And here is the bookstore

This is where I work part-time. My very first job ever was in a bookstore. It's like coming full circle. Maybe it's a sign that the next step is to be able to support myself solely through my art.

Around town

I pushed myself out the door yesterday and ended up in Yorkville. I wanted to inhale some exotic pastries at Pusateri (in some things I have iron-clad willpower, something that is not easy at the Pusateri pastry counter although the horrific prices help), then went across the road to browse in Anthropologie. All thoughts of those little chocolate soufflés were very quickly dispelled by the props. Yes, the props. I only had eyes for the props: a row of antique pairs of little sabots from France, antique file boxes also from France, bundles of antique newspapers tied in string, some furniture.... I got intoxicated. It's a good thing the props aren't for sale because I could have gone into massive debt without a second thought.

Meanwhile, I have new listings on eBay today.

If anyone is looking for me, I'll be at the bookstore 4 - 9 p.m.

Lassitude

I wish I weren't so susceptible to the weather. It's close and heavy today, but I cannot give in to that excuse all the time. I'm just grateful no headaches are accompanying the weather. I intend to go out for a long walk (the thought of it alone makes me tired, but it will shake me out of my torpor).

But maybe I'll just loll around and eat a bowl of cherries....

Another week begins. Perhaps the monsoon will end. It's been very wet, heavy downpours complete with thunder and lightning, and I'm sure the earth is replenished, so a little break would be nice...

A task I've set myself for this week is to clear my spaces. The trash bags are out, and I will show no mercy. Even as I balk at the job in front of me, I firmly keep in mind how light and good I will feel when it's done.

Books

[photo: my artbooks collected over the years]

While working in the bookstore, where I while away the inbetween customers hours by browsing through books, I came across this in a book of questions & answers with Canadian authors and poets:

"Never bolt your door with a boiled carrot." -- Susan Musgrave

That Susan.

Where bloggers create

I read somewhere that it's "Where bloggers create" day. At first I thought, well, my little space is never going to make the grade. I have very limited space that turns into mayhem when I'm working: no neat stacks of labelled boxes, no bookshelves and cubes with gorgeous supplies dripping from them...but my visitors always say they love the "artist's studio" atmosphere, and once I realized they weren't being merely kind, it was very nice to hear.

Anyway, I thought I would show you the flip side........ so, if you're like me, do not despair. This is for you!

Friday's child

[My alter ego]

It's been a good day.

Dodging summer showers, depending on where in the city you were -- I was in the area where it rained -- work, and a visit from an old friend who came to do some shopping. I just let her wade through my stock and had the great pleasure of seeing her behave like a kid in a candy store.

Have a dry weekend!

Work day

I woke up to rain today which set the tone. Stay home and work.

Some new pieces I've just listed on eBay.

A bouquet for GreenCraft

A bouquet of recycled paperpags for the amazing staff at GreenCraft. Thank you so very much!

As if on cue, by way of consolation to soften the blow of losing my furry friend, the premier issue of GreenCraft arrived in the mail today. It is so beautiful, every page of it, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. It's the first time that I've felt deeply moved by my contribution to any magazine. I don't know why, but when I first saw my pages a while back, I felt inexplicably teary. It will be on the stands August 1. I promise you will love it.

GreenCraft is published by Stampington & Company.

Django. 1995-2009

My precious canine friend, Django, is gone from us. I am heartbroken. I cannot believe I won't see him again, that he won't be bounding in the front door and heading for his water bowl in my kitchen. I love that dog; we had so many great moments together, he was such a joy. He lived a long and very good life, loved and cared for by his doting family (who are feeling his absence very deeply), but I'm still utterly heartbroken. I couldn't even look at his bowl this evening without dissolving into tears.

He will be sorely missed. And the bowl will stay where it is until I'm ready to remove it.

Going with the flow

[The incredible expanding woman!]


It's already Monday evening, and I'm still recovering from yesterday. I got a last-minute call to go in to the bookstore and my whole day was spent there. A big shipment of new books came in, and that always causes some excitement. I opened at 11 a.m. and closed at 6 p.m. The Sunday regulars came in, and so did R. with a shot of espresso. Much as this job can literally be back-breaking, I love the books, I love that it's right here in my neighborhood, and I love that I'm getting to know more people around here. And of course I love the unexpected cup of espresso.

It's a dog-friendly store, completely with doggie biscuits and water bowl, and one doggie dropped in. I gave her some biscuits and she was mine! If only life were that simple...

I ran around doing my chores today, had a long phone chat with my sister, and I'm now set for a nice dinner and a relaxing evening puttering around. I will try to sit still long enough to keep my back from getting sore, however.

Friday's child

Friday came and went without me noticing (it is said, after all, that there really is no time...). I went from the Yonge St. store to the bookstore with barely a break, but since a new shipment of books had arrived, I enjoyed my few hours there unpacking them and looking through them. I especially like the crafts books: I learned how to embroider paper from Greeting Cards by Cheryl Owen.

Earlier that day: Sophie walked in just when I needed someone who would understand what I was talking about. She's young enough to be my daughter, and if she were, I would be very proud of her, smart, intelligent, with a touch of wonderful quirkiness. She did me a favour that I will not soon forget.

Sinking into a quiet spot

[new art available on eBay]


I've put away my paint brushes, tidied up my work table, and am about to shut down the computer. Tonight I just want to sit and sew, and watch Law & Order U.K. Things that involve no thinking at all, because for sure my brain needs a good rest!



I'm a great fan of Law & Order, so when I discovered that CityTV (a Toronto station) was showing the British version this summer, I was intrigued. It is based exactly on the American series, except for the opening theme tune, and of course you don't have District Attorneys, you have Crown prosecutors, and judges and some lawyers wearing wigs. (We have Crown Attorneys in Canada, but no wigs are worn here.)


