Public Art: Johnson St Parkade

A block or so away from where I live sits the City of Victoria's Johnson Street Parkade, a non-descript cement faced structure. I've never paid much attention to it, including when I used it a few times in December, and walking past it multiple times. Yet, not long ago, I had my eyes up and my attention outward, I (finally) noticed the public art adorning it. And it's brilliant.

I dug a bit deeper, and found that it is called Woven Together, and was created in 2016 by Musqueam artist, Thomas Cannell, with his mother Susan Point (you may very well have seen his art on public installations throughout BC, or adorning BC Ferries new Salish Class ships - read Thomas Cannell's biography here).

From the 2015 announcement:

Woven Together will consist of colourful, powder-coated aluminum circular forms that are often used in Coast Salish art to represent the cycle of life, but also the traditional weaving spindle whorl and transportation. Colour will play a significant role in symbolizing cultures and different beliefs around the world all coming together to complete the circle. The centre will be made up of four eye motifs that create four butterfly images symbolizing the ability to accept change, metamorphosis, and the beauty of nature. The number four is important within First Nations culture as it represents the four winds, seasons, directions, elements, moons and peoples..." [read the full story here].

Related resources
Thomas Cannell lantern design - LunarFest 2020: Year of the Rat
Susan Point and Thomas Cannell to Create Public Art to Enhance Johnson Street Parkade - City of Victoria
Artwork revealed for Salish class ferries - Salish Sea Sentinel
Where Did the New Musqueam Banner Design Come From? - YVR Airport
Public artwork by Thomas Cannell ready to rise in Deer Lake Park - Georgia Strait
Thomas Cannell profile - Salish Weave Collection
Thomas Cannell, Creator - Westover profile
thomascannell.com - Thomas Cannell's website

Dancer on my rooftop

CFAX pic

So, all this went down where I live. She may well have danced over my rooftop. Definitely heard the "explosion" bang.

"A woman is in custody after an incident which began with a break and enter in the 1300-block of Broad Street this morning. On Thursday, February 6th, 2020, shortly after 1:00 a.m., Patrol officers were called to the 1300-block of Broad Street for a report of an alarm at a business. Officers arrived on scene within minutes and observed the woman suspect, who had broken into a business at that location. The woman fled the scene via rooftop. A K9 unit was deployed to assist in locating the suspect. The woman then broke into two separate suites in a nearby multi-unit residential building in the 1300-block of Douglas Street. The woman barricaded herself inside the second suite. During the incident, the woman discharged a fire extinguisher and pulled the fire alarm. Many building residents were evacuated. The Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT) attended the scene. Negotiation attempts were unsuccessful, and GVERT officers took the woman into custody approximately four hours after the initial call for service. A loud distraction device was used during the arrest, which has led to reports of an explosion in the area. ..." [continue reading VIC PD's story].

Great speedy and effective response by Vic PD and the K9 team. Still feel safe living in my hood.

Last Sunday of 2019

I wake early, in this new pad of mine. I slept well, grateful for my long breakwater walk yesterday.
I spend an hour or two in light therapy, listening to an Audible book, and drawing and puzzling. I get up, have a shower, and sip some of yesterday's cold coffee, and remember that I forgot to add peanut butter on my food order (I make a note on my hand, my reminder for the Thrifty's call).
By now I am listening to North by Northwest - aka NXNW - on CBC radio, just how I like to spend most weekend mornings. Drawing and puzzling.
Then listen to the the Sunday Edition on CBC, this time a 3-hour long special, looking back at the decade that was. How interesting, this 2009-2019 time window, as it aligns with the time since I last had my own place. All that has happened in the world, superimposed on my life during that time, not at all what I thought it would be (Europe, a few months in Vancouver for the Olympics and work, moving to Sidney, living with and loving mom, then caregiving ~ some of the best and hardest times of my life ~ getting a studio for awhile, selling my art, some contract work, meeting Steve and doing the IHT gig for 7 years, starting the cruise work, then changing offices, so much drama and empty pockets, watching myself turn to junk food as soon as I had wheels, meeting Maui, becoming a kitty-mom, so fabulous, loving, and losing him, just after losing mom, so much sadness, wrapped in sweet memories, moving with my sister, short-term becoming long-term, only recently extracating myself, my new job, various gigs, writing two books as a ghostwriter, mystery shopping, 2 cruises, and of course dog-sitting Lucy and Palm Springs, and a NYC trip, and 2 Mexico trips, the start and peak and end of social media gigs, blogs, when did I stop taking pictures?, cataract surgery, missing Vancouver then getting used to it here, just a few trips over, beoming so broke I stopped going to concerts, a couple trips up island, car 3 at present, discovering Audible, getting and becoming addicted to my iPad, from a simple phone to smart phone to my Blackberry (I miss it!), back to smartphone, Aunt Dawn's visit, a couple weddings, nieces and nephews having babies, I practically stop reading physical books, but come full circle and have been actively unplugging, new friends, finding old friends, losing my mind after long long long stretches without 24 hours alone, unable to recharge my batteries, recognizing that I was falling into such a deep depression, exhausted by a year of 3-3.5 hour daily commutes, money issues, now starting a new life downtown Victoria, its a lot over 10 years....).
At some point, I am up making coffee in my Bodum, boiling water in a pot, and having breakfast with Kakuro. Puttering in my kitchen. Remembering now that I was unpacking boxes at 5:00 am.
Groceries come at noon, my new usual cheery guy.
Lunch is leftover pasta fom last night, made by moi, with pesto, and reheated in my new microwave (thanks M!), while I read (Richard Bach's The Bridge Across Forever, one of my fav books ever), more kitchen puttering, washing mom's old kitchen cannisters, thinking about how I will use them....
My day so far in a nutshell. Felt sleepy, was going to take a nap, but thought I might write for a bit.
Now, perhaps, I will walk....

