Genuine

Lelo is my new friend. He has been dropping off 'genuine' produce for me to enjoy! Some items come from his own garden, like plums and lemons and tomatoes. He's even given me some of his amazing home-made jams; peach and apricot and some made from a South American fruit called feijoa which he has growing in his garden. He's also given me two small bottles of his famous home-made liqueur; one Wild Fennel and the other Nespolino (scroll down to alcoholic beverages). I store those in the freezer. Some local items he buys for me at the market in another town. The ricotta he gets from his farmer friend- can you imagine fresh warm ricotta made from the milk of the farmer's 2 goats?

One morning as I was walking my his home, he invited me in to see his garden.

Flower from Lelo's garden.
Photo part of my "bellezza di ogni giorno" project

Lina, his wife, whom I have known for a few years, wants me to send her my apple pie recipe! I'll have to send her some aluminum pie plates as well as they do not have them here!

What a nice couple. I am so lucky to have great friends.

A Thought

Once in a while I wonder if it is worth blogging.

Is there anyone out there??

I check my stats regularly and there are hundreds of views worldwide per week so someone out there is enjoying my photos and my thoughts.

Someone out there is being inspired.

Once in a while I get a comment that encourages me to continue, like Martha's which she just posted even though it was a past post. Thanks Martha!!

I do too much talking to the walls as a mom so it's nice to know someone is listening on-line.

Keep commenting!

(my photos from the airplane flying over South Africa, October 2013)

Where are you?

This isn't the night sky in South Africa.

It's a light fixture.

It's made of recycled milk cartons.

You can see the expiry date of the carton
stamped on a leaf.

It was hanging at the Tokara winery near Stellenbosch, South Africa. We were there last week.

Postcards

I won't be seeing my neighbourhood for a while.

In about a week I go to Europe.

I don't really miss the neighbourhood much while I am away.

Does that mean it's time to sell? and move to Italy??

(postcard, 4"x6", free motion technique on photo transfer image of a cracked sidewalk)

Treasures Found and Finished

Coming back home after I have been away for a while gives me the opportunity to see the house from fresh eyes. I usually say something like, "What? I live like this??"

After throwing out stuff that is broken and unrepairable or recycling clothes, books and bikes, comes the studio clean-up.

I have found many quilt tops that were 75% to 90% done. I wonder why I never finished them?

I have started to finish them using fabric I have and only buying back fabric IF needed. Sometimes I can sew a few pieces together and make a very interesting back. The pictures of the quilt tops seen in this post are the ones I finished in the last ten days. Amazing!!

They'll be dropped off at the quilters soon.

Once they are quilted, we'll be able to use them and enjoy them or give them away as special gifts.

Much better than being in a cardboard box!

What did I Miss?

I have been asking friends what I missed while I was away.

Chandelier, 21x15x15 feet
recycled plastic, monofilament
2013
First Canadian Place, Toronto
Photo credit: Peter MacCallum

People seem to think I didn't miss anything. "Same old. Same old", they say.

I did miss an installation by Katharine Harvey.

Chandelier,
King Street View
photo credit: P. MacCallum

I saw her Waterfall piece in 2008 at Nuit Blanche in Toronto. 6000 pounds of recycled plastic bottles.

She made a chandelier out of plastic bottles in the First Canadian Place lobby which was exhibited till mid-May.

Chandelier by K. Harvey
photo credit: P. MacCallum 

I would have loved to see it LIVE.

Found Paper

I use found paper in my textile work.

My mineral piece,
Looking for Labradorite
detail showing paper

What is found paper? It's paper that is FOUND.

And you can find paper in some wonderful places.

The piece of paper in Looking for Labradorite is from Arles, in the south of France. I found it while I was there on a holiday.

me in Arles-it was so windy that day
I had to sit down so my dress wouldn't fly up!

Well... I didn't really find it. I ripped it.

view from the top of the Arles amphitheatre

The Arles amphitheatre measures 136 m x 107 m.
The Colosseum in Rome measures 188 m x 156 m

It was an advertisement for a film, I think, and with the rain it had become unglued and was draping off the wall. The event was over so I decided to "find" it and I ripped it off. The raw uneven edge is very interesting.

fossils from the stone of the Arles amphitheatre

I have also used found paper in "My City", a collage I created for takepART 2012. The paper is from an advertisement that was on a pole in downtown Toronto. I specifically tore off the part with the letters.

The best time to find that kind of paper is after a rain.

Found paper seen in the creating stage.

