Almost February...

Wow! Where did the month go? Crazy! Today it continued to be freezing and we finally left the house. Had to go to Canmore to see our chiropractor, Dr. Dorothy. She helps us to help ourselves to stay healthy!

We also stopped by the Second Chance shop, which is a shop set up to raise funds for the Bow Valley SPCA, which is a No-Kill, No-Cage Adoption Centre that shelters and cares for stray or abandoned dogs and cats in our area. The shop is run by our former landlord, who has been bringing abandoned animals up from New Orleans for adoption. Quin, my little one, is a bit afraid of dogs at the moment but maybe we will be in the market for a kitty at some point. At any rate, I found some awesome silverware and a clock that I plan to revamp into art.

On the way home I dropped off my paperwork for the International Women's Day local art exhibit at the Banff Library. They always have two carts of books for sale in the lobby. Some are withdrawn from the library, others are donations. Usually they are a dollar or two a piece but today they were $2 a bag! Everyone who knows me knows that I love the library, and I love books. I secretly wish I were a librarian... all the piece and quiet, surrounded by books, books, and more books! I ended up with a bag full, mostly for collage images. There were several wonderful old nature books. The older the better for me!



Last week I made my THIRD submission to Shots photography magazine. It is my FAVORITE photography magazine in that there is no advertising, one interview, and the rest is a gallery of images submitted by readers based on a theme. It is a quarterly magazine published in my home town of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I never knew about it when I lived there but then again I have not lived there since 1993. It has been in publication for 21 years. I am a huge fan. The theme for the upcoming issue is Portraits. One of the things that I love about Shots is that usually the theme is not taken too literally. There are many surprises in the chosen images. I can't wait to see the issue. And I hope the third time is a charm for my submission. Here are a few of the 12 images I submitted...

OMMA

I have been a member of OMMA (Ottawa Mixed Media Artists) for three years. While I am a professional photographer I have always liked to mix media and joining OMMA has inspired me to do that on a regular basis. It was through OMMA that I took a gelatin monoprinting workshop, which I LOVED! I hope to have the time to do more of this soon. I have the perfect venue for which to start a new series of prints. I have been chosen as the featured artist for the month of August at the new OMMA gallery. It is called D'OMMA. I will hang 5-7 pieces, and the awesome parts are that they only take a 10% commission and the gallery is in a public building that sees 10,000 people pass through it a week!

I had been thinking about monoprinting this week because I saw an article about it in the current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors, and because I am going to be part of the Home Grown Art Show at the Banff Town Office in March and am planning to exhibit one of the pieces that I made at the OMMA workshop. Here it is:

It is called "Self Emerging". It includes a self portrait that I took of my feet in the grass of my yard back in Kingfield, Maine. I made the image in color while I was going to school for photography at the University of Maine.

I also made this monoprint and traded it with the workshop instructor for one of her pieces.

Here are two more in this series which I need to scan and post. This reminds me that I need to post some work to the OMMA site...

It continues to be cold here. Tonight André and I went to see The Bucket List. It was a fun movie. Off to catch some ZZZZZs now.

"Well, it's 30 below...

...and I don't give a &%@(E%, got a heater in my truck, and off to the rodeo!" I have no idea where this song comes from, or why my hubby sings it everytime it gets this cold, but it does bring a bit of a redneck Alberta flare to a -30 below ( -40 with wind chill) day in Banff. BBBRRRRRRR! It's bloody cold! Not that I would really know. I mean while the poor huband was busy all day being the GM of Norquay Ski, Quin & I stayed inside, warm and dry. We did the same yesterday. It seems it may be a trend because it won't warm up until Thursday. I LOVE days like these. Coffee, tea, blankets, snuggling, we even made Peanut Blossoms this evening.

----------------------------------------
PEANUT BLOSSOMS
----------------------------------------

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. shortening
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine flour with baking powder and salt. B lend shortening
with peanut butter in mixing bowl. Gradually add brown
sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla
extract; beat well. Blend in sifted dry ingredients
gradually; mix well.

Roll balls in sugar. Place on ungreased
cookie sheets. Bake for 8 minutes. Top each cookie with
solid milk chocolate kiss.

This recipe is from www.cooks.com. It is NOT the usual recipe I use, which is my Auntie Jackie's recipe. I couldn't find it tonight. These were a bit dry, but good just the same :)



And André (darling hubby) made a new drink. A martini with vodka, Cointreau, fresh lemon and lime juice. Super yummy even if it wasn't exactly a night for a drink shaken with ice.



I will have to venture out tomorrow since I have not gotten the mail since the middle of last week. And we need some groceries... And I need to turn in my paperwork to the library for the Women's Art Show. I get excited to see what will pop up each year as far as art ops centered around International Women's Day. This year I was personal asked by Holly, who runs the kids story hour, to put a piece in the show. I said yes right away but was then doublly pleased because Kim Mayberry, who teaches the Mom and Tot Belly Dance (and all the belly dance classes) at the Banff Center, who is also a librarian, is one of the people in charge. Tomorrow I will get the paperwork to them come rain, sleet, or snow ;)

I made TONS of new transfers over the weekend. I have yet to scan them but here are a couple images I uploaded to Etsy today. Tomorrow I will post some new ones here.

