A blessing for the new year


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.

 

 

Looking up

Painting by Eric McConnachie  done while visiting the gallery.

This is the feeling that we are looking for

and this is what we wish for you this holiday season.

Put on your party hat, giddy-up and go!


Christmas is all well and good...

but it's a bit of a hard climb.

Different ways of seeing


Yesterday both Sae and I discovered the evidence of mouse quite independent of each other,

in places close to where we work, behind the computer and the toaster oven and coffee maker at home.

So, I wondered what that might be pointing at. Every creature has a very particular perspective

based on their size, physical body, the way they move in their environment.

The mouse sees things close up but does not have much of an overview.

It's the details that I seem to have been overlooking of late and not looking behind what is most obvious.

Any reminder to challenge our habitual way of looking is good.  

Books and mice don't rhyme



Today the books arrived

and hopefully the mice (just discovered by unsanitary evidence) will depart. 

We are asking them politely to pack their bags and leave.

 

 

Mouse portrait by Daniel Hanequand.

End of the year Open House


Please visit 80 Gerrard East for an Open House
from noon to five p.m. tomorrow.

Refreshments will be served and all the galleries will be open.
The new exhibit: "what is necessity?"

THIS WAY UP


We have changed the exhibit in the collage and ascending galleries to respond to the title 'higher up and further in'.

The E.J. Gold gallery continues to show Daniel Hanequand's 'a human landscape'
and all of his work from previous shows can be viewed in video format in the Gold library.

Daniel Hanequand's original drawings can be seen at the gallery and purchased from the artist's estate.

Higher up and farther in




ladder and bowl
hat and ball
the language of objects
precise and evocative
known in the body




Work on exhibit in the collage gallery
at Arcturus.


Stop the ride I wanna get off


 

Sometimes being sick is like standing still, spinning in place
wondering when can I get off this not so merry go'round.
When we're sick it's hard to remember what it feels like to be well
and when we are well it's hard to remember (thank goodness) being sick.


Please get well Miss Sae.
It's much more fun doing the blog with you.

 

Just rolling along...


 

Why balls?

Play. We need to play.

 


All you need is light


 

 

 

 

 

Today was a hard day to wake up but by the time it was dark we found the light.

 

 

 



'Tis the season...'

Today Sae and I finished our first book, a documentation of the exhibition which 

is appearing now at gallery arcturus and seen in part in the photo above entitled,-

'w h a t   i s   n e c e s s i t y ?' . Christmas is a time when scarcity and excess 

are glaring and so it seems an appropriate time to consider 'what is necessity' not as 

an expression of poverty but as a recognition of how little is needed to give us a sense

of fullness and satisfaction.  


...and we are still holding on


It's a fine thread


simple but not easy


We are building a new show, singing bowls, and honey all of a golden hue looking to find 'what is necessity' 

 

Step Down to the Basement

 

 

 

 

           This is how we look

            without our masks.


Three faces

sleepy blue eyes

sad blue eyes

curious blue eyes

something so comforting to be seen by these eyes

that have somehow appeared like magic on the sidewalk out front

 

 


Alchemy


turning pollen into gold

 

honey

 

 

an installation at gallery arcturus, 

part of the new show 'what is necessity'


Looking from many sides



What leads to questioning?


What does it look like when two friends share questions

questions without easy answers

that ask us to look inside to what we know,

   in the body and in the shadows that stretch out from us.

The same questions take on such different appearances

when we let them enter,

like looking at an elephant from different sides of the same room. 

Held Within


This sculpture has a strong quiet presence that invites me also to be quiet,

respectful not to intrude upon the space he occupies.

I am reminded that such a space exists within each of us.

A private space, self contained  and precious.  

Three portraits, with smoke and mirrors and listening


Sculpted in Light           (and TGIF)



 

 

Sculpture by Floyd Kuptana

(our in-residence rock star)

Unexpected Visitors



I love working here


 

 

 

 

Sculpture by Floyd Kuptana

 

Table set by Eron Boyd

 

plates washed after by Sae Kimura. 

 

Treat eaten by all.

 

 

 

Obstacles along the way


a metal gate

a twisted rope

a pile of rocks 

 

on the right path but walking backwards

 

 

Remembering


How do I remember what I have never known?

 

I will remember this field of flags 

blowing in the wind 

a thousand gestures and one gesture 

I can receive.

 

 

A Visitation

Today we congregated in the basement studio for a lunchtime feast

a celebration and meeting of a little-little one

daughter of a daughter of a daughter... 

who with her very smallness calls us

to circle in wonder 



A couple of chairs



 

and me...

