The Good, The Green and The Ugly

September 16, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

Have you every noticed that things are not usually as they seem but more like what we make them out to be? Such is the story of these three tomatoes shown with the last of our peas and carrots.

The orange tomato on the left fooled me. I was waiting for it to turn red. Finally, slightly puzzled that it was taking so long to ripen, I reached under the plant and found its tag – Hillbilly (heirloom) Plant produces good yields of large orange yellow beefsteak tomatoes with read and pink streaks. Very flavourful. Excellent for salads and sandwiches.

It was ripe after all – just not red. It was also absolutely delicious.

Now the green tomato really is green. It accidentally came off with the other Hillbilly. But look at that big Ugly tomato – what happened to it? I can only guess that it was double pollinated. Let’s have a read of its tag – Carbon (heirloom) Flavour is exceptionally rich yet sweet and the essence of delicious summer tomato flavour. Medium to large, tomatoes are flattened round and smooth, without the cracking or blemishing that seems to plague some black tomatoes. They are dark purplish-brown on the outside with deep brick red interior.

I can tell you it did lived up to its flavour description but was maybe a little off on expected appearance. We had to eat it in three sittings. That was one monster tomato.

Speaking of descriptions our dear Laurie Buchanan received her birthday present copy from Len of PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs. Here is the comment she left on the Blurb publishing site under her penname Paden Plume:

This evening I sat down with a glass of wine to enjoy Terrill Welch’s new book. The description on the wine label said:

“This wine shows a heady nose of chocolate, deep rich blackberries, red fruits, and a creamy mocha finish that is unmistakable in its intensity and length. It’s reminiscent of a blackberry chocolate cupcake with a mocha coulis.”

If that description sounds good to you, let me say that turning and savoring each page of PRECIOUS SECONDS was an even more delicious treat! One that I will indulge in over and over again.

Thank you Laurie and thank you to everyone who purchased a book this week. Some of you I know who you are and others are friends in the universe who I greatly appreciate supporting my work. Thank you, thank you and thank you.

PRECIOUS SECONDS –Mayne Island in paintings and photographs now has its own facebook page HERE. Please feel free to come “like” its page and share your own “precious seconds” adventures.

And speaking of Laurie, she has brought the bubbly out to celebrate a blogging milestone. Speaking from the Heart has received over 50,000 views since February 2010. There isn’t a blogging party over there yet but we could always start one! Congratulations Laurie! I wish you many more views to your rich and engaging blog over the months and years ahead.

The weather has cooled and I have harvested the garden and the rest of the tomatoes are ripening up for dinner over the weeks ahead.

Sprout question: What do you have ripening for your creative dinner?

New: Check out my coffee table book PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Uninterrupted Day

June 14, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Uninterrupted Day

Only poets settle the irritable edges of an uninterrupted day:

Rukeyser, Oliver, Whitman.

Questions posed with audacious retorts.

Words liminal.

The mind’s blank titanium whites transcend their dazzling brilliance,

leaving dawn’s uninterruptible, curious, confusion

for the sanctity of coffee, fruit and yogurt.

Sprout question: What might settle an irritable edge on your creative day?

STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition opens Thursday June 30, 2011.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Seasoned Drama Queen

June 6, 2011June 10, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Enjoying one of life’s great mysteries as no two days at the beach are ever the same.

(image is available for purchase here.)

Seasoned Drama Queen

Old sandstones baked on the reef until lustfully sultry,

while awaiting the sea’s caress.

Together with the sky’s blue,

these three perform like a seasoned drama queen,

making so much out of so little.

Sprout question: What sensory experience has your creative juices flowing?

STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition opens Thursday June 30, 2011.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

FromMayne Island,British Columbia,Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Sunday Morning (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Promise of Summer (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Sunday Morning

June 5, 2011June 10, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

Inspired by Dashin’s post SUNDAY THOUGHT and last evening’s walk.

