It Has been a While! A Bit of Sharing
What a roller coaster I have been on! The year has flown by and I am just now collecting myself enough to get back to blogging. When I left off I was traveling in British Columbia, having great adventures and meeting wonderful people. The problem was, I frequently had little or no internet! And our planned three to four week excursion stretched into two months! And thanks to subsequent events, it has been a while since I have felt I could sit down and do some art life sharing!
Ferry on the Pacific coast.
We returned to Calgary June 6, exactly two months from our departure date in April, collected our mail, checked in with family, restocked the RV and left for ten days of travel in the Edmonton area. While there I gained contact info for some of my grandmother’s brothers’ (great uncles) descendants. This was a real score as I am also a genealogist and am compiling info for our family tree.
In July, shortly after that trip, we headed to Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller for a week of family camping while our American son was visiting. Unfortunately I developed a respiratory infection while there and it was with me until mid-September when it became obvious I was getting worse and wasn’t going to shake it without the help of antibiotics.
We spent time in the Canadian Badlands – the northern extension of the Sonoran desert
Of course in that interval a friend and I used the RV to travel to Weyburn SK for a course with Martha Cole, I entertained multiple groups of visitors from Ontario and the USA and tried to reconnect with my Calgary groups and friends. One of my first ‘play days’ with art friends was interrupted while I dealt with water seeping through the wall of our condo!
My work in progress for ‘All Beings Confluent’ – the theme of Martha Cole’s workshop in Weyburn SK
Then the straw that broke the camel’s back! An unsecured woodchipper parked uphill from our condo rolled down the hill and effectively created enough damage on our parked car that it was a write-off! We live on a tight retirement income and replacing our car was not on the agenda. My husband was away on his annual harvest excursion and I was left to deal with it. This usually ‘rise to the occasion person’ lost it! It wasn’t until weeks later I immersed myself in a five day technique workshop with Anna Hergert that I started to get my S**t together again!
A runaway wood chipper took out the left side of our car.
All that to say there is lots of sharing to come. I apologize to all the artists I interviewed in the spring. Postings about our visits will come over the winter. Even though I missed the deadline for the SAQA ‘My Corner of the World’ exhibition last night – another story – I am gradually getting back into my art practice. I’m going through a period of rethinking what I want to do and what is reasonable for me to expect of myself. More on that to come also!
It feels good to be back. Are you still there?
Omg Diane, be well!