The Bird of Prey

My new picture started with a pair of bird feet.  

I had been looking at one of Mark Elderkin's astonishing photos of a bird of prey last week, blackriverlakeblog.blogspot.com and was mesmerized by the creature's power.

I suppose this is a picture of the bird of prey in me.

Or you.

:)

Usurp the King!

Labour Day Parade in my working class hometown 

At first it seemed like divine justice.

An American corporation is moving its headquarters to Canada to escape paying high taxes at home.

I mean how many times have American parent companies shut our plants first in hard times?

But to tell you the truth the more I think about it the more the whole thing gives me a sick feeling.

This company is likely run by guys who earn more money in a day than their minimum wage employees earn in a month.

But they are deserting their homeland and refusing to carry their share of their country's tax burden.

Shame!

Do we want scuzzy corporations like this in Canada?

Take a stand on Labour Day, spread the word -

Boycott Burger King.

I'm a Little Teapot

Last year I read a book about the history of tea.

I was totally surprised at the thievery, trickery
and bloodshed it took to get the stuff on 19th 
century grocery shelves.  

Which is a fact you may or may not find mildly 
interesting but which has nothing to do with why
I made this picture. 

I am practising shading using oil pastels.

You might see any number of teapots in
the near future because heaven knows seeing 
one teapot is never enough, is it?

And I need the practice.  :)

For Those Who Fall Overboard at Mid-Life

That's you in the ship.

The first ship.  

Poor sap.  

You've been sailing along the surface of life
for decades

not knowing what is churning below the waterline.

What needs your attention.
What needs to be fed.
What needs to be healed.

You're going down my friend.

The old you is going to die.


Not everyone seems to have a mid-life crisis 
but I certainly did.  I felt as if I was shattering
into large chunks. And to my embarrassment 
dropping them everywhere I went.
Like Humpty Dumpty I couldn't put myself
together again.

Eventually the chaos did clear somewhat 
and I've found the second half of life to be 
a fertile, creative and spiritual country full 
of endless possibilities. 

And wrinkles.  :)

The Crown of Cerridwyn

Hoinouring Cerridwyn, the Goddess of Inspiration today.

Thanks to Debra She who Seeks, (link), I know that the word 'inspiration' means 'breath of the Divine'.

And that's what I was missing in the last two weeks.

I wasn't leaving any room for inspiration I was all 'plan, plan, plan'.  As if I was in charge.


No plan to this picture.  I started with one line and went with what it suggested.  I let the picture grow the way it wanted to grow.


Note:

Interesting to see how the Goddess was hidden 
in the guise of the Virgin Mary for thousands of years.  

It Isn't Me

I spent yesterday destroying every bit of work that I have 
done in the last 2 weeks.

It was all such a pile of shit.  

There's no art work in progress pinned up to think about.

My pastels don't look alive.

They look weary and tired.



I made light of the Gods and forgot it isn't me 
- it is what they give me.




Going to the gym.

And Now for My Dark Side

There is no accounting for the human psyche.

I am totally obsessed by 'Vikings'.

The combination of sex, religion, survival and the supernatural in this Canadian/Irish production is just too much for me.  

I'm hooked.

I'm sitting here waiting for some glaze to dry on a new piece of paper and with nothing better to do I thought I'd share a trailer.

Ah Ragnar, you can lie your shield under my bed anytime! 

:)

Adrift on a Sea of Sand

This picture isn't finished but I like it and I posted it to 'Francie McGlynn Art' on face book so I'm posting it here, too.

I suppose I was about six when this was taken.  

We are at a mystery beach.  

It isn't likely Lake Ontario because it is 1955 and my parents think Lake Ontario is full of polio bacteria just waiting to lock their kids into iron lungs.

I'm adrift on a sea of sand but I am also watchful - the way kids who are never sure which way the wind is going to blow, are watchful.

It's hard to be small.

1934

My newest mixed media picture.

It is called '1934'.

It is the middle of the Great Depression.  My mother is about 17 and she is the figure in the centre.

Times are tough but the great thing about the picture is the 'attitude' they have.

Cheeky teenagers!


Some things never change.  :)




*

Sacred Blood

According to MotherPeace 6 is 'a peak number on the scale of experience' and it usually points 'to good feelings'.

Which well describes how I feel about the Travelling Women's Art Journal so my contribution includes 6 female figures based on the prehistoric Venus figurines.