Sunday Morning

A raven speaks of valley news while small birds warble their fragments of gossip.

Sweet, warm air rides the sun in through the studio window.

My coffee cools.

Best of Sunday too you!

Sprout question: What is your Sunday Thought?

STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition opens Thursday June 30, 2011.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

FromMayne Island,British Columbia,Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Promise of Summer (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Quit Fracking with our Water

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 25 Comments

Being a Canadian artist faced with an imminent Federal election on Monday May 2, 2011 and B.C. provincial election not too far off, I like to think of myself as reasonably well-informed. But then I watched GASLAND (2010) directed by Josh Fox. I felt sick and like I had been duped somehow. Not a good a feeling, I assure you. This documentary film is about hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for natural gas in the United States. From the looks of things, these drilling practices appear to, possibly, place our potable drinking water and health and safety in North America at risk. That’s a rather worrisome possibility and worth a close review.

Don’t be fooled by the occasional discrediting remarks about this Sundance Festival winning film – keep digging and see where they are coming from. Put simply – it’s a mess. I am feeling physically ill from the disheartening circumstances we find ourselves in. In order to come to terms with its content, this film requires broader research. I have settled on these links to get you started.

Gasland: A film by Josh Fox (close the annoying donation popup and read – then, if you want, go back and donate) http://www.gaslandthemovie.com

PBS interview with Josh about Gasland (March 2010)http://video.pbs.org/video/1452296560

Gasland – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasland as it outlines the film and a few critiques about points of accuracy that Fox addresses in greater detail this link here http://1trickpony.cachefly.net/gas/pdf/Affirming_Gasland_Sept_2010.pdf.

The practice of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” using a cocktail of substances lots of water, is impacting or is likely to 34 States in the United States. And, though this is not covered in the film, it is also happening in northeastern British Columbia and has just been suspended in Quebec until the potential health and environmental impacts are better understood. GASLAND holds out one small ray of hope for the possibility of legislation that could prevent this disaster from happening in the Pennsylvania watershed that supplies drinking water New York City and Philadelphia. Who knows. In a link to a related article about Pennsylvania at the end of this post it doesn’t sound very promising. But in British Columbia and in Canada? Without a change in political will, I sense there is little hope for legislative intervention:

According to a report from B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission, the oil and gas sector was permitted to use (and contaminate) 86 billion litres of surface water in 2009 alone, and would thus not be regulated under the new ground water regulation. Annual groundwater use was not reported, but is a small fraction of the 86 billion litres based lifetime groundwater well production for natural gas (6.6 billion litres).

Source: http://ourwaterbc.ca/find-out-more/oil-gas-considerations-for-bcs-new-water-sustainability-act

How can this be? I feel like I’ve been blindsided. Where are our water and air protections? What is going on? Could MY Canada really be playing a fool’s game and allowing extraction of natural gas using hydraulic fracturing with minimal scrutiny into the potential consequences? It appears so. In fact, The GreenMuze reports:

… the BC government has been pushing drilling for unconventional sources of natural gas since at least 2005, offering $50,000 (€36,500) royalty credits for every well drilled before December 2008, and selling oil and gas “sub-surface rights” at a fever pitch.

Both BC and Saskatchewan have been courting the industry with lax or no environmental regulations and promises of low royalties charged to the companies. The Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) predicts a 10 percent increase in drilling in BC in 2010, mostly in the Montney shale field of northeastern BC and the Horn River Basin near Fort Nelson.

In 2006, researchers for West Coast Environmental Law published a report noting that the oil and gas industry had identified at least six areas of BC holding coalbed methane (CBM) natural gas potential: Peace country in the north east; Elk Valley in the southeast; Vancouver Island; the south central interior (around Merritt and Princeton); northwestern BC (around Telkwa and Iskut); and the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Nanaimo Daily News (Nov. 7, 2009) reported that Vancouver Island’s CBM gas deposits – stretching from Chemainus to Parksville, and in the Comox-Campbell River area – are currently not of interest to the industry. Nonetheless, a group called Citizens Concerned About Coalbed Methane-Vancouver Island, has for the past year been pushing for development under its action plan, “Building a Safe Future for CBM.”

