Adventures on My Island

Yesterday, Mason and I drove the world famous Cabot Trail. we stopped off to see my pal Sarah, Raku potter/ bookstore owner and all round fun gal. Mason came away with a big bag full of books, and I bought this lovely new pendant

Sarah makes all these neat animal sculptures and pendants and soooooo much more. Everyone should come to Cape Breton and shop at her store. Do it. C'mon, ya know you want to.........

Anyway, twas a day full of adventure for Mason and I. We were looking forward to taking all kinds of breathetakingly beautiful pictures of our small slice of heaven. We were gonna make you all just want to pack it in and move here. It was a devious plan, but it was gonna work dammit!!!!!!

However, the best laid plans and all... FOG happens a lot when you live on an island in the atlantic. so here we have a random sampling of the actual pictures we took.

the fog has obliterated the entire top of this mountain that we are about to climb

as we begin to climb it is beautiful, and we are not yet into the fog

and then it begins

so this was our view for most of the hair raising trip through hairpin turns, and steep incline/decline 30 km per hour speed limit which often became 15km by shear virtue of not being able to see whether we were going up or down, or which side of the road was a shear drop off. We saw a moose trotting along the side of the road at one point. He was HUGE and beautiful, and Mason forgot to take a picture cause he was mesmerized by the thing.

Eventually we reached our destination, this is a neat gallery and the studio of William Roach, folk artist.. They don't allow photos inside, but I have to say his work is AMAZING, they also sell other peoples's work, mine included. and yes those are Merpeople on the side of the gallery.

After the harrowing drive through the trail, we needed sustanance. and possibly a glass of wine. so we went into Cheticamp and found a lovely little restaurant on the water. The wonderful waitress brought me this

the wine is mine, the hands and Michael Moore book are Mason's. we were sitting by the window and out on the bay we could see thisand it looked as though they were playing some odd game of golf off of this boat and onto the land. I was a bit confused, and curious. Mason presumed they were up to some sort of nefarious activity, and the hilarious guesses about the activity in question just got sillier and sillier. Eventually they came ashore, notice the green box like construction, at the back? I was right it was a golf green. odd location for golfing ,no?so then they start setting up the cameras and such on the dock. and putting makeup on the guy in the green coat to the left. VERY curious, obviously not crazy smugglers, but who??? and Why???

Finally we asked the waitress and she said>>> wait for it.... its ROCH VOISINE apparently he has been in Cheticamp pulling crazy stunts all week and filming them. I have no idea why or what sort of crazy project I witnessed but its cool. Me, witnessing the fabulous crooner himself doing silly stunts up close and personal like.

Sure it wasn't as cool as the time I met and had coffee with Bo Derek, and discussed art with Wayne Rogers, but on a scale of one to ten, it was a solid 6.

After this, we headed home via the TCH, I was not at all interested in Braving the Cabot Trail at night. uh uh, no way.

Back From the Wilds of NB....

Well the mother daughter road trip number two has ended. We went back to Fredericton to pick up India's new dog. We managed to visit a few people, and eat at our favourite restaurant a few times.

The first evening was spent with the gang from One Thread Two Thread , in true jackie/lizzie fashion, much red wine was consumed. There was a great parade of hats by the lovely Mira, she has quite a collection........

and much face pulling action went on throughout the evening. Children and adults alike partook of this particular activity.

The very next day, India and Jackie and I took a little road trip to Gagetown, NB and dropped off some yarn bowls to the girls at Tangled Flocks . We were then encouraged to go visit my fave pottery instructor, up the road. His partner suggested we might wrangle a cup of tea from him, so off we went, for a short visit, and ended up staying the entire afternoon. His home was absolutely beautiful, and I took no photos. The pottery and art collection was mind boggling. India did take a few photos of Jackie and I but as for the house, bubkas. I did manage a few shots in Peter's gallery, just as we were leaving so I guess it wasn't a total fail!

BAMF Art Blog Bunch Spring Show

You know I am a member of the BAMF ART BLOG BUNCH, and aside from being a group of friends and artists supporting each other's creative growth (and spreading trashy gossip about YOU), we have organized our first ever group show. We have each submitted a carefully chosen piece, and we are each posting this on our blogs and facebook and anywhere else we can.

Have a look. This is AWESOME work and you don't even have to go anywhere to see it.







Becky Jo, AKA: The Beckster





(toe plate by Becky Jo)



Why toes? It started with the BNA project between me, Gary, and Kasey. My idea was to use a plate like a canvas to carve on and then color in the lines (just like coloring books). I realized that bunny/noodle/argyle concept is fun, but I thought most people wouldn't understand those three things together, so I started to put different things on my plates... random lines, spacey flying things, and now hands and feet. These are smaller plates, mostly decorative, but they are food safe. You can find this toe plate, plus more of my work on my blog and my Etsy Shop. :)
Kasey, AKA: Reverend Awesome



My thoughts: This symbolizes man's struggle to get to the moon and dealing with the sorrow one feels after their favorite team loses the Super Bowl. Okay. It doesn't. At least not intentionally. Since this show is Spring themed I thought I could do a little painting for every season. Nothing deep. Just fun. Something that I would want to have on my walls. I'll do the rest of the seasons as they arrive.
I don't have an etsy gallery or anything. So I guess if you want to buy things from me you'll have to contact me by email or facebook. I have a blog! My blog is about nothing of any importance really. It's about whatever I want it to be about. (You could be reading this on my blog. If so, my blog is VERY important. You guys know that.)
Here's some other things I've done in a facebook photo album.

