Oliver

Oliver is out of intensive care and is breathing on his own.

And he's met his big sister Poppy.

He'll be six weeks old tomorrow.

These photos are copied from his mother's blog.  It's a good one!

http://tawesson.wordpress.com/



Miracles -- part 2

At this very moment a cute furry friend is lying at my feet.  A SILENT furry friend.  In just over a week a miracle has occurred.  Toby no longer barks at every noise he hears.  He no longer barks at anything at all!  AND he sleeps SILENTLY all through the night in a crate beside my bed.  Call this an ad for Bark Busters!  As I knew, it's all about me.  I have to be top dog ALL THE TIME.  Toby has been relieved of security duty.  He's still learning to love the crate so I've been told to feed him in there.  The idea is to make the crate a place of all good things.  Apart from the door, of course -- but he's becoming okay with that too.  Once he's in there he doesn't fight it.  Notice I say "once he's in there" -- that is, once I've pulled him out from under the bed and placed him inside.  The hallelujah day will be when he walks in on his own and lies down.  We're getting there.



Miracles

Little Oliver Lawrence had his surgery yesterday.  It was expected to be 2-3 hours but took 5 because ALL his organs were in his chest cavity.  This is unusual in an already rare condition.  It's so amazing how Oliver has fought on.  The first HUGE hurdle was his birth.  Now he has passed the second -- making it through surgery to repair the hernia.  As I wrote before, his mother is writing a wonderful blog about her baby boy.  I've borrowed the photos from there: his huge incision and then Oliver lying on his back.

http://tawesson.wordpress.com



Oliver

I have two great-nieces -- Poppy and Sidney -- and five great-nephews -- Benjamin, James, David, Harrison and Oliver.  The youngest, Oliver, was born just over one week ago.  Poppy is his big (two year old) sister.  He was born with serious health issues that were revealed in an ultrasound last winter.  In my simplistic explanation, it's a condition where the baby's diaphragm has a hole that allows the organs to move up into the chest cavity.  The most serious consequence is undeveloped lungs.  Oliver was safe inside his mother and then passed a first big hurdle when he was born.  When his condition is stable, in the next days, he will have surgery to fix the hole -- "hernia."  The condition is called CDH, "Congenital diaphragmatic hernia."  His mother is writing a wonderful blog about the whole thing.

http://tawesson.wordpress.com/

Odds & Ends

I haven't written since I got back from Scotland -- partly because I brought back a wicked cold, now in its fourth week, which has left me temporarily (I hope!) deaf in one ear.  But also because I seem to be taking a breather.  A summer holiday.  No art classes.  No summer music school.

Yes, no summer music camp.  I thought about deleting the post but that felt a bit scary.  Could I actually erase the past?  No.  I'm not going to camp because I'm saving for Scotland.  This is true -- but also memories of past summer school experiences came back to haunt me.  Starting with French school after grade 11 and I couldn't help but wonder -- what if it's a nightmare?

Never mind -- I am saving for Scotland.  My next trip will be at Christmas -- including the holiday itself.  Horrors!  Is that allowed?!  Yes, I will make it so.  And there is no question about continuing with Senior Band.  I love it.  This weekend is our year-end party.  And the clarinets and flutes have already scheduled a meeting in July.

Saving also involves being more careful about the classes I take at the Toronto School of Art.  As I've said, I'm taking the summer off but I also have another dilemma.  Should I finish off the diploma quickly?  (I have half the credits.)  Or perhaps not at all?  Who cares?  Don't know.  But I'm looking at an art school in Ullapool for next summer.  A week long course.

I didn't actually write about the latest Scotland trip.  The photos seemed enough.  Beautiful and calm.  I love it there.  Tangled up in history, of course.  My history.  Reminds me, I have to see the new animated movie called "Brave" which is set in medieval Scotland and starring a young girl.

And speaking of young girls, we had an eight year old with us on the mini-couch.  She was such a live wire.  I enjoyed her company.  Here we are on the last day spent with the leader Karen.  She took us to Iona and Skye.  Another leader/driver took us north to Orkney.





Toby is also on a summer break from his daily group walk -- saving money, talking holidays.  So, instead of Brian mid-day he'll have to rely on me.  Not a problem.  For the most part, walking with Toby is relaxing.  Except for when the humidex is 40 or Toby needs to go THAT way to visit a dog he spies way off in the distance.  My favourite are our morning walks.  As I've said, the only thing I miss about working is the morning walk there.