In 2008, BC took in a record $2.4 billion (€1.75b) from these leases, which is now its biggest source of royalties’ income.

Fracking is also in high demand in the Bakken natural gas field in southern Saskatchewan, where 1,000 wells have been drilled and fracked over the past five years. PSAC is predicting 1,935 new wells will be drilled there in 2010, and 300 new wells in Manitoba. As a result, Alberta has just announced that it is removing environmental and regulatory “hurdles” in order to entice the natural-gas industry back.

Huge shale developments are also planned for Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Utica shale gas field in Quebec covers an area of 5,000sq.km (1,930sq.m) that runs along the St. Lawrence River from Montreal to Quebec City.

The industry is especially interested in the Utica shale because it is close to the New York City market, with export capacity available on TransCanada Corp.’s pipeline system. If the US curtails natural gas development in the Marcellus shale, the Utica could provide gas to the New York market.

Source: http://www.greenmuze.com/climate/energy/2562-ugly-reality-of-fracking.html

GASLAND and my related research, cited at the end of this post, scare the pants off me. I had no idea this was happening and it has been going on awhile now.

SHORT RANT: I am appalled by our human greed and how we do things knowingly on so many levels to our earth and ourselves that cannot be repaired. Once we contaminate our soil and our oceans, and lose our drinking water it doesn’t really matter how much natural gas we have – the risks are not worth it. As you can tell, I have an opinion about this. If we can’t safely extract natural gas without destroying our water supply we need to be changing our dependency on fossil fuels. And if that needs to be done faster, then let’s do it, before it is too late. I hope you take the time watch and read for yourself. Shared knowledge is power.

ACTION: Feeling a little like a small chicken shouting the sky is falling, I am compelled to take action. What am I going to do?

First ACTION: With mostly environmentally friendly cleaners, scour the house until it shines. DONE! I never start a big project without a clean house. It seems to interfere with a person’s ability to think or at least this person’s ability to think.

Second ACTION: Get my voting decisions sorted out. DONE! If you are Canadian, here are some sites that will help you strategically vote in our next federal election:

You may like this video “I vote for Canada” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jISlelzxKyI I like it because it moves away from party positions and into what it is we want to see.

Vote Compass was a fascinating exercise in clarify where the parties stand on various issue in relation to where I stand http://federal.votecompass.ca/ No real surprises – just nice to see it laid out.

I also have found the Catch 22 approach useful http://catch22campaign.ca/

Then the Swing 33 convinced me to donate $100 to the Liberal riding in Esquimalt http://swing33.ca/

And just in from Avaaz: Canada: Democracy = Majority

http://www.avaaz.org/en/canada_elections/?vl

Third ACTION: Find ways to raise awareness. In progress.

Step one – write blog post. DONE! I include some of my photographs to remind us about our sacred relationship to our planet earth.

Step two – invite. Hum…. how might the Creative Potager community be able to spearhead a creative project to expand our awareness and take strategic action. I wonder? Do you have any ideas? What might we do?

Step three – Ask. I now ask that you help by sharing this post through twitter, facebook and on your own blogs. Because Josh Fox can’t change a thing on his own, neither can I and neither can you. But together we can and will make a difference. With grace, compassion and humility, I pass the next ACTION over to you!

Sprout question: How might fracking and natural gas extraction influence your creativity?