 

being seen.

 

 

 

Mistakes are the mother of invention


Holding Possibility


Friends walking under bridges.

 

Today walking through the valley

everything alive and breathing

everything  colour and fragrance

that sense when taste and smell combine

to describe the earth as somewhere we inhabit

up and down and side to side  

we are surrounded


For every light there is a shadow

 

 

There was a moment like this today

clear and bright and sharp

a moment when time stopped 

and then began again.


Keep your eye on the ball!

Returning to the work space after the weekend we sit down together to each do a collage just to find out who and where we are today.  It is always a surprise.

 

 

Collages from left to right by Eron Boyd, deborah harris, SAE KIMURA


Saturday is the Reception,  please come!

Lost and Found

 so many things are supposed to be done by now

but so many things have not been done yet

straight lines are twisted

things I remembered are forgotten

I want to know how I got so lost

and how I got back to somewhere that I know

 

...I followed the thread home.

 

 


Somewhere

An alley seems a different world. 

"Where is this place,

so close to noise and traffic 

and so far away?"

 

Behind what we usually see 

is something else,

a red door,

a bright light.

 

"All the lines go in." she says

"All the lines go up and out." says the other

Who knows?

You can turn left or right 

or go back the way you came.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Looking for red

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today attention is diffused

 

light and dark filtered through water in a glass

 

no clear shapes or direction  

 

patterns of thoughts meandering...

 

 



...and then for just a moment 

 

light and dark 

 

spiral into rose.



A feeling of contentment


 

 

Drawing by Daniel Hanequand on exhibit at Gallery Arcturus.


nnneeh!!  (the sound an Irritant makes)

 

We all have little Irritants

 

that follow us around 

 

poking,  pricking,  pinching

 

trying to get us to react.

 

Tiny pointed red shoes

 

kicking us in the shins.

 

 

How many breaths must be exhaled

 

how many balloons must be filled 

 

to lift us up and away. 

 


Which end is up?

                                                        A Conundrum.


Pointing to something

 

A word calls what it means to itself.  The word is the perfect container for its meaning.

 

A line is a movement, a gesture

 

a line has direction, and energy and the possibility of reminding us of something that we know

 

 

not only as an image in our head 

 

but as a sensation in our body.

 

 

TGIF  (or maybe not)

The quieting sound of one bowl ringing

the moment before

 

the moment after 

 

in between

 

 is the sound

 



Trying to stay on our toes

Tomorrow we may fall off 

but today ends with us all dancing on, what may be small,

but satisfying achievements.

 

Above is a section of a drawing by Daniel Hanequand.


What is  a Necessity?

the 'right' hat

 

a place to stand

 

a way in and a way out

 

perspective

 

the proximity of others

 

a reminder of flight

 

red shoes

 

a measure of comfort and space between

 

something round

 

the play of colour

 

 

art.

 

 

Off into the sunset...


Poetry



Observing Attention


 Watching something being constructed  is very different than simply seeing the finished construction.

I get a sense of the weight and largeness of it and of how it could fall and break .

My work is done with pencil and paper.

It takes time and concentration too but I am not wrestling physically with my materials.

 

Today we made alterations in this installation to accommodate the new work of Daniel Hanequand.

 

It is exciting being witness to change. 

 

These plaster pillars were created by Ramona Zoladek in November 2014.

They were installed in this configuration by Lee Harris.  (shown above)

Simple but not easy

Sometimes our conversation leads us to wonder

and what is usually kept small and contained explodes

sending seeds flying in every direction.

 

Maybe it is possible to travel to a new place

holding a seed

carried by the wind.

 

Walking towards winter


Signed. sealed, delivered.


carefully wrapped and stamped and carried 

from hand to hand

on truck and boat and plane

A package sent

and delivered

 

to you.

 

Strawberries are a celebration


Enter


Cool, clear, water



In the thicket

...and seeing with too many I's


On the other side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                       Today we are getting clear,

 

                                                                              more colour.

Under the Weather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are days that seem to have no colour in them

 

when the best we can do is to ride the waves.

Harvest Moon


 

 

The harvest moon will rise on the horizon tonight around 7:30. 

How do we get from here to there?


Peeling off the layers

what I want myself to be 

what I think myself to be 

what I think others want me to be

the layers are between me and my clear reflection

 

Is it possible to find who or what I am?

Beginning to End



The day started something like this...

going up, going down, 

turning this corner and that ,

spinning in place.

A kind of efficiency but also feeling like being squeezed through a tube.

