Grove Country Sound


Thorhild Grad Class

GreyCup Weekend!

Free Caricatures this weekend!
On Saturday, November 17th I will be drawing caricatures in Churchill Square from 2-6 pm. Come on out for some pre- "Christmas" Fun.

A busy drawing weekend!
It was COLD drawing in Churchill Square on Friday and Saturday night at the Movies in the Square but it was good. With all the event drawing that I do now I get a bit spoiled with cushy chairs, beautiful, luxurious venues and warm, inviting homes to draw in. Sometimes its actually good to be out "in the elements"— braving the weather as a true street artist, to remind me of just how lucky I am.

Who you gonna call?

Hey, this weekend I will once again be drawing FREE cartoon portraits as pre-movie entertainment in Churchill Square from 6-8 p.m. Yes, that's (eek!) OUTSIDE, for Movies on the Square
If you are in Edmonton its a somewhat quirky idea but FUN...check it out...details below

Movies on the Square
October 26-27, Sir Winston Churchill Square
Bring your favourite lawn chair to Churchill Square this weekend and catch movies on a three-storey inflatable screen.
The fun begins at 6 pm with roving magicians, a caricature artist, costume contests, DJ spinning music and a pumpkin-carving display.
A warm fire will keep everyone toasty.
Movie time is 8 pm.
Friday, October 26: Ghostbusters (PG, 100 minutes)
Saturday, October 27: Casper (PG, 105 minutes)
It's FREE!
Remember to bring your own lawn chair and join in on the fun. All age groups welcome.
To find out more, visit www.edmonton.ca/moviesonthesquare

September was a crazy month but things finally seem to be settling down nicely. I've been painting and journaling SO much (for my own sanity) this past month and it feels so good to take a deep breath again. I can see land ahead and it looks pretty good! My creative journal class at Artra began this past week and its wonderful to see so many familiar faces back.

I'm thankful for my Mark, the three little people who call me Mom, blank books, old friends, red wine, deep breaths, and the colour green. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
—Harold Thurman Whitman

My Summer 07





Its been a busy summer so far; drawing caricatures —at a couple festivals, a few birthday parties and some company BBQ's...then enjoying some fantastic backyard dinner parties with close friends, a week spent de-cluttering the house, a week in a cabin at Sylvan Lake, a Tibetan Buddist meditation retreat, a wonderful birthday celebration for me, and a fantastic, quick trip to Vancouver! Now I have more gift caricatures to draw, the next issue of Birth Issues magazine to finish, a couple more gigs coming up and the Edmonton Folk Fest and then of course getting ready to draw at the Fringe. The next time I turn around I know it will be late August and I will be rushing out to buy school supplies and some new school clothes. When September rolls around, our days of sleeping in and leisurely mornings will be replaced by making lunches and getting 3 kids ready for school. As much as I look forward to the fall, cool nights and golden colours, the summer goes much too quickly for me.

Gypsy

"I'm a gypsy in spirit only," she confessed. "I travel in gardens and bedrooms, basements and attics, around corners, through doorways and windows, along sidewalks, up stairs, over carpets, down drainpipes, in the sky, with friends, lovers, children and heroes; percieved, remembered, imagined, distorted and clarified." ~ Tom Robbins character "Amanda" from "Another Roadside Attraction"

I've recently realized that even though I currently don't often travel to foreign lands I do go on an adventure with each painting. I love traveling and for many years it was more than just "what" I did, it was a huge part of "who" I was. I now approach my paintings the same way I used to travel. Its so wonderful to journey through colours and lines, shapes and feelings, intuitiveIy feeling my way around. I rarely have a clear destination in mind, although I absolutely must know what my intention is. How wonderful to go on these journeys and find treasures along the way.

Creativity— Their's, Mine and Our's...

Last Monday evening I gave a "creative journaling workshop/ seminar/ caricature" gig at Ric's Grill in Riverbend for Bishop & McKenzie LLP. What a fantastic night! I prepared 11 journals and some collage sheets in advance so that we wouldn't have to spill paint and toxic chemicals at the restaurant. The event began at 4pm with some wine, some snacks and lots of cutting and pasting. I was so impressed with the enthusiasm that everyone had to just jump right in! Once the guests were all on their way with their journals, I took people one at a time to draw their caricatures and then scanned them in. After a delicious dinner, I grouped all the caricatures together into a group picture and printed them off. You could just FEEL the creative energy released in the room.

This was so unlike the energy in the room I entered the next day at the River Cree Resort where there was a "creativity themed" trade show for accountants going on. As I waited to set up my easel in front of the Cognos Booth, the room reminded me of a scene from Ferris Buellar's Day Off—everyone bored out of their minds, waiting for the "teacher" to finish talking so they could go eat lunch. I felt like maybe these people all just needed some scissors and gluesticks!
I did learn one thing from the lecture that I didn't know- have YOU ever scene the arrow in the Fed Ex logo?