More BC and Canada research:

A Fracking Disaster in the Making: Report by Andrew Nikiforuk http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/10/15/FrackingDisaster

Shale gas decisions in Quebec raise questions about B.C.’s approach http://ourwaterbc.ca/blog/shale-gas-decisions-in-quebec-raise-questions-about-b.c.2019s-approach

No right to water in Canada http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/water/2011/03/10/no-right-water-canada

Our Water Secretly Sucked Away by Shale Gas Industry by Ben Parfitt, March 15, 2011 http://ourwaterbc.ca/our-water-secretly-sucked-away-by-shale-gas-industry

Letter outlining shortcomings of British Columbia’s Water sustainability Act Policy Proposal http://ourwaterbc.ca/find-out-more/oil-gas-considerations-for-bcs-new-water-sustainability-act

Talking Points document that was supposable dropped by an oil and gas representative when leaving a landowners property. There is no source given by Green Environmental Coalition but whether this is true or not – the talking points are well worth reading:

http://www.greenlink.org/uploads/pdfs/OIL_TalkingPoints.pdf

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

FromMayne Island,British Columbia,Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Impression of an Artist

March 14, 2011March 13, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

Week after week I visit myself on the canvas of a painting, through the frame of an image or between the words of a paragraph. Do these impressions provide any further insight into my being and my interpretation of my world?

I like to think they do. I like to believe that these creative endeavors cast at least a shadow of truth on what I often think of as my core essence – that part of me that isn’t body or earth-bound in this life time. But is this really a possible truth?

As the paint is chosen, mixed and applied without thought, I like to believe there is a subconscious part of me that knows what it is doing. But maybe it is all accidental fragments of my conscious mind colliding with the paint, the canvas and the movement of my brush.

I am doing a study of blue – a series on the shades of blue. What I am discovering is that blue is more than a colour. Blue is a spiritual void for reflection… as I paint the sea… the shadows of the trees… or the sky. If I had known how wide this void would open up, would I have committed to the series?

Ah, no point in musing about what might have been.

This week I have one 10 X 12 inch cotton canvas underpainting ready for completion. In my imagination the heavy clouds press down with formidable force over the dark seas. May I be able to hold this moment long enough to reach in and pull out something that is the essence of me, of you and of the very world itself.

Sprout question: What impression best describes your creative self?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Happy 100th International Women’s Day

March 8, 2011March 9, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

Today is the 100^th celebration of International Women’s Day. Why, you might ask, is this important to recognize? Most of you know me as an artist, photographer and writer. A few of you know that of the last 100 years I have spent more than 30 of those years actively and purposefully working towards women’s equality. I cut my feminist teeth on Dorothy Smith’s The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology in university in the late 1980’s while raising two young children as a single parent. International Women’s Day is one of my most important holidays of the year. It is a time to recognize, reflect, rejoice and recommit to making the world a better place for women and children.

One hundred years ago today women in Canada did not have the right to vote. It would be another seven years before most women over the age of 21 get the right to vote in federal elections. It wasn’t until 1960 that First Nations people received the right to vote in federal elections. Even noting these complexities, it is true, we have made gains. Yet, our fight for equality is not over and in some areas it is backsliding:

At the end of 2010, full-time working women earned only 71.3 per cent of men’s average full-time income. In the late 1980s, women earned 77 cents for every $1 a man earned.

More shocking,[ Queen’s University professor Kathleen Lahey] says, are Statistics Canada data from December 2010 show that women with university degrees now only earn 68.4 per cent of men’s average university-degree incomes, as compared with 86.8 per cent in the late 1980s.

Read more: Why Feminism Still Matters by Daphne Bramham (Vancouver Sun)

As a 52 year old feminist, activist and woman, how has the last half of the last 100 years influenced my life? Steeped in women and gender studies, waged in income for women’s equality such as women’s shelters, women centres, women’s counselling programs and women’s leadership, the answers should come easily. You might even expect that they would flow out in graceful paragraphs – eloquent after years of study and practical experience. They do not.

