Dear Adele, 

Loved hearing from you. 

You are only a thought away.

 Sharing one of the highlights of my summer

My first Pow Wow

For Easy Reading

Bells and bones and beads,

Fringes and jingles,

Feathers and flags,  

Flashes of color!

Ribbons and sashes, 

Staffs, shawls and sticks,

Eagle Feathers! 

Head dress, neck chokers,

Beast plates, armbands.

Loves handiwork

oozing with decorative truths

in intricate beadwork,

Pretty feet in high moccasins!

Drums,

beating out the song!

Circling and encircling.

Gracefully,

Dancing, stepping, rocking, 

Energetically,

Twirling, hopping, jumping, 

Strenuously agile, 

Jump Kick, High kick, zigzag,

Listen to the song

Circling and encircling.

Expressing,

Facts, feelings, feats, family,

Stories Unspoken!

Merging and emerging

Rejuvenating!

Dancers,

Recounting, Evolving, 

Balancing, Reaffirming

Inviting All 

to hear a story

For the drumbeat echoes 

the beat of the heart

for truth can exist in many forms.

Dancers,

Rhythmically

Owning, their story. 

Proudly honoring, 

Ceremony and Tradition!

Circling and Encircling

in a never ending circle

Life!

dear Adele... for you... in praise of the gentle resilient will of leafy ones and their buds...all love. Michelle 

milkweed seeds... feigning sleep

soon to peek and pop...soon to fly 

an undercover lily patch rescued from a demolition site

resting...below...the hot dry sky

                                          a new Hybrid: perkily present among 
                  guacamole Hosta sentinels, holding it's                             own among leggy Amaranth
                  ... and readily welcomed
                   by Joe Pye Weed

Honouring Friend the Cat

Dear Adele,

This week I’m a little sad cause my cat passed away.

Her name was Friend cause she was a friend to everyone.

She was really my boyfriend’s cat though. He was born in the south so we called her Friend but pronounced with a southern accent. More like Frand or Fran for short.  Friend moved to my house about two weeks ago when my boyfriend had to go back to the states for an extended period of time.

Friend was like pure love bottled in a furry body. I have never met an animal that could love so completely. When she sat on your heart and purred that love just vibrated all the way through your soul. My boyfriend thought many times to get her certified as a therapy cat – the kind you lend out to people just for the amazing healing powers of their purr. She was our healer kitty. A being who shone the light of the world through her. A scrap of sunshine.

She started her life in a rough and tumble way. She was a stray, a huntress, a wild kitty of the forest. Friend ran up to my boyfriend to ask his help. She was defending her litter of kittens from a ferocious dog. All kittens were lost but one. He found that kitten a good home. Friend came home to live with him and she adored him for his kindness. She was so thankful for the comfort of her new cared-for kitty life. That was more than 15 years ago. 

In January Friend got sick. She slept the night under the bed. As I lay above her I felt her complete gratitude to my boyfriend for the life she had shared with him. All that she was, she was because of him, I felt her kitty heart saying. She was at peace. Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine Friend got better and we had another six lovely months of her love.

This last week she went to her litter box then started down the hallway to come back to the bedroom but got too tired and just lay down and didn’t get up again. I put out blankets and pillows and slept on the floor of the hallway beside her with one hand under her head. In the morning the vet confirmed that this was her time. We tried for a couple of days to see if she would turn around but really those days served to turn us around away from trying to fix her and towards embracing her journey. She had lived such a beautiful life and she was telling us she was ready. We needed to be ready too.

When I patted her at the vet I imagined her spirit self as a young huntress kitty, chasing grasshoppers in green fields and delighting in the sounds of birds.

The night after she passed my boyfriend said he felt her presence purring on his heart, just the way she had always done.

 ***

I recognize that it’s poignant to share Friend’s story with you on this blog Adele, but I am sharing it, and with bravery, because I think our goings out and our comings in can have much beauty to them. I think they can be celebrated as much as grieved. I’m sad today for the change I face in my life now but I am not sad for Friend. She was always a being of light and now she is again in a different form.

Change is an ever-present part of being on this planet. We in this arts community are all change-makers. We all believe, in our own way, in making the world a better place through art and education. That bettering of the world is a kind of change that we are good at. Crossing over may happen to be a really great big change, but as change-makers its one that we are capable of honouring and cherishing as much as any other change.

Adele, thank you for inviting us into your ongoing health-journey. I have so much gratitude for you and for the life-lessons I am learning through loving you.

Hugs from Nicole

Friend (left) snoozing with brother kitty Remington (right)

Cottage Bliss Continues

Hi Adele,
Life in the near north continues to be full of rest, family fun creativity and of course chipmunks.
I will admit that I am somewhat obsessed with these little striped creatures. Each morning they greet me on the deck with vigour and enthusiasm. It is both their diminutive size, beautiful markings and their friendliness that draws me to them. They visit throughout the day looking for peanuts to take back to their nests to save for the long, cold winter. 
The other day as we were making pancakes for breakfast, Dash decided to make a few to scale for our little furry friends. He set them out on a homemade plate with a tiny mug of coffee. It didn't take long before we had an other guest. 

I thought that you would like to see a video of the little sweetie coming for the pancakes. 

Click this link to view the wilderness fine dining experience:

Chippy comes for pancakes

The last pancake of the session is always the biggest (and is saved for the chef).

We needed to make some new curtains for Bunky, the little sleeping cabin that we have behind the cottage. So Leslie and I set to printing some leaves and evergreen needles onto some fabric. It was a real hands on, creative process. Can't wait to see this up on windows.

Leslie doing a leaf print on unbleached cotton. 

The last word goes to my little chippy friend who came down to enjoy the sunset with me down on the dock last evening. We have a close relationship. 

