Lucks VanJeet is THE LOCH NEST MONSTER

shane swift, framed

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:32:00 +0000

(Reminder: you can click on the pictures to see them bigger!)

This evening's project: framing a painting I recently bought from Shane Swift - a gentleman I know of through tumblr: http://swiftdeathhorseclub.tumblr.com/.

I've admired his folky paintings (and his dedication to doing them) for awhile now so it was finally time to get one... it's rare that I feel like I have the money to splurge on such things but it was worth it. My only regret is that he didn't sign it.

I put it in a frame that I found in the basement of my building. I found it at the same time that I found the Laurence Hyde print that I mentioned in this post. The frame seems to be quite old, judging by the wooden backing and the old nails holding it in. The print it housed is a reproduction of a Corot and it appears to have possibly come from the gift shop of the Lourve... or else I don't know what to make of the piece of cardboard that was stuck on the back. (The print is on really thick cardstock. It's quite nice actually but I was tired of looking at it and the frame seemed to suit this painting nicely.)

I even bought a colour-coordinated mat to pick up some of the brown in the painting and double-matted the sucker! (There's a first time for everything!)

Ta Daa!!

Oh wait... frickin' cat...

Ok.

Here we go:

Thanks for looking....

(And Shane, if you read this, keep up the good work! Thanks!)

Treasures from Sara's

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:43:00 +0000

There's a strange new glow in my office!!

A friend of mine is moving house and I've been the lucky recipient of some old treasure, chiefly an awesome old light-table (for the small price of some artwork - don't worry Sara - I haven't forgotten!!!)

Also: a coy Victorian gentlewomen (she freaked out Sara's kids but I like her and she fits in with all my other Ladies of History), a Leroy Lettering Set (haven't tried it out yet because I don't have pens that fit), some old records and games and books, etc.

The table is a real step up from the tiny plastic thing I have. I haven't used a light-table much in the past but I think it'll come in handy in the future!

It came with its own graffiti - so I don't even need to scribble on it myself (for that highly-sought patina of age y'know?)

"Don't be cruel. I need you."

I wonder if PC + LM lasted 4ever?

Already putting it to good use... it couldn't stay uncluttered for long...

Thanks Sara!

And thanks internet world for giving me a place to do my showing n' telling...

Container Garden 2012

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:53:00 +0000

I just finished planting this year's balcony garden.

If you've followed this blog for a few years you'll know this is a really pared down version of the container farm. There just isn't as much room or sun on this balcony as the one I had in the past - so I'm sticking to a few sure things: peas, lettuce mix, chives, onions, and some Zinnias (for colour). Oh! And just for fun I planted some PEANUTS. I don't know if they'll work but it will be an interesting experiment.

We're supposed to be getting a plot in a community garden this year too and I'll put the Sweet Potatoes in there... if we ever get a plot assigned to us...

Anyway, here are the "before" pictures:

Tattooed by Tony

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:15:00 +0000

Tony D'Annessa is an older gentleman that tattoos at PSC in Montreal. According to him, he's the oldest and longest-working tattooer in Canada (about 53 years). Back in March I was in Montreal with a friend and had the pleasure of meeting and getting tattooed by Tony. At first he was all business and rather quiet. The small hummingbird flash I'd selected to fill an awkward space on my arm only took about 30 minutes from start to finish. After the tattoo was done I asked to take a picture and then Tony really opened up; told me a lot of interesting stories and showed me a bunch of cool stuff around his office. I think I stayed for about an hour just chatting. I won't recount all of it here because it would take forever and I want to leave some mystery... but I will describe the pictures.

But before I start here are some neat links...

* PSC (Point St. Charles) is home to several high-caliber tattooers, check out their work here:

http://psctattoo.com

* There's a bio of Tony on the PSC website (I think I know what book it's scanned from but I'm not positive so I'll save myself the potential embarrassment of giving wrong information...):

http://psctattoo.com/?page_id=142

* And I also found this nice interview from TAM:

http://www.tattooartistmagazine.com/issue7/tonydanessa.html

OK.
So here's Tony and me and my triple chins.

Just finishing up. (Good thing he worked fast because this was a really uncomfortable position to hold my arm! Ha!)

There's a lot of cool stuff around Tony's work space.