The blog post article I published in May 2009 “Untapped ROI – Increase Women in Leadership 13 Myths and Facts plus A-G strategies” is still as relevant in March 2011. Change is a slow process. But it is more than that. The clarity and contradictions about women’s equality are worn in layers of personal scars and successes only to then unravel again in my today – as an artist, as a feminist, as a wife, and as a woman who, for the first time five years ago, understands that sometimes financial independence is a barrier to love and mutual quality of life. I now experience the equality of a great love that, for the most part, renders gender differences invisible as two people equally work in harmony for what is best for each other and for self. Outside gender imbalances are successfully rebalanced in our day-to-day living. I have experienced nothing as powerful or leveling as deeply held human regard for another.

Today as I write this, my sweetheart is calling me to come eat the breakfast he has loving prepared. Today as I write this, I smile to myself at the involvement of my son and son-in-law with the daily tasks of parenting their children. At the same time, I remember a blog diary written last week by a woman volunteering in a health clinic where a young woman giving childbirth died on her clinic floor. She needed a cesarean delivery. The child was being born feet first. There were no such medical services available. Human life is not equally valued the world over. There is still much to do.

Today as I write this, I revisit my own struggles resulting from a history of childhood trust broken with inappropriate touching of my innocent child’s body and violence handed out by men who should have been the ones I could count to stand beside me. The details are not important. Many of us – many women and a few men – have our own experiences of being treated with less than regard and loving respect by those closest to us. We can instantly provide our own details, often with undesired vivid clarity.

Yet, as my being, my body and my spirit remind me of these passages in living, I wish better for others. I have worked tirelessly for more than 30 years to create the change I want to see in the world. Now I paint. Now I slip down by the sea and I photograph. I seek healing serenity in the bodily memories of these contradictions that we live as we celebrate the 100^th International Women’s Day. My eye finds a particularly powerful reminder that we are one.

My brush strokes link us to our human vulnerability.

My work towards women’s equality is not done – it has only changed. For now.

My sister, may you have the opportunity today to give yourself a hug for being the incredible woman you are. My bother, may you know that you are an equally part of what will make a difference in the lives of the women you love.

Happy 100th International Women’s Day!

Sprout question: What woman has been your greatest creative influence?

To learn more about my work towards women’s equality visit Terrill Welch – A Woman Behind Women.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

A Close Read and Doing Nothing

February 14, 2011February 13, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 25 Comments

On this Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2011 I could have posted something red. Instead, I am going to write about something read. We have an old joke in our house about doing nothing. It is not ours but one we heard it someplace and it has been adopted by us. The joke goes something like this…

I ask “David what are you doing?”

David replies “Nothing.”

I say “But you did that yesterday.”

David confirms “Yes, but I’m not finished yet.”

The art of doing nothing is a highly underrated creative skill. To do it well, a person may need to revise their world view. One aspect of doing nothing I like to indulge is taking the time for a close read. You see, I don’t skim very often when I read. I burrow in and engage in conversation with the authors or with the characters in the story. I write in the margins. I dog-ear pages. I leave stickies for markers and notes. I muse and mutter. I laugh and cry. I devour the content as I read. This is what I call “a close read.”

You might ask “where do you find the time?”

Well, it comes back to developing the art of doing nothing which brings me to the circular place of my latest close read.

Waking at just before 4:00 am on Sunday, and it being so close to Valentine’s Day, I wanted to let my sweetie sleep peacefully for another few hours. Actually, even if it wasn’t close to Valentine’s Day I would do this out of respect and love. In la casa de inspiracion, with its open floor plan, this means doing nothing. Yes, I made some toast, smeared it with nut butter, and brewed a small pot of coffee but I didn’t start the laundry or turn on some music, or do yoga in the great room or phone a friend out east. Instead I grabbed my book and slipped up to the loft with my toast and coffee.

Can you guess what I am reading? It is WHERE THE HEART RESIDES: Timeless Wisdom of the American Prairie (1999) by Daisy Ann Hickman. Yes, that is right, the very same Daisy who comments on Creative Potager and who asked me to be a guest blogger on the Sunny Room Studio blog in January. We exchanged books a few weeks back. In the mail from Brookings, South Dakota, arrived this beautiful hardcover gem. I know there is a place for e-books but there is still something blessedly tactile about running my hand over a hardcover book and slipping its jacket off to see what it looks like underneath before beginning to turn its paper pages one by one.