 


The day ended like this...

 

a quiet exhale,

 

the satisfaction of completion.

Providing Shelter


 

 

an umbrella to carry

a hat to wear

a friend to meet

and go home with

Different Occupations  Same Palette



I see you.



 

 

Deborah started making sculptures just like she is making collage, in response to Daniel's drawings.

It seemed they are having joyful conversation through their work.

Deborah's talent is that she can actually go into art work and find the truth of what the artist saw.

It seems that she can enter from behind, from the inside out. 

 

What is Symmetry?



 

 

 

Now showing in the collage gallery, Daniel Hanequand's series 'b e c o m i n g   w h a t   w e   d o'.

Spinning

I forget

 

that the earth is turning 

 

that it is moving 'round the sun

 

and the moon is moving around the earth.

 

That is why we have night and day and seasons

 

and different moon shapes in the sky.

 

I forget

 

in the middle of all I think of as important

 

that I am small.  

 

 



In the rubble a jewel

Possibility exists in whatever is happening in the present moment.

 

Creativity is the act of making use of that possibility. 

 

These photos are today's landscape in front of the gallery.

The Balancing Continues...

Eleven miniature collages by Vivian Felsen.

Step Down to the Basement

 

 

 

 

           This is how we look

            without our masks.


From Bloom to Dust

 

 

 

 

Flower drying on the front desk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

footprints in the sand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

drawing with 2B


Three balls, one still life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vivian Felsen painted this still life today in the gallery.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When finished she said it reminded her

of Gauguin's  'Still Life with Three Puppies'.


 

 

 

 

 

      Sae says,"I like this painting very much."


I got that cactus feeling...

 

 

This drawing by Daniel Hanequand is one of eight in a series entitled 'b e c o m i n g   w h a t   w e    d o'

showing in the upper collage gallery at Gallery Arcturus and is part of an ongoing reveal of Hanequand's work. 

The cactus is growing in the adjoining E.J.Gold Gallery.

 

They seem to have a symbiotic relationship.

The Last Ship


construction and deconstruction

fast forward and skillful reverse (safety net required).

 

It seems we spend the first half of life constructing an identity

and the last half trying to be free of all we have accumulated.

 

Each direction is a journey to be taken.

Sails hanging waiting for the wind.

 

 

 

Painting the space

Finally, we, Vivian Felsen, Sae Kimura and deborah harris,  agreed to let the sculptures in the gallery space be the subject for our painting. It is always somewhat intimidating to begin to paint but once started it is hard to stop.

 

The more you look, the more you see. 

what is gravity?


Composing with red (A Fugue in Four Parts)

Outside/In

A day that has been washed with rain

and clouds still full with promise of more

looking through the bars of the back window 

the outside reflections enter and become the inside space   

 


No regrets

When we say yes to something we are committing to it often without giving it much consideration.

 

 

 What is perfect?

Shades of what's to come

This building on the corner of Parliament and Queen was a used furniture business for as long as I can remember. It's empty now and will probably be torn down for a condo which they will not paint turquoise. There seems to be construction on every downtown street this summer forcing many small businesses to close. In this photo the red sign and blue deserted store front are a treat for the eye. Sometimes art can tell a difficult story beautifully. 

The looking itself is a trace of what we are looking for

Today we had the privilege of seeing a small fraction of the collected works of Daniel Hanequand (deceased) at his wife's home here in Toronto. There is nothing to compare with seeing an artist's original works, up close, uninterrupted by glass, not just one isolated piece but a whole lifetime of drawings and paintings. Some of his finest work was done using pencil, (as is shown above), also pen and ink, pencil crayon and paint. It is truly a staggering body of work. Over the next year, we at the gallery with the generous assistance of his wife Maria-Carla Carrara, look forward to exhibiting his work in the five gallery spaces. Please check our website to follow its unfolding. 

 

Hanging in the Balance

what is the difference between a ball and a bowl

it's almost as though the ball was carved out from the bowl

that the bowl is the shell of the ball

and is balancing something that is carried and moves with us 

different from balancing something that stays still?

 

These pieces in the upper collage gallery seem to bring the human element to the current exploration of

'a tenuous balance' returning to the original description of how balance must be found within movement.

 

 

 

 

The Measure of Solitude


A room of one's own

has the perfect chair, with just the right amount of red,

a window or two,

screen door,

book shelf, with a favorite book,

a pen and sheaves of paper.

small enough to be quiet,

close enough to be far away

and not much else... except the agreement to go there. 

"What are you doing?"... "I'm not canoeing!"

We believe art inspires questions that cannot easily be answered.

 

 

 

What is Between?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Does form give shape to space?


 or space give shape to form?



                                                                 

 

 

 

Sculpture is by Floyd Kuptana and is viewable in the collage gallery on the second floor.

"Don't Make Any Sudden Moves"

 

 

Walking into the library, the E.J. Gold Gallery, this is the figure that meets you.

She is looking at you looking at her, a mutual regarding.

It is an expression known from the inside,

 recognized and appreciated this morning by Sae who took this picture.

 

 

Then looking at this picture we realized that the message, 'Don't Make Any Sudden Moves'

is what we need to say to viewers visiting the current exhibit 'a  t e n u o u s   b a l a n c e'.

All of the sculptures in the gallery space have been carefully assembled using 

weight, gravity and tension to achieve a stable but precarious balance and must therefore

be approached with stillness and attention.     (no glue, screws or nails have been used)


Water, the last resort

Today begins the last long weekend of the summer.

Some travel north to lakes and cottages and others head south to the beaches of our lake here.

Either way we are all looking to get a cooling break from the hot city.

Turning to face...

two figures 

close

side by side

back to back

turning they face each direction

finally,  they face each other

 

then part.

What holds the string?

Art has always been a way of telling the story of being human, life and death, struggle and joy.

Art lets us transform our experience into a form that we can see and digest.

Our individual lives seem such a complexity of detail,

woven so tightly that it is difficult to see the one string that ties it all together.    


At Rest

This is a favorite painting of Jamie's by Vivian Felsen.

The Grateful Dead         A Requiem in Four Parts

PART I

You're sick of hangin' around and you'd like to travel

Get tired of travelin' and you want to settle down

I guess they can't revoke your soul for tryin'

Get out of the door and light out and look all around

 

 

PART II

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me

Other times I can barely see

Lately it occurs to me what a  long, strange trip it's been

PART III

Truckin', I'm goin'home. Whoa whoa baby, back where I belong

Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin' on

PART IV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dying, you tore a hole in life

Through which your gentle spirit slipped. 

And in the fabric of my world,

A little rend that will not knit.

 

 

 

 

 

Written for Vivian's mother Anne Glass 

by her friend Adele Wiseman in 1982

Read More

Wishing him a glorious departure

A very dear friend of ours, Jamie LaTrobe is moving quickly towards departing from this earth. Jamie took this photo and posted it on his blog as 'What's New'. We are hoping with all our hearts that this is a premonition of his own taking flight.

Jamie has shared with us the richness of his seeing, the kindness and compassion of his being. His photographic work is a celebration of life.

 

Please give yourself the pleasure of meeting Jamie and his work by visiting dragonwhistle.ca

What is perfect?

what is perfect?

 

a feather and the bird it came from

each petal  and leaf  and blade of grass

a bee,  an ant,  the bark of a tree

 

Maybe what we draw   or paint   or sing   or dance

is our attempt to know what is perfect,

an attempt which inspires us  humbles us  and brings us into a relationship with perfection.

Me and my shadow

A shadow is not the same as a reflection. There are no details or colors in a shadow,

just the form slightly stretched or twisted but always recognizable.

It seems somewhat magical to see this thin film of myself easily sliding upon the wall

or on the ground in front of me as I walk or sometimes following behind.

An almost perfect formless form, inseparable from the form it echoes.

Oasis

 

Plants are always moving 

turning towards the sun

catching the slightest movement in the air.

 They find their balance being rooted in the earth.

 

This is where we invite visitors to sit and rest.

 

A Tenuous Balance


This old Japanese wood print, overlayed with collage figure and balls,

seems to perfectly represent how balance must be found within movement.

As life is constantly in motion finding balance is a continuous challenge.

 

The Momentum of Change


When everything is off the walls and installations dismembered there are paintings and materials piled up in the corners and hallways waiting to find storage space. But what is most surprising and exciting is seeing the bare space again. Windows that have been covered are now opened up. A plant came upstairs from the studio and set a whole series of changes in motion. It all happened so fast, so fluidly. It is a space that we have never been in before. Collage sculptures have materialized almost magically. It  is an experiment and a discovery, seeing materials that are in the gallery and finding ways of bringing them together in a new and dynamic relationship. It seems that it is all about balance, 'a tenuous balance'. A sensation and a reality that each of us lives with.  

It's About Balance

The Collage Site


 

 

no words at the table


Weather, you like it or not...

Something torn, mended

 

 

 

 

 

what can be seen as a point of weakness...

