Colour and Balance

Artist: Ruth Van Egmond
Victoria, B.C.

Art works of the 

great or humble, 

adult or child arise 

from an inside 

space that no one 

can see even after 

colours dry on 

canvas or paper. 

Whether oil, acrylic, 

water colour or crayon, 

vision made real and

whole in brush strokes 

or bold stars and curves ~

art works to be cherished 

and hung on an office wall 

above a row of chairs

or mom’s refrigerator amid 

a collection of fridge magnets. 

Colour and balance lives.

“In art, the hand can never execute anything 

higher than the heart can imagine.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

On an Afternoon Walk - Back Alley Character

This guy is a character. I snapped his photo yesterday afternoon on my walk. One portrait among one or two others in the back alley, he seems pretty ok with his surroundings. Perpetually a charmer and probably a tough guy, he can handle anything that blows his way. 

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, 

because your character is what you really are, 

while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

~ John Wooden

On an Afternoon Walk ~ Back Alley Poetry

Back Alley art is garish, harsh, beautiful or sensitive. I’m sure there are many adjectives that describe the graffiti splashed in such brilliant colours in the greyness of alleys. Shock value when all around is filled with windblown trash, garbage bins, recycling bins across from dusty parking spaces for tenants of square, utilitarian apartment buildings. These marvellous paintings are on fences, railway cars, buildings, and anywhere there is a flat surface that begs to be a canvas for an artist. I’ve been down this particular alley a time or two in bright daylight because it offers a shortcut and a brilliant art tour. They’ve changed since my last sojourn last summer. Stopped in my tracks, I read the poet's words and was comforted.

“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, 

a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”

~ Robert Frost

Wind Surfing

The artistry of the wind

  surfs clouds across 

 the early evening sky.

“Revelations are found in clouds.”

~ Serge King

Book Review: Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

In the Prologue, three children, on a ramble in the woods on March 23 1940, stumble upon a dead body. “Because though they were young, one thing they’d already learned. Colored boy found with a dead white body? That didn’t look good to nobody.”

Diane Chamberlain develops two stories that pose the questions: How do they connect; when do they come together. Anna Dale, a young artist in 1940 and Morgan Christopher, a young artist in 2018 share the same painting. Morgan is in jail in Raleigh, North Carolina for a crime she didn’t commit. Anna, from Plainfield, New Jersey, has just lost her mother and has won a contest to paint a mural for the Edenton Post Office in Edenton, North Carolina. In June of 2018, Morgan is released on bail on with an ankle bracelet on the provision that she finish restoring a mural in two months. A benefactor, unknown to her, has just passed away leaving those provision in his will. She has no idea how he knows her but is glad to be out of jail ~ and she knows nothing about art restoration, merely painting. In December of 1939, Anna Dale receives notice of the contest winnings. She is completely unfamiliar with the culture ‘south of the Mason Dixon line’ and is unprepared for the racism that was prevalent there. 

Anna Dale’s mural depicts the character and history of the town of Edendale. The Edenton Tea Party, a local woman's movement, is central to the mural ~, the Mill Village, the Cotton Mill and the fishing boats were all parts of the mural. Decades later, as Morgan works on restoring that same very damaged mural, strange other images came through - a motorcycle, tiny skulls in the Mill Village windows, a hammer with blood drops coming from it. What do they all mean? Had Anna Dale lost her mind? With each chapter, one for Anna and the next for Morgan, the story becomes more convoluted and tangled.

Their benefactor, Jesse James Williams, connects both women. To Anna, he was a young black boy who had great artistic potential. To Morgan, he was only known as an admired and impressive artist but did not know how or why he knew of her. Another conundrum. In 1940, to protect Anna, he took the mural and kept it for decades. Only when he passed, did he bring it out of hiding for Morgan to restore in 2018.

“You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future.”

Diane Chamberlain, Big Lies in a Small Town

Title: Big Lies in a Small Town

Author: Diane Chamberlain

Copyright: 2019

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group

Type: Novel

Format: Soft Cover

ISBN - 978-1-250-08733-1 (hardcover)

ISBN - 978-1-250-08735-5 (ebook)

ISBN - 978-1-250-27052-8 (international, sold outside the U.S. subject to rights availability)

Artistic License

I have seen one or two 

before ~

blank white canvases

with one thin 

red, blue, or yellow 

brush stroke

across or diagonally

and I wonder ~

did the artist look at

that white blank canvas

~ pace and pace ~

brush poised, 

pick up a palette of paint

 ~ suddenly inspired to

gently stroke in that line

and there it is

a finished, priceless canvas.

