Farewell

Hey, did you here the news?

Studs Turkel died.

Never Say Never

I never thought a Styx song would be such an appropriate observation of the political scenario of 2008, and yet here you go:

You were the apple of the public's eye as you cut the ribbon at the local mall
A mirage for both you and us. How can this be real?
We love your body in that photograph, your home state sure must be proud
The queen of the United States, or have you lost your crown

Well aren't you Miss America
Don't you Miss America
Won't you Miss America
Our love

Well are you really who we think you are
Or does your smile seem to wear you down
Is the girl who you once were screaming to jump out
And the dream that you must live - a disease for which there is no cure
This roller coaster ride you're on won't stop to let you off

Well aren't you Miss America
Don't you Miss America
Won't you Miss America
Our love

Miss America, Miss America, Miss America
Miss America, Miss America, Miss America

Well aren't you Miss America
Don't you Miss America
Won't you Miss America
Our love

Well it's true just take a look - The cover sometimes makes the book
And the judges, do they ever ask to read between your lines
In your cage at the human zoo, they all stop to look at you
Next year, what will you do when you have been forgotten

Well aren't you Miss America
Don't you Miss America
Won't you Miss America
Our love

Mouffette

 

Knife Painting

 

Last week in my oil painting class we learned techniques using pallette knife tools. This was my first attempt and it wasn't too bad. You have to surrender a lot of control and finesse but you can get some intersting texture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack and Luna

 

Jack

 

Jelly Fish Painting

I'm loving my oil painting class. Last week we did a knife painting which was fun. I'm also working on this jellyfish painting. I missed two classes due to family events but I'm catching up painting at home.


This is the pencil sketch that I did on tracing paper. Afterwards I rubbed one side with pencil lead and retraced it onto the canvas



Here I've outlined the jellyfish with yellow ochre and filled out the background. The next step will be to fill in the details of the jellfish. Oil takes a long time to dry so I won't touch this again until next week.

Oh Nohes!

Saturday Ottumn

I left home around 11:15, walking down Daly Avenue towards Weirdo Street ( that's what my friend Marlene calls Rideau St.). It's Fall. The sky is that kind of blue and the leaves are gold and red. The air is cool, crisp and calm.


I love the old red brick homes in this neighbourhood. I love the trellis work and the history embedded in these old homes.



I look up, I look down and it's all a brief wonder of colour. Soon it will all be crisp, crackling, crunching, leaves that must turn to dust.

Autumn is wistful. Leaves and feathers blow in circles, round and round and where do they go?


My friend and I had a restful meal at this Sushi place in the market. I ate something called Godzilla. It wasn't noticeably radioactive.


I had this 'Zen Master' Martini. We all know that Zen Masters drink 2.5oz Martini's to chill out.


This is the paper store where I bought some handmade cards for someone special ;)


I don't see them either.


The mice said we must drink small beverages.



And eat desserts!


But mostly they kept saying. "Write this down on a napkin and take a picture of it !!!"


S'o-k. I 8s em all.

Did You Know This Thing Was in the House?

Mouffette and Luna the early days.

Who Took the Cards?

Autumn Comes Around

This morning I woke up with the Andy Partridge of XTC song "Autumn Comes Around" going through my head. It's more of a draft than a completed song and appears on the Fuzzy Warbles collection. I have an Mp3 player that has close to 900 hundred songs on it. I almost always play it on shuffle. Guess which song played first as I left the house this morning? Yes "Autumn Comes Around".

Autumn comes around,
but she don't have your face.
Doesn't have your style and grace.
Just throws leaves round the place,
like you would have never done
had you been there.

Autumn comes around
but she don't have your hair.
Far too keen to strip trees bare.
Leave fruit rotting there,
like you would have never done
had you been there.

Yellow Literature

Just in time for Autumn and the descent into long, dark, cold days of winter comes a series of classic gothic horror under the Penguin Reds imprint. The reference to "Reds" is in this case misleading as this series of macabre menaces uses yellow and black to tie the series together. I find the covers extremely effective. They refer to a 1950s esthetic that uses strong clean lines and leans towards silhouetted forms of solid colour. They really grabbed my eye in the store. The use of yellow for horror also harkens back to the pulps of the 30s and 40s that used this colour to signify cheap and sleazy weird publications. In Italy horror moves are called 'giallo', which translates as 'yellow' in English.



Selections that I have purchased are 'The Spook House' a collection of stories by Ambrose Bierce and The 'House on the Borderland' by William Hope Hodgson. Having purchased these two titles, it occurred to me how many of the titles refer to dwellings. Aside from 'The Spook House' and 'The House on the Borderland' there is 'The Haunted Dolls' House', 'The Haunted Hotel', and 'The Lair of the White Worm'.
There is also a collection of Edgar Allan Poe tales, 'The Masque of the Red Death', which could have readily been called 'Fall of the House of Usher', which is one of his best known and strongest stories that also conveniently fits the pattern of dwellings. The H.P. Lovecraft is represented by 'The Dunwich Horror' which does take place around a family farm but I might have chosen 'Dreams in the Witch House' to cap some other short stories of the authour's.

However, it seems that the mandate was not to prescribe to an arbitrary theme, but to re-present some classic masters of gothic horror to a new public. You can explore the collection here >>

You Smell Funny

Incredible Cloud Faces and Figures

This is from the Environmental Graffiti Web site: Clouds that look like faces and creatures >>

Nostalgia for Satire of Someone Else's Nostalgia

On the Way Home: Thanksgiving 2008