So early on Sunday morning, curled up under a down quilt in the quiet darkness set slightly aside by a small reading light, I began to read. What follows, more or less in order, are a few dog-eared, sticky and pencil-marked quotes about doing nothing that can be found within the later part of the first 30 pages of Daisy’s remarkable book about her beloved prairie…

“From a great crop to a new baby or a bountiful garden, life itself seemed to be enough, and being without a new car, a new anything, was not automatic cause for alarm or dismay.”

“Especially useful in today’s society, with its plenitude of distractions, multitude of ways to avoid and hide from reality, legion of false definitions of success built into a fast-paced society to the point where values and priorities have been distorted, twisted and abolished, where many have simply given up, and where many are looking for an easy way out, a shortcut through life offering nothing but bliss and good times, I cherish the lessons of land, sky and wide-open space. Because oddly enough, with all we have created as a society, genuine happiness seems more elusive than ever: just when we believe we have found it, we being to complain as our discovery begins to feel strange, empty, or curiously nondescript.”

“So now, as we consider a perspective that results in doing more of what counts, less of what causes you to lose your way, you will be ever closer to envisioning a road map to the heart.”

“The prairie offers an enlightened alternative, one that teaches something powerful and true: Doing less paves the way for doing more.”

“Because, curiously enough, time to do less often results in something more: time to recharge and regroup; time to stay in touch with feelings, values, beliefs, and of course, people; time to let events unfold naturally, at their own unique pace; time to do things that support your dreams so you may grow old gracefully, knowing few stones were left unturned.”

“Hectic schedules, a hurry-up, do-it-now mentality, cannot compare or compete with the persistent beauty and quiet strength of the prairie. As we scramble about each day, dashing here, dashing there, the land does the opposite, and without a word speaks to our souls, touches our hearts, and reaches out, like a laser, to connect with our finer, more discriminating sides.”

“When your day is jammed full of must-do, can’t-wait items, there isn’t time for casual exchanges; there is little opportunity for the unexpected, unplanned, spur-of-the-moment cup of coffee with an old friend, the walk to the park with your son or daughter or spouse. Still, these are activities that contribute to a way of life that promotes the importance, the fundamental value, of the human connection: without fail, without exception, without excuse.”

“For encouragement, remind yourself that the less you do, the more you will do: of what counts; of what makes you feel alive and growing; of what helps you become a fully realized human being.”

(Water colour painting “Canadian Prairie” – 2002 – by Terrill Welch)

What are my intentions for this week? To do nothing – prairie fashion.

And you might say “but you did that last week.”

I think you know my response but just in case… “I’m not finished yet.”

I wish you an amazing Valentine’s Day filled with love, hope and time to do nothing.

Sprout question: When was the last time you creatively did nothing prairie fashion?

Thank you Daisy Ann Hickman for coming into my life and being part of our Creative Potager community.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Emily Carr Mystery Solved

November 9, 2010November 10, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Yesterday’s “Can you Guess?” post was so much fun. Yes?

It is indeed Emily Carr.

The statue is located in the Victoria, British Columbia harbour near the Empress Hotel which you can see in the back ground. The specific location is on the corner of Government and Belleville Street diagonal to the legislative buildings.

Looking up is Emily’s dog Billie. He is looking at Woo Emily’s monkey who is sitting on her shoulder.

The artist/sculptor who was commissioned to create the Emily Carr statue is Barbara Paterson.

I took these photographs the day after the unveiling of the oversized Carr statue. People were still frowning at it as they passed on their way to work in the morning. I didn’t take their pictures as they were so unguarded in there peering at this statue of a strange woman with a monkey on her shoulder. I didn’t want to embarrass anyone. I believe it is safe to say that most of them couldn’t have guessed who the statue represented either and they live in Emily’s home town.

