I have been drawing scrolls again, it is nice to want to actually draw and paint.  This is my latest scroll.  I only took a picture of the illumination as the words on the scroll will give away the surprize for someone.  I am so glad to have been asked to do this scroll.  I hope the person likes it.  Sorry it is sideways not sure how to fix it.

This is wording from advertising on my bus reflecting onto the page I was reading for my religious studies course.  What is really interesting about this picture is this article was written about symbolism. Kinda neat actually.  Well thanks for listening

 

christmas gift for my daughter

I learned how to smock by hand this weekend.  My daughter is working on having a late period German personna.  So I am going to make her an apron for Christmas.  I will post the progress here.

jobs, travel and family

So I have not posted, in a while, I have had a busy time of it. I am sorry if anyone has missed me. I am taking a course at McMaster on Death Dying in Western Society. I am not dying, just in case you were in any way concerned. Our assignment is to write a death ritual. I have thought about this a lot. My beliefs are not really conventional at all so tying the ritual into those beliefs and making it significant for myself and my family is important to me and to the assignment :D. I will post parts of this project here, for comments or ideas. It is due next week. I think I need to take photos ect. so I will update this for anyone who wants to read it. Please do comment.

November iron

I was walking home from a memorial for a friend. She was a kind and generous person and always had a smile for everyone she met. She was an artist in fibre. She wove, spun, knitted and made lovely teddy bears. On this walk I noticed the iron work that was around me. My husband is a blacksmith, so I asked him about the fences. These first two picture are forged fences. Probably a least 100 years old. The second picture looks simple, but it involves some pearce work. And is very well made.

The second two are cast fences. They are also lovely, but not formed in the same manner but maybe not as old as the first two fences. We see skill of artisans all around us everyday, even in the simplest of things.

Hamilton Fringe

The Hamilton Fringe festival runs until the July 24, 2011, Go see it is a great way to see a lots of different plays for a small price. The Web site is here: Check it out
http://www.hamiltonfringe.ca/home.

The first Fringe festival was in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947. Eight groups of young theatre artists invited themselves to the official Edinburgh Arts Festival held that year. They reasoned that if people were going to Edinburgh to catch a show, that they may as well catch one of their productions too. This spirit of “do it yourself” is core to the Fringe philosophy. Edinburgh’s Fringe, remains the world’s largest arts festival; in 2008, hundreds of groups participated putting on 2,088 different shows with a total of 31,320 performances in 247 venues. The first Hamilton Fringe Festival was held June 6 to 15 2003.

For governing principles:
The event must be non-juried. All entrants are chosen using a "first come, first served basis" or similarly random and unbiased process
100% of ticket revenues must be returned to the artists
There must be artistic freedom - no censorship is allowed
There must be accessibility for all companies - i.e. application fees must be small enough to allow all companies to participate

My favourite play is A Different Women: A True Story of a Texas Child.


Company: Texpatriate Productions, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Company Website: www.texpatriateproductions.com
Playwright: Veronica Russell, adapted from My First Thirty Years by Gertrude Beasley
Directed by: Veronica Russell
Cast: Veronica Russell…… Gertrude Beasley
Genre: Solo dark comedy performance
Audience: General Audience (with some advisements- recommend age 12+)
Warnings: mature content, language

Plot Summary:
BANNED internationally, DESTROYED at U.S. and British customs, and considered SHOCKING by some of the greatest literary minds of its day..... The memoir of a west Texas schoolteacher written in 1925. Don’t miss this groundbreaking adaptation of schoolteacher Gertrude Beasley's controversial 1925 autobiography, My First Thirty Years. It was immediately banned as obscene in Europe and the U.S, and she was institutionalized by authorities for the rest of her life. Fortunately her words remain; an unvarnished, outspoken, unapologetically cynical and humorous tale of rural Texas told by a woman who pulled herself out of the cycle of poverty and abuse in which she found herself

Tickets: $9.00
Venue: DAC Theatre
Address: 28 Rebecca Street Hamilton
Seats: 125
Show Length: 90 minutes

All the plays are worth seeing these are the others I saw and I recommend them.

Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter

Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter
Company: dancingstorysinger, Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico
Company Website: www.alisonwearing.com
Playwright: Alison Wearing
Directed by: Stuart Cox
Cast: Alison Wearing
Genre: Comedy
Audience: General Audience
Warnings: Some language, questions about sexuality

Plot Summary:
Award-winning author Alison Wearing’s true story of growing up with a gay father. Masterfully woven through music and image, this monologue moves from Alison’s carefree childhood to the moment she learned, at age twelve, that her family was a tad more complex than she had thought. The ensuing eight years were a time of confusion and disbelief, puff pastry and opera, bath house raids, scandal and celebration. Balancing intimacy, history and downright hilarity, the Mexico-based creators of Giving Into Light (Hamilton Fringe 2009; BEST OF FEST: Wakefield, Quebec) offer another captivating tale of love, laughter and grace

Tickets: $9.00
Venue: Aquarius Studio
Address: 190 King William Street Hamilton Ontario
Seats: 75
Show Length: 50 minutes


Waiting For The Go

The Corktown Players, Hamilton ON
Writer: Rick Rivait
Director: Rick Rivait
Cast:
Carson Gale, Michael Patricelli, Brenna MacNaughton, Andrew Noble,
Iain Lacourt, Crystal Jonasson

Genre: A comedy for General Audience

Plot Summary:
Eddie is a young man sleeping in the cemetery on York Boulevard, and Victor a homeless middle-aged man living under the T.B. McQueenston Bridge. The two transients eagerly await their bus one frigid winter's night in Hamilton. The bus is late; very late. Assuming the worst, they contemplate how to resolve their predicament. Death is an option! But before in comes to that, they're joined by a confusing lady named Lucy, and met with big Bruno the bus driver. Together, whether they like it or not, they're Waiting for the GO.


Tickets: $9.00
Venue: DAC Theatre
Address: 28 Rebecca Street Hamilton ON
Seats: 125
Show Length: 59 minutes


A Harmless Game

Company: Unicorn Productions, Burlington, ON
Playwright: Sondra Learn
Directed by: Sondra Learn
Genre: Drama
Audience: General Audience
Warnings: Language, mature content

Plot Summary:
Aileen, Mara and Trista are at a sleep-over at Catherine’s. Mara, a bitter and angry girl, dislikes Aileen with an alarming passion. Mara decides, against Trista’s misgivings, to play a new version of the game ‘truth or dare’. Each teen must tell a secret that she has never told to anybody. The secrets become increasingly more tragic with a devastating result for one of the girls.
“Some secrets you keep. Some secrets keep you”.

Tickets: $9.00
Venue: Aquarius Back Stage
Address: 190 King William Street Hamilton Ontario
Seats: 75
Show Length: 40 minutes
Mona Rita

Company: White Rooster Theatre / She Said Yes! St John's, Newfoundland
Playwright: Shannon Bramer
Directed by: Sherry White
Cast: Sara Tilley……Mona
Ruth Lawrence……. Rita
Mark White…… the Dapper Hairstylist
Genre: Dark Comedy
Audience: Mature Audience
Warnings: Language
Plot Summary:
MONARITA is the hilariously surreal story of two close friends at a crossroads. After Mona becomes a mother, she loses herself— and the greatest friendship of her life is in danger of being lost when best friend Rita breaks it off to make a new life without her. Will Mona let Rita go? Can Rita exist without Mona? Isn’t love supposed to last forever? MONARITA was directed by award-winning filmmaker Sherry White and features some of Newfoundland’s talented and accomplished actors. MONARITA is the debut script from the made-in-Hamilton poet, Shannon Bramer.

Tickets: $9.00
Venue: DAC Studio
Address: 28 Rebecca Street Studio
Seats: 75
Show Length: 50 minutes

hot weather and a new city

I went to an event called Known World Dance. It was in Bloomington Indiana. We stopped in Portland Mich. first, to break up out drive. These pictures our from and early morning walk.

In Bloomington, I took some picture of some public art. Lovely. The city is entirely walkable. with wonderful food. I love the railing, what a creative thing to do. All in all a perfect weekend.

Fisher Price and Play school

I went to go buy my Grandson some toys today. I looked at some Fisher Price building blocks and then some Play school ones. Both companies are considered to have good educational toys for kids. My kids played with them I played with them.

I DID NOT buy any. Everything I looked at was made in China. I refused to buy them. China has a horrible record of saying they will manufacture products one way then substituting other cheaper ingredients or items that are not considered safe in North America. Also the environmental impact of shipping from China is huge. The human right record and environmental record is horrid as well. What the hell are we doing?

When I was in Newfoundland last summer, fish caught in Bonne Bay had to be shipped to China to be processed before the restaurant, overlooking Bonne Bay could sell me that piece of fish for my dinner. YIKES!!! I don't know. I will have to look harder to find toys for my grandson. Or maybe I will just have to make them myself.

that's it, just had to share. It is too bad because Fisher Price and Playschool have some of my favourite toys too. Will not be buying them.