Food

Ok, so I am thinking that Sunday night would be the perfect night for me to recount the new recipes, food, restaurants, etc for the week. And if anyone else would like to comment and share that would be great! I would like to talk about food, share pics, recipes, suggestions...

This was an awesome week! While shopping at Nutter's in Canmore, I found tamarindo, something our friend, Mariana, who has moved here from Mexico City had been wanting. She was THRILLED and we brought it home and she made a couple rounds of YUMMY margaritas :) A couple of weeks ago she made lime margaritas using a mix of limeade and lime sherbert. Oh so good!



This may have been the same night I made a black bean enchilada bake. Here is the recipe. I have been craving an enchilada bake since returning back from San Miguel, Mexico, on the 12th. This is a vegetarian recipe. I have been a vegetarian for 21 years, and will get into that more in a later post.

Quinlyn, my daughter, and I make crepes on a regular basis (I lived on them when I was pregnant with her) and we like to try all kinds of toppings and fillings. This week we went with an old favorite, banana walnut, and also tried fresh pineapple with yogurt. We always use real maple syrup. Since moving to western Canada we have a heard time paying 2-3 times more for it than we did in Quebec or Maine. When people come for a visit it is the one thing we ask them to bring. We scored big this week when we had friends from Ottawa who brought us a can AND a 750ml bottle arrived as a late (went to our old address first) Christmas gift (thanks, Shellen!)



I wsa able to get in some baking this week. Banana Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Bread (I took a hammer to the left over holiday chocolate from Bernard Callebaut, MMMMM!), Cranberry Walnut Bread, and my wonderful Ginger Oatmeal Cookies (will include the recipe someday).

Tonight we had Mushroom Fettucini using a recipe that came with our SPUD order this week. If you live in or near Calgary or Vancouver, SPUD (Small Potato Urban Delivery) is an AMAZING company that delivers organic food to your door, or the local health food store if you live in Banff, once a week. Check them out, we LOVE them!

Finally....

.... I posted some items to my OTHER Etsy shop, QueenQQ (named for my daughter). I added a mini for it to this blog. It is going to be mostly a supply shop, although I may put some of my collage pieces there, too.

Speak of collage, I received a check from the Red and Great BIG smalls shows at Cube. Last year for the Chelsea Erotica (which is taking a break this year, it may become a biennale), I decided to finally work in collage on canvas, using images. It was a big hit and I sold everything. So, for Red at Cube I sent 8 small collages, 4x6" and 5x7". THEY ALL SOLD! It is really nice to go out on a limb and create something from the heart that was so well received. I did something a little different for the Christmas show (Great BIG smalls) and one out of 4 sold...

Here are three of the Cube images:







And on another note, back to Etsy, the PoE (Photographer's of Etsy) street team is being revamped and all will soon be revealed. Madelaine was kind enough to direct me to the Photographer's Support Group thread in the forums, where there are many talented photographers. The new PoE had been veiled in secrecy and soon we will all know why...

Gimme Polaroid V - Five Points Arthouse, San Francisco

Tonight is the opening for Gimme Polaroid V at the Five Points Arthouse in San Fran.

Here is some info from the their site:

"Every creative act is a sudden cessation of stupidity" Edwin H. Land



For the fifth time, Michelle Casciolo of Shady Lanes Productions is assembling Polaroid artists of all levels, ranging from emerging to established, for a spectacular event. It will be presented at FivePoints Arthouse in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.

More than thirty artists will participate, and the work covers a very broad spectrum of styles, cultural influences and concepts. The theme of this show is work that incorporates text in some way, whether it is an intricate part of the piece, or commentary accompanying the work. Much of the work deliberately defies description and categorization. Artists include San Francisco locals, such as Brian Holliday, Daniel Dent, and Gregg Schoenberg. Julio Romano, famed hairstylist from Los Angeles, and Ramin Savar a legendary healer also from the city of angels, have also created one-of-a-kind pieces for the show. Beau Rhee, a recent graduate of Barnard in New York has contributed a video projection called l’amour fou, based on the Andre Breton novel of the same name. From across the Atlantic, Chris Keenan of Prime Objective has submitted a piece from his work documenting the aftermath of the disaster in the Bywater (upper 9th Ward) region of New Orleans. Proceeds from the sale of his work benefit the New Orleans Neighborhood Story Project.



A complete list of participating artists is below:
Amy Perl, Ashley Neese, Adam Lopez, Angela Decenzo, Beau Rhee, Brian Holliday, Cassandra Nguyen, Christine Freitas, Carrie Villines, Chris Keenan, Daniel Dent, Dominick Gambini, David Hammock, Gregg Schoenberg, Jerome Icardo, John Stanley, Julio Romano, Jon Nicholls, Jaleh Afshar, Jeff Parry, Joshua Blank, Kaet Perna, Leni Mostaghim, Loso, Michelle Yarham, Naomi Miller, Ramin Savar, Sean Tubridy, Shady Lanes, Tiffany Teske, Wren Coe.

Gimme Polaroid is a celebration of art that is fun, unpretentious and immediately gratifying.

AND here is a write up that appeared on the 7X7 Blog...

I have five pieces in the show, three of them are above. I totally wish I could be there. San Francisco is among the top three big cities I have been to that I would love to live in. The other two are New York City and Montreal (although I did live in Montreal for 3 months in 2001, while studying French at the Universite de Montreal. I lived in a closet with a closet, no windows, in the home of a friend...).