Here's plaque commemorating over 50 years of tattooing (which he has updated with a post-it note, 53 years now!) He also loves to fish - so there's a lot of fishing stuff around.

Tony's dad worked as a commercial artist doing fancy flourishes and filigree stuff. Tony does this stuff too but I think he said his dad did this one. Beautiful!

This book was on his shelf! It's from 1958. I've tried to find this book a few times - used copies are still available - if you want to pay over $300!

If you go to the articles I linked to you will learn the story of the flash sheets on the roller blinds (after tattooing went underground in NYC). That huge sheet on the wall behind Tony is one of those very sheets!

Tony was kind enough to show me a lot of his drawings and also some scrap books. Here he is with some newspaper clippings of himself.

The young Tony/Henry

I thought it was really cool to see the picture of his forearm tattoo in his youth and as it is now (you can click on them to see them bigger). Tony said he got tattooed when he first started working and never since then. So his tattoos are all over 50 years old now. Some of them have nearly disappeared!

Another really neat thing was seeing all the old hand-cut acetates. Here's a cool Hot Stuff Devil.

I never quite understood how these things worked so Tony was kind enough to demonstrate. I chose one of my favourite old designs - the little boxer boy.

First, put some graphite dust on the acetate...

...and some vaseline on the spot to be tattooed...

...then stick the acetate on there...

... then work from the bottom-up and be careful not to swipe the image away (which can easily happen, as shown here)!!

(Part of me really wanted him to finish the job... but... I'm not quite ready for hand tattoos yet.)

This is the flash sheet that I picked my tattoo from. I didn't go in knowing what I would get, I just knew I wanted something small to fill a weird spot. I've never been that casual about a tattoo before.

And here's the sweet little hum-dinger I walked away with!! I'm pleased as punch with it and can't believe how perfectly it fit in there!

Thanks as always for making it to the end of another post! If you want to get tattooed by an old-timer, you know where you can do it! Be sure to check out the work of the other guys at PSC!!

Our Salad Days

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:48:00 +0000

A household innovation story:

My dear, handsome Husbo came home from a working week away with big plans for our fridge. See, while visiting the land of Academia he spent all his lunch money at a cafeteria with a nice salad bar and now he wanted that salad-fixin'-luxury at home.

So, off to the container store we went this weekend (I didn't even know there were whole stores dedicated to containers until very recently).

Now we have a big box 'o salad stuff in our fridge from which we can throw together delicious, nutritious salads very easily and quickly (because of course the hassle of eating salad is all the annoying chopping, chopping, forever chopping).

So far, I like it... we'll see if it helps us eat more salad in the long run. I think it will.

I share this story in case you too have been harbouring secret-salad-bar-fantasies. It can be so!

**************

It takes up a whole shelf of the fridge - but it basically stores all our veg in an orderly fashion. The actual veg crisper is full of beer and bubbly water. I don't like keeping plant matter in the crisper drawer because it's not see-thru and therefore too easy to forget about... (but I never forget about beer or bubbly water so that's safe).

Easy to take everything out of the fridge in one smooth motion. Lift with your knees!

See!? Orderly!

Look at all that easily accessible nutrition! (The challenge is to eat it all before it goes bad!)

Salad-makin'

Yum! (That was easy!)

The End

Love Triangles in the Royal Courts

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:21:00 +0000

Here's a thing I made after I saw one on the Inspire Me Now tumblr and followed the link to the instructions at site, George Hart's website. It has to do with math and stuff... but I just thought it looked neat.

Apparently, "the form derives from the third stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron..."

OK. Thanks George!

Anyway, I had to make one... (something to do while watching my poor hockey team lose their shit.)

* * * * * * * *

In progress, fractal moose:

Completed, and sitting with some other novelties:

* * * * * * * *

I used the face cards to make my card sculpture.

Some interesting relationships in the Royal Courts were revealed in the process...

In the land of Clubs the king is suffering unrequited love... but not from his wife:

The king of Hearts doesn't have the same problem... and the queen is pissed:

Everyone's lovin' everyone under the sign of the Diamonds:

...but there is no love at all in Spade-town:

So, this was fun. Try it yourself... if you like puzzles...

Ned Hanlan - Forgotten Canadian Sporting Dude and My Imaginary Boyfriend

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:07:00 +0000

OK. Here's another "restyled/remixed" thing.

