A gorgeous look at Howe Sound in book form, today in The Watershed: https://www.lionsbaywatershed.ca/post/picture-this

#LionsBayWatershed #LocalNews #BritishColumbia #Photography #LocalArtist

Before and after time!! A local lady brought in this old framed family tree, faded, brittle and torn, and asked me if I could fix it up it somewhat. I’d never done anything like this before, but she said there was no pressure and to just see what I could do. First photo is the before, 2nd photo is after.
She was happy! 😊

#DocumentRestoration #Handmade #FixerUpper #LocalArtist #ShopSmall #ShopHandmade

These cute Halloween Amigurumi items by local Alabama artist Rebecca Benjamin (@ slst4sanity on Instagram) are available at my shop in person or at the link below! We have two sizes of candy corn, a lil ghost with a removable hat, a derpy lil bat, and a derpy lil skeleton guy!

https://comingupviolets.square.site/shop/stitches-for-sanity-amigurumi-by-rebecca-benjamin/SQ5LW2YXU7OU4N32KAVVLENG

#SpookySeason #Halloween #ShopLocal #Handmade #SmallBusiness #Amigurumi #Crochet #ShopSmall #LocalArtist

A Walk on the Benjamin Park Trans Canada Trail with Tanis MacDonald 

My walk with poet, essayist and newly retired English professor Tanis MacDonald was a masterclass in paying attention to details and place. When I arrived at the Benjamin Park section of the Trans Canada Trail, MacDonald already had something to show me.

“Look,” MacDonald said. “Bug sex. I thought it was one, but it’s two.”

On the green leaf attached to a fence were indeed two beetles with red markings, working to ensure the propagation of their species.

Setting out on this trail where MacDonald promised to show me all the “weird bits,” we spotted bees, the elegant curl of a vine and an unexpected cluster of mushrooms worthy of photographing.

“I like to get outside and walk around and look at shit,” MacDonald said. “[Walking is] a good art practice. Because you have to practice noticing.”

She grew up on the prairies in Manitoba, where she walked regularly with her mother.
The habit continued when MacDonald was a student in Toronto as she often saved the transit fare and chose to walk instead. Walking provided cheap entertainment and became a tool to get to know a place and inspire creativity.

“I didn’t do a degree in Creative Writing,” MacDonald said. “There was no such thing when I was an undergrad.”

She found her way to writing through a poet’s workshop run by Susan Ioannou out of the University of Toronto, a workshop that was revelatory for MacDonald. She took the workshop three times, then sought out guidance and community in other writing classes.

When MacDonald moved to Victoria for school a few years later, she connected with the poetry scene there and began going to regular readings, eventually landing a feature performance spot. In 1996, she won a chapbook competition, and her first full-length book of poetry, Holding Ground, was published in 2000.

In 2006, MacDonald joined the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University as a professor and taught academic courses.

“In about 2013…the department said that they wanted to offer more creative writing courses,” MacDonald said. “I said I would design a creative writing minor and concentration.”

Although MacDonald began her writing career as a poet, eventually she felt the pull of another form of written expression, creative nonfiction.

“I had a very long apprenticeship in poetry,” MacDonald said. “Then in scholarly writing. And…the creative nonfiction came together when I thought, ‘Isn’t there some place that these two discourses meet in the middle?’”

The place they met provided material for two books of essays: Out Of Line: Daring to Be an Artist Outside the Big City, published in 2018, and Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, published in 2022.

“I think a lot about my place in the world,” MacDonald said. “My literal space that I take up, and what happens when you pass through a space and do it repeatedly.”

For MacDonald, community is at the core of her writing practice. From the beginning MacDonald has sought out the company

of other writers, joining and forming writing groups with diverse memberships to give and receive feedback.

“It’s not enough to say it’s good,” MacDonald said. “You have to
say what you like, because that’s how people know what to keep and what to change…what can I pull off…how can we break this apart…what’s risky and what isn’t.”

The trail offered us community as well, signs of the people nearby that MacDonald was quick to notice. A birdhouse in the tree. A bridge made from slabs of stone to allow for a dry crossing. And the community art project Squeak the Sneak; a serpent made of painted rocks that anyone could contribute to.

Walking has provided more than inspiration and a sense of place for MacDonald. It also provided healing assistance when she struggled with mental health challenges during the pandemic.

“[My doctor] prescribed me some medication, and she
also prescribed me a walk,” MacDonald said. “It was mainly to understand that I was not living in a bubble where I would die. I was living in a much broader universe.”

This September, MacDonald will not be heading back to the university classroom to teach. She retired on July 1, and in addition to multiple writing projects, including a full-length book of poetry titled Tall, Grass, Girl, coming out next year, MacDonald is branching out artistically.

She has been taking classes at the Button Factory in painting and linocut. She is looking to expand her bird watching and

is working on ideas for a new podcast. And she will continue to walk the trails of Waterloo Region, paying careful attention to the weird bits.

#birdhouseInTheTree #ButtonFactory #Column #linocut #LocalArt #LocalArtist #manitoba #outOfLineDaringToBeAnArtistOutsideTheBigCity #serpantPaintedRocks #squeakTheSneak #StraggleAdventuresInWalkingWhileFemale #tallGrassGirl #TanisMacDonald #transCanadaTrail #walkInThePark #waterlooRegion

SAPLING AND SKY: A NEW RECORDING IN DTK STUDIO

Located within the 44 Gaukel St. arts space in the heart of downtown Kitchener, Sapling and Sky opened its doors to musicians and artists of all sorts this past June.   

The studio is equipped for mixing/mastering, live tracking, vocal recording and song development along with in-house video and photography available.