The pump house in the background was built by my grandfather in 1947. It still sends our water up the rocky slope to our cabin. 

The Scully family has had 5 generations enjoy the laughter, swimming, family closeness, fun, creativity and of course the feeding of the chippies under this old sign. 

I hope for many more generations of the same.

Looking forward to having a cup of tea with you in Toronto soon.

Good wishes and hugs to you,

John

Hello from Adele

Summer

It has been a peculiar summer, filled with treatments and hospitals, certainly not one that would excite.  However, the posts from each of you have filled the void in a way that is not easily explained.  Perhaps Proust says it best.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

The evocative sunsets, the stunning flowers, the exotic images of distant places, the poignant words, have all helped my soul to blossom this summer.

Once again I am completely indebted to your generosity.  Thank you.

Adele

Cottage Life

Hi Adele,

Greetings from the near North. We are still enjoying our stay up at our cottage. Taking time for art making, chatting, resting, reading, swimming and eating. All of the important things of life. 

We took a hike to Oxtongue Falls the other day. Dash made this cool panoramic image. 

This morning I was making a collage in my sketchbook and the chipmunks were my constant visitors.

You never know where you might find something of visual interest. Today, as we were taking our recycling and garbage into the landfill, the skies to the north rumbled and darkened. The storm hit a few minutes later with ferocity. 

Looking forward to more days of family time and creativity.

Hugs and good wishes to you,

John 

Italy

Dear Adele,
Thanks for asking me about Italy.
It was a great trip. There was so much to experience and the solo travel - which I have never done before - was important. It was a time to be me the woman and the artist, at a time when my son is growing more independent and I begin to have more time for the artist self.

Self-reflection in Saint Phalle's mirrors

During the trip I viewed historical and contemporary art, enjoyed meals and explored cities. I took a mosaic course in Ravenna, from an admirable, inspiring and warm woman who runs her own mosaic school and is a grandmother of four. I created a mosaic sculpture while there, as well as taking many photos, embroidering a bellydance hip scarf, drawing and doing a lot of bellydance in the evenings.

It took a special expedition to get to the Tarot Garden, a great under-celebrated sculpture park by artist Niki de Saint Phalle. I had to rely on strangers who spoke no more English than my Italian, and they helped me get there and back.

view from the entrance

the side of "The Empress" (the big bosomed Nana you see above) with tiles showing goddess figures

Inside "the Empress", Saint Phalle's home for several years. See her dining table and chandelier in foreground, with mirrored kitchen with built-in dishwasher in background.

In Florence I stayed in a shared room in an artist/architect's apartment. I shared a bit of her life and that of several other women in this open-concept, ancient, well-lived in place. I spent three hours or more in the Ufizzi gallery looking at famous artwork from my history books, such as Boticelli's Primavera... and taking pictures of some less well-known works.

my shared room at Franchy's

Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith and Holofernes

I climbed the Belvedere and ate a breakfast of olives, almonds and cherries, then caught the city view along with Antony Gormley's "Human" installation.

In Ravenna I spent a week learning antique mosaic technique with an international group of women. In the evenings a few of us went out for aperitivo and/or supper and explored the night life on the piazzas. We saw some of the very ancient and lovely mosaics which Ravenna is still famous for.

tessera (mosaic cubes) made from smalti (special tempered glass)

using the hammer and hardie to cut marble

inside the tomb of Galla Placidia - mosaics from the year 432

Luciana Notturni, our mosaic teacher, with a local mosaic sculpture by Marco Bravura. She is accomplished master of antique mosaic technique, an artist and a grandmother. Mosaic is super important here and she gets called up by the government to restore this or that ancient site.

floor of Saint Vitale (a famous ancient church)

The tomb of Galla Placidia on the left - tiny! - oleander and sycamore

In Venice I attended some of the Biennale and got a good fix of of contemporary art after wandering the pedestrian labyrinth to get there. Then my mom and son arrived and we began to hunt gelato in earnest.

"The AK-47 vs the M16" by the Propeller Group: ballistics gel and video... I ran into friends from Montreal in front of this so we went out for a wonderful dinner with the best warm octopus salad ever.

(Greek title I can't translate) by Danh Vo - with cochineal dyed silk in the background

"The Key in the Hand" by Chiharu Shihota

My favourite work was actually video installation with sound, which  I could not take a picture of.

My son, my mom and I explored Venice, Florence and Rome for a couple of days each before returning home. It was just the right amount of time for a 12 year old traveler just about to become a teenager, most interested in eating and sleeping, with limited patience for his mom's weirdness. Here we are enjoying sunset above Florence, at least according to me.

Back in Florence, I found this odd sign... what exactly is this police officer doing? Captions please!

Thanks for sharing my travels!

Hi Adele
August harvest starting to happen here in Consecon!
Garlic, heritage tomatoes and ground cherries.
xo Martha

excuses for art

Dear Adele,

I have been out of touch since mid-way through my Banff Social Innovation Adventure. I'm sorry about that. It was a profound and moving experience and I kept meaning to write you something profound and moving about it, and I got caught in one of those loops where something seems big and important so you never get to doing it. Well I'm going to break that loop today by skipping over some Banff stories (I'll come back to them another day) and to share with you some art making I am up to right now. 

Lately I have been making Christmas presents, which may perhaps seem a bit forward thinking for mid-summer, but it is really just an excuse to make some art. My downstairs neighbour is a very skilled musician who also happens to own a button making business (the kind of button with the pins on the back -  http://peoplepowerpress.org). 
So I've decided to make a gazillion small art buttons and give them away as Christmas presents. They will be 7/8 of an inch and round when completed. I've made 25 different designs. Here is a selection of them. Which ones do you like the best?

Big big big hug,

Nicole