I cobbled this together to fancy-up the "gym" area of my living-room. If you live with your workout equipment in the room where you also go to relax, you have to try to make it bearable for your eyeballs... or at least I do. Plus, I have all these odds and ends hanging around that I'm compelled to either purge or make stuff with. Also, it is inspiring to workout under the watchful eye of a sports hero. Ha!

The little heart came from this plastic "Visible Man" I had until very recently when it met it's demise at the ~~hands~~ paws of a clumsy cat. Sad. I like the old-fashioned word "hale" (meaning "hearty and healthy"). I won't bother describing where all the other little bits come from or what they mean to me (but I'd tell you if you asked).

There it is, hanging in place near Silken Laumann (that's what I call my rowing machine).

When I started rowing I discovered the story of Ned Hanlan - a Canadian World Champion Sculler. Do you know the site "My Daguerreotype Boyfriend"? Well I nominate Ned for that site. He was a hottie with a body. I think the gay dudes at the nudie beach on Toronto Island, Hanlan's Point (named after the family's hotel that used to be there) would agree with me. There is a pretty manly statue of him there.

Anyway, Ned was quite a character and a tricky/funny sportsman. You should totally read up on his antics in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (because I'm not going to spend time rewriting them all here).

Here's some pictures of Ned that I stole from the internet:

Ned was called the Boy in Blue because he wore a blue shirt. And if you want to see Nicolas Cage portray him on the small screen, YOU CAN! Because they made that movie in 1986! I'm downloading it RIGHT NOW!

...

I hope you enjoyed this relatively uninformative but link-filled heritage moment.

...

Building Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:40:00 +0000

I don't know what to call this. Art? I'm not sure that's the right word... maybe "restyling"?

Anyway, here's a thing I made. I found the book, "Toby Joins the Circus" in the laundry-room-give-away-spot. I took out the pictures I liked and embellished them with some watercolours.

I was inspired by this necklace to add the shapes. It has a masonic/esoteric feel but I think of it more as just the "basic shapes" (of geometry, architecture, art-making, etc.) I paired the shapes with the primary colours because they are also the basics you need to make everything else. Building blocks.

I didn't read the actual book but I made a little story with the pages I picked. Is it a life-lesson about self-acceptance? Maybe it's about a young lad reaching puberty. Maybe it just looks cool? Perhaps it's all or none of the above...

Here it is:

A young kid with a monkey on his back tries to escape his problems by running away.

On his journey he learns many uncomfortable but necessary lessons.

Eventually he makes peace with himself and spends quality time with his monkey - who is still around, no longer a burden but a pleasure.

The End.

*****

On a completely unrelated note, I noticed this morning what my friends do with my decor when they are cat-sitting!! Hahaha! Good one K&E!

And another unrelated note, I made these "Confetti Bars" after having some on the weekend. They make me think of potlucks in the 50s. Maybe next I'll make a jello-mold with fruit-bits in it...

The End II.

drawing experiments

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:03:00 +0000

A few new drawing-things. Experimenting with drawing on different backgrounds... not totally successful but kinda fun...

I found this old beach scene (from Trinidad) in a thrift store in Montreal. It was in a sloppy old frame. I was thinking about re-framing it and when I pulled it apart a 3-way photo of the young lad (below) fell out!

Due to my lack of wall-space and the amount of water damage to both images, I decided to play around with them instead of hanging them up.

I drew a Sailor-Jerry-esque hula girl on the beach scene (I'm having a really hard time drawing leaves in a pleasing shape. I hate these ones):

I surrounded the young man with tattoo-flash that I thought his bad-ass-inner-self might like:

I was charmed by what "Ian" wrote on the back of the photos (another reason I didn't want to put it in a frame where I couldn't see it anymore...)

"To Pop from Ian

May '43 St. Ridley, Canada

I don't think much of the middle one."

Oh! I also updated my florescent cowboy. I didn't really like the script so I added some florescent duct tape and a new "Howdy". I want to paint his cheeks florescent pink too but I find myself plum out of flor pink paint! Imagine that!

Off on Easter-weekend-travels! See y'all later!
Thanks again!

Howdy: more flash practice

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:02:00 +0000

Here's a cowboy from the Russian Criminal Tattoo book. I put him on florescent paper to be anachronistic (and because I had to go to in the mall this weekend and saw that florescence is all the rage... so y'know, just thought I'd jump that bandwagon. Ha!)

