Whenever there are cutbacks to classroom time, courses or extracurricular school activities for: the arts, theatre, music, creative writing, I’m concerned. Arts, Humanities Touches Daily Life: Highest and Mundane Details Those snickers about people who major in philosophy, history, literature –university / college programs which don’t provide a clear-cut path to an immediate job, I wonder: …
Category: my art
Reject Not at First Glance : Stained Glass Church Art
Two decades ago, I tossed out my 30-lb. stained glass artwork into the garbage a few years after I finished two stained glass art courses. I dubbed the art piece, “Spring Thaw”. “Spring Thaw” was hoisted out into the garbage room, because I thought it was unworthy of transporting 4,000 km. in moving to Vancouver from Toronto. Yes, it was…
Creative Alchemy of Making Unfettered Art. Part 1 – Visual Art
One of the glass barriers I want to shatter every time when creating art, is my own inhibitions. That blank canvas, tabula rasa, that snow-white endless blank computer screen or empty writing page either begs an artistic watermark or taunts me to sully its virginal purity. Making Art, Take a Risk of Falling Last year, a blogger-writer and…
Balancing Between Active and Brain-Based: Your Passions For Life
Awhile ago, I wrote a blog post on discovering your favourite exercise, a sport or your physical activity that dovetails neatly into your lifestyle and personality. A sure bet you will want to take up that exercise several times per week for health, fun and for a long time. Brain-Based Passions Well, at the other…
Paint My Heart in Autumn Red-Gold and Orange
So far, there’s only one painting I’ve done, stoked by warm memories of Ontario’s stunning autumn leaf colour. Swaths of flaming orange, red and gold paint forests, in parks and trees along streets and attract many walkers, cyclists and car trip drivers. While Vancouver, BC maps cherry blossom viewing locations every spring, in autumn, Ontario…
A Shimmer of Watery Flower Dreams
Cycle Write blog serves as my memoir tablet of things I’ve seen, things I’ve done and things I dream now and later. This mixed media painting, A Shimmer of Watery Flower Dreams, is both art and a memory fragment. It’s art done and gone because I have given away this piece as a gift, to a family member. Yes, this painting…
Blogging is Painting My Story Robe
The Blackfoot Indians in the prairies passed on their history and collective memory through storytelling and in pictographs. Painted images on tanned buffalo leather hide are called story robes. Occasionally they painted stories on tipi covers, blankets and rocks too. Blogging is our 21st century painting and wearing our story robe. When I began blogging,…
Chameleon Art: Art That Teases Imagination
This blog post will not be a violin whine of apologist on abstract art or non-representational art. No, I just want to show you how to see this art in new light — several different ways. Before I took several art courses on mixed media painting art at mid-life, I didn’t have much appetite for abstract art….
Waterfalls, Falling Sheets of Mist
Misty water, suspended water and waterfalls have teased my imagination. When I visit somewhere or dream, I like to capture it in photos, poetry and in art. I may have not visited the exact spot. But tumbling waters that leap over the edge and rocks, release a memory of other places where I’ve been –Takakawawa…
Climbing the Skies, the Roughness: Painting and Cycling
Now this is not about cycling mountains, because honest, I haven’t cycled up a high, long steep mountain on a bike yet. Strange for someone who lived within sight of mountains in Vancouver. But I’m willing to bet you, I’m like many Vancouverites who have never biked any mountain either. Still it is strange, for a cycling enthusiast…
