A HUGE Thank You to everyone that came out on a busy evening, with less than ideal weather!
We all had a busy night; lots of lovely conversations, and thoughtful comments. The best way to launch new work into the world.
I was also really happy that the lovely humans that have supported this project from the outset – and on whose land the original living installation sits – were able to attend and see this first foray into taking the MAKE=BELIEVE project into a different context! looking forward to lots of chats and feedback from them on this exhibition!
For those of you who weren’t able to be there last Friday: Archived Terrain – Terrain Archivéis up until 5pm September 29th. Regular hours are NOON – 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays – other times by appointment.
I will be gallery sitting on Sunday, September 23rd, NOON – 5pm, if you want to visit!
Some images of my installation/room below:
the entryway
photo montage of animals in the installation on the farm
tail of an old windmill from the farm; what we do to bend the land to our purposes never lasts
a sun and compass from found objects
video installation
the windmill tail again
digitally manipulated photo and found object installation … the immigrant/homestead experience is part of this work
3 digitally manipulated photographs; human use of raw materials becomes camouflage
As summer slips into Autumn, I am reminded that beauty lies in the moment, and in those details that provoke a little wonder. My thanks to eMorphes for the shot of colour on a grey Monday.
She was in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on a short visiting-friends-and-seeing-new-things holiday, and fortuitously, it worked out that she could come to Parrsboro for a couple of days.
Lobster Roll at the Harbourview Restaurant in Parrsboro!
We started at Partridge Island and the beach below Ottawa House, and then headed out to First Beach for some lunch and to see the Bay at high tide for the day (something I hadn’t seen at this location, despite all my trips out here!).
We had a blast touring around beaches and going on foraging adventures, talking art and life, and generally enjoying this magnificent locale.
Then we were off again to the beach a Diligent River, which is stunningly beautiful – but required patience, because the tide wasn’t exactly in our favour. It took some roaming and squishing through red Fundy mud to finally get across to the gravel spit to forage for goodies. Didn’t get much, but it was worth it many times over in any case; the view is a special thing.
Such a treat, in so many ways – it’s always nice when work and not-work come together with friends, and it becomes an opportunity to accomplish things AND just hang out!
I’ve been so immersed in work lately, that it’s good to have a reminder that it is indeed SPRING …
The simple exuberance of those first bright green buds on the trees, the enthusiastic (and sometimes frantic) birdsong from the bushes … makes me want to be outside much, much more than I am currently able.
SO.
A little eye candy for the day’s work, for everyone who needs to be indoors today, instead of enjoying the sunshine.
Beautiful work by Rebecca Louise Law. Would simply love to see this in person!
Enjoy!
(images via thisiscolossal, courtesy Bikini Berlin)
I have recently participated in the mail art project Journey of a Photograph … and have just sent my contribution out into the world, via the post, and on to the blog for the project.
It was a long way to come though – all the way from South Africa.
I’d read about it, thought about it, wondered what I’d do when I got it, wondered what was inside.
… and then I had it in my hands. Brought it home from the post office.
This package has been all over the world, through many hands, borders, countries, across oceans … and now, here it is, on the Canadian Prairie. And like all wonderful and well-travelled things (and people), this package shows its adventures on its skin. I’ve been places, it says … I’ve seen things and met people.
I felt like a little kid, anticipating a birthday gift or a treasure from under the yuletide tree … what would I find? Like Alice, I didn’t know what to expect, but was tantalized: “open this end” …
So I did. Carefully …
And such a delightful array of things I found there. Images of movement, fleeting glimpses of places and passages. Ticket stubs for trips taken. Maps. Leaves – among them, a four leafed clover for luck on these travels.
I have always had a soft spot for things like Rube Goldberg machines, automata and such like, and this work really makes me happy. I am quite taken with the way his slightly madcap creative energy translates into three dimensions (and they are all in motion, all at once). The ultimate in ‘up cycling’ to my mind …
I’ve spent a lovely time over the last while catching up with family and friends.
A very good thing, that reminds one on so many levels of precisely how rich life is, and how many blessings there are to count. Daily.
In all that running-around-hanging-out-gatherings-feasts-grabbing-a-coffee-because-its-been-too long .. there has been such joy and laughter and simple pleasure, in amongst the (sometimes) madness of the season.
And there have been some unexpected gifts, which are always the best kind to receive; they make one think the most, over the long run …
To wit:
A lovely person that I have only had the pleasure of getting to know over the last few months gave me a most delightful and intriguing gift:
Beauty and simplicity (and those of you who sew will get the pun!)
This was a lovely thing in and of itself – I hadn’t in the least expected it – but double the delight once this mysterious package was opened:
… what better, than an old and well thumbed book of poetry??
And the magic grew, as the cover was opened:
… someone (several someones, actually) had responded to the poems in a variety of ways!
The wonderful experience of uncovering and discovering the marginalia in this book is a gift many times over, in itself a series of delights and mysteries.
Thoughts. Questions. Analysis. Little windows …
I was particularly struck by the headings added to several of the pages; an apparent correlation between the written word – the poems – and particular Hollywood stars from another era:
… there’s also: Basil Rathbone, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Cary Grant, Fibber McGee, George Burns, John Wayne, Shirley Temple, Jane Wyman, Ava Gardner, Barbara Stanwyck, Carol Lombard (“later” – this a particular shade of definition added for her only) … and many others …
I will be the first to admit I have yet to spend a great deal of time poring over these thoroughly intriguing notes and associations. But perhaps that isn’t the point, entirely.
On considering this lovely little volume and its contents, and its coming into my world, I am struck most by the potential it contains. Just now at least, I am most entranced by the layers of understanding in these pages, the different rhythms of reading and understanding that so many people have brought to these words over so many years. And it strikes me that I don’t need to know all of it – I will likely pore through this volume over the coming months, and read every passage and every note taken and added there – but that will only satisfy part of my curiosity. And this process will only uncover (or recover) part of what is really there.
The real beauty in this gift lies in what I cannot ever know – about who read and who wrote and why – and in what struck the person who gave this gift to me at the moment they found it: what told them that I was the person who was to be the next custodian of these words and ideas, compiled from so many sources?
What a delightful and thoughtful thing: to give a gift that shows in its being such complete mystery.
So like this time of year as a whole, this little book shows me yet again – regardless of one’s affiliation, practice, understanding, or belief – perceivable reality is stunning all on its own. That moment of really seeing is precious.
We have passed the shortest day of the year, the light is returning, and while we wait for the thaw and the next cycle of growth, many things of import are going on, in many worlds simultaneously. Not the least of which is the perfect glint of brilliant winter sun on drifts, the scrunch of snow under boots, the welcome of a sparking fire and a big mug of tea, the moment when someone smiles from beneath layers of clothing. And the passing on of old books with notes penned in the margins.
