The Year of Monkey

Posted on February 25, 2016 by nancywalker

Inspiration can come from anywhere and sometimes it’s just a matter of saying Yes. I have made Elephants because of my 2 friends’ love of them, powerful enough to create a touring storytelling show about them called Hidden Elephant, and I have made Imaginaries because of my love of creating a lovable figure without convention. But I hadn’t imagined Monkeys. They were requested in celebration of this Year of the Monkey.
So I got to work. It took a while to find Monkey in my fingers and in my my clay. Years ago I read the classic Chinese story of Dear Monkey, a story about the mischievous monkey king given the task of guarding the immortal Peach Orchard, he caused a great upset with the Immortals of course and had many other astonishing adventures. It’s a fantastic read.
One can not see a monkey the same way again after that book.The Yang style Tai Chi Sword form has the most beautiful titles for each position ~
The wild horse jumps the ravine
Follow the currant, push the boat
Black dragon twists around the column and

White Ape Presents Fruit

performed by master Yang Jun, nephew of Yang Zhen Duo(son of Yang Cheng Fu)

I know what it feels like to be that white ape presenting fruit, it’s a simple and straight forward move in its earthly complexity. I always imagine presenting a peach, probably because of the story, and I learned that the Peach symbolizes Immortality. I see this Monkey in my mind as I play the sword.
So I drew on what I understood.and Monkey came to me

a little knitting project

Posted on February 2, 2015 by nancywalker

I do have a knitting blog and I am blogging about this little project over there but there is
so much colour, challenge and fun, it has earned a place here in my nws blog ~
it is about folk art, sculpture, colour, construction, materials, creating
Here she is ~ The Lidiya knitted dress
(designed by knitting artist Kaffe Fassett)
and this is the 100 row pattern. Yes, you read it right, One Hundred Row Pattern!
Needless to say there was much sorting out, planning, strategizing and practicing.
It felt like I was preparing for a long … long … journey, which I was.
~ a Scenic Journey ~

Finally I just had to dig in and start even though I didn’t feel ready
I was pretty intimidated, ok, Scared! (you saw that pattern!)

Once I jumped in, I was Totally sucked into the Lidiya Dress Vortex
It is Screamingly engaging!
I am always knitting with 2 colours, and every 5 rows, 3 colours ~
that’s bit tricky but it has a rhythm to it
Every stitch speaks, I mean …
SINGS!

(I will be blogging this entire scenic route through color land here)
https://knit2purl2repeat.wordpress.com/

A Journey

Posted on December 29, 2014 by nancywalker

~ and into the New Year we go ~

Signs from Here

Posted on October 27, 2014 by nancywalker

doughnut & hole

For the love of Rabbits!

Posted on October 13, 2014 by nancywalker

I made this rabbit a while ago, using a chocolaty red clay and finishing it with an interesting white glaze that makes a cracking texture. This rabbit has a face only a mother could love … but so many people fell in love with this little guy at the Knit City 2014 knitting event. My daughter, Amanda Kaffka (check out her design in Vogue Knitting Holiday Issue) and I shared a booth there and since her Etsy shop is The Crafty Jackalope, she urged me to bring my rabbits. We both love all things Rabbit.

I could especially feel the love coming from one particular woman who as it turns out, has rabbits as housemates. She sent me photos of her rabbits and I tell you, they took my breath away, I actually gasped at the site of them! They are sisters.

Now come on! Tell me that they are not the perfect epitome of Rabbit! Those feet and those ears just send me around the bend! They are artful creatures, even the 16th century painter, Albrecht Dürer, thought so. Her rabbits beg to be painted! I will be sculpting them.

The lucky soul who gets to live with these creatures is Amy Singer, she had the same response to my rabbit as I did to hers. Any Singer is the editor creator of Knitty. Knitty is the largest, longest-running free knitting magazine on the internet! That is why she was at the big Vancouver Knitting event, she was looking with a knitting eye, not expecting to see my big clay rabbit lovingly looking back at her.

I love surprise connections!

(all photos by Amy Singer)

This and That

Posted on September 15, 2014 by nancywalker

I collect images that catch my eye like someone might collect salt shakers. Here is this weeks stash ~

Spring all year around, and as you may know, I am partial to colouring on walls

This is a beautifully played Tai Chi move called Fair Maiden Works the Shuttles, I don’t image the sculptor ever intended to depict this move but she did a good job of it

Down at Granville Island in Vancouver is a full blown cement business. Some one there has the creative touch. They paint their spinning cement trucks as twirling strawberries, corn and bunches of asparagus. They are a refreshing oddity as they drive around the city. Now they have dressed up their gravel silos. This creative must have been brought up by Sesame Street.

My friend took this photo from Bowen Island, she has an excellent eye for sun sets and sun rises

speaking of creatives, I love this guy’s way of seeing and thinking. Craig Frazier illustrator and designer and an out of the box, no …. off the charts imaginer.

So, I leave you with this ~ an excellent interpretation of maybe an overly informative sign ~ how would You read this sign?

Art for English Bay

Posted on September 1, 2014 by nancywalker

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

Posted on July 28, 2014 by nancywalker

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

come back next Monday for more!

and there IS more!

ps ~ does anyone know why All manholes are always round?

Wisdom Tooth ~ Sweet Tooth

Posted on April 21, 2014 by nancywalker

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

A Kind of Murmuration

Posted on February 24, 2014 by nancywalker

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

Posted on January 27, 2014 by nancywalker

So many impressions ~ So many ideas ~ So many thoughtful creationsall get stored away and ponderedand moved byre-thinking & re-seeing & re-imagining

They all enter my own workCome On In, I say! There is room for us all

mystery ~ my story

Caught in the Act!

Posted on December 23, 2013 by nancywalker

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