....these are some of their stories....

Words to live by

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.
— Dale Carnegie

Bastille Day Memories

Happy quatorze juillet to my French friends.

Picture this:

Me, age 16, on my way to Lycée Janson de Sailly to meet up with my classmates to go to the Bastille Day parade. Coming out of the Metro train, I break my wrist thanks to a cute, curly-haired boy.....but that's another story. I heard a crack! But I didn't think it was broken, and continued on my merry way. By the time I got to the lycée, I was in agony. I phoned my mother, who was in the suburbs, and told her what had happened. She said it sounded like I'd broken my wrist and told me to get someone at the school to take me to the hospital right away.

Half and hour later, we were at the Marmottan Hospital, where X-rays showed I had a smashed scafoid and I was given a plaster cast and pain pills.

Arm in a sling, we continued on to the Champs Elysées to watch the parade.

allonzenfans!

The business side of business

If I had the means, I would hire someone to take care of the business side of my work. Having to be both artist and business person is difficult. I am having to learn the business side of things, not quite kicking and screaming, but you get my drift, if I am to survive. And I fully intend to survive and do it well. One thing I have learned, though, is that I value a professional attitude first and foremost. So, when putting on my business hat, I behave accordingly. A while back, a store owner emailed me wanting to stock my artwork in her shop; she attached all kinds of paperwork, from licence to local Chamber of Commerce credentials, to show me that she was legitimate. Of course I was very happy with the offer (even though I'd been disappointed before, hope springs eternal!), checked out her links, and replied promptly, giving her the information she asked for. And then -- I never heard from her again. I did follow up with an email, but the silence was deafening. I considered everypossible scenario, even one where she may have gone out of business, but in every case, all it would have taken was a quick email to tell me so.

After I got over the disappointment, I looked at it this way: the lack of professional manners showed me that this person was not reliable. Had I gone through with the deal, I may have lost my artwork to boot.

This is also why I appreciate and gladly work with people who treat me professionally.... cuffs, collages, apprentices, Christmas, fishes -- you know who you are. I so appreciate you!! You are "totally hot."

Leap of....

[detail of sketch, available on eBay]



Leap before you change your mind.....or, according to this Italian saying, literally, leap before you sour!

Weekend update

[photo courtesy of FairyDavis]

Last night, my ATC group met at the Hive. The theme was water. It was a difficult theme, I thought, and besides I hesitate with themes because I find them a little difficult (give me free rein and I can fly...) But it's also good discipline, so I let the word percolate in my mind for the whole month. A line from a song stuck in my mind: "Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink." And since I couldn't dislodge it, I decided to work with it.

At the eleventh hour, I came up with a boatload of people in the middle of the sea (not a drop to drink), and the alternative described with found words. Click on the image to read the words.

Have a fun weekend.

A special birthday

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 83 years old, almost twice the age she was when she died. I think of her every day... Love never dies.

She taught me how to read before I went to kindergarden and my love of books and reading comes from that, and started me on piano lessons at age 5. She believed I could be a concert pianist, but she never reproached me when years later, I didn't have the passion for it. She took me to see Scheherazade and West Side Story. She told me I could be anything I wanted to be, and she gave me this great piece of advice when I was still in my teens and hurting over a perfidious boyfriend: It's easier to get out of a bad relationship than it is to get out of a bad marriage. Most of all she was an example of great courage because she did the right thing against all opposition (yes, Mum, you were right).

Cover art

There's something about this book cover..... I have no idea what it looks like inside, although Siraudeau's books are usually beautiful, so I expect it would be the same here. It's just that this cover really draws me in. Which is exactly what a book cover should be designed to do!

Poppy/coquelicot

Detail of a gouache painting, available on eBay.

Be well, be safe, be happy, .

In my world

In my world, kindness begets kindness. I don't think about it, it comes naturally, so these fishes are flying across land and sea and more land to one of the nicest people I know who has shown me nothing but kindness. And kindness can be just a note saying: How are you?

My challenge (and it's getting easier) is not to react to negative things. For example, I will not let meanness beget meanness. Not in my world, anyway. That doesn't mean I always ignore it; sometimes you have to state your case, but do it calmly and clearly, and then walk away. Happily, this is happening less and less in my life, and for that I am grateful.

How does your garden grow?

My garden is mostly on paper.

I plant with my brush.

I water with paint.

The pot is old paper.

Growth is instant.

Cleanup... well, you always have to clean up!

Chat

CHAT:

Does Proust affect you terribly? Emotionally, I mean?

Nao, not rahlly. His prose does have that sort of...glittering texture, rather like the feeling one gets from the best émaux limousins. But, nao...his peepul...thin, you know, thin, dull, stupeed.

But surely...surely Swann...?

Ah, yes...If all his geese were Swanns...

Myles na Gopaleen (aka Flann O'Brien) writing in the Irish Times.

City scapes

Toronto is a very negotiable city. I don't own a car, I take the subway and I walk. And this is what it looks like.

Ashley's China, view from Balmuto St.

Indigo bookstore (Stampington magazines sold here)

Looking north on Yonge St.


Bird feed containers at Indigo

A stationery tree (Ashley's)

In other news, royalty is visiting Canada: the Emperor of Japan and Paul McCartney (although not together!)

Family

He's the father of four bonnie sons, husband to one of my favorite women, and he is my youngest brother-in-law. When I married his older brother, he was a just a young boy, the youngest of four brothers, waiting for me on the steps of Trinity College Chapel, holding the perfect single red rose tied with an elegant trail of ribbons that was to be my bridal "bouquet." That image of him is one I've never forgotten.

Now in his 40s, he is my trusted friend, whom I love and respect. I can just see his face when he gets this collage!