Drawing as a contemporary practice week 10

This week we spent the entire time critiquing the results of assignment #1, the visual diary.  I presented by book and it was quite well received.  Here are the pages, dismantled, beginning and ending with the covers.

Drawing as a contemporary practice week 9

We did our final visual diary this week -- in which we see Toby's face!  I'm including a recent photo for comparison -- my drawing (with my left hand) is certainly not the greatest likeness.  Later we each spoke with the teacher about that project and the self-directed one.  Next week we'll critique the visual diary.  I'm going to turn mine into some kind of a book -- a work very much in progress.  And my self-directed project has evolved as well.  I'm excited for that one too.  It's due the final week which is during the make-up week.

Drawing as a contemporary practice week 8

Our visual diary today was with our dominant hand.  We have one more week to do the diary and at the same time we need to be working on how to make one thing out of it all.  The teacher liked my wonky perspective today and like the drawing overall.  ("Wonky" seems to be my word for the day.)  I was struck this morning on our first walk by the towering building and how the red of Toby's coat matched the Rabba sign.

I also did my presentation on an experimental drawing practice.  My question was whether drawing needs to leave a mark.  Or how permanent must it be?  I illustrated this with sparklers and glow sticks.  I was the third person to use fire!  It seemed to be fun for everyone which is the main idea.

Drawing as a contemporary practice week 7

We began with our visual diary using our non-dominant hand.  I found it much easier today with my left and really enjoyed it.  I used a larger piece of paper than I have so far.  Soon we'll be combining all the diaries to make something new in some way.  The teacher said that my drawing today was more expressive and gestural than ever before.

Before class started we all hung our Allan Gardens/artist drawing ready for critique.  Mine went over very well which was great, of course.  This drawing is bigger than anything I've done before.  It's maybe 3 feet square.

Contemporary Practice week 6

We're a week behind of course so we'll have a make-up class in April.  We started with our visual diary.  I did a drawing of Toby in my arms which is what struck me most about the morning.  A huge snow storm had been predicted but instead it was pouring rain when I took him out -- in his rain gear.

Then we worked on our large drawings from Allan Gardens and our artist.  We were to add duplication of some kind.  Tracings, transfers, whatever.  Next week we present the final work as if to a gallery.  I've got the drawing home now.  I know what I want to try -- adding transfers of some Allan Gardens photos.  We'll see how that works out.  Here's what I have so far after another class session.  Also each of us met with the teacher to discuss our self-directed project.  I'm back to the drawing board -- literally! -- to refine what I want to say and present.  I'll meet the teacher again next week.

Senior Band

So simple to go back to the world of rehearsals.  I love it.  I'm right back there.  I've said before that music has been my life-line.  In high school I played in the school band and orchestra as well as a community band.  With that band I went to Expo '70 in Osaka.  That was my summer after grade 12.

My thoughts have gone all over the place thinking about band.  Ultimately I perched on the ceramics I did one fall at the Gardiner Museum.  I participated in a group for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.  We were to make a place setting that illustrated our experience in some way.  I was so humiliated and upset by what came out of me.  It was so ugly!  But I couldn't change it and after all my life has been ugly.  One of the pieces I made was a bass clarinet.  I also made skis as chopsticks since skiing was another thing I loved.  There were Japanese bridges or chopstick holders and a notebook and pen for writing.

The most troubling aspects were the male figure and the central pie-shaped plate with the attached chain and shackle.  I made a circle and divided it into seven as everything was in our house.  Our serving, our place, set in stone!  My mother would take a brick of ice cream and cut off a wee bit for my youngest brother and then divide the rest into 6.  She could dish out a stew and divvy up the meat according to her personal calculations -- always more for the men.

Towards the end of his life my father said with great pride that he had treated all his children exactly the same.  Apart from being a complete lie it was an outrageous comment to make.  Who in their right minds (ha!) would believe that 5 children would be identical?  But there we were, chained to our fixed slice of the pie.  Life as a zero sum game.  No wonder we five never connected, never became friends.  Competition for the crumbs was constant.

Of course I don't mean we fought out loud.  I don't imagine there could be a more quiet house with 5 kids inside -- apart from competing music systems.  No, we fought with meanness, lack of respect or care.  Lack of connection.  We were never taught that feelings are actually exponential -- contagious.  More and more joy for example instead of none.

