Who knew fat cats would be so fun to make. I even want to make them fatter
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Fat Cats
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Tag Archives: art
What do you do?
What do you do when you find yourself living on a rare jewel of a giving yet struggling planet out in the Universe and you realize that we are all together … alone?
you build Life Boats.
You pack your essential supplies
Connection – Communication – Compassion 
and then you
Create
Celebrate and
Circle around Listening and Learning
~ as Playfully as you can ~
The Girls
~ what can I say ~
Shadowland
 
James Dean was Here
Image
Ick Factor
Used gum is Icky … yes? … Yes!
Yes it is.
But I admit I had a bit of a fascination with it a while back. I even used it as the header image on my very first blog Some Things I find.
an old fav of mine, found at the BC Ferry Terminal
I was reminded of it again today, down at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but I was Totally out-Icked. This is what I saw. 
it’s an A B C Gum Fest (Already Been Chewed)
The idea is to add your own abc gum to this portrait of Douglas Copland, and add they did! And visitors still are, in between and getting photographed with it and taking selfies.
I found it curious that most of the gum was added onto the tip of the nose, pinocco-like.
a cigarette but and … why not, they actually go together, both are dropped onto the street and lift there
Total Ick! you can even see the teeth marks in some of this stuff
not to gross you out too much but this got me thinking about gum on the street again …
I haven’t noticed gum on the street lately. Is it that I just stopped looking?                    So I looked
See those dark spots? That’s old walked over gum
black gum spots
all the way home
Over 3 walking miles of old black gum marks
nothing fresh enough to stick to my shoe
It’s either all down at the Gallery or folks just aren’t spitting out gum their on the sidewalk as much anymore …
Might we be evolving?
Might we be coming more civilized in the gum department?
or maybe not, considering that the above gum head sculpture is considered to be Art,
a kind of performance Art
and … while we are on the subjust of gum …
Does anybody remember Black Jack Gum?
Art for English Bay
If you walk along the south eastern shore by English Bay before you get to Kit’s Beach your will see the under belly of this poshy neighbourhood. This is where some of the most expensive state of the art houses are … the Lu Lu Lemons live here…
There is a lot of Graffiti on these old cement retaining walls and when the tide is high you can’t even walk along the shore. It’s not a pleasant place, it’s rocky and unswimable but the view is off the charts.
I love all this crap right under the noses of these fancy homes, it’s a powerful juxtaposition.
But
Some really nice things are happening down here …
the neighourhood is changing
there is a graffiti war going on
Someone is making some beautiful Art, I mean, Graffiti down here
(I won’t venture to guess …)
But This … This ~ is Unbelievable! It is quite Spectacular!
The entire length of this property has been made into this huge steel sculpture that only a few people and birds will ever see
The owners can’t even see this
Every sheet of steel is a different shape and every angle is unique. It will always be changing colours as the light plays with it all day long. The moon will add to it’s tones too. It Sings!
It is supported by tons of cement poured around rebar. It is here to stay. It is here to witness the wildest storms
It will be colouring itself in rust for ages.
It’s tumbling and rolling in it’s massive stillness
~ It dances to this view ~
summer eve city walk
we walked along green grass on this lovely balmy evening
and came to a long strip of shops and … manholes!
Like I’ve never seen before ~
One after another
each one beautiful in it’s own way
How could I have never noticed before!?
too many to post tonight
so
come back next Monday for more!
and there IS more!
ps ~ does anyone know why All manholes are always round?
StoryBook
This piece is off to a new home!
It is called StoryBook or Story Teller
It had been part of a show I had at Placewares in Gualala, California, right on the west coast. [the ‘Gu’ in Gualala is pronounced like “Wa’ not ‘Gu’ like in guacamole] My dear friends and owners of the most Amazing Shop/Gallery Placewares are two of the most creative people I know. They Inspire me.
Long time designers (DR in Cambridge, Mass in ’70’s etc) and innovators, inventors, artists, taste makers and partners, Maynard and Lu have kindly carried and shown my work. Check out their about page and follow some of their links, I assure you, you will be Most interested in these 2! Maynard makes these wonderful visually clever, complex and warm hearted “Looking Boxes“.
StoryBook has been reluctant to leave their shop, and you can understand why, it is such a creative playful, interesting place to be!
StoryBook is part of an on going series I have been working on called Elegant Turns. This piece is made up of 5 movable sections, each part has 3 different images so when you turn them (and yes, you can) you get different combinations that make up one image*. I never had one set story in mind when I made this piece but stories kept coming up, flooding me with imagery and that guided this piece.
Now StoryBook is off to make new ever changing stories. But the stories it collected during it’s stay at Placewares will part of it be forever.
