This is the newest member of our team created by Sae Kimura.

We all love him.

Today is a very serious day 

but we are holding on 

and dancing our way through it.

Today we are talking about courage and about being alone and about how small is our place on this earth.

When we are sitting we are not moving. It is a pause when we consider where we are.

This chair was at the corner of Carlton and Church. It is not there now. 

We are having a conversation about colour,

the alchemy of colour, its energy and effect.

A petal of red on a grey sidewalk is a different sensation from a grey pebble on a red floor.

A pink sleeved elbow resting on the windowsill of a lapis blue car,

a green stink bug on ground covered in fresh cedar chips,

these combinations trigger a most surprising sensation if we pause long enough to notice.

It is not simply the combinations of complementary colours

but the ratio of one to another which is both surprising and mysterious. 

Colour comes in all shapes and sizes

but today waiting is black and white.

When the sky's on the ground 

and the world's upside down

la la la la.

In the spirit of Annie Oakley 

and girls with gumption,

Happy Birthday Maya.

The foxes' wedding.

It came so suddenly, we almost missed it.

A mysterious occurrence,

we sometimes refer to it as a sun shower.

Sina Lack and Jerome Paul came by the gallery today with their instruments, the Hang Bal, Gubal,

Hang Gudu and Pang Sui and played with us for the afternoon.

Please click on the link to have a taste of what we experienced with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6tKuw7yLmM

Their is a very old saying :-

'To see from another's perspective you must stand in their shoes.'

This is an unspoken request when looking at art and is the reason why art has the possibility of expanding our view.

Shoes themselves are interesting forms. How they touch to the ground, how they lift off.

They tell a story of how we place ourselves here and how we arrange the rest of our body to balance.

It all begins with the feet. 

Daniel Hanequand's drawings have inspired this three dimensional collage sculpture.

To see more of Daniel's extraordinary work please visit Gallery Arcturus.

Today we have been spinning like two balls

or maybe it is two holes that we are looking through,

holes that shape what we see and frame what we know,

or are they spheres drawn upon in fine detail

to throw up high or roll across the floor

Today began with sunshine and blossoms 

by late afternoon the day became a shadow of itself.

Inside we were peeling off the photos

and taking down the show.

Can we be separate from the crowd and also part of it?

Perhaps it is better when we can see it from outside.

This drawing is by Daniel Hanequand and can be seen in the library at Gallery Arcturus.

How tall is a goose?

How wide is the sky?

   How long is a tiger's tail?

How immeasurable the whole?

Today was a mailing day, sending out invitations for the next show and opening of Daniel Hanequand's work;-

't h e   v i e w   f r o m   h e r e' .     Labeling and stuffing envelopes, sealing and stamping, and carrying them

in the rain to the post box before 5pm. It's a rhythmic job, when you get into it, which all of us seem to enjoy

accompanied with just the right music and the crunch of chips. 

In my opinion, everything, every shape, every bit of natural form, animals, people, pebbles, shells,

anything you like are all things that can help you to make a sculpture.  

                                                                                                                                                  Henry Moore, Sculptor

Snacking on collage

(or how to make a meal of it)

the brother 

and three sisters

Under construction

a weaving of heavy metal 

and brilliant colour

pulled to the sky

and entered from below.

And feeling turned

upside down.

The image on the left was taken today at the corner of Church and Gerrard. The photo of our friend Piet Corr was taken a month ago in the gallery. The two seemed to want to go together with the lens on Piet's camera turning colour. I went to the internet and looked up 'yellow light' and this song appeared, by the Icelandic group 'Of Monsters and Men'. We decided to include the link here.

Piet this is for you.

Click on 

Yellow Light

                                                                 'Playing Hands'   9 collages by Vivian Felsen

                                                                          Click on each small image to see.

For thousands of years human beings have been shaped by what we hold in our hands. 

'The hand shapes the tool and the tool shapes the hand.' 

It's hard to stand or move with an apple balanced on your head.

Maybe it's better to eat the apple?

Returning to work after four days away, it is about re-orientation to the gallery space, and to our shared projects.

Collage is a surprising way to see what we are up to and where we are situated now. It sets us up for the week ahead.

Being sick is a big 'STOP' sign, nothing else is possible, you just have to wait for the sky to open up and be clear again.

It often seems that we are surrounded on all sides, demands, expectations, things happening all the time.

We are always spinning, as if suspended by a thin thread.  And sometimes there is a moment, a pause 

when time stands still and I return to a sense of wholeness and energy..

A moment.

It has been awhile since the 'core four' have worked together,

Vivian Felsen, Eron Boyd, Sae Kimura and deborah harris.

Today we met at the oval table and this is the result of our lively and at times profound exchange.

                                                         "This morning I found a chair placed in the space,

                                                            it invited me to sit and to pause and look."

A door between two spaces

an opening we can move through 

going out or coming in

and the invisible barrier of a window

which lets us see the other side.

This doorway is to the Allen Garden conservatory located between Carlton and Gerrard Street east.

This doorway is the main entrance on the Palm building constructed in 1910.

Fire

we circle round it, turn our faces towards it 

for warmth, for light, for the transformation of food. 

our first and ongoing necessity is to feed ourselves,

in times of abundance and scarcity.

hands collect the seeds, plant the seeds, care for their growth, harvest the crop 

hands build the fire, cook the food, hold it to our mouth to eat.

Sometimes through grace and effort we are able to amass a surplus

it is only then that we are afforded the possibility of reflection,

to consider our existence here on earth,

to observe what we have discovered and to share that knowledge with words.

Photos taken by Ayokah Beauchamp

Collage,  stories,  the body 

all the things we do, are mediums

that hide and show what's hidden. 

excerpt from Rumi

collage by deborah harris

image of sculpture by Rodin

This is the beginning of a new body of work showing in the Genesis Gallery at Arcturus

where we are exploring the universal language of gesture found in the expressions of hands.

A musical score composed in Japan.

Around the table we meet to converse and collage and share coffee. 

New friends can be found here.

This is just one corner of the basement studio where visitors are welcome to come and see the abundance of work 

that is created here, a treasure trove of paintings, collage, sculpture and found objects enough to inspire any imagination. 

To get from the bottom to the top we build stairs

objects and forms are shaped by necessity

Squirrels are welcome here.

                                                        Today the sun is like the moon

                                                        the carpet is like the earth 

                                                        and the small cut paper is like a bird

                                                       And what of the lines running from side to side?

                                                       They are like the conversation between us

                                                       straight, unimpeded, true.

                                                        Today's photos taken by Ed Drass

  The popular name now for a Japanese kite is Tako -

  The symbol for tako is made from two characters : 　凧


風
which means wind and

布
 which means piece of cloth.

put them together and you get the symbol for kite

a kite is a call to the wind
holding the string
we are lifted.

On the bridge looking towards the hills

on the shore looking towards the bridge

sending a message

swift as the kite flies

Hovering between this year and the next  

one eye open, one eye closed

murmuration a halo of movement and sound surrounding

The Sae half of our collaboration is going to her other home in Japan for a visit and will send us photos from there beginning next week on the third of January. We look forward to starting the new year with you.