OK. Back to the ol'timey look... these are all based on Tatts Thomas from the Vintage Tattoos book by Carol Clerk.

Tarter build up:

I love this guy. Smoking kills. Ha.

Here they are before colour:

Thanks again.

What's Red, Green, White, and Black All Over?

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:52:00 +0000

These recent paintings that's what!

*******

This one is based on Bob Maddison and Ben Corday:

This one is the Jantzen Diving Girl swimming with a generic traditional shark:

Thanks.

Great Aping

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:29:00 +0000

A week ago I went to a Watercolour Monotype Printmaking Workshop hosted by a great local artist/musician/craftster/all-round-nice-gal Sarah Hallman. A local group called Les Ateliers organized it.

It was a really fun afternoon. Kudos to all.

Just before leaving my house to go to Sarah's I became totally intimidated at having to come up with an image on the spot surrounded by a bunch of strangers so I quickly swiped a few sheets of reference material from my desk and stuffed them in my purse. The sheets happened to contain several variations of traditional-tattoo-style Great Apes (because I'd been thinking of painting one soon)... so that's what I ended up making a print of.

After the initial printing at Sarah's I applied several more layers/styles of "printing" to my ape before feeling happy enough that I put it in a cheap Ikea "Ribba" frame and added it to the "Ribba-Framed Print Gallery" in my kitchen.

Here's the progress.

First I loosely drew the ape's face on the paper to be printed:

This is the plate, covered in Gum Arabic and watercolours. Unfortunately I didn't logic-out the fact that I should have reversed the watercolours in order to register them with the drawing. My bad.

Since the drawing and printed colour were so misaligned due to my oversight, I worked into the print with more watercolour. This was the state of things when I left Sarah's that day:

After pondering whether to stash my monster-piece in the closet or the garbage can I ultimately decided to experiment further on it and see what I could do:

- I used a stencil and silkscreen to screen the dark grey hair and pupils,
- the "R" is an old, wooden letterpress letter I have kicking around,
- used masking tape and a lino-roller to add bits of pink and yellow to the background,
- painted into the mouth area,
- used an old eraser to "print" the pink muzzle dots...

I think that's all... This is what I ended up with:

So... after playing around with it throughout the week I liked my ape enough to frame it and hang it in my kitchen (at least for a little while - for the memories of the day and of trying something different).

(I guess I made an "in-between-print" instead of an "in-between-painting" this week...)

Here it is on the wall:

This is only part of the kitchen's "Ribba Print Gallery"... it continues on another wall.

The closest one (the cat) is a print by Canadian printmaker and graphic novelist Laurence Hyde that I found in the basement of my building!! (It was in an old, falling-apart frame.)

Speaking of cats, here's a (very) little illustration I did recently for an American publication inspired by my own luxuriating cats... just to give you an idea of what my commercial work looks like - in contrast to the Great Ape print.

OK. Thanks again to the hosts of the printing-party and thanks to whoever made it all the way through this post to read this line. I appreciated your eyeballs.

mundane super stuff

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:26:00 +0000

What follows is just everyday, around-the-house-stuff. It is therefore "mundane". However, I love making a cozy home, so for me this is all super stuff.

*****

I took down the wintery pictures and put up more spring-like stuff - like a bunch of pennants I've collected over many years. Why are pennants spring-like you ask? Ummm... Because they remind me of baseball?

Worth the effort, fresh bread.

Starting sweet potato slips.

I put the all swans on the shelf in the living room. Eagerly awaiting the return of the Ottawa Royal Swans to the local rivers from their wintering quarters.

This is just the other side of the shelf... (the new painting from the previous post is in the middle)

I got this hilarious AND holographic dog picture from the "give-away-spot" in the basement (it had a really nice frame that I'm going to use for something else). Here the cat ponders the presence of the new addition.

That's all for now. Thanks for letting your eyes linger here.

hope SPRING!!!s eternal

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:51:00 +0000

I painted the Sri Yantra.

9 triangles that intersect to make 49 triangles.

Masculine/Feminine.

I took some liberties with the lotus petals...

I've wanted to try drawing this for awhile but I was inspired to go all out and paint it by this post from AP Shrewsbury. (Thank you whoever you are out there.)

Another in the "in-between" series (paintings I do to procrastinate between other projects).

