A glimpse inside my eclectic studio practice
Even if we have a reliable method and a process that seems to work there is still a lot of mystery in making art. It’s a act of faith sometimes. Somehow magic is involved and patience. Sometimes a story calls you to come and find it, but you can’t quite locate where it’s hiding. I […]
Read More“Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book It’s December 31st 2017. I am re-blogging this post from 2013, a very difficult year in my life and I’m sending it out to anyone who has struggled this year. Life this year has been stamping it’s foot, screaming at […]
Read More0n the death of Seamus Heaney I am trying to write a poem because I am sad– and because summer is ending- and because a poet I love has died. I am trying to write a poem because– as the days grow short and the nights fall so suddenly- all my summers- of innocence and […]
Read MoreWhen I was a kid- my grade eight math teacher told our class about a mail-order scam where someone would put an ad in the classifieds–offering an ancient secret to becoming rich and famous. All you had to do was send nine dollars to a box number and the secret of unlimited wealth would be yours. A few weeks later, a booklet in a plain brown package would […]
Read More“There are only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours, and God’s.” ~ Byron Katie Today, I had the urge to write about something that I was outraged about. I was annoyed about a particular internet art star. I wanted to be the kid in the crowd who cries out that the emperor has no clothes. But […]
Read MoreI have built a little cage on the edge of a cliff, where I pretend– to live contentedly, rather than learn to swim across the turbulent waters below. Cushioned by the delusion of safety, I hang there trapped– above murky waters- as if sitting alone in a cage– is preferable to the risk of drowning. I watch with […]
Read MoreMaking art teaches me– that life is too precious to rush. I don’t want to miss any miracles. And there are always miracles unfolding. It takes time to truly become conscious of how art opens the doors of perception and reveals the deeper parts of the soul. Drawing, painting demands that I slow down. Hand […]
Read MoreI am re-posting this entry from a few years ago when I was afraid but ready to go forward inspite of my fear. I was about to travel to the Gabriola Theatre Festival to perform my solo show and I was struggling with debilitating stage fright and anxiety. “The truth is that our finest moments […]
Read MoreSometimes I get scared. Overwhelmed Shut down. Oh– these endless yammering clamouring thoughts. Inner turmoil. Craziness. What’s wrong with me? It’s just the old wounds weeping. Just the old anguish re-instating itself. It’s just the ancient inherited sorrow of my ancestors– Mourning their loved ones. Grieving their losses. It’s just the old trauma, My trauma, […]
Read MoreSometimes I think that the lessons of my life have been delivered in a series of disasters and catastrophes. It is as if I somehow needed to go sailing in a little paper boat, during a raging storm, in order to learn about the need for life jackets. Maybe if I had been paying more […]
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