The evening before we had seen a screening of a new documentary film Winds of Heaven: Emily Carr, Carvers and the Spirits of the Forest by Michael Ostroff which I reviewed on the “Emily Carr My Kindred Spirit” post in October. I was in full Emily Carr remembering when I took these photographs. I have read her diaries, her stories and viewed her art work for much of my life. I regard her as a mentor.

Why did I wait so long to post the photographs of the statue? It is because my heart sank when I saw the statue. I was filled with a deep sadness – not because of the statue itself. The statue is beautiful, thoughtful and skillfully created. I was sad because the location chose for the statue presented a mystery for me. Emily would hate it. I just know she would. Stuck in the buzz of city traffic and tourists, with people peering at her while she is left sketching one miserly branch of the great forest she loved would have been torture.

Why would anyone choose to put a statue of Emily Carr in such a counter position to her whole being? I thought and mused as I invited Emily to walk with me out of the noise and commotion down a path along the harbour shore. I am sure her feelings were hurt as much as she was angry.

I know because as we stopped to look up at the totem pole along the path, she seemed to be saying:

“Why couldn’t they have just tucked me a little ways into the peace of the rose garden where at least the birds visit?”

“Why didn’t they put me in Beacon Hill Park where it is quiet and the glorious big pines still stand?”

“Oh bother! Why didn’t they just forget about this old fool?”

I feel compelled to tell her that she is important to art history in Canada and especial in British Columbia. Though people may have not chosen the best spot for her statue in relation to her love of the woods, their hearts were in the right place. They loved her. She sagged a bit under the weight of it all and seemed to weary to fight the mistake… for surely it had to be a mistake, wasn’t it?

After weeks of considering, my conclusion is no, it is not a mistake. It was the right decision even as heartbreaking as it is to think of Emily sitting there stuck so far from the peace of her woods. It is the right decision because the statue isn’t for Emily Carr. She lived her life, created her art, wrote her stories and her spirit is free to be where it chooses – which is not on the corner of Government and Belleville Street I can assure you. The statue is for those of us who have yet to discover Emily Carr. For those that do not know of her great art and her books. The statue is a clue to a mystery that waits to be discovered by tourists, workers going to work and the three year old on a walk with her dad who draws him into the world of Emily as the child pets Billie and they both smile up at Woo. Maybe then they will seek out Carr’s paintings and wander into the great forest to see the trees as she saw them. I hope so because this is where they will find her spirit joins them as they sit on a log in wonder at one of the greatest mystery of all – the forest.

The statue is only a clue to solving a great mystery. Maybe someday the world will know Emily Carr and her woods well enough that this clue can be removed deep into the forest where we can sit together with her as kindred spirits around a small fire discussing other creative mysteries.

Sprout question: How do you resolve creative sadness and disappointment?

Or an even better sprout question offered to us by Leanne Dyck: What artist of the past would you like others to discover today?

Thank you Leanne:)

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Emily Carr statue to be unveiled in Victoria (theglobeandmail.com)
Emily Carr statue to be unveiled (cbc.ca)
Emily Carr sculptor aims to tap artist’s spirit (cbc.ca)
Emily Carr through a fresh lens (theglobeandmail.com)

A moment with Frank Jordan

October 25, 2010October 26, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

After his daughter found my book and letters he was keeping, I was notified today that a special friend, Frank Jordan, died last Sunday. He was 90 years old. He lived a full life! I will miss him. He has had such a powerful influence on me. It was so nice of his daughter to phone. She asked if she could keep his book and the letters I had authored. I said “yes” surprised that she asked but happy to reassure her that yes she should keep them.

Some people I connect with deeply, regardless of age or gender. Frank Jordan was one of those people. He loved life even with its tears but mostly he found its joy, love and wonder. Others might miss it – not him. I know he was at peace with his life because he told me so the last time we spoke on telephone in the early summer. I know he will meet his tomorrow with enthusiasm.