So, you think you want to be a bartender?

Well, I've often thought about it.

My most recent research took me to this great resource:

Bartending School: Should You Sign Up?

There are three sub articles that are worth a read.

I've been playing with the idea for about 10 years, ever since returning from Europe, I suppose as a portable way to supplement my income. Now I find myself pondering it again, and I figure it can't hurt to take the course. Nimble Bar here in Victoria has. 4 weekend couse coming up in April... maybe I'll just do it!

Reflections on #CLIMATEACTION

The above is my art, inspired by the youth - click to enlarge

From Friday night, on the bus (post global #climateaction strike in downtown Victoria):

Thanks to a work colleague, I clued into bus re-routing downtown. I got my bus 1 stop earlier, got a seat, and was able to relax as the bus navigated the modified route. The bus indeed got very full, so I was feeling rather gratelful.

Have been reflecting on the news stories of some schools not 'allowing' kids to protest. What a stupid move, and a missed opportunity.

Even I could design engaging lesson plans...  
Beginning with context, as in the history of protests and activism...

Before the protest... weighing the decision to go or not to go, what do you want to say on your sign, how to stay safe at a protest even...

Debriefing afterwards... are you glad you did/didn't go, what did you learn, who did you meet, what are you now inspired to do? 

Facilitating an open dialog throughput provides an opportunity to just process all the feelings about the environment (fear, sadness, frustration, hope, inspiration, etc). 

Youth are very troubled and, in addition to the need to be heard, they need forums to share. Adults ~ in this case teachers ~ have a responsibility to facilitate.

How rich of a learning opportunity this is.

Hopefully the school's taking this stance were few and far between.

It's been cool seeing kids on the bus, post-protest, with their signs. The power of social disobedience...

Regretfully, I haven't done much protesting myself. Worth reflecting on that.

Random Reflections during light therapy

Fordyce bathhouse in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
(found on Flickr, by kenlund, click image for more)

Just a few reflections as I start my winter ritual of light therapy....

• Picked that picture above before I realized it was in an American national park, all of which are shut down, due to the budget craziness south of the border (no, I haven't seen the bathhouse, didn't even know it existed, interesting)
• I find myself looking forward to light therapy this year... that's not always been the case, as it has meant the coming of winter (not my favourite season), but this year, I am looking forward to a return of reading. The craziness that was caregiving for a few years left me disconnected from reading, and being totally plugged in online now has made it hard to dig in deeply. I have always been an avid reader, so this has been a disorienting experience. This year, almost a year after my mom has gone into residential care, has me in a place where I can enjoy an old ritual in my life, reading in bed as I wake early for light therapy, to read, read, read...
• 'Our Man in Tehran' offers Canadian response to Argo - I enjoyed this interview on Q yesterday. I read the original account of the work of Ken Taylor and the Canadian government to hide and rescue the 6 American diplomats in Iran in 1979 (entitled, Our Man in Tehran), so it was good to hear more of the 'real' story getting media attention - and good news, there is a documentary coming
• B.C. athlete's Olympic dream hinges on fundraising campaign - was surprised, disappointed and inspired this morning to hear the story of Victoria-born athlete, Matt Margetts, having to turn to the public to get his basic costs covered to get to the Sochi Olympics. What happened to all that great Canadian funding for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the dreams it inspired? Sigh. Hope he finds a corporate sponsor. In the meantime, you can donate by following the link in the article (I did).
• I am thoroughly enjoying having split my content off to several other blogs - and appreciative of just having this space for moi :)

Spring is Here?

