The great buffal sculpture
at the head of the Scarth St. Mall ~ I pass by this majestic
part of Regina history
and read the legends of
‘Pile ‘o bones’
“For I am the Resistance, and as always, I will return.”
~ John Trudell, Native author, poet, activist, actor, musician
(1946 ~ 2015)
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| Artesian Performing Arts A not-for-profit arts organization |
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
~ William Shakespeare
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| Actual colour: black on white |
Into the imagination of the artist, Shary Boyle, was humorous, thoughtful and very curious. While the image of the brochure is in black and white, her multiple ceramic or terracotta sculptures were colourful, fanciful and some disturbing. In our present day world, each of us has perceptions and biases about others seldom talked about or maybe even identify within our own minds. Outside the Palace of Me asks us to participate in her Palace and interpret her art as we see them. A total of nine sculptures, most about three feet tall, two are well over height. Include in the showing are several of her paintings, equally thought provoking. Spending the afternoon with two good friends, we viewed them all carefully each coming away with different perceptions and ideas of Shary Boyle’s sculptures and artwork.
“Shary Boyle (b.1972) is from the Scarborough area of Toronto. The recipient of a 2021 Honouraary Doctorate of Fine Arts from her alma mater, Boyle graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1994, and soon developed a studio practice centred on figurative drawing, painting an dlive performance. Creating deeply imaginative, idiosyncratic and unsettling worlds,….” ~ From the brochure Outside the Palace of Me ‘About the Artist’
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.Imagination encircles the world.”
~ Albert Einstein
Brick walls provide shelter.
Art brings joy and brightness.
Should I beat against a mason's handiwork
or drift into the beauty of Picasso's art?
Maybe there is room for both.
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| From the Regina Immersive Experience 2023 |
“It is a narrow mind which cannot look
at a subject from various points of view.”
~ George Eliot, Middlemarch
changed pretty flowers
into delicate works of art.
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
~ Confucius
Book shelves are not necessary, books will stack up where ever they land. On the dining room table, the top of the fridge, any flat surface will do. In a pinch the floor will even work. Books aren’t even really necessary with everything now digital and on line. Removing all the books from my home just seems wrong. I do know that most of them I have read just once. There are a few I’ve read many times. Some of my cookbooks have travelled with me for over fifty years. I have a book from high school English that two of my sisters used. It's battered, the cover barely hanging on, the content is not acceptable today, but was for its time. There is a certain dedication owning books. Could be just a habit from so many Christmas and birthday gifts. I do love the feel of holding a book as I read. I have tried audible books, digital books but I always return to the real solid paper and ink books. Two covers, a story, an autobiography, some form of non-fiction that holds my interest and feeds my curiosity. Beautiful artistry on book covers, a blurb on the back and the jacket cover. Quotations from other authors, friends or newspapers. There is more to a book than the flat surface it sits on.
“She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain.”
~ Louisa May Alcott
It was August 05th - just last Saturday - that my sister, Betty and I took a wander to the Fort Qu’Appelle Midsummer Art Festival. I had never been there before so had no idea of its largesse! I did recognize the entrance to the Fort with its banners, sunflowers and signs, but the cars, pickups, camper trailers and people wowed me. Outside the Fort, a Poutine food cart, and several other food tents, tables and chairs for the hungry were busy with business. The Festival had opened in the morning, so there had already been streams of people in the gates. A modest entry fee of $5.00 let us unto a sea of crafters and artisans displaying and selling their wares. A biergarten and music was busy in one corner. We made a beeline to a building towards the back of the large area to find our sister Kate. Perfectly positioned in a far corner, she could see and welcome any and all customers, saying the morning had been particularly busy. It was almost like walking through a fair ground it was so full of life and activity.
Hungry, and after a short visit, we headed back to the food court area for hamburgers, pie and ice cream. On our way, we spotted pottery artisans. I was so tempted but restrained myself, convinced that I could return after lunch. And so we did, but made a big circuit around all the tents, studiously avoiding anything resembling pottery. I did make one small purchase of a cork bracelet. Returning to Kate’s table, I restocked my card box at home with the purchase of several of her watercolour cards, and chose a photograph of thistles in bloom for my home.
Another surprise ~ My sisters talked with a high school friend and I met some friends of mine from Regina. It was a lovely afternoon. The weather perfect and the wonderful atmosphere of the busy Midsummer Art Festival could not have been any better (unless I had purchased some pottery)!
"I love the outdoor festival feeling."
~ Joshua Bell
St. Mary’s Anglican Church at 3337 15th Ave, was a 20 minute walk under the shade of elms. The sun was warm and a breeze played with my hair. Along the way, I met another woman who was on her way. We enjoyed our brisk walk together sharing stories of our love of dogs.
Saskatoons have played a part in my life since I was a child. As a family, we picked these favourite berries in a community pasture. Empty ice cream buckets soon were filled with the delicious purple fruit and, once in the kitchen, transformed into pies and containers of frozen saskatoons. I don’t recall if mom made jams, or syrups but I have since enjoyed both. When I saw the poster advertising this Festival, I was intent on attending. It’s been a really great busy summer, so I really wasn’t certain until this morning of my timing. I was told there were line ups before the Festival opened at 1:30 pm. Saskatoon pies advertised were sold out quickly. Many were ordered for pick up. I was unable to get there until after three, so no saskatoon pie for me. I was limited to a spread, chocolate covered berries and a saskatoon powder for use in smoothies, yogurts or baking. The last is new to me!
My disappointment about no pie was assuaged by the vocals of the Empire Associates, a married couple who have been singing and performing together for many years. Husband on guitar, they sang in harmony, their voices strong and beautiful. I was told that many of their songs were their original music. They interspersed their performance with familiar Johnny Cash songs. All in all it was a lovely afternoon.
When I arrived I had seen, on the church lawn, a young girl contributing to a large painting set between supports. On my way home, I stopped to look at the painting. The artist introduced herself and explained that she had drawn the original sketch for children to fill in throughout the day. She indicated certain places where she had painted and pointed out the children’s art. Such a wonderful thing for her to provide for the children!
“The Cree name for this plant is ‘mis-ask-quah-toomia’,
which early white settlers shortened to ‘saskatoon’. Saskatoon berries were
the most important plant food used by the Blackfoot peoples of the prairies.”
~ plantwatch.naturealberta.ca ~ Human Uses
Around 2006, maybe a year or so earlier, I joined a small art group. Our first assignment was just to get colour on the page. Any colour. Then, if we wanted to, add another colour or design. Just three of us, we sat at a picnic table at Willows Beach in Victoria on a sunlit day, children and their families playing in the sand and water. I think we brought our own paints - not sure of that memory detail. Paints were not from an Art Store but from a drugstore. At the time, wandering the isles for who knows what, I came upon an art small set of water colours with one brush. I chose some inexpensive watercolour paper. From there, my hobby of water colour painting began. For most of the next decade, I painted and I wrote on my days off. It was not only play for me but focus and distraction. When words were stuck inside me, I would get up and paint. Just the movement of the brush, the colours magically appearing, images suggesting a horizon, a bird, a cloud, the night sky……..anything. Slowly and sometimes suddenly, the right words started dancing in my head and I could go back to my writing.
Years later, someone said that watercolour painting was really hard! Maybe for an acclaimed artist, but I have never set myself to that standard. It’s only the images in my head that I try to put on paper. In the last couple of decades, I let that colourful play grow fallow. My tubes of paints ~ from a genuine Art Store ~ completely dried up. Today, shopping for household items, I took my time. Up one aisle and down the other, I look for what I might want for my great grand daughters. But what caught my eye was this paint set ~ definitely for me. I will share, but it’s time to get out to play on my own time. Every day, I see my real paint brushes growing dusty in jars or dry in their cases. My stack of paintings from those first years are hidden in a closet. The little portable easel sits atop a wicker four drawer cupboard, it too gathering dust. In the busy, noisy mall today, besides the parchment paper and lid for the cat food, I found this little corner of joy. I keep routine in my life that includes writing. Painting now has its place beside my writing.
“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves,
or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.”
~ Charles E. Schaefer
Families, food and music on
13th Ave closed to traffic
for at least eight blocks and
filled with tents for ~
artworks, clothes and jewelry
jams, jellies and baking
Food trucks with a variety of cuisines
Local musicians played at cross walks
The day started out cloudy and cool.
clouds lifted and warm sun
accompanied Festival goers as
they wandered and browsed,
stopped and purchased,
gathered in small groups
to greet each other,
or line up at food trucks
on this final Festival Day
~~~~~
Later this evening, the street was washed clean
by a prairie thunderstorm complete with hail!
Hope all the tents, people and electronics
had wrapped things up before they were soaked!
“[An arts festival) helps a city to express itself. …
It lets it come into its own.”
~ David Binder
I plan to attend Brushworks Art Guild Show and Sale in June. Fortunately, it is within walking distance (or bus if I feel like it) from my home.
Aurora Art Guild Show and Sale
The Terrace Rotunda
Innovation Place
#10 Research Drive, Regina, Sask
(South of University of Regina)
May 11 - 13, 2023
Brushworks Art Guild of Regina, Inc.
Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre
2420 Elphinstone Street, Regina, Sask
Art Show and Sale - June 2 - 4, 2023
“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions
that have been concealed by the answers.”
~ James Baldwin
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| Or taking a walk just because! |
The work we do at home
behind closed doors
besides sweeping the floors
or dusting every little thing
but reading an intriguing book
other stuff should's forgotten
Or writing stories, essays, poems
when the other stuff still calls
Or crocheting a new baby blanket
when the bed still needs making
Or painting an imagined landscape
when the dishwasher needs emptying
Or - anything that creates meaning and
depth in life behind closed doors
“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.”
~ J.M.Barrie
A splash of brilliant red
Curling sunshine yellow
Strokes of night sky blue
Stickers upside down
Crooked circles with butterflies
A whimsical world of fun!
“What’s life without whimsy?”
~ Dr. Sheldon Cooper ~ The Big Bang Theory
Designing with colours and
onto the textures of nature
with the delicate touch of
time, chemistry and temperature ~
children see
more than just a tree.
“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry,
and if that is not enough what is enough?”
~ Vincent Van Gogh
