Worlds inside (floaty) pens

Bus - Skagen, Denmark
Maid of the Mist - Niagara Falls, Canada

Eyes, Lies and Illusions - Hayward Gallery

Buckingham Palace - London

Tipoo's Tiger - V&A London

Ship - Pont de Noirmoutier

Cruise ship - DFDS Seaways Denmark

Bagpipers - Scotland

Elk - Lapland, Finland

August Strindberg Museum - Stockholm, Sweden

Old entertainment Postcards

All, but the top photo, are somewhat cut off. I have them in protective multi-picture frames and my bones are too lazy (or prudent) to remove them.

The first photograph has quite an amazing effect: the illusion of being in the scene. When I pay attention to it for a few minutes, I start to feel uneasy. It draws out some, both desirable and undesirable, thing in the recess of the brain.

The second and third are amazing floats from a parade c. 1910.

The last is a reproduction. A sweet friend who was visiting Australia sent me two postcards of this clown troupe from Australia. Their make-up is striking.

Miniature Winterland

These very much remind me of my childhood.

(Almost done with the ephemera...then onto Christian Morgenstern drawings!)

Dreamland

Aran Island, Inishmore

Aran Island, Inishmore

France

Quebec, Canada


Scarborough, England

London

London

Philately

My grandfather was a true philatelist (and numismatic). He collected stamps for over 50 years. I had the pleasure of sitting with him while he soaked, peeled and preserved the stamps in books. He showed me impressive blocks and the first stamp from Antarctica. What I do with stamps would make him cringe in horror. I simply cut them from envelopes or buy singles and insert them into the book he gave me. Sometimes I buy blocks, such as the birds below (my favourite bird is the cormorant and shag) and the Moomin stamps, they are too lovely not to. But I do need to buy a new book, one which I can save blocks in.

'The World on Sunday' by Nicholson Baker and Margaret Brentano

The World on Sunday takes it images from the British Library collection – one of the few libraries that had forward-thinking librarians who subscribed, bound and saved editions of the newspaper (this book covers material from 1898-1911). Photomontage, illustration, colour and layout of the news articles is pretty amazing--to think The World was geared for mass consumption: I think this raises a myriad of sociological concerns--the articles in themselves are interesting too: the newspaper was known for sensationalism. After reading a few snip-snaps, the accompanying text is well worth a read. It is active reading where one can feel a past social environment (just as reading The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin).

After a six-day work week for many, I can imagine people wanted to kick back, dream, laugh and condemn, this is what The World provided every Sunday.

Old Postcards

Cracks me up.

The message is very sweet. (Unfortunately he says to his sweetheart, Olive, that if she meets him she will "have the pleasure of [his] company."!)

Drawing is by R.F. Outcault creator of the Yellow Kid. I really like his work.

Old Ferguson Place, Prince Edward Island

Old Union Station was built in 1858 and demolished to make the current larger station (c. 1915). The current Union Station is very nice too (opened c. 1927).

Victorian Scraps

Cat band (3 separate scraps, mint condition 5 x 2")

Boy in pool scrap (his legs are wonky; 2.5 x 2)

Hen-pecked girl (cracks me up the bloody ankles: odd scrap; 3 x 2")

Ship scrap (mint 2 x 4.5")

Anthropomorphic Heron

I've adopted a nest (called B1) for 5 years in Stanley Park. I receive updates on nest B1 and thankfully it was not destroyed in February (storms and Bald Eagles raiding nests). Here is part of the update:


“Nest B1 is in a large maple tree in the centre of the colony. We monitor B1 from the ground below, and from a roof top nearby. It is a big nest in a well-like location, so it is often one of the first to be claimed when the males return in mid-February. This year too, it was one of the first nests to be colonized.“Throughout March B1's new heron pair spent much of their time performing courtship displays and fixing up the nest for the chicks that will soon arrive. Soon after the male picked the nest, the female arrived, choosing him over other males in the colony and forming a pair bond that will last the entire season. The courtship displays are fun to watch - the herons bob their heads, puff out their chest feathers, and clap their bills together.“There is a lot of squabbling in the colony lately as the male herons fight over nesting sites and try to steal unguarded nesting material. While the males gather nesting materials, the female herons are the actual builders of the nest. After the male carries a stick to the nest the female decides if it is the right stick. If she likes it, she will take it from him and carefully weave it into the nest; if she does not like it, she will toss it to the ground below.”


The eggs should hatch sometime in May (though Spring is late-coming this year in Vancouver) ...I'll be there, being nosy, with my binoculars.

Nice Glass

1. Decanter – c. 1905, hand blown, tinted, hand-painted enamel. Found at a shop in Toronto on Markham Street. I stared at it for a long time, for some reason it didn’t occur to me straight away that I could buy it.

2. Beaker – c. 1905, hand-painted enamel found in Cambridge at Southworks. (The feather is from my grandmother’s crumbling hat from the 1930’s – the kind women pinned to their hair as the hat sat at the top-back of the head.)

3. Two chubby light bulbs – c. 1950’s, probably for Halloween (I just love ‘em)

4. Flame light bulb – c. 1980’s, Christmas decoration.

Three Blinde Mice,
three Blinde Mice,
Dame Iulian,
Dame Iulian,
The Miller and his merry olde Wife,
shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.

-1609, Thomas Ravenscroft

Silver Heels

At once pet, ornament, and subject for dissection, the Sea-Anemone has a well established popularity in the British family-circle; having the advantage over the hippopotamus of being somewhat less expensive, and less troublesome, to keep.

Les Animaux

A few years back, I made a very short picture book called Les Animaux. There's a few things I'd change, but overall it's not as disappointing as looking back on things I've written. I have a fondness for swine, they have really interesting teeth. I'm crazy about insects, their behaviour, variety and beauty amazes me. And finally peacocks. Peahens are just as lovely, but I drew a peacock. Flannery O’Connor says:

"Peacocks not only eat flowers, they eat them systematically, beginning at the head of a row and going down it. If they are not hungry, they will pick the flower anyway, if it is unattractive, and let it drop. For general eating they prefer chrysanthemums and roses. When they are not eating flowers, they enjoy sitting on top of them…"

from Mystery and Manners – a collection of prose, (she offers some excellent advice on fiction writing in this book).