Thank you for your attention.

Today I...

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:26:00 +0000

... bought this Sesame Seed Ball because my friend told me it was good. And it t was good... although I have no idea what was in there,

... hung my "coolnew" cargo-pockets-shower-curtain (all this pockety goodness can be yours for just $9.99),

...painted with white on this well-used blotting sheet to make a cover for my little book of tattoo flash. It's a shout-out to a sign that Stoney St. Clair had on his shop, "ancient as time, modern as tomorrow."

... and a bunch of other stuff that is too boring or too personal to mention here.

G'night!

The Girl with the Diving-Girl Tattoo

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:32:00 +0000

As a birthday gift to myself I took a short trip to Toronto to visit some dear friends and also got a tattoo I've been thinking of for a while.

Here's the new tattoo.

She's an early version (1920s) of the famous "Red Diving Girl" logo of the Jantzen swimwear company. They were one of the first companies to make modern, lightweight swimwear - thereby revolutionizing swimming (especially for women). I think one of their early slogans was even something along the lines of "transforming bathing into swimming"... for which we're all grateful.

The Jantzen website used to have a really great historical timeline but it seems to have disappeared... for now, check the wiki.

I forget what I was researching but when I stumbled across her about a half a year ago but my immediate thought was, "Now there's a get-up for swimming in Canada!" So even though she's the logo of an American company and a the toque/wool sock combo is totally impractical, to me this is a "Great Lakes swimmer".

The word "tuffi" apparently means "water diver" in Italian... but I don't speak Italian so I'm not really sure.

I'm not too worried if the translation is wrong, I just like the look of the word. I guess it's sort of become the diving girl's name/label, in my mind. You have to be tough after all, to swim in cold waters. And, metaphorically, you have to be tough/brave to dive into any unknown venture... or even to dive into life itself...

So I guess, as with many of my tattoos, this is sort of a "note-to-self". In this case, to be brave and dive in. And to toughen up a bit. But tough with a cute spelling... so "be tough" in sort of a gentle, light-hearted way.

Where did I come across the idea for "Tuffi"? From the story of a circus elephant that got spooked on a suspended tram in Germany and jumped out a window. Luckily, he landed in water and escaped unharmed, living another 40 years under the moniker, "Tuffi"

In size and look, this tattoo balances nicely against the boxing girl on my other arm. As a piece of historical advertising, she balances out the Starr Skates (first hockey skates) logo on my other arm.

She was done by Mike Bialek at New Tribe in Toronto. He's a swell guy who likes to tattoo classic, traditional flash. If that's what you're into, I fully recommend a visit.

Toronto snappers

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:34:00 +0000

Tattoo regret? Nah!

Point n' Click through Sonya's Hasselblad

Sonya before and after

no wonder their rugs need cleaning!

big glow globe

go do

a landmark

not spinning

spinning

allan gardens

toronto has a flatiron too, and it's older than NYC's

financial district dogs

cn tower

The Trained Eye

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Views from the train between Toronto and Ottawa.

March 1st 2012.

A "canada-gray" day.*

Took over a hundred pictures. These 11 are the only good ones.

Missed a lot of cool shots of fishermen and one of a man at a crossing who was taking pictures of my train.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I know it's hard to read but this pole says, "TAKE WHAT YOU NEED" accompanied by various symbols. Modern-day-hobo-signs?

This photo is unremarkable but on the way to Toronto there was a man and a German Shepard standing on the peak of the green roof. I took this picture to remember that strange moment.

Lake Ontario, inland ocean.

Still more of the Ontario Ocean

Fishermen and pick-up trucks.

And then it got too dark to take anymore.

The End.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

* Yellow Days, an end-of-summer song by Gord Downie

"Ah still, summer’s always going, turning everything Canada-gray, and I will miss all the not-knowing of all those summer days, but I swear, I will also take morphine and swim, if you take one more look at him…"

Meanwhile, at the Snow Zoo...

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Right off the bat let me apologize for the graininess of the photos I'm about to present. I was messing around with my point-n-click's settings (apparently it has some) yesterday and forgot to reset it.

You may remember the snow zoo I've been crazy about lately.

While I was off in Toronto, where there's no snow to speak of, winter marched on in Ottawa. I arrived back to find a new and improved dragon over on Roger Wilson's lawn. This one is busy fending off some kind of Holmwood-haunting-eel (probably came up out of the canal inlet).

