Housewarming

Here is a pic of my latest Alessi piece. It is a (as you can see) q-tip holder. A gift from the amazing Trevor. Thanks Babe.

Traffic

I can't stand the traffic in the city. I have been hit in the elbow twice by car passenger mirrors. It sucks, it gives me such a fright. Road rage at a whole new level.
Here is a picture of my lure that I carved out of aged cedar several years ago. The cedar was uses as the structural base for the water pipe in my parents back yard in Morin Heights we have a damn in my back yard, actually the damn use to power the village. So the water went throught a large pipe and would go up and pour over a wheel and the motion of the wheel powered electricity. Over time the city of montreal powered electricity to the village and the damn in the Simon River went to decay. To the delight of a carver like me. There was a bounty of cedar soaked in water for decades and large and excellent for carving. The eyes and tail of the Lure are made from rare BC Red Cedar, the red cedar was a gift to me. I love it cause the cedar looks like perfect pieces of raw salmon fillets. the combination of the two make a beautiful balance.

Back in Toronto

Oh my gosh I haven't seen the sun in like a week. It has rained so much. My sister and two of her kids and I piled in to her car on Tuesday and drove through the rain to get to Morin Heights where the funeral was held at. It rained the whole time making the drive brutal. Arriving at almost 2 in the morning. The next day we went to My grandmothers funeral and on the write up about the service and Nan was a poem. One line in the poem said "I am the autumn rain". Well she sure was. Pretty much all the cousin's were there and some of the greatgrand children. Totaling over 40 of up. I have a very big family with my grandmother having 5 children and then 19 grandchildren and 26 greatgrand children (so far)this does not include all the spouses and partners. I brought all my stock up to my moms house so all my cousins could see and they were able to get a good idea of what kind of art I am doing. I just got back in to Toronto last night. I am going to get a table at the ST Laurent market for Saturday. Keep yah posted.

whos got the voodoo doll

I went to the Ontario woodcarvers association meeting tonight. I was asked to come and meet some of the carvers and maybe find a mentor while I am here. when I first arrived in Toronto, The lovely Trevor and I were checking out the city when we found the associations annual meeting and show,live carving. We checked it out and it was very cool. They had a silent auction and I placed bids on all the tools. well I won one of them. I so needed it...I got a 4000 grit cone gouge slip stone for 15 bucks. It was a real trek getting to the meeting.I first biked to summerville station and when I got on the train with my bmx my leg went throught the gap between the train and the platform.I have to be more careful.well with a bleeding leg I have to indure a crazy woman rambling on about nothing at the same time thinking in my head that pain is really just nerve endings sending a message to your brain and to not think about it.I am going to have a nasty bruise all the way up both calfs. then I got off at york mills and biked up york mills to bayview. All for a slip stone. well I am off to Morin Heights for the week to my Grandmothers Funeral. I am bringing popcorn cause there is going to be some drama. The will is crazy. My best advice to anybody is if you want something ask for it. I asked my grandmother many times how much i loved her inuit HOHO print and the native eagle carving and how I would love her to leave it to me. I am going take very good care of both pieces that I have admired for decades. You would have to pry them out of my cold dead hands.

karma please????

What did i do??? I set up yesterday in a mood no good for working. I woke up a bit emotional and like I have been all week..... tired. It rained suddenly and hard and destroyed all my work. this left me in bad modd and i packed up my soaked stuff and went home. With rain clouds in my mind I arrived home and got everything inside right before a freak hail storm. for everybody out there who really knows me. and for all the true maritimers. I cracked open a beer. I knew it would talk me a whole days work just to restock and I was just whiped out at the thought of it.
just then I got the phone call that my grandmother died. One of the reasons why I moved closer to my family. she was a great woman. We called her Nan. she was 96. when I was a kid we would stay at her house north of montreal southwest of morin heights My hometown. She was making a Black forrest cake and I asked her why do you call it blak forrest. she said the shaving on the top of the cake come from a black tree that taste like chocolate (adults can be so crule).and told me she needed more and to going the woods and find the black tree and take some bark. running back and forth i kept on getting the wrong tree barks. I was out there all day.

changing seasons

I am mostly scattered all the time and seldom able to find focus in my transition. I am still looking for a place to live. I am thinking about a shared apartment. The problem is I wont be living here for a full year. I will be working on a show in the winter from mid january to march, possibly living on a canadian army base. I am then trying for a residence in Ottawa for two months at a place i can't reveal yet. then I will sell on the street in the summer in toronto and possibly do a project in Halifax. Then mid september, I am moving. To where I don't know. well if you keep up with the blog you will eventually find out. I have an idea of where but I know for sure it is not here.