* Elegant Corpse:
It is simply one drawing, usually of a person or animal, drawn by 3 different people. Onto a piece of paper folded three times, each person draws a head on the first 1/3 of the paper and folds it back and under leaving marks where the torso should begin on the second fold. This done, each person then passes their hidden ‘heads’ to their neighbor. Then everyone draws the torso leaving marks for the legs in the last 1/3 of the paper. This is then it is passed around again and everyone draws the legs and feet. What results is a usually very amusing and somewhat curious character containing the talents of three different wits. I have transformed this 2 Dimensional matrix into a 3 Dimensional form which enable the combinations to increase geometrically.
Wisdom Tooth ~ Sweet Tooth
now these are weird …
not for the faint of heart or squeemish…
these are Creepy Cool so hang on to your hats
Here we go
a bowl full of teeth!
now don’t fret because I made them myself
from porcelain clay, I’m a potter, remember?
They are knitting stitch markers, you can use them to mark where you are in your knitting pattern, they make knitting easy and enjoyable because they tell you when you need to change your pattern, they are kind of like being on cruise control … in knitting
I was just looking to make something a little EDGY
and these are …
look closely, there is a gold cap on one of them
one could even use them as a Brooch, which someone I know does
I’m selling these in my Etsy shop (my shameless plug) and they come in this cool tin box
Wisdom Tooth is the one with the gold Tooth
Sweet Tooth are, well, 6 sweet teeth!
~ Sometimes you gotta just stir things up a bit ~
VaRooooom
Lift Off
eerrrr, not quite …..
bigger post coming tomorrow afternoon
not that this isn’t the cutest rocket I’ve ever stumbled upon!
Here and There ~ A little Two Step
Gallery
This gallery contains 17 photos.
Living Sculpture
I was at The Vogue Knit Live conference in Seattle last weekend and came upon this living moving knitted art sculpture. I was so intrigued. It reminded me of Tai Chi Push Hands. I found myself coaching them with their binds and releases in my mind as they move so sensitively in tandem. They responded so subtly to each others slightest movement. Sometimes their give-and-take created a big knot between them slowly tangling themselves up, then they would slowly slowly untangled themselves like in a kind of living puzzle.
~ Slow down and watch this little slide show ~
the hands and mind behind this work is fiber and performance artist ~ Antonia Price from Seattle
A Kind of Murmuration
Theres an outdoor sculpture right at the Canadian US border. It’s there to what? Relieve the tension of the possible unexpected? Sweeten a border guard that woke up on the wrong side if the bed that morning? Maybe it’s there to calm the border…. hmmmm… something to think about. It’s a sweet torcher for me because ALL I want to do is look and look and look at it.
I think it is wonderous. And it gets my imagination going full speed. There are so many perfect things about it. It plays with border, it flies, it seems to move. It seem hard to take it all in at once which gives it movement and life.
I reminds me of a starling murmuration only it stays frozen like a photograph so I can stare at it (in between handing over my passport). See what I mean? I just want to Bliss out on this work of art but I’m in Situation not conducive to blissing out. It’s a Right-Left brain buster!
Maybe that’s part of the piece. We only seem to catch a quick glimpse of it and then we are gone (hopefully). We are always left wanting more. At least I am. So I was happy that my friend somehow was able to photograph it so now I can look and look and look at it. Of course a photo has none of the life force of being in witness to it.
Witness to the power of defining a border without sealing it.
(photos – Daphne Harwood – sew daphne.blogspot.ca)
Shared Inspirations
So many impressions ~ So many ideas ~ So many thoughtful creations
all get stored away 
and pondered
and moved by
re-thinking & re-seeing & re-imagining
They all enter my own work
Come On In, I say! 
There is room for us all
mystery ~ my story
Caught in the Act!
I went down stairs to my studio to close it up for the night when I spotted a little scurrying movement in my periphery vision, I couldn’t be sure so I stopped and waited and listened …. Sure enough! There they were, 1, 2. 3 … Four of them!
and one of them looking especially guilty ~
look at them! they could care less that I am there watching them
well, they are kind of cute ….
but Really! …. Mice are Mice!
so naughty
Points of Views
Stunning Satellite view of the brilliant blue waters deep in the Canadian north.
Just kidding ~ I’m just mixing brilliant blue pigment into a white clay slip to use in my pottery.
and every time I stirred this mixture, it would separate a bit and make another pattern. It’s wonderful stuff and constantly entertaining.
Inspiration
I collected a few images from the web that inspired me. I don’t know how they will work their way into my ideas and creations but they spoke to me so I collected them. We see so much these days, we are inundated with imagery and it is our “Normal” now. I can hardly imagine what it might have been like not too long ago where folks didn’t see much in the way of new imagery past their little town. Maybe they saw things in a deeper way since our minds seem to want to be refreshed with something new to look at. Maybe they saw more nuance in nature and the ordinary, or not …
Oh and …. BOO!