They float on the cosmic sea encased in ribbons of blood which represent the flow of time.  

There, in Time, the blood that has flowed from their (our) bodies is mixed not only with each others but also with the blood of our mothers, grandmothers, grandmothers grandmothers grandmothers back to the beginning.

And so my part is over.



The journal will be mailed on Monday.

Women's Travelling Art Journal II

 I decided today would be the day I prepared the paper.

First the India ink.

Next came the gel.  

I've found if I put this down I can actually erase if I make a mistake. I sketch whatever I'm doing with a neutral coloured oil pastel so the pictures are usually big - I'm already wondering how I'm going to work so SMALL.

eek

After the glaze it was time to measure - and that's when I found this!

Messages!  

Secret letters from one woman to the next.  I can't look at them now as my hands are all mucky but I can't wait.  Notes of encouragement and good will I'm sure!  

Ana this is a marvelous experience, can't thank you enough for being the one to set it n motion!

My new canvas is sitting on the left next to a picture I have been working on off and on for awhile.  

Quite a difference in size.

eek (again)

Four more days.

This will be interesting!

Bee Cause

This picture started out full of symbols of creativity.

I was thinking of calling it "Birthing Instructions for the Post Menopausal Woman." 

But then I heard more bad news about the bees and my picture started to change.  The tiny passage to the womb closed - you can see it in the bottom right.

Three bees became impaled on the spikes that protrude from the fish. 

Mother is suffering.


I've seen one honey bee this summer.


***

The Women's Travelling Art Journal

The Women's Travelling Art Journal landed on my door step today.  

Actually it was handed to me by a man in a red station wagon at 7:30 am just as I was letting the dog out and wasn't really awake - but that's another story.

To be a link in a circle of creative women from all over the US and Canada is spine tingling and once I had seen the book I understood there were many messages in it that I was meant to see.

Two examples:

***



Now it is my turn.

I have seven days.

The Unquiet City

Canada Day Celebrations at Niagara-on-the -Lake

I took my dog for a walk after I returned from the 

Labour Day Festivities that go on every September in 

my home town of Merritton.  I expected my street to 

be quiet in the old Sunday sense, i.e. businesses 

closed and everyone relaxing.

But a large garbage truck rumbled and clanked to a

stop in front of me and a man jumped out and 

started emptying the recycle bins into the back of 

the truck.

I was shocked.

"I'm surprised your union let's you work on Labour 

Day!" I said to him.

"What union," he said grimly.

***

Today isn't Labour Day.

But it is Canada Day which is a national holiday.

It should be quieter than the normal work day.

People who aren't essential workers should be 

gathered in groups to celebrate.

But it wasn't quiet. 

Non-union workers were everywhere.

***

 

The noise of a city at work continues 7 days a week

in 2014.

sigh

The unions are dying and I'm beginning to think

they may take our sanity with them. 

Buffaloed at The Garrison house

My friend Nadine, who is another retired teacher told me about a restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake that she had seen featured on the Food Network.

It is called 'Gartrison House' and she wanted to try it.

I said I would go with her.

As we were looking at the menu I noticed a dish that had Buffalo cheese in it.

"Well," I said to Nadine, "the best chicken wings in the world come from Buffalo, they must make good cheese too."

Nadine said, "Francie, mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo-the -animal-not-the-city milk."

I squinched my eyes at her."You mean to tell me somebody hooks buffaloes up to milking machines?"

"Well, I'm sure I don't know," she said slightly offended, "all I know is what I told you.

Now my understanding of buffaloes is that they a big, hairy, dirty, smelly beasts that live and defecate  on the Saskatchewan prairie.

I passed on the dish with buffalo cheese.

Nadine did too for some reason.  

She had the halibut which she said was yummy.

I had the chicken curry.  I forgot to copy down the name of that giant potato chip but it started with a p and was really spicy good!!   

The curry was great and the amount I was served was just right.

Nadine had the cheese cake with rhubarb topping for dessert. 

She said it was delicious. 

I had to choose between the raspberry creme  brulee and the strawberry tart.

A choice no woman should have to make.

I had the tart!  ♪♪♪☺

And this, ladies, was our waiter.

Thought I'd celebrate Canada Day with a picture of a handsome young Canadian man.

:)





Note:  

The next morning I was talking on the phone to my friend Jane.  