I was working on two paintings today in the basement and was rushing to get out the door to sell. when I felt a wave of exhaustion just hit me like a ton. I had to lay down. This happens once a month. {hint,hint}I feel like there is a ton of bricks on my chest. I told myself okay only 20 minutes and then get going well right when i laid down I passed out in a storm of dreams and chaos in my head when I woke it felt like I was out for an etenity but it was just an hour. at that time the wind picked up with crazy gusts, I would have destroyed my work had I of left on time. then it started to rain. a very cold rain.

I am getting focuse on why i moved here. I am trying to center my energy on doing the last images of bombgurl and finding a publisher. I am also applying for a creators grant with the canadian art council. will see how it all goes.

In november on the 13 I will be working the Ontairo election which excited the beans outa me. I am hoping to have more control of a pole station. last election I was a DRO. this time I want to run a whole poling station

I will be in Halifax for 3 days in November from November 21-23. On November 21 in the evening Abilities Nova Scotia is having a gala and unvailing their image they are asking artist to paint. One of whick I will paint for the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic this coming spring summer. They will auction off May-Lynn that night in part to settle the costs of me making the piece and the rest will go abilities nova scotia. I will tell you now I will cry. I will be giving a little speach to introduce the autioning of May-Lynn. I will cry for sure. It's kind exciting.

well I am off. I don't have internet where I am staying. I am feeling the deprevation. and I am at a korean pc internet place on bloor. holy it is filled with teenage boys playing games on the internet. I gotta go I can't handle the sounds of all the explotions and crap coming from the games. This is when I miss my Ipod, the most. I some times pick it up at home and push the button hoping it will come alive. i can't write about this anymore it will make me cry. My next big purchases. 8G nano, airapple, mac laptop.....mmmmmm and docking station would be nice too. Now that I am working on a pc because I have no internet I love my emac so much more. I feel like I am cheating on it.

comfortable transition

well here I am in Toronto, been here for a week now. you can find me on sunny days on queen and spadina in front of the 360. usually from 11-6. I am biking around looking at different places to live. Where I am staying there is no internet so i feel somewhat detached. I stayed at my parents house for a couple of day on my trip to Toronto it was so beautiful to be up north in the laurentiens of quebec. we rented a 14 foot uhaul and it took us 4 days to get to toronto. we took our time and had an awesome time doing it. The color of the leeves were in their full fall glory. I was stunning to see them. so much red. I picked an awesome time to travel. everything is going great. I have had people who recognize me from the waterfront and even two years ago on the springarden road fence. Saying Oh my god Bombgurl. pretty funny. I am now on the pad thai kick. we ate at every pad thai place in toronto practically. well I am addicted to bloor street, I love it.

more pics

unveiling went well

Well yesterday went very well my unveiling went off smoothly. It was an awsome experience to do this with the museum. I am packing and moving today and tomorrow. I have major mixed feelings about the move but everything happens for a reason. I have cried a lot. I kissed my mermaid goodbye May-Lynn I called her and she has come from the centre of my soul, crying right now as I think about leaving her behind. I put a boiled linseed oil on her as a finish and she look great. the truck is almost bpack and i will be on the road soon. thanks to everyone for all your support and look out toronto here I come. as I was closing up everything and making sure everything was put back in the right spot at the museum and as I locked up the doors of the glendine a huge bald eagle flew over head and was heading northwest. I will take that as a good sign. oh and two days before i think it was tuesday, yah a huge school of black porpoises were in the harbour. I saw two of them jump out of the water a the same time .There must have been over 50 of them. They were black dolphin like things with a white belly. so cool I got pics but they are not great.

done like toast

She is all done the unvailing is tomorrow at 4pm behind the museum. come by and see me. here are some pics of her done but before a finish is put on. i cried and i love her.

operator???