Way back in 1970 I was still shackled.  In Japan I was overwhelmed by everything -- the heat and humidity, the culture, the attention we received -- and at the same time fascinated.  I still am.

After our trip the band leader quit.  The assistant conductor tried for a season but the band fell apart.  I went to university -- another story -- and tried a few times to particpate in making music, usually on the clarinet.  And now here I am in the Senior Band.  There are 5 clarinets at the moment in our group.  The other four began in September.  One of the four couldn't even read music!  And here we are rehearsing together on a Monday.

Contemporary Practice week 5

First we did our morning visual diary with our non-dominant hand.  I forgot and the first two drawings are with my right.  I'd bought a pad of paper on sale that was long and thin and tried it out.  Last week the teacher suggested when I get an image to then do it again and again which I did.

A visiting artist gave us a slide presentation on her work and then we watched part of a video called "Manufactured Landscapes" by Ed Bertinsky -- and drew as we watched.  The next thing was to combine images from the video with images from Allan Gardens.  (I am no longer Gabriel Orozco.)  We worked on huge sheets of paper -- mine is maybe 5 x 3 feet or more.  I look on what I did this week as the background.  I have a lot more to do  -- though I don't know what that will be.

We had two more presentations on mark-making.  One was drawing with straws glued together with a glue gun.  (What is drawing?)  The other was using a propane torch on ink!  Don't try this at home OR tell the school management.  We all survived!

Drawing week 3

We began today with 20 silent minutes to do our visual diary of the morning.  I seem to settle on a mood for my piece rather than narrative.  Today was melancholy and enclosed -- even shut off -- in the morning with Toby.  I noticed well before the teacher did that the figure looks like me as a child.  Not a surprise or a problem for me.

The presentation this week was drawing with red ink and a bubble-blowing set.  Art-making is meant to be fun.  That's the take-away from all this.  I still have no idea for mine.

Next we worked with "our" artist.  I'm Gabriel Orozco.  Another student as William Kentridge gave me an assignment that he (Kentridge) would like to do -- that I then had to tackle as Orozco.  I was to make a charcoal drawing of Toronto including a social problem that upsets me.  I began in a way that I myself might have done and had to regroup.  I drew on some photocopies from the recycle bin and included a homeless man begging on the street.  A bit of a mess.  Next week we meet at Allan Gardens where we will draw as our artist -- that is, use their materials and techniques.  Orozco is very much about found stuff, responding to what he finds, change.  We'll see!

Drawing week 2

Like Composition we have four projects in Drawing class but unlike Composition these 4 are running simultaneously.  The first is the memory diary.  Today we worked with our non-dominant hand.  We'll rotate from week to week, left to right and back.  Later we'll transform the work in some way.  (This applies to all the projects.)  I have lots to go on for next week.  Greatly helpful  comments from the teacher.

The second assignment is a 5 minute presentation of a process of drawing that hasn't been done before.  We had our first presentation today.  The student showed us drawing with linguine, using it as a brush and a stamp.  Now I have a bit of an idea -- I'm in week 8.

The third assignment is about a contemporary artist who uses drawing in their work.  We drew names for this and I got Gabriel Orozco.  Some of  the other artists were William Kentridge, Christo and Jean-Paul, Jenny Saville, Banksy, Anthony Gormley and Anselm Kiefer.  We're to research our artist and learn about how they work, how they draw.  In week 4 we'll be at Allan Gardens drawing plants in the style of our artist.

The fourth assignment is done at home.  We're to produce a series.  I'm planning some self-portraits.  More on that later!

We also did an exercise today that was fun and instructive.  The idea was to show different ways to generate images.  We began with a stack of separate sheets of paper equal to the number of students -- 9.  Also some ink, two sticks and a q-tip.  Everyone was given a magazine.  We opened it once only and at random and drew on our first page something that drew our attention.  The we passed the book to the left.  Same again on a new page and so on.  Meanwhile the pages and the drawings could connect in any way.

Drawing as a contemporary practice

My second course is called Drawing as a Contemporary Practice.  At the first class we got exact instructions for 4 assignments due at various points in the term.  In contrast, the work itself is meant to change and evolve as we go.  Many of the mornings will begin with 20 minutes of silence to record a diary of our morning so far.  These pieces will be gathered together later on.  It's about memory, how and what we remember.  Having tried it this week we're to plan how we want to continue next week.