Next I (unknowingly) drove through the outskirts of a tornado to my next gig at the Lux for Telus. I can't even begin to tell you about the many "creative" ideas that passed back and forth and through the marketing firm, the event planner and even my wonderful entertainment agent Margie, all having a part and an opinion about this event and what we should draw the caricatures on for Telus. At the end of the day, the attendees were extremely willing and then grateful for their drawings which makes all the other "stuff" worth while. (They didn't even seem to mind being drawn as plants coming out of a pot.)

Tonight I finished a couple caricatures for twin brothers turning the big 60. These gentlemen don't even look like brothers, twins none the less! Mother nature can be pretty amazingly creative herself!

Ideal fluidity


Daniel Bernoulli's principle— "...the only cause of the change in fluid velocity is the difference in balanced pressure on either side of it..."

Wikipedi defines Flow as "the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity."

So I've chopped apart Bernoulli's principle (taking it completely out of context), mixed it up with the concept of "flow" and I think that I have finally discovered my own new principle of fluidity.
"Having balance on both sides of my life, my "work" life and my "home" life provides a state of constant flow."

You see, before I had children, my life's focus was very simple—it was on traveling and drawing. Back then, living in a constant "state of flow" was easy. We owned nothing except what we absolutely needed. We made every decision and every move based on that focus. That focus was a single beam of light ahead of us. Life just was flow.

Since having kids however, that "flow" has not been so easily achieved. With each child (especially our first), life has had to adjust to a different beat and to a little more "stuff". Suddenly that single beam of white light is not quite so simply followed. Its colours are beautiful but I've struggled with the dispersion as much as I have with all the extra stuff we have accumulated.

What I'm so excited about is that I think that I finally feel fluidity coming back into our lives. This feeling has been achieved by finding and hiring a wonderful assistant into my "home" life side, adding what Thoreau refers to as a "wider margin to my day". She's my "Girl Friday". (Actually, she's my girl "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes Saturday" as well). She takes the kids to the playground, she cleans our house, she folds those mounds of laundry, she does anything we have on our Home "To Do" List that we just can't seem to get to.

I'm finally beginning to feel in "Flow" in all areas of my life again, not just in my creative outlets. I even have many moments in my day where I can sit back and enjoy the beauty of the rainbow, of our rainbow.

Who knows, maybe if Bernoulli's principle can be adapted and applied I might actually even be able to fly!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

This is a caricature I drew today (a present for a woman moving back to Saskatchewan).

But on another note, a riddle for you...
How do you make 3 children jump for joy?

ANSWER: Buy them a trampoline.

Yes, we did and I have to say its a lot of fun! (Not too sure what my legs will feel like tomorrow.)

"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." ~Rumi

If I knew then what I know now I would have lived my life exactly how I have so far. At least I hope so.

Life is such an amazing adventure!

A Caricature Party/ Mother's Day Weekend...
A wonderfully crazy, busy drawing gig for the Sherwood Park Figure Skating Club on Friday night and then a relatively quieter party for Serena's 10th birthday on Saturday. The group shot from Serena's party....

On Mother's day I got to sleep in, recieved breakfast in bed from Piper — a latte and a cinnamon bun from the Sugar Bowl (which she was thrilled to share with me), was given fridge magnets from Ry, chocolates from Mark and a picture that Kieran drew of me in playschool. His teacher wrote the things he told her about me on the picture... "When I'm in playschool my mom works. I like her work. When I'm in bed she works. She is very good."
Apparently he was quite disappointed that his drawing didn't look "exactly" like me but I think it captures me completely!

A Creative Journey

Today I spent the morning in my son Ryllan's grade 4 class— starting an altered book project with them. We were so impressed with how well the kids were able to sand the board book pages and paint them with gesso that his teacher and I quickly decided that perhaps we could do more than one altered book at a time. So of course, I then came home and began playing with ideas and soon the "board altered book project" became a "wall hanging project" like the one here. (I used a favorite quote from Rumi as the theme and experimented with how to use the board book pages differently than in a rebound book.) So now we will alter a hard cover children's book for our "book" project.

This really made me aware of the process of creativity and how sometimes (or perhaps always) we need to allow ourselves to be open to what might happen and trust that where we end up will probably be a good place. (Sometimes not, but then you find out what doesn't work). Its just like going on a journey and not taking a map with you. My brother and I used to do that sometimes- head off somewhere without a map and laugh "Hey, thats what road signs are for!" Watching for the signs can sometimes be challenging, especially in the creative process but it does keep you in touch with the moment. Often when you have a set of instructions or a map, the focus is on arriving at the end, getting it "finished" or getting "there" — not the creative journey itself.

I really have to applaud my son's teacher for being such a fantastic supporter in this as she allows me the freedom to not really know where we are actually headed with our projects, she says she justs trusts me. That's such a great feeling.

Spiderman 3 is opening today and in case you didn't see 1 and 2 here they are...



..."saving the world" in our living room on a very rainy afternoon.

