Carol Stangler’s The Craft & Art of Bamboo: 30 Eco-Friendly Projects to Make for Home & Garden is, at heart, a book about persuasion: it asks the reader to see bamboo not as a decorative novelty, but as a living medium with history, utility, and aesthetic dignity. The revised and updated 2009 edition presents itself … Continue reading T.A.E.’s Book Review – The Craft & Art of Bamboo: 30 Eco-Friendly Projects to Make for Home & Garden by Carol Stangler
T.A.E.’s Book Review – Reclaiming Style – Using Salvaged Materials to Create an Elegant Home by Maria Speake & Adam Hills
Reclaiming Style is less a conventional interiors manual than a persuasive meditation on what a home can mean when it is built from memory, repair, and intelligent reuse. The book promises to take readers “behind the scenes,” and that phrase is exact: its drama lies not only in the finished rooms, but in the scavenging, … Continue reading T.A.E.’s Book Review – Reclaiming Style – Using Salvaged Materials to Create an Elegant Home by Maria Speake & Adam Hills
Weekend Book Reviews: “Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes” by Jenny Dean
Jenny Dean’s "Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes" is a comprehensive exploration into the art and science of natural dyeing, offering both practical guidance and a deep appreciation for the natural world’s vibrant palette. From the outset, Dean establishes herself not only as a skilled practitioner but also as an … Continue reading Weekend Book Reviews: “Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes” by Jenny Dean
A New Project – Abstract, Cubism, Neo-Expressionism, or something more?
If you've read the last two posts, you know I've decided to do multiple works at the same time, in order to slow down my process and to incorporate more reflection into it. I hope that working in multiple styles and with multiple techniques / materials I will also stave off those moments of self-doubt … Continue reading A New Project – Abstract, Cubism, Neo-Expressionism, or something more?
Creative Blocks – Goya Squares Continued
Quite some time ago, before Covid... my drawing teacher asked us to do what he called Goya Squares. The premise is that he cut of (photocopies) of famous Goya etchings into 1" squares; we were to take between one to three of them, place them on a large white sheet of paper and draw outwards … Continue reading Creative Blocks – Goya Squares Continued
Erosion in time
Short Film of the work: https://youtu.be/fB1NXDoYRRY “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight.” by Marcus Aurelius Artist Statement I started with questioning how time affects the land. The answers were fast and few: growth, death, and erosion. My second thought related to a desire to make a kinetic sculpture, but how to … Continue reading Erosion in time
Mark-Making With Ephemeral Materials
Artist Statement It’s been a long journey to my fascination for using found, fragile, and ephemeral materials in my art making process; the reasons transition through various life considerations: financial, identity evolutions, and social consciousness. Each of these qualities forces me to let go of the notions of judgements and allow myself to discover hidden … Continue reading Mark-Making With Ephemeral Materials
Ephemeral Rock Art – On Lake St-Louis
My amazing daughter wanted to spend a special day with me for Father's Day, starting with treating me to lunch for the first time. We went for fish & chips at The Old Orchard pub in Pointe-Claire village. She proposed we walk around the area, as it's on the waterfront and has some nice places … Continue reading Ephemeral Rock Art – On Lake St-Louis
Butterfly Garden – Transforming damage done by plumbers into something beautiful
In November 2020, I had to make an emergency call to the plumbers to solve a drain back-up issue in my basement. They used their camera and discovered that the old cedar hedge on the side of my house had finally grown roots deep and strong. They broke the sewer pipe taking our waste water … Continue reading Butterfly Garden – Transforming damage done by plumbers into something beautiful
My Autobiographical Pattern – All Together, It Could Be A Cozy Sitting Space
The Value of Art can be in the Love of Making “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” Marc Chagall Current pandemic restrictions have highlighted the extent of consumerism experience in modern society and allowed us a moment of pause to consider how we value of our material possessions. … Continue reading My Autobiographical Pattern – All Together, It Could Be A Cozy Sitting Space
The New Renaissance Mindset 