India's Submission for the BABB show (India is Lizzie's daughter, and we absolutely HAD to invite her and her artwork, just so cool)

When given the topic Spring India struggled a bit with how her punk rock/abstract style would translate to all the typical images of spring. Her aesthetic is not all roses and sunshine. After tossing around ideas involving actual springs, and thinking she may do a pretty spring picture. The idea for this painting came to her while eating Nachos at the Pumphouse Brewery in Moncton New Brunswick. The booths at Pumphouse are amazing works of graffiti art left by decades of customers. India took this idea for a walk, and came up with this 12x16 mixed media painting on canvas. Materials used include oil and acrylic paint, sharpie, silver paint marker, chalk pastel, charcoal, gel pens and nail polish.

This painting and other examples of India's work Can be found at her Mom's Blog and at her Zibbet store.

Stevo's entry for the BABB show

In this area of the country Spring is often a large contrast to Winter.  There is a shift from the cold weather to warm, and with it the plants once again begin to open up.  As a photographer these contrasts help me to see things new again. Contrasts can also be interesting to photograph. I walk by this tree stump often, and this spring I noticed new life in the decay of an old tree stump. I like the difference in the flatness of the old stump, and the three dimensions of the new life.  Somehow the death of the tree makes the new life even more interesting, as does Winter making Spring much more appreciated.  I hope you enjoy the photos that I have selected for the BABB Spring Show.  The are available from my Smugmug web site. I'd love to hear your thoughts about them.  Also check out the incredible works of the others artists of BABB here on this blog.

Lizzies Pot For BABB show

As  a textile artist I have long been inspired by the beautiful and intricate designs of block printed fabrics from Japan, and the intricate patterns of the woven art of Saganishiki.  In recent years I have returned to working in clay, the influences of my previous life as a textile artist are becoming more and more prevalent in my current work. This yunomi was made using traditional japanese woodblock patterns depicting wind and grass. The designs were transferred onto bone dry porcelain, painted with shellac, and then the surrounding negative space clay was removed by a water erosion technique.
Each of the yunomi in this series is one of a kind, the shape of the thrown bowl dictating the subject matter for the images applied. I see this particular peice as a statement of Spring, The cloudy skies, the wind swirling around through the grass. This peice, and more from this series can be seen at my blog , and are available for purchase at my Zibbet store

Christi's etching for the spring show

Alright, so it really has nothing to do with spring, but it's one of my favorite etchings and I just printed a few more this week. I love my little etching press. I'm also thinking a lot about tattoos these days after last week's adventures in that realm.

This piece is called "Perch," which is a little pun between the fishbone and the bird perching on his arm. I could think of it as spring-like with the feathers and feeling of strength and mystery...spring is a mysterious season of crazy new life and wings.

It's listed on Etsy here.
Gary's piece


(pitcher by Gary Rith)
Artist thoughts: I have been working on a series of experiments lately, and for this spring group show imagined a pitcher like this with a deep groove in the side, glazed JADE and blue, springy colors, with a turtle on it. But for the first time in 13 years, I did not think it needed something like a turtle..or frog...etc. The groove reminds me of a river going through a landscape, not to sound like there is anything profound here.
But anyway, I like to push the piece nearly to collapse when I make the groove, and then add the accented blue bits, and a handle that looks a little more fun than the usual.
My blog details my everyday nonsense and pots, and this item and others like available at my etsy gallery.

Progress of sorts...

The addition of a wheel to the studio has been a big production booster. I love throwing, I used to not enjoy it at all, I was a diehard handbuilder, but after teaching throwing this past term, I felt the need to give it a little attention. I am thoroughly enjoying it. But I must say, the handbuilding has slacked off a bit, and now I have to play catch-up. I dropped some stuff off at the gallery yesterday, and will be heading off to Cheticamp to drop some next week. In the meantime, I will allow myself a day or two more of throwing exclusively, and then split time with handbuilding. Today I will throw mugs, then I am off to load a bisque at a friend's place.
I love my job.

India, if you Bite me , You are Fighting Like a Girl!

So I was like, "what should I blog about?"

Mason said "Write about Nietzsche"

and I am like "what should I say?"

and he hands me a copy of  The Portable Nietzsche, and says just read this, and write your impressions. Its 692 pages long. I am like "Dude, I want to write the post today, like be done five minutes from now"

India is like "I am stuck on the floor, I need help up!"

Mason takes advantage of the prone sister to be a typical brother and torture her, by poking her in the belly. She retaliates by trying to bite his ankle.

Mason says, "India if you bite me, you 're fighting like a girl!"

in his defense he said

"I was being Nietzschian, cause I was like the overman, and she was just the human"

so there you are. A philosophical lesson for the day, Via my sixteen year old.