Much like this 

blank screen

covered with only 

the thinnest attempt 

at open verse.

“Artistic license sneered through the thin fabric.”

~ Ingmar Bergman

In Service

Useful doesn’t have to mean anything more than serviceable and utilitarian.

 

Useful brings us the joy of music and the aroma and taste of fresh bread,

Useful paints beautiful canvases and creates buildings for shelter and commerce

Useful means much more than

serviceable and utilitarian.

“The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it 

because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.”

~ Henri Poincare, mathematician

(April 1854 - July 1912)

 

Snowscape

Snow fell

softly

gently

Silencing dark blemishes

softening sharpness

disguising icy slides

Snow fell

glittering

ghostly

Graceful trees

branches outlined 

rough bark crevices filled

Snow fell

artful

coldly beautiful

“When snow falls, nature listens.”

~ Antoinette Van Kleep

Salt Spring Island She Shed Tour 2018 - #13

Front of Postcard with Anna Gustafson's Enshrouded Technology

Our final stop on this fascinating She Shed Tour was Art Haus, where technology is shrouded in white cotton. Quite literally. Artist Anna Gustafson is *an honours graduate from the Vancouver School of Art - now Emily Carr - and has

Front of Postcard with Anna Gustafson's Enshrouded  Technology

shown in public galleries since 1974. Her work is inspired by the environment, consumerism and, it would appear, our throwaway society. She patiently enshrouds cell phones, remote controls, leaf blowers and the many small pieces of technology ubiquitous in today's world to honour the work and design that created them. 

Our tour of learning and discovery had come to an end. We returned to our host’s home for delicious homemade plum pie and lovely ice cream. Our ferry return to Victoria was cool and cloudy, but we came away with lovely memories of a day well spent on June 24, 2018.

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.”

~ John Keats

See more of Anna Gustafson's artistry, ideas and beliefs at:

www.anna-gustafson.com

Fundraising event for: Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse

*from Anna Gustafson’s CV on her website

Salt Spring Island She Shed Tour 2018 - #10

The afternoon was getting on and we decided to miss a couple of She Sheds. So on to #10 on our program to visit Judy Weeden’s Pottery Studio where we discovered a most classic and sophisticated work. Dyes in shades of blues, greens, deep orange, black and lavender with designs fanciful and geometric gracing her lovely pottery. I hesitated only briefly before purchasing this lovely mug. I can wrap my hand around it just right, and it holds just the right amount of early morning coffee. After a bit of research at judyweeden.com I learned that Judy Weeden is a "studio potter with 42 years experience" which is evident in the quality of her work. 

“I thought clay must feel happy in the good potter’s hand.”

~ Janet Fitch, White Oleander

See a gallery of Judy Weeden’s wonderful work at judyweeden.com.

Fundraising event for: Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse

Salt Spring Island She Shed Tour 2018 - #6

Our next discovery was a very neat and compact She Shed with a lovely window facing the artist’s home. The many fine tools and cubby holes filled with beads, gems and fine wires for this fine and detailed work were within easy reach in this 10 x 10 structure. Her finished, and very attractive pieces of jewelry - earrings, necklaces and bracelets - were on display behind her work space. The tiny She Shed, built by the artist and her husband, was constructed with as many recycled materials as possible. The welcoming little front porch was perfect for a bit of relaxation and ease. 

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

~ John Keats, Endymion, A poetic Romance

My only contact information for this jewelry crafting artist is her name: Charlene Beaudette - Saltspring Island

Fundraising event for: Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse

Landing

I am a great white owl,

new resident of a different home 

than the home of my birth.

My birth, a labour of love and creativity, divined by a gentle human hand brought me to life from strange concoctions spread with brushes and washed in running water.

With paint and colour, 
softly feathered wings spread wide, 

curved talons, gloved in feather white, stretched for the forest floor.

Then, winging silently from a dark forest,

I was carried to this new land by a sisterly soul.

Where was I to land?

Offerings of several pleasing perches 

acceptable but never comfortable, 

these brief landings merely moved,
and then moved again,

to help me find my place.

I have finally landed, 

resting in a window bright corner 

surrounded by deep cranberry colour.

Landing ~ where I watch life

outside and in with 

clear yellow eyes.

Sheltered and free, I have found my place. 

“One’s destination is never a place but

 rather a new way of looking at things.”

~ Henry Miller