Your found paper does not have to be found outside. Found paper can be a stamp from an envelope, a school child's homework, a chocolate bar wrapper, a page from a book that is falling apart.

Keep your eyes open.

Is Spring Around the Corner?

It's sunny...

and spring-like today.

How energizing.

Make yourself sunny today and smile.

Stitching Time

"The first thing I did 

was take down the clock 

running dutifully on its one cell 

of battery and move the hands 

forward,"

FORWARD?? I would have moved them back, dear poet Alice Friman! Especially this week...

"...one hand

chasing the other under the shadow 

of the thin red whip driving the whole 

terrible mechanism."

travel blanket - stitching the cactus from the south of Italy

Sunday afternoon, I sewed through time and was in my element. One hour seemed to last 5 minutes. That's when you know you are doing the right thing.

Love and Hate

I have this love/hate relationship with my art work.

I love it until about 3/4's of the way through....

then I hate it and don't want to finish it because "it's not working out".

Then I push forward (that is the painful part) and about one week after I finish it, I love it again.

Off I go to get it professionally photographed and I am too embarrassed to take it out of the bag because it is so bad!

What's with that?

Today, I was at the 3/4 mark. Ugh! I left my studio and went to buy fabric!

This is called fabric therapy, apparently!

Earth Hour

Toronto residents are (hopefully) participating in Earth Hour tonight from 8:30 to 9:30 pm

Everyone should be turning off their lights for one hour.

To think women use to hand sew by candle light! Should I try?

hand sewing my travel blanket for my on-line course

Maybe I will make a fire and share some wine and a cheese platter with my husband instead. Not a bad way to spend an hour.

leave less of a foot print

Worth Repairing?

This is an antique piece that my friend, Diane, is debating to repair. As she considers it, it hangs in her studio.

I love the splashes of yellow

The Toronto Public Library, Spadina branch (Spadina/Bloor) program continues to meet on Thursday evenings at 6:30 to 8pm. We are working on a log cabin quilt. Everyone is welcome no matter what their skill level. The finished quilt will be used by the library for one of the children's programs.

Art and Money

Is ART a material that is put up for sale?

Given the economic state of this time, are artists going back to poverty and unemployment?

Will artists start changing what they are creating in order to sell their work?

The Black Vase, detail

I haven't sold anything of mine in the last 3 years. I have had interest at many exhibits but no sales. I have looked at textile art that has sold. Many of those pieces are 'pretty'. I don't want to make pretty things. I want to make what I want to make.

This is as pretty as I get!

The Black Vase is for a show in Viterbo, Italy.
The theme of the event is ROSES.
I used H. Matisse' work as inspiration

British artist Damien Hirst's (Spot Art) business manager told him, "Be careful not to chase the money with the art but to chase the art with the money."

Hard Twist 6- Obsession

The textile-based exhibit at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto ends this weekend (January 29).

Kate Busby will have her red piece going to France for the Canadian exhibit I am curating.

3,600 (BEATS) by Kate Busby
There is a french knot in the center of every square.

Amanda McCavour's work is still hanging at the hotel.

"ACCUMULATE (LARGE)"
my picture of Amanda's work isn't very good.
Go see it LIVE! It's beautiful.

One of the jurors, Judith Tinkl, is an artist who is also participating in the France show, Tradition in Transition. She has made a new piece using her grandfather's silk ties, her grandmother's fabric and  japanese obi she had collected.

I loved these two spinning lamps! (yes, they do twirl gently.) They are so FUN! (they are not part of the france show)

SWAG, by Barbara Sutherland, which hangs on the 4th floor of the hotel,
is made with strips of fabric.

The Gladstone, as we locals call it, has a geometric design painted on the outside of its building. Quilt like?

Canadian Landscape

What makes our textile work as Canadians different from the quilting and textile art of Europe?

I believe it is the landscape and how it influences our work, consciously or subconsciously.

"Textile art in Canada is not only inspired by the environment, it
often incorporates that very thing.

Quilts are made of fabric hand-dyed with collected berries or bark;

in the city fabric is dyed with rusted metal.

The forms reflect the symmetry of the skyscrapers

or the raw shapes of the outdoors.

The materials used are themselves important and are often sentimental conversations with the past in the re-use of fabrics.

Although we come from different backgrounds and cultural influences, it is the Canadian landscape that brings us together and inspires our art."

Excerpt from my curator's statement for the 18th Carrefour Europeén du Patchwork.
Canadian photographs by me and my daughter, Isabelle. (photos from provinces of Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia)