Lazy days...

One week in an air-conditioned cabin a 5-minute drive from the Pinery Provincial Park... this was our set-up for a lazy week of walking on the dog beach, hiking trails, sitting by the fire and enjoying the art of slowing it down. 

 

Mom built some incredible camp fires; lucky for us there was enough rain that the fire-ban was lifted.  While we were mesmerized by the dancing flames, we also took time to notice the bats flying overhead, although there were very few.  Also, we needed hard-hats:  oak trees have nuts and squirrels were hurling them down at sunset!  That's Willow looking up wondering where the bombs are coming from!

 For food, we brought along all easy-to-prepare things, and made-at-home salads.  Of course, this was supplemented with Pinery sweet potato fries and ice cream!

Relaxing... it really is an art.  I felt sorry for the people with their cell-phones and computers in the Park.     

On our last day we had a lovely sunset, and a gentleman stood in the water playing his bagpipes to the sinking sun!  What a sweet end to our vacation!

What is art?

"Passionate debate keeps the question "What is art?" healthily alive, but for our purpose, I offer the following response to it:  art is an embodied form of energy.  Energy fuels the process of art's inspiration and creation, and in turn, art acts as a carrier for an idea, the vehicle for energy from the etheric to the physical realms.  Without energy, we merely have gesture, phrase or line without meaning or resonance.  Art begins and ends with energy -- it's energy that ignites the first small spark of a concept within its maker and energy which resonates with lasting reverberations in those who experience the work.  It's the captured energy in art that can spur an emotional reaction:  our personal vibration aligns with that of the piece and viola!  We have contact.  We are affected, moved.  We have been changed, in some major or small way."  --  p.19  Kick-Ass Creativity by Mary Beth Maziarz

 When I read this, at the beginning of the passage I was skeptical, thinking "where is she going with this"? But the end bit makes complete sense:  why does some art immediately register within you while other pieces simply don't leave an impression?  There's some sort of connectivity, some sort of matching up taking place, whether it's with a good book, an incredible sculpture or an awesome photograph.  There's something uniquely similar, replicated in that art that makes it feel like it's part of you and you want to hang on to it, continue to experience it. 

(As you can see I've made it to page 19... three weeks and that's as far as I got...)

Never too early for Hallowe'en!

I'm sure you don't want to hear this but: there's only 86 days or so before Hallowe'en!  Last weekend Mom and I got our regular stuff done and then took a day to work on our cemetery props.  We're both very excited to have been invited to put our graveyard up in Elora, Ontario, for the Scare Fair weekend, October 19-21.  Thank you Julie and Tim for including us in your spooky fun, we're so looking forward to Monster Month!   

Here I am painting tombstones.  The rat (and other images) were "burned" into the styrofoam using black spray paint.  And I was THRILLED later on when Mom pulled down the welding torch and we discovered that it does indeed melt the foam so I can do all the lettering with this tool!  Awesome!!!   

And here's Mom resurrecting our Corpse Bride.  This Bride was on our lawn a few years ago but vandals forced us to take her in and we didn't use her again... until now!  Mom created a very sturdy neck and shoulders while still having access to the on/off switch at the base of the skull (which lights up).  The gown is indeed a real one, her spine is a stem from a Christmas tree, the base is an umbrella stand.  She still needs a veil and flowers, and white gloves, but we're well on our way!