Well spring may be very slow coming here, but that hasn't stopped us from getting out when the sun does shine. Here's mom enjoying coffee on the fab deck my brother and crew built last fall. My, how mom loves the sun!
Celebrating a nice visit from Kat - my niece and mom's granddaughter - and her beau Jono. Nice to see Kat enjoying the deck that she worked so hard on with her dad. Kat graduates in less than a month from her accounting program, and already has a job landed for fall. You are looking at a future CA!

Had great fun yesterday. It was mom's turn to decide where we'd go for a drive, and she remembered a sweet cafe/bookstore in James Bay she used to go to, and we managed to find our way back there solely based on her recollections and directions. Yeah! We had great sandwiches, coffees and treats - and picked up a few books. I love helping her figuring these little jaunts out then making her ideas come to fruition.

Victoria has one of the longest running Victoria Day parades in the country (where we celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday), and biggest. Despite the fact that it started at 9am (!), we bundled ourselves up and got there. There were a LOT of marching bands, which mom particularly enjoyed, as she used to be a trombone player in such a band as a young woman.

Smiles after the parade.....

A recent special treat: dinner out at Theo's in Sidney. Big smiles from both of us for yummy Greek food!

We stopped by Fisherman's Wharf in Victoria a few weeks back, and I was dispensed down to the dock to get fish and chips for our lunch. While I was waiting I hung out with the seals.

Oh, what a cutie~

Imagine my surprise last week when I came home to find this in our driveway!!!!! WTF? I'll leave you to guess for a minute, and will tell the story at the end of this blog post. Hmmm......

Seriously odd tree in the 'hood here...

We live about a block from the ocean here and were surprised to find out cat Maui hanging out there when we went for a walk recently. OK, he might have followed us. But he prowls this little street and hood like a pro. Anyways, here he is enjoying mom's favourite view at the end of "Memory Lane". It was adorable watching him shadow us on the way home afterwards.

Surveying the garden from atop his new-to-us scratching post out on the deck. He doesn't sit up on here all that often, but he sure loves to scratch and bat the toys around...

Seriously cuteness overload!!!!!!

Life has been surprisingly busy lately, mostly as it relates to marketing my art - see updates on my beepdoodles blog.

OK, the trampoline story: one of the neighbors here had bought it for his daughter for a birthday present. So they asked mom if they could assemble and leave it in our driveway - and kept her home and occupied sometime so she wouldn't bike up the street. Then, after she went to bed, they came over and got it to create a backyard surprise for the next morning. Amusing. And all the other neighborhood kids were crazy with excitement and intrigue.... lol

High Tea at Butchart Gardens

On a recent November day, we headed off to Victoria's Butchart Gardens - now one of Canada's National Historic Sites - for High Tea.
This was a special occassion, as all four of us where there together. Here are mom and I after our repast, which is served in the Dining Room, in the original Butchart family residence.

My sister and brother and brother may look like they are sitting outside, but that's just a really clean window. Great views of the gardens from here.

For each type of tea we had at the table -- it was the only thing we had to choose -- comes with it's own teapot (we had 3 types between the 4 of us), and individual straining devices. The teas were truly lovely.

And the food, ooh la la!! High Tea is what is served here in the winter, and is more robust in it's hot foods than the Afternoon Tea served in the summer. And, how scrumptious! We began with to-die-for candied ginger scones, followed by hot delicacies (we each got a cornish pastie, quiche and vol-au-vent), then a selection of sandwiches and savouries (4 types, and 4 of each, tho there was some trading off for favourites!), and finally the sweets. Ooh la la indeed! All of this, including the tea, is served for $26.65/person.

My sister and I also ordered the Backyard Flight of 3 wines, modestly priced at $12.95. How decadent to sit there sitting champagne! If you go, keep in mind that you need to pay for admission to the gardens to get in. In our case, we were treated on this occassion by my brother, who was, in turn, invited to High Tea as guests of the owners, with whom he has recently done some work. Lucky us! But for the quality of the food, and service, and the environment, the High Tea was good value and I would definitely recommend it.

From our table, we could see this statue of Mercury in the gardens (above).... and the water of Tod Inlet beyond, near Brentwood Bay (below).

There were still lots of autumn colours in the gardens...

My sister took this awesome picture of this not-so-green greenery.

One of the chandaliers.... ... and some of the old stained glass windows in the building.We didn't spend a lot of time exploring the gardens further on this visit, but we all wanted to come back for more. My brother and sister hadn't been there before, and my mom and I were unable to remember how long ago it was that we had been there together (20 years?!?), so I am sure we will be back. People travel here from all over the world to visit the gardens, so living 20 minutes away in Sidney does make it a must see! Thanks bro :-)

Emily Carr, close to home

Source: virtualmuseum.ca

This is my favourite Emily Carr painting, it is in the collection at the Vancouver Art Gallery.