 

 

 

 

                                                  ... becomes a point of beauty

Curiosity

 

 

 

"I think I need space

inside me

for curiousity."

Animals can teach us to be human

A human has the capacity to know itself

an animal has the capacity to be itself

but animals know how to live on the earth 

and we have mostly forgotten

Reflection

The Making of a Book


Sae and I are making books

translating our conversations

into images and objects

gestures twisting and turning 

and coming together in space. 

An experience we are recording 

to share.

 

The weather has changed

Treasures in a bottle

 

 

What can you put in a bottle?

colour, texture, light

and the memory of the gesture that placed them

on a windowsill in the studio

where sometimes they are seen 

and sometimes not.

Workmate 400

Mark Tai is our 'dancing wu li master'. Guardian of tools and hardware, cleaning supplies and implements thereof. The gallery is the dojo he protects and cares for.

 

We wonder, 'How come he is so smart?'

Taking Down the Big Tent

The lights have come down on the

C I R C U S and 'the barefoot Contessa',

the visitor we were holding out for, Eron's daughter Maya, came today from Montreal and took in the show. So, unless we have a few more stragglers that make it in in the next day or so they will be met by a pristine empty space waiting to inspire whatever is coming next.

OPEN HAND

The C I R C U S show ended on Saturday and by all rights I should have taken it down already

but it is always hard to take down a show.

I am aware that this exact and particular configuration will never happen again.

I think of those who did not get to see it and I want to hold on to one more day of possibility.

It is a challenge to hold loosely to those people or things that we love.

What follows is always an unknown.

Today it is potatoes and the surprise of reading the words below written on a sidewalk I stepped upon.  


In the words of Sting

 

If you love somebody

If you love someone, set them free.

 

 

 

Perhaps it is the holding too tightly which can kill us.

T G I F (the day for making videos)

These are two collages, the one on the left is by Eron Boyd and the one on the right is by deborah harris. They were made at the same time in different rooms of the studio, each was using a duplicate copy of the same image (unbeknownst to them).  Eron kept only the body and deborah kept only the head. The resulting images are uncanny self portraits of their posture and attitude while making visual sound poetry together. They use this image as an end page on many of the videos to represent their collaboration: E B O H A

 

E B O H A has made over 120 visual sound poetry videos which you can see on:

  www.youtube.com/GalleryArcturus

 

 

 

 

Collaboration

a conversation

suspended

between objects and space

light and shadow

between one artist and another 

moved to create beauty

Introducing some of the gallery family

 

 

 

This is Ed Drass. He is the person that you will most likely meet when you enter the gallery. He is a skilled multi-tasker, and can eat breakfast, update the computer and greet guests almost simultaneously. He will be happy to describe the five galleries to you and take you on a tour.

 

In quiet moments he

takes naps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eron Boyd is the basement troll. He is

an avid book collector,

green thumb gardener,

and the better half of

EBOHA,

visual sound poetry video productions,

(with myself dh)

He has also become a

collage artist showing work in the Collage Gallery. 

 

 

 

 

Trying to feel

 

 We had a conversation today

about living and dying  

about life and death

about those forty-nine

that we do not know

and others that we do

this conversation was full of questions

and no answers

trying to look at what is close

and what is far away

 what is it that we can touch


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then reflected light

from the windshields of the cars outside

cast shadows

through the window

of the upside down acrobat

and moved him like one leaving

across the wall.


Waiting on the Stoop

Today Floyd Kuptana visited the gallery after being away for a while.

He started on a new piece, another Sedna. It's always exciting to see a stone take shape.

The piece in the photo above is whale bone and soap stone, finished in 2015.

This little guy is in the studio window, also by Floyd.

Sedna sings

Sedna is a voice

a cry

moving

striving

with every fiber upwards

away from weight

and gravity

towards song

 

 

Sedna is a stone sculpture by Inuit artist Floyd Kuptana and is part of the gallery's permanent collection.

Morning Begins

The ritual

 

of preparing the space

 

from the outside in

 

sweeping the sidewalk

 

lighting incense

 

watering the plants

 

balancing the rocks.

 

Each day

 

meeting the space

 

again.


Midway

What am I looking at?

Miniature cutout figures are placed within a photographic Midway installation

transforming it into a magical and expansive world.

 

This a part of a photographic installation 'Along for the Ride'

a feature of the exhibition C I R C U S at Gallery Arcturus

showing til June 18 2016.

The Midway photos are by Simeon Posen and the installation is by deborah harris.

The above photos are taken by Sae Kimura.