Inspired by …..
Early Halloween Observations
This week, in my travels I spotted several more, ahem, Brooms and I must say, not as carelessly left as the one in last weeks posting, but still their placement is a bit conspicuous I feel. Here it is again for those who might have missed it..
these below are a few well placed Brooms, shall I presume to say, incognito?
my friends, there are thousands out there! And personally, that gives me great comfort because these souls are working hard for Mother Earth. They get it.
So, on another note … but still singing of Halloween ….
I give you these
and a little humour.
can you see what this actually is? It was in the recording studio! If you don’t see a pumpkin face here, well then what can I say? And I leave you with this. A little more brashly said than I would have, but it has my sentiments.
Sorry to be a little early, it was beyond my powers to make Halloween fall on a Monday this year
Have Broom, Will Fly
Unusual means of Transportation
Here is Absolute Veritable PROOF that we do indeed have witches right here in River City! Look very carefully and you will see what I mean. Is that a good parking job? or a careless blunder?
and Talk about Parking Jobs!
almost invisible beauty
Gym Floors and Recording Studio Floors ~
the Order and the Chaos in this almost Invisible Beauty is so obvious and so taken for granted it is almost invisible to our consciousness ~
a little idea
I knit
and I make shawl pins made out of porcelain and copper. So I am part of an ENORMOUS Knitting community … and ….my goodness,
if every knitter got the same bee under under their bonnet, we could move the earth!
There is a great website where we all meet called Ravelry. Knitters from around the globe post their projects and join groups, share ideas and information, it’s really quite amazing. Over the years I have listed 21 projects, I just uploaded a few more today. It’s easy to procrastinate, and I’ll get to that. The idea is to photograph one’s project as it progresses and it helps to have a few images of the finished piece so other knitters can see what a particular pattern might look in a different yarn etc…. But I don’t like photographing myself in these knitted wear, so I crop the
photos of me them off at the neck, which I don’t really like either ….. what to do?? … What to do????
Well today I came up with a solution that pleases me greatly!
~ May I present Matilda ~
I made this mask as a stage piece in my stage/costume designing days for the
A little Hall Table fun
Last Fall we had this little visual conversation going on our front hall table. Each one of us would add, move or remove something on a whim, It lasted about a month, here is a little taste of our Hall Table Conversation
Life Boats
These are 2 pieces from my series ‘Life Boats’ were in a group show down at the Pendulum Gallery. It was their premiere showing.
I have been working on this series for almost 3 years now, making 3-4 Life Boats a year. The concept has been growing and morphing. It feels like it might be time for us to be building Life Boats at the same time we are trying to save our planet.. These are not hopeless pieces, they are the coming together of inter species minds and hearts, they are acknowledging the fact that we are all connected and share one home planet, they beg the question; who are we waiting for to help us?
Simple Pleasure
I don’t know why or rather I simply wonder about myself… But I have been enjoying, really enjoying, this simple piece of crumpled paper. It is something one, including me, would and did easily dismiss as something to be recycled, in fact it was lying on the floor under a table on the way to the recycling bin. But I hesitated each time I walked by it, slowly coming to terms with the fact that I was falling in love with the beautiful folds and rhythms and swirls of this humbled bit of packing paper.
So I leave these images for you to decide. Do you see the beauty in it, does it draw you in as it did me?
Talking Pin Giveaway Today!!!
Talking Pin Big Giveaway!!! Today TALKING SHEEP She says “Knit Me”
Go to Susan B Anderson’s Blog Now to Enter. Good Luck!
http://susanbanderson.blogspot.ca/
Pictograms
> I went in a beach side walk on Hornby Island. It’s a rocky shoreline full of the most unusual sandstone sculpture forms, some places were flat, other places it was like standing inside art sculpture. It’s clear that all this stone was once liquid swirling and moving and then just stopped, and now the water and waves are working on it.
> I had seen a few pictograms years ago with my daughter. But this time I saw a lot. Fish, fish gaining on another fish, a bird with her egg, people.
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nancywalkerstudio.com
Big Giveaway coming up
Big Giveaway coming this week! Go to Susan B Anderson’s blog to enter
http://susanbanderson.blogspot.ca
Win my brand new Talking Sheep Pin. You can see what it loos like here- Etsy.com/shop/talkingclay
Talking Sheep says ~ Knit Me
Modern Art
I walk among great pieces as if in a famous museum…. Where am I? Walking home through the back ally in my neighborhood where I see this great piece on someone’s garage doors.
Nancy Walker Studio 