I can't used the number 0 on my cell. So my unvailing for all you to know will be on Thursday at 4pm. Today I have to pack and organize my room and start putting all my stuff in boxes. I will be on the waterfront tomorrow all day doing the final touches on my carving. thanks to everyone for all the support.

cell works

After using a hair dryer on cool and letting it dry out the cell works. yahhhhh. The ipod on the other hand i think is a gonner. gettong ready for work send yah all pics.

oh shoot

The worst way to end and exhausting day was to have a drink in my bag spill all over my cell phone, ipod, itrip and ipod charger. all of it ruined. All my phone numbers are gone. I am devistated, I don't have alot I live a very minimal live mostly because of my career choice. The things I do own I take very good care off. I can't even afford to go to the dentist let along get health insurance so replacing these items is a long shot. anyways enough whining, I am just really upset. I am hoping that they will work after a few days of drying out.

muggy

it was a very muggy day, the sky didn't open up at all, it was just clouds hanging over and a little mist and rain in the morning but it was so heavy humid and hard to breath. It was like in a steam room. I did a lot f work on her face and neck I have more work to do. I am becoming more critical of the piece and there is so much of the piece that I have some issues with> I am sure no one else sees this but me. I worked in the Boat shop today because of the weather. Hopefully tomorrow will fair better skies.

american hardcore

Went to a movie at the atlantic film festival. saw American Hardcore, a documnetary of the hisory of hardcore punk music. Very good and interesting. kinda want to go see loud quite loud a film about the pixies. I finally took pics so quit all your whining.

me and todd

Here is a pic of me and Todd Coopper one of the crew members of the Amistad. I think the pics are awsome. going to go carve now and this time I won't forget to take pictures. I have been so busy doing my carving that I haven't had the time to do any paintings, its really frustrating. I have a lot of images in my head that I want to just get out. I am planning an unvailing event and end of residence thingy on Thursday September 28th. keep yah all posted on that

metric so surreal

I took my lovely and beautiful roomate Lisa...Robin who moved to edmonton's twim sister to the Metric Concert for her Birthday. What a show. It rocked. we both wore our Pirate whore shirts. I messed up her shirt at the store when we were getting the shirts made. The guy working was drinking and drunk and it was 10am thurday. He was so slow and it was hard to maintain politeness. So I put the letters on and i put the E in whore on backwards so it spells Whoras...like a spanish whore???? well Lisas mom was happy and so was lisa cause she could wear it out more often like taking her 2 year old to daycare HAHAHA. So at the concert we asked one of the stage hands to let us in the section near the sound guys so we could be closer to the stage and not crammed in the croud and showed the shirt and we were in there...har matees and a bucket of fish...harhar.. we danced so hard it was sweaty..I loved it..Emily Haines was soo mezmerizing it was the best concert... I didn't want it to end. I saw the movie Loose Change..It was really interesting and brought up some amazing points..Google it and watch it online for free on google video. Vanity fair has said it is the most watched video on the internet, at 100000 time viewed and it keeps rising

http://www.loosechange911.com/index_main.html

This is my last week on the waterfront carving. Today I finished her face and I was so hungry I packed up before taking a pic. All that need done is the hair and neck and sanding. She creeped me out today when we had her stood up and her face was on. It was so real...gave me chills. This week will be a crazy week a cruise ship in everyday and on saturday I will be at the farmers market from 7am till noon and weather permitting on the waterfront. That day there will be four cruise ships in totalling 6061 passenges and there will be a NHL hockey thing and the Rolling Stones concert so the waterfront will be insane in the day and sunday....this week is like buskers all over again. I was thinking about having a little gathering on sunday the 24th for the unvailing. Will see it would be nice...so i'll let yah all know in a day or two. well here are some pics of stuff. Robin and Lisa and a pic of little miss NO my 2 year old roomate who loves the word NO..me and lisa before the concert and my carving.

sanding away

It is coming to a close and I am almost done. The Blue Moon left today Not with out dumping their trash and carelessly over filling the bins with indifference. It was a real shame to see them dumping their trash and craming it into a public bin and walking away as it fell to the ground. I went over and took the trash to another bin. here are some pics for the day.

face off

I bought a Black and Decker mouse sander today just to do the fine sanding work on the piece. I started into the face today I don't have much longer to go. Once I am done the carving I will feel a sense of relief. This piece has taken a lot out of me physically and mentally. There is a boat in that is the largest private yacht that I have ever seen. It is 165 foot feadship, and has an elevator and it is supposivly #17 on largest privater Yachts. It is called Blue Moon from of course George Town the Cayman Islands. Cost about 41 million. google it.

day off

I could not work today on my carving. Condoleeza Rice was at the museum giving a thank you talk to nova scotian and canadian for support on 9/11. My batteries died in my camera so no pics so far. This week will be the crusher off all week. I am going to push myself to the limits. and to top it off a hurricane is spinning out at sea and will cause some crappy weather this week. I have had chicken wings at almost every place in the city, peel pub suicide wings almost killed me. Oasis was too tangy and the hot was pretty hot. "your father mustash" was okay but not hot enough. "maxwells plum" their hot was perfect. Next stop lions head tavern. Threw out 3 bags of clothing today. Getting ready to move soon.