For co-owners Doran Leung and Joshua Pascua, this new venture marks the realization of their mutual lifelong passions for music. Leung, who studied classical violin at Wilfred Laurier University is also a member of local band Maria Gabriella and Corduroy Blue.

Pascua studied at Mohawk College and has been performing as a singer and musician for over a decade, drawing on soul funk and disco influences.  

The two met through mutual friends in 2022.  

“I was trying to find someone willing to take that full leap into pursuing music full-time as a career—and Josh had already been doing so for years,” he said. “It was like a prayer answered when Doran hit me up, I would say. I think he saw something in me that I also saw in him,” Pascua said.   

He previously had his own personal studio for just over a year, in which he refined his knowledge of studio production and recording.   

“Ultimately it was a matter of, how can I take what I learned from this personal studio and help others with it?,” Pascua said.  

The space is adorned with an array of records, featuring the likes of Jermaine Jackson, Miles Davis and Esther Phillips.   

“Shout-out to Extra Large Records” Leung said. “Most of the records on the wall, we got from there. The sound panels are from a guy in Ayr who custom makes them.”  

Joining these music greats on the wall are soundproofing panels evenly spaced out, all of it surrounding the studio’s heap of high-quality microphones, amps, and other production equipment.    

Sapling and Sky is equipped to work with and record all varieties of sounds and genre.   

“A few days ago we had a Nigerian artist from Brantford come by,” Leung said. “Tomorrow we’ve got a Punjabi rapper.”  

A notable trait that the two joked about including as an official item on their terms and conditions form is the studio’s shoes-off policy. Rugs cover most of the studio space which combine with the blue sectional couch and warm colour lamps to create a comfortable, inviting atmosphere.   

“It made sense with the rugs and how winter in Canada is with the salt. Plus, we’re Asian,” Leung said.   

“We want this place to feel cozy, we want people to come in and treat this place like their home,” Pascua said.   

Having both grown up in the GTA prior to moving to the Kitchener-Waterloo area, the duo expressed their love and appreciation for both the local music scene and the wider community overall.   

“It’s been a lot of fun so far…here it really feels like community over competition,” Pascua said.  

#44Gaukel #artSpace #brantford #corduroyBlue #DoranLeung #estherPhillips #jermaineJackson #joshuaPascua #LocalArt #LocalArtist #localMusic #localMusicians #MariaGabriella #milesDavis #mohawkCollege #wilfridLaurierUniversity #wlu

SPOOL ROCKS THE HOUSE OF MIRACLES

After an over 30-year hiatus, London-based alternative rock band Spool reunited for a re- release of their album Pasting the Post Dry. They held two shows in Cambridge on Aug. 15 and 16 at the House of Miracles. Local band Songs for Listening opened for them both nights.

While members have come and gone over the years, this show included Ian Newton on rhythm guitar and vocals, Greggor Gilbert on guitar, Clay Corneil on bass guitar and Steve McMinn on drums.

Spool performed for an intimate audience of nearly 50 people—a mix of both old and new fans from all over Ontario. Their music is from a golden era of alternative rock; the show featured organic folky and grungy songs from 1992-1994. Newton was approached by a former fan, Jeff, to bring the band together and re-release the album. He then reached out to other members.

McMinn was not on the original album, but agreed to the reunion nonetheless.

This opportunity seemed like something you couldn’t miss. As soon as you hear about doing this, I was like, ‘Hey, I have to find a way to do this. And now’,” he said.

“And my unvarnished, unbiased opinion not being on the album is that it is one of the greatest Canadian Albums there ever was, and it’s up there with all the greats, in my opinion,” McMinn said.

Newton said that the reunion felt as if very little time had passed, although they had led very separate lives since they last performed. They never officially disbanded.

“It’s fantastic. I felt like we were all the kind of the same, but a little more mellow, but our our jokes were just as good, if

not better, like there’s so much laughing, we felt like the indie rock version of The Monkees,” Newton said.

As they grew as a band, they stopped playing certain earlier songs. Gilbert said that the reunion was an opportunity to revisit earlier songs. They made a few changes to some songs, but the band appreciated their plasticity and ongoing relevance.

“I forgot how good some of them were, and it was really fun to play, like, some of the first stuff we wrote, and that was really refreshing for me,” Gilbert said.

“I realized in listening all the lyrics that a lot of my lyrics, they’re kind of almost like social critiques…So, in a way, a bunch of that still rings true to me. So, I feel like I could sing the lyrics with some authenticity, even if the poetry is not as perfect,” Newton said.

Newton said Spool members hope to continue being a part of each others’ lives. He said he hopes younger generations will also continue to create art and community.

“I think it’s really important right now for people to find little ways of being creative, you know. And actually, I think it’s really important for people to be hanging out with friends and having good food,” Newton said.

#Cambridge #canadianAlbums #clayCorneil #greggorGilbert #HarleenKaurDhillon #IanNewton #LocalArtist #localMusic #London #pastingThePostDry #SPOOL #steveMcminn

Butterfly Stonecrop

https://www.pictorem.com/2441473/pink-butterfly-stonecrop/

#flower #macro #art #IrisRichardsonArt #photography #artshop #artstore #smallbusiness #supportthearts #ayearforart #fallforart #buyintoart #SouthJerseyArtist #LocalArtist #wallart #artprints #homedecor #gardening

My new postcards arrived! They’ll be available in my shop tomorrow 😊

#WatercolorPainting #Postcards #ShopLocal #MentoneAlabama #Alabama #LookoutMountain #LocalArtist #Mountains #Postcards