Here is a passage from my book Leading Raspberry Jam Visions: Women’s Way about the man of whom I speak….

[Frank Jordan] is a personal mentor I have been honoured to have in my life since childhood. For me his life represents a high measure of success. You will not find his poetry and wisdom in university libraries but you may find it published on the placemats in small restaurants in the region in which he lives. You will not find his wealth ranked amongst the top 25 families in Canada, nor will you even find him given recognition for his wealth within his own small community. His paid career work ranged from jobs such as driving a school bus to janitorial work. His volunteer work ranged from voluntary ambulance attendant to knitting blankets for the hospital auxiliary and the local transition house for women leaving abusive relationships. He does not own his own home or many other material goods.

Are you beginning to question why I feel this individual is successful?

Frank Jordan is successful because he knows how to love. He knows how to love unconditionally and expressively in every day and in every moment. He goes by many endearing nicknames that are used by his whole community, not just his immediate family. To be in conversation with this man is to know your own humble humanity and to walk away hugging yourself – and the whole world at the same time. He has a gift that is rare and valuable. His gift is complete appreciation for life and living. Most recently, we were engaged in conversation as I walked out with him to his car, and he told me how he used his ‘little helper’ (as he shook the cane used to steady his 83-year-old stride) on days like today – days where he was required to be on his feet for several hours. He told me how blessed he was, because he could still drive during daylight hours. As I stood with him, shivering beside his car, he continued to count his blessings and tell me important stories that he knew I needed to hear. I listened intently, appreciating his calm, confidence as he said “you know god loves me so much that I just can’t help myself! I have to spread it around!” His face is lit with the excitement of his conviction, and even from my rather non-committal stance, I would be hard-pressed to deny the existence of his god or his love.

Then with equal importance he continues to tell me how his wife, who is several years older, has not being doing so well. His face is transformed by the sadness of his thoughts. Then he gives his head a little shake and looks up at me before continuing: “most recently she had been having a particularly bad day, and was in tears trying to get dressed, because she was unable at that time to dress or undress herself.” At this point in his story, his eyes start to squint with pleasure: “well, I went over and gently helped her, as I laid out my own complaint – I said, ‘well woman, you know I love you dearly, and I do not mind helping you take your clothes off at night, but it seems rather cruel to ask me to help you put them back on in the morning!’” He described how her tears gave way to laughter as she called him “an old fool,” and blushed from his continued life-long pleasure in her.

His living is an immediate gift, and his stories of living are a continuing gift that offers up a picture of infinite success, in their telling and retelling. Yet, to acknowledge his success (since it fails to fit the acknowledged and typical definition we as a culture have allowed ourselves to accept), it must be carefully and explicitly stated and justified. He has touched and influenced countless lives in his daily practice of joy, recognition and love. I have unquestioning confidence in the huge worth of the rippling effect of his life’s work, in giving and receiving. The consequence of his influence in my life alone has allowed me to have hope in the darkest moments, to believe in my abilities, to forgive myself when I fall short of my expectations, and to have total fascination and delight in people and in living. He chose to accept and embrace the paid work available to him, and to excel in using these positions to fulfill his true mission in life, which was to minister to those he met in his everyday interactions.

My challenge for us is to question all measures attributed to success – not just those that are beyond the quick and easy definition provided by wealth and position. I ask that we embrace the multiplicity of success, and carefully explore and articulate what we believe is success in a particular situation, and also what consequences result from that success. For me, success is not about getting it right and sailing to the finish line of life. Success is about allowing your persistence to sail your vision through every day… while the breeze of your passion and potential charts your course. (pages 75-77)

I have no pictures of him… isn’t that strange? To have been friends since I was fourteen years old and no photographs? I have never felt I needed any – today is no exception. I can see Uncle Frank anytime I want, by sitting with my heart open, smiling at what the day has to offer.

Sprout question: How might you describe your creative success?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada