed into the profits of an arms dealer, so she refused to fill out her 2011 census form. That’s a federal offence and she’s been charged. But you’ve heard all about this already, and that’s the point. Without Audrey’s resistance and her willingness to face a fine (or even jail time, because she won’t pay a fine) who knew that Stats Canada was giving business to an arms manufacturer?

Peter and I got our signals crossed today, so we missed our bike ride. Danica and I decided to take advantage of the day. There may not be many more like this. We rode to Cherry Beach and looked for a bench. Surprise! Peter was sitting on the bench next to ours, so we met up anyway.
Photo credits: Top, Danica. Middle, Peter. Bottom, Bill.

Masks, by Helen Andersen. 1988. Airbrushed gouache on paper, Image approx 18″ x 24″
Although I am about as far from a hockey fan as you can get, why not acknowledge the fact that the national game is back on the box. How else would I do that?
Here, Helen was playing off the hockey mask against West Coast aboriginal masks. It’s a fairly big painting and rather jarring until you’ve lived with it a while. It’s getting a place of honour in my home studio as soon as it’s matted and framed.

This was in a Linux newsletter I subscribe to.

“Facebook is not your friend, it is a surveillance engine.”
~Richard Stallman

I guess Stallman singles out Facebook because it is so popular, but doesn’t Google to just as much surveillance? Or Apple, or Microsoft?