Once again, amazing details. The pictures really don't do it justice. I hope someone out there with a better camera and more photog skills is taking pictures of this too!

Dragon #2 has a spiky, icicle-hawk, flared "gills" (I don't really know my dragon anatomy), up-raised wings, massive talons, and is chomping down on a writhing sea-creature.

Mmmm... Tastes cold.

Wouldn't want to meet guy this while out in my rubber dinghy on Dow's Lake!

Here's the tail section. Unfortunately it got snowed on and is somewhat obscured right now. I'll head back out for more pictures when conditions improve.

Late Edit: Here's full-frontal picture showing a bit more detail. AND, in a strange twist of fate, Roger Wilson (the creator of the snow zoo) heard about my blog via his sister in the UK and wrote a comment to me on the original post! Weird how that worked out: neighbours connected cyberly through someone across the ocean!

Wandering days at home

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:51:00 +0000

I've neglected the blog and the drawing lately because of house-guests and a general end-of-winter malaise... but here I am again, back at it.

This bird painting was done, destroyed, dead, and resurrected about a week ago (making it old news) but I'm posting it anyway because some of my reasons for keeping this blog are showing process and archiving progress.

(This was my first painting on different paper. It was frustrating because I am an old dog.)

Ok. So we'll go backwards through time with this one. Here's how it looks currently, hanging on my wall:

Here it is right after I took a shit-fit and ripped it to pieces because I felt I'd over-worked it, ruined it. This was disappointing because I'd spent so long fiddling with it. I'm actually glad I ripped it up because I think it looks cooler taped back together...

This is the stage when the bird looked the best. I'm not really sure why I messed with it...

Pre-colour:

Here's the source material, a book of antique bird prints. This is a humming bird with a crazy tail.

This is the reference for the look of the banner. The text on the banner comes from another page in this book. It reads, "Ora, Lege, Lege, Lege, Relege, Labora, Et Invenies".

This translates roughly as, "Pray, Read, Read, Read, Reread, Work... and you will Find."

This book was really interesting. I'm not an alchemist but I enjoy reading about the history of it and how it helped grow/shape modern chemistry/science. I like the characters and the imagery a lot. I enjoy how dense and complicated and contradictory it all is. I went to a talk at the library by a lady who did her masters on Esoteric Imagery. I don't think the experts even know what to think about it all. Here's a CRAZY image that sums it up. What is going on here?!

This is another image from the book. It is about the alchemical stage of Putrefaction.

I based the painting below on the image above ("As above, so below"... hahaha... little alchemy joke for you there!)

Anyway, I guess what I'm getting at with these artistic-stumblings is some sort of airing out of myself. Getting the stinky-stanky gloom out of me and preparing the vessel the some other new experience.

the daily snippet

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:53:00 +0000

Down the road at the snow-zoo, Mr. Wilson has been at it again. One day he had smushed all the dying/melting animal carcasses together and the day after that this dragon appeared!

On the homefront, since none the Penguins knocked on my door and asked to sign their autographs on my All Stars/Starr Skates painting, I went ahead and filled the page in with some other hockey-related stuff.

And lately I've been on a Buster Keaton kick. I'd never seen any of his "talkies" and found one at the library called "Free and Easy". I won't get into the whole MGM/Keaton tragedy here except to say MGM misused his talent for sure. Still, there were a few great Buster-moments in the film.

Today when I went for a walk I saw this sticker right outside my building. I'm not sure if it's newly placed or if I just noticed it now because I have a fresh association with the phrase "Free & Easy"...

Anyway, it made me think I should share this little snippet of Buster. The song n' dance starts at about 1:30:

"Start out breezy... if you pleasy."

From there you can go on your own little busta-link-fest. Enjoy!

more ice time

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:17:00 +0000

Continuing with the ice-theme, I wanted to see if I could replicate this idea from Andy Goldsworthy (though I'm sure he probably did it with ice picked our of a lake or something).

It took a couple of tries (and very cold hands) but eventually it worked.

I forgot to set up a good background (important when trying to get a decent picture of ice) but still a fun little project completed over a lazy Sunday breakfast.

Photo credits to Husbo.

I'm not sure that the project/image below is by Goldsworthy but I like the concept - whatever you think the legacy is that you're building, it will disappear over time...

