opposites collaborate

Trying to be focused

and getting pulled up 

into a sharp straight point

the sensation on the top center of my head

making it possible to work.

On our Thursday hunt we met our friend Joachim on the street and asked him if he knew where we could find an old slide projector. He replied that he had one in his basement and would bring it to the gallery on Tuesday. He did. The metronome has also been added and wound up to keep an even, steady pulse. These are the latest installments to the theater, newly named 'Theater of Perpetual Motion and Continuous Surprise'.  

Sometimes when you can't find what you need

you have to settle for cheese cake.

A day of gentle doing.

How is it possible for something to look so much the same and to be so different?

The one and the many.

The small and the huge.

A sole navigator and a theater of passengers.

All afloat.

This is something of a tall story, clouds can't really be grumpy and balls aren't usually as big as cows. 

But for the best part of the day I seemed to be under a little cloud and I was definitely grumpy.

Not now.

Now the cloud is the best new edition to the 'theatre'. 

Bad moods can sometimes be an inspiration.

The library space has become the home of a theatre experiment conducted by Sae Kimura and deborah harris.

It has been given the name:- 'The Theatre of the Unknown'

and will continue to evolve over the summer with it's debut in the fall.

Today is a day for building things. Small things like bird legs and wings and a little bird body

and big things like a porch pillar, cutting lengths of wood with a table saw.

There is something the same about these projects,

the concentration and figuring how to bring about balance and strength in the form.

But such a different scale. One requires much moving and the other a certain stillness. 

Each project came to the same point of completion at the same time. Each one requires a finishing layer.

An interesting parallel story.

This was today.

This photograph inspires curiosity. What is it?

This question does not need an answer. It does not require a history or a story made up about its significance.

It is simply a form of a particular color and shape,  placed in a context and framed by the eye and camera's lens.

Not everything created needs to be explained. Surprise and mystery can quiet a busy mind.  

I take walks when I am working at the gallery. Each day I go a little further, making a bigger circle to explore.  

These are the places I discovered this week.   SK

This is a story about the collaboration between a sculptor, a collage artist and two photographers.

We are each influenced by the other to create something unique.

A camera can give permission to go to places that I wouldn't usually go and to look at things differently.

These photographs were taken by Sae Kimura. The top one is of Pete Corr.

A pause to determine where do we go from here?

Can you see the figure?

Feet planted, skirt full and blowing behind,

face upturned towards the balloon,

red with intent.

A rough terrain to walk in but expansive 

with distant horizons.

I feel that I want to be this figure.

Today we opened up the studio space, 

moving things that we had once found to be found by others.

a sharing of the wealth.

For the past year we have been exhibiting different bodies of work by Daniel Hanequand.

This Saturday we are holding a closing reception where we will make available for viewing all of the work from those exhibits.

It will be the last chance to see these works in this format. We welcome you to attend between 2 and 5:30 pm.

It's fun to walk in the rain when you have a black rain coat

(even if it's not your own).

The sensation of looking out as if from inside a small box can feel cozy and protected or a little cramped and small.

It just depends on the circumstance.  

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."