Mother's Garden

Glass Rocks

Connected

Finding happiness in the smallest of things.

Inspired: Buddhism

Interior of Souris Valley

Hang Mans Hut

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creek Bed in Souris Valley

More Landscapes of the Churchill River!

"Little Stanley Rapids" acrylic on wood

"Morning View from Love Island" acrylic on wood

"Robertson Falls" acrylic on wood


Please keep reading and commenting on the Oil Sands Debate below...

Little Landscapes

Its strange to be back in the world of fast food, fast cars, and fast living. I must admit (and how surprised are you really?) that I was more than happy to disapear for awhile. Leave all of this non-sense behind, and commune with nature, to simply enjoy the vast land and silence. It was nice to tend only to immediate needs, to use basic survival skills, to not have a roundabout way of obtaining what is necessary. The one thing I completely despise about our culture is how we are forced to work at jobs we don't really enjoy in order to feed and clothe ourselves. It is true that the lives we lead in Canadian cities are relatively safe and easy and fun, as compared to hunting and gathering all day every day. And I must also admit that I so very much appreciate hot water from the tap and a flushing toilet. After spending almost a week in a tent, I have really come to appreciate the comforts of home. Certainly when I fell ill in the second week I was grateful to be staying in a cabin. I often wonder, though, if something isn't lost when we distance ourselves from the real and chaotic natural world. I just read three thought provoking essays on the subject of Nature by Aldous Huxley. He discusses how often we look to nature as a place to renew our spiritual selves, but he also states that as we personify, humanize, and organize nature through spirituality, religion, and science we forget that the world is not united under human innovation, but is seperate, diverse, and chaotic. "Our direct intuitions of Nature tell us that the world is bottomlessly strange: alien, even when it is kind and beautiful; having innumerable modes of being that are not our modes; always mysteriously not personal,not conscious, not moral; often hostile and sinister;sometimes even unimaginably, because inhumanely, evil." He goes on to state that we need to leave the wildness in nature , to not try to make nature conform to human rules and regulations. Instead we must embrace the "Jekyll-Hyde of nature", and because we are of nature, also of ourselves. I believe that we learned this lesson during the last few days of our trip, when we were confronted with the threat of monstrous thunder storms. It made me think how often some people rely on dumb luck to get us through to the next day. Could you survive if the comforts and relatively easy living of city life were taken away? How would you eat? How would you keep warm? What if you were sick? This is why we live in cities with electricity, grocery stores, hospitals, and people who specialize. In the city it is easy to get help,especially if you have the money. Whereas, in the wild money is useless except as kindling to get a fire started.

Anyway, here are a few "Little Landscapes" that i painted while up north.

"Love Island" acrylic on wood, 5in X 7in, 2007

"Green Rapids", acrylic on wood, 5in X 5in, 2007

"Fisher Rapids", acrylic on wood, 5in X 7in, 2007

aren't you a part of society?

i wish not. but here i am using wireless internet from somewhere nearby to make a blogpost. im a slave to blogging. enjoy these pictures of our canoe trip thus far. heading back out august 1 for five more days!

From my sketch book...

I went to Moose Jaw and Saskatoon today, with my fellow Dunlop co-workers, to visit some of the other fine art galleries in Saskatchewan. It was very interesting, and I discovered that I would really like to work at the Mendel. It is a beautiful gallery, and has many great programs for the public. Anyway, on the way back home I did some sketches of the landscape, this one is my favorite.

Rooster in Flight

Since I started on this rooster commission I've become aware of the various barnyard animal decor available- and there's a lot of it. It's like this weird barnyard decorating cult. Cows, pigs, sheep,and roosters are the four most common animals. You can buy almost anything imaginable with the barnyard animal of your choosing stamped or painted, or molded into the shape of it. I draw the line at barnyard themed wallpaper... thats just unforgivable. Well, I guess this is my contribution to the fine art of Rooster Portraiture. Actually, I would really like to have a real rooster as a pet, along with a few hens, they are pretty interesting creatures. Or maybe I'll just get some of those rooster and hen lawn ornaments instead, with the solar light panels so they light up at night. yeah!

Its a triptych, so here is the left side

middle

rightside

Dream of Losing my Right Eye

In my dream I woke up one day with painfully infected eyes. The skin around my eyes was dark, discolored, and puffy. I examined my eyes in a mirror, opening my eye wider by pulling the top lid up and the bottom lid down with my right thumb and finger. My eye socket became the sole object of focus, and became a cavernous cave. There was horrible brown stringy goop in my cave like eye. When I leaned in to look closer, my right eye fell out into my hand. I was very scared at this point and asked Rob to take me to the hospital. Somehow we were transported there immediately. While waiting for a doctor to look at my eye, I decided that I didn't want my eye to dry out, so i put it in my mouth for safe keeping. Apparently that wasn't a safe place as it squashed in my mouth, pushing out a yellow goo that kinda tasted like egg yolk. I gagged slightly, spit it out, and then it was forgotten. Even though I no longer had a right eye I could still see. My perspective was a little flattened, yet sharper and brighter. The doctor finally looked at the empty eye socket and determined I had gotten some sort of bacterial infection in it. We determined I had picked it up at Regina Beach in the sand.

what the hell? is this supposed to mean something? or is it just a really weird dream...

photos of the storm at mom and dads

the colours of the photographs are real. it was an amazing storm that happened as the sun was setting.

meditation in the park

every sunday (i accidentally wrote sinday, is that a freudian slip?)there is this group of people meditating in vic park. i like to draw them, cuz they sit still for long periods of time and they don't notice that they are being drawn. hee hee hee.

blogger is dead

Hello? lo? lo? lo?

well --
i do believe the blog-o-sphere has been abandoned. where did everybody go? poor old blogger, left for dead, as we chase the latest online fad. but i have not yet given you up. hip-hip- hooray! here are some images of Meenos and Jane, and a site-specific painting!

Souris Valley

Psychedelic Trees...

Picnic in Souris Valley

A fun time was had by all!
Note the "Toxic Twizzlers" in the foreground of the last pic... Six disgusting mushy flavours: Tainted Tuna, Putrid Purple, Sultry Salmon, Gangreen Green, Citris Pee (AKA Vitamin P), Radioactive Orange (AKA Racist Halloween)...

pile of pups, a gang of cocks, and one duck

here are some sketches/commissions that i am doing for other people. Aunt Alva enjoyed the sketch of Jayjay so she asked me to do one of Freddy (thats Jayjays ass-end in the pic). Also working on some Rooster portraits, so here are some preliminary sketches for the commission...




in other news, came home today and found a duck on the front lawn. pretty cool, it's not everyday you find a duck chillin out on your front lawn. there were also some kids running around so i gave them some bread to feed the duck. I think they scared the poor duck more than anything.
and, yes i did say a gang of cocks...