And click here to go to some really cool iceberg pictures:
http://blog.2modern.com/2010/08/ice-ice-baby.html

Chill.

Snow Zoo - An Ongoing Saga

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:51:00 +0000

A thing I really enjoy about my street this winter is the "snow zoo" that one of my neighbours is building. I've never met the person responsible for it but I admire their snow-skills.

It all started with just one bear - which was fantastic enough. I thought this was the best variation of a snowman I'd ever seen. My mind was already blown at this point...

And then one day, suddenly, the lonely bear had a bunch of new friends!!

I took this picture while going by in the car. You can't see all the brilliant details so I'll list some of the finer points:

The dog in the background has a big tail, front legs, and big ears all separate from the main structure... (like, not just "packed on" to the body),
The kangaroo actually has a little joey in its pouch, and it isn't "stuck onto" the mama, it's a fully-fledged little sculpture, separate from her body.
The detail of the hair in the lion's mane, face, and paws.

More recently a gorilla and a baby elephant were added to the zoo (or is it a circus?)... however I wasn't quick enough to go by with my camera and, unfortunately, the warm weather really took a toll on the sculptures.

So, this used to be an awesome gorilla...

And this used to be a cool, little elephant...

(Sidenote: the elephant is on the front lawn of the neighbour's house - the zoo is expanding!)

At this point, due to the thaw and the traffic, the bear is starting to look pretty gnarly but you can still see the profile of the gorilla really well in this picture...

I walk or drive down my street pretty often so I'm fairly amazed that I've never caught the creator in the act... but yesterday the local newspaper featured a picture of the zoo (in better days, before the gorilla and the thaw) and I found out the name of the creator!

So...

Dear Roger Wilson,

Well done and keep it up! Your work has warmed my heart this winter, especially on the dreary days! Thank you for being awesome and sharing your zoo with the neighbourhood!

An admirer,

ice ice lady

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Judging by my POD (Picture Of the Day) progress over on Tumblr (click here to see) I've got an obsession with ice these days...

In the process of trying to make an ice sculpture (not yet successful) I became a bit fascinated with the actual formation of the ice in the yogurt containers I was using: from the top down, in razor-thin sheets, made up of cross-hatched crystals.

Here are some pictures* (you can click on them to see them bigger):

* These are up-side-down, taken out of the yogurt containers they were in while only partially frozen.

"catchy title"

noreply@blogger.com (lucks vanjeet) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:53:00 +0000

I didn't know this was Mental Health Awareness Week when I posted my "List" (the last post). I've been slightly uncomfortable about leaving it up these past few days, like I committed a major over-share... but now I'm considering it my small contribution to raising awareness about Depression. I'm not going any further into the topic right now though - except to say that the sun has been shining the past few days (literally) and this has helped brighten my mood. Talking, going outside, getting exercise, taking small steps...

Sidenote, Clara Hughes is awesome.

Anyway, here is an "alchemical" painting I had started a few days ago and is as "done" as it's going to get. It's about Putrefication but isn't (personally or metaphorically) as ominous as it sounds or looks. It's another in the "In-Betweener" series.

Next, a little framing project I just did yesterday. Some nice signage/type and a trip down memory lane...

These are all old pictures (6-8 years old from when I still used my non-digital-point-n-click). I found them in an old tin.

Except for the "State Theater" marquee (which was in Michigan, taken on my honeymoon) they are all from Nova Scotia (mostly Truro) and we (my husband and me) actually stayed in 3 of the 4 motels. The 4th was on the way to a friend's hunt camp - where the old stove with "Merit" was found.

I think I will let the Husbo take it to work to hang in his rather bare-walled office... since Nova Scotia is where all his higher-higher-education happened... which is why he is now in the bare-walled office...

A nice touch that you probably can't see in these photos of photos is that the State marquee was featuring "Spellbound" and "Together" while the Acadia was showing something called "Wilby Wonderful". This made for a serendipitous, romantic statement:

"Spellbound, together we'll be wonderful."

(awwww...)

Lastly, since I had the framing stuff out anyway, I matted this little poem-thing that came out of a cool, old frame that I wanted for another use. Something to hang up when guests come by.

I'm getting pretty handy with the mat-cutter and sprucing up old frames. Maybe I should hire myself out as a discount framer...

Thanks for checking this out!