First thing this morning I was listening to CBC Radio 1's morning show in Victoria and they interviewed the curator at the Victoria Art Gallery about the new On the Edge of Nowhere permanent Emily Carr exhibition that opened this week. This is exciting news. The gallery used to have a small number of their Carr's in a rotating exhibit at the back of the building, but they listened to feedback: 3/4 of everyone entering the gallery asked, "where are the Emily Carr's?" So... they created a new space, by the front door of the gallery, and dedicated it to Carr's work. The gallery's entire collection - 42 pieces - is on display, spanning from her very early works to those at the end of her life. There is also a space for works on loan from other galleries - they are pleased with what's on loan to them right now, as apparently there aren't a lot of Carr's totem pole works in the permanent collection.



The story of On the Edge of Nowhere phrase was shared. This phrase is known to be attributed to Emily Carr, but most people think it means that she was a loner, when in fact she was just the opposite. She was a great networker in the Canadian art world. The phrase came from when she was turned down a major gallery - perhaps Canada's National Gallery ? - and she said something about "they wouldn't exhibit works from a woman living on the edge of nowhere"... lol



Anyways, after the interview, they had a pair of tickets available. All you had to do was email in the 2 countries where Emily Carr had studies. The good news is that they covered this in the interview. I knew she had studied in the US (I remember reading about her earliest studies in San Francisco), but I had forgotten she had studied in Paris as well. The good news about the Victoria morning show, over the Vancouver morning show, is that you have less competition for prizes! Just to help me out, I said that if I won, I'd take my 88 year old mom, who is a huge Emily Carr fan.... and it worked! We won the passes.



I told mom this morning, and she was equally excited.



Just now, evening, we were chatting about Emily Carr, and she mentions, as an aside, that she knew Emily Carr's sisters. Whoa, stop the presses! I did not know this!!! I love when we have time to have long chats, and something like this just comes out, by accident.

Now it was my turn to be excited.

It turns out that she not only knew the sisters, but she had actually met Emily Carr. Sweet!! Mom says she didn't "know" Emily, but she had met her. There was somewhere in Vancouver where Emily would take an old truck and paint, and people could walk by and see what she was doing, and talk to her.



She knew the sisters. When we spoke, she said there were 2 or 3 sisters, and at least one of them was a teacher.



She also said she knew another artist (or knew of?) who ended up with an Emily Carr painting on the ceiling of her house. I'm not sure if this was in Vancouver or Victoria...



Anyways, how cool it was to just find this out. I'm interested to find out if my sister knew about this. Maybe I knew it once and I forgot.... but maybe it just never came out before. I'll be sure to give her lots of time to talk about Emily Carr and will see what else we can stir up in her memory...

A day at the Gay Dog Walk

This morning's paper announced that there would be a Gay Dog Walk - to kick off Victoria's Gay Pride Week - so we packed up ourselves up into the car and headed down to Dallas Road. I managed to find a parking spot right next to the event, so mom was able to stay out of the pending rain and watch it all from the comfort of the car... while I got out and took pics.

This was the first dressed up cutie that looked up at me...

This doggie was not dressed up, but he had the most beautiful eyes....

This really was a BIIIIGGGG dog!

OK, this was a ferret, but I guess there was no ferret event... I hope he had fun.

This guy wore a purple bandana. Here he is getting a hug while getting a leash adjustment...

Never did get close to this, but we figured that it was doggies for adoption ;-)

Oh, heelllooo!!! Notice the matching colours of the dog's costumes and the owner's garb!

Everydoggie saying hello! Check out the backpack (you can click the pic to enlarge if you wish)...

Ready for sun.... and a good thing too, as the rain never came....

The parade part...

Hi you cutie! It really was a good dog's life today, these guys got lotsa love...

Managed to squeeze in and get a pic of these little princesses when they were being interviewed by a TV reporter...

Leaping through the hoop at the end of the doggie trick obstacle course route....

Tiny dancer! Or, should I say, tiny leaper?

Tiny leaper does the hoop!

This was the doggie wtih the awesome eyes. His owner had taught him a lot of cool tricks, which he loved to do. Got this one with him in the air.... and suddenly distracted by a baseball player dog going by during landing...

Sometimes all that is needed are some nice beads....

Coaxing a doggie into the tunnel at the start of the obstacle course....

A smart little scarf here....

My fav dressed up doggie of all....

Here's his rear profile with the full t-shirt message. The dog above is wearing a white halo, though it's a bit hard to see here.

It was a lot of fun all around...