Speaking of movies, the very talented cartoonist Gerry Rasmussen and I spent our Wednesday evening drawing caricatures of movie goers at the "launch" of the newly named Scotiabank Theatre (formerly known as Silvercity). Now, I guess the theatre will have armed guards and close at 3pm.



Other things keeping me busy this week (besides my superheroes);
a wonderful Mother's day gift for a lovely French Grandmother of 11...


A birthday gift caricature for a well respected boss (with a rather messy desk)...

What a small world it is...

Last night I was drawing at a wonderful wedding at the Italian Cultural Centre with my talented colleague Susanne Ritchie. It was a rather large wedding with about 500 guests and the funniest part was that over the 5 hours, I kept drawing people that I knew from my own life that were in no way connected to each other (except I guess through the bride and groom)—my dentist (and his wife) from when I was 6 years- 16 years old, a comedian I worked with when I did art for Comedy West back in the late 80's and then the husband of a woman that I played women's league basketball with about 6 years ago.

Sometimes I often wonder as I am drawing someone that if we just talked long enough we would find some common person or connection (at least when I'm drawing in Edmonton).



Yay, it FINALLY really truly feels like spring!

A busy, drawing weekend! On Thursday night I drew at the St. Albert Recreation Centre for a year end wind up party of the Pink Thunder Girl's hockey team. Then out to the town of Morinville to draw Friday, Saturday and Sunday at their Volunteer dinner and their town's trade show. Thanks so much to the town council of Morinville for hiring me and for providing me with my wonderful assistant, Melinda. (Thanks for all your help Melinda!)
Here are a couple of my willing victims, sister and brother — Leah and Owen...



These are the gift pictures for the Morinville Town awards that I did prior to the weekend...

Paul Hann

This past week singer/songwriter Paul Hann has been the artist in residence at my son Ryllan's school. They have been writing songs and playing music and having a blast. He has been a real musical inspiration to my son (and to many other's I'm sure). As a thank you gift, my son asked me to do this caricature for Paul. You can check out his web site at www.paulhann.com.

Easter in the Mountains

This is my son Ry and I (or should I say our shadows) on the chair lift at Lake Louise.

We just spent a fantastic Easter weekend in the glorious Rocky Mountains with close friends; skiing, watersliding, rock throwing (into the Bow River), walking, playground visiting, museum hopping, hot tubbing, martini drinking, wine tasting (ok...it was actually wine drinking too), easter egg hunting and (of course) chocolate eating. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Saturday and Sunday—sunny and +11C, gorgeous days for Spring skiing.

30th Anniversary Career Gift Caricature

Secrets

Every night before I sleep, I tell my secrets to the moon

Imagination

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
~Edgar Allan Poe

"Retail therapy" Journal page

...for the never ending winter blues.

A 65% discounted winter coat from Gravity Pope, 2 new $9 hats from Divine, a large, funky, waterproof bag for swimming towels and bathing suits from Elephants Never Forget, small $12 summer slip-on shoes and an $8 striped summer T Shirt from Superstore, a recorder, ANOTHER pair of spiderman pajamas, a wooden backscratcher and a pair of Gap jeans —all thrifted from Value Village. Oh yeah and a used pair of tap shoes for my 2 year old daughter Piper (that she has yet to take off).

Sigh...its going to take forever for ALL our snow to melt.

There Will be Time


There is time still
for sitting in cafes
in Paris
sipping wine.

Time still
for going to meet
the guru.

There is time still.

Now I am caring for eternity.
Carrying bodies soft with sleep to beds
of flowered quilts and pillows.
Answering cries deep out of nighttime fears.
Buckling shoes.
Opening doors.
Pretending.

My soul is now dwelling in the house of tomorrow.

Tomorrow there will be time
for long leisurely conversations,
for poems to write,
time still.

So I surrender now
to them and this,
knowing it is they
who will teach me
how to do it all.

~Peggy O'Mara

Wish
Believe
Live Joyfully


This is a series of paintings I did (for my wonderful friend Silke's birthday present) this past week. I used some of the techniques that Misty Mawn shares in her Cloth Paper Scissors- Summer '06 article (and a few of my own). My Monday night journaling class had a blast playing with the techniques. Thanks Misty!

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

Logic never could quite explain Mark's intense FEAR of numbers...

"Feast on your life" Journal page...


The time will come
when with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart,
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you,

all your life, whom you ignored,
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the loveletters from the bookshelf

The photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
—Derek Walcott

Happy Family Day Everyone! (at least those who live in Alberta) ...It was a busy drawing weekend for me...
Brandon's first birthday party, Phil and Helena's wedding reception, and Maia's 5th birthday "Princess" party...

Photos from Phil and Helena's wedding reception taken by Carlin Getz of Carlin Photography
cmgetz03@yahoo.com & carlin@getz.ca

Painting Piper...

Sami's Valentine Caricature...

"February Blahs" Journal page

" Simple" Journal page...

"Island Life" Journal page...

Gordon's 50th Birthday party guests...