"Nadine says mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk," I said.

She googled it while we were talking.

"It is," she said, "water buffalo milk, although because water buffaloes are only found in a few strange places like Bulgaria, most of what we get is made from cows milk.

Jeesh.

Water buffaloes.

If I had only known, eh?





The Garrison House

You really should eat there!

http://www.thegarrisonhouse.ca/






***

I Love VistaPrint

Ain't it great??

My business card!

(Oh the bottom isn't really all smeary - I did that so that cyber ax murderers won't find out where I live.)

It is beautiful and I am very proud of myself.

But of course being a teacher I never read instructions and ran into a bit of a problem when I sent VistaPrint the wrong address for my website.

I was in a total panic when I realized what I had done and decided to go back and read the directions.

The directions said that once I pushed the final button there was no turning back. I had to live with what I had ordered.

I decided to throw myself on their mercy and wrote a pitiful letter that would make tears come to the eyes of Gunga Din.

But I didn't expect clemency.

Good grief my cards arrived the next day with the corrections made and a wonderful e-mail from one of the workers!

I'm so not used to good service and a company that goes out of its way to assist its clients.

If this is online business, I like it!

Taking the Falls

One of my cousins from Scotland came to visit for a few days this week.

She was a huge amount of fun and because she was here I decided we should do something I've wanted to do since I was a kid.

We took a boat ride to the base of Niagara Falls.

The Niagara River turns up in a lot of my pictures. It has always rolled and roared across the backdrop my life. But it doesn't ever take centre stage.

This picture, however, is all about the river and the legend of the "Maid of the Mist".  I've already blogged about her, how she went willingly over the Falls in a canoe to save her people so I'll just give you a link to one version of the legend:   The maid of the Mist

The maid Lelawela can be seen in the water at the base of the Falls, the Thunder God is on the right. 

The healing and fertility of their love is represented by the canoe.  

Maleficent - a Commentary

Spoiler alert: Don't read this if you don't want to know.

Maleficent movie trailer

It should have been much darker.

But the truth runs so close to the surface of this movie

you can almost see the version that should have been made.

Maleficent is a powerful faerie.  She lives in an idyllic world and loves a young human man whom she trusts.

One day he sees a chance to gain worldly power and steals her wings.

Maleficent's  grief is unbearable. 

She withdraws from the world and vows revenge.

The young man becomes king and has a daughter.

On her christening day while the other faeries are blessing her with beauty and happiness the dark side of the Goddess, oops, I mean Maleficent , turns up and curses her.

But 16 years is a long time, (maybe 5,000 years in our time),and as the princess approaches her birthday, Maleficent realizes her mistake in cursing all women, oops, I mean the princess, whom she loves. 

She tries to undo the curse but of course she can't and the girl pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and will sleep forever unless she is awoken by the kiss of her true love.

The handsome prince rides up and kisses her but she doesn't awake.

It isn't until Maleficent speaks of her own love for her daughters, oops, I mean the princess, and kisses her, that the princess awakes and the battle to defeat the evil king, who is by this time quite mad takes place.

I don't like fantasy as a rule, and I really don't like cutesy wootsey Hollywood muppetty creatures unless they are in an actual Muppet movie.  

But this is a Hollywood movie and it was made primarily for the kiddie market, so I guess you have to accept that part of it.

Because really, the underlying message, sent chills up my spine.

Am I Saleswoman of the Year Yet?

The last few weeks have been a time of

High  anxiety.

But I've finally, (thanks to a very kind woman named Sally), been able to see some of my work for sale online in the form of glicleé prints.

They are expensive so don't be shocked.

(I had some cheap prints done at first but the

quality was poor and I stopped selling them.)

Fortunately, I don't have to live on what I earn

from my art work. 

Anyway

Sally's awesome store can be found at  

store.csourcewisdom.com





PS For all that I write and considering it is my own
art work you'd think I could come up with a better
sales pitch! I'll have to work on this marketing stuff.

And hey, I added some big words and colour.  
That has to count for something!

The Yin of It, the Yang of it

I'm sure this makes perfect sense to you so I'm not going to bother explaining it.

Hahaahaha

Actually for once I have no words other than to say that maybe it is about fertility/creativity or maybe it's about how sometimes events seem to happen because they have to happen and we are just ticket holders trapped on a strange cosmic merry-go-round??

Or maybe I just like drawing fish.

:)