A few photos taken last week when it was sunny, warm, and felt like spring was about to begin.
Category: Good things
Inspiration and Recovery
The first few weeks of 2013 have been one of the most frustratingly unproductive time periods of my life (to date) all because I can’t seem to get over this flu bug. It’s been all over the news this past week that the current flu virus is the worst in years (or maybe ever). I definitely agree.
The best cure for it is drinking plenty of fluids and rest, but I’ve grown tired of resting, and think longingly of all the projects I haven’t had the energy or focus to get working on. I’m frustrated with this situation, but there isn’t really anything I can do, except take care of myself.
Until I return to normal levels of productivity, here are a few things I’ve found inspiring:
These amazing stained glass windows made from laser cut paper by Eric Standley
Paper Tesselations by Kota Hiratsuka
An article called, “Playing Video Games on Hard“, which is more an approach to life than it is about video games.
I could always use more inspiration, so if there’s something blowing your mind at the moment, please share.
2012: A Year End Review in Twelve Photos
I went through and chose one photo from each month of 2012. It was definitely the year of cutting paper, and creating commissions. Both were surprising new directions for me, and I hope they continue on into 2013.
The saddest part of pulling together these photos was the reminder that Yuuki is gone.
Ten Good Things From the Weekend
I used to write blog posts rounding up ten good things from the past week or weekend, but I somehow lost the habit of it. Thanksgiving is an appropriate time to remind myself of all the things I have to be grateful for, so I thought I’d share ten good things from the weekend.
1. Having a long conversation with my sister and Bogey over Facetime.
2. Catching up with my friend Hendrik on Friday evening and having a delicious meal together at Sardine Can on Water Street. It was SO GOOD!
3. Enjoying a much needed day off on Friday. I spent most of it wandering the city, enjoying the sunshine.
4. Shopping at the Trout Lake Farmers market on Saturday morning and running into friends.
5. Meeting Mark and Andrea’s new puppy Pepper. He’s a cutie.
6. Walking most of the Stanley Park seawall on Sunday morning with Boris, and enjoying the fresh ocean breezes.
7. Enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving meal hosted at James and Monique’s place. I contributed a rhubarb meringue cake to the meal.
8. Spending a quiet Saturday evening at home, and starting to make a paper-based Halloween costume for Boris.
9. Making Trinidad-style roti for the second time, and having it turn out brilliantly.
10. Enjoying a full weekend that was all about sharing good food with great friends.
A Visit to Seattle
My birthday was two weeks ago and to celebrate Boris and I decided to get out of town and visit Seattle. We are lucky to have friends there we can stay with, one of whom was celebrating her birthday on the same day.
I really love Seattle. It’s an interesting city with plenty of the things I enjoy – art galleries, shopping, culture, delicious food, and good people. Our recent visit was the first one in awhile where we had no agenda and could just make things up as we went along. I loved it.
Bosco and me. He’s a tiny lap dog in a large leggy body.
We visited the Woodland Park Zoo on our first day in town. I normally dislike zoos because they can be depressing places filled with unhappy animals but I was inspired by a Radiolab podcast segment mentioning the Woodland Park Zoo. This zoo was one of the first to create more realistic and stimulating environments for the animals.
It was an inspiring experience. I got to watch keepers fly four different types of raptors, penguins swimming at eye-level, a huge Komodo Dragon, lions having sex, hippos in a pool, and feed a cheeky little bird on a stick.
The antique carousel at the Woodland Park Zoo.
I was enjoying being a tourist while we were in Seattle. It was a chance to visit places I hadn’t been before but also revisit a few spots I hadn’t been to for years, like the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park.
Also the Olympic Sculpture Park where I came across the spectacular mural by Sandra Cinto, which I mentioned previously.
These wildflowers were everywhere in the sculpture park.
On our last full day in Seattle we mostly relaxed with our friends instead of going exploring. We did a walk through Seward Park and sat on a bit of grass overlooking Lake Washington and enjoyed this lovely view.
Not pictured here, all the delicious food we ate, both at our friend’s place and in restaurants. I like to eat but I don’t care to photograph it.
Saying Goodbye Is Never Easy
My sweet little lovebird, Yuuki, died at the end of last week. His health had been declining over the past few months and though he seemed to be recovering from a recent stroke, on Friday morning things suddenly took a turn for the worse. He suffered a series of seizures that took his life. I was home at the time, a bit of timing for which I am extremely grateful, and I held him as his tiny life ebbed away.
I am deeply saddened by this loss because though Yuuki was just a small bird he’s been a big part of me for the past ten years. He came into my life as a shy and skittish ten week old who was terrified of people, especially their hands. He was a green peach-faced lovebird at the time, and through some form of magic eventually changed his colour to bright yellow. As he grew older it was beautiful to see him develop a much bolder, cheekier, and goofier personality, but always with a sweet temperament.
Yuuki made the move from Ontario to Vancouver with me, tucked into a small travel cage as we flew across the country. (His longest flight ever!) He made it feel more like home while I adjusted to life in a new place, and we were never far apart in my series of tiny apartments.
He loved to stand on people’s heads (especially mine) because it was the best way to be social and have a good view of the action. He loved splashing in water and would make do with the tiniest drinking glass if he could stick his head into it. Yuuki was completely obsessed with the fish bowl when we had goldfish and would perch on the edge drinking and splashing in the water oblivious to the fish.
After Boris and I moved in together we had the habit of allowing Yuuki to hang out at the table with us during meals. He would inspect the plates for imaginary crumbs, and sometimes attempt to bathe in our mugs of coffee and tea. He was always very bossy with Boris, biting at his hand and reminding him of his status of low bird in the flock.
As Yuuki’s health declined his colour began to change from yellow to red, which was an indication of issues with his liver. He also lost the ability to fly, and after the stroke he became really uncoordinated with his footing. He wasn’t the same independent little bird anymore, and wanted to sit and cuddle into my neck or be held constantly. I hated seeing him this way and though his loss is devastating, I’m glad he didn’t have go on like this indefinitely.
Boris helped me bury Yuuki in a lovely spot in the back garden of Anne and Horst’s place on Bowen Island. I couldn’t imagine leaving him anywhere else but there.
There are many people who met Yuuki over the years, or became familiar with him through Flickr and Instagram. I would love to hear from you if you have a special memory or funny story about Yuuki. It would be a small comfort as I continue to grieve.
Yuuki Visits the Hospital
The Canada Day long weekend began in a less than promising fashion when I had to rush Yuuki to the bird hospital on Friday morning. As soon as I uncovered his cage I could tell he wasn’t functioning properly, and he appeared to be experiencing what I interpreted as a seizure. I packed him up and took him across town to the Night Owl Bird Hospital where they took him in straight away for an assessment.
It appears the little guy had a stroke, and was experiencing an irregular heart beat as well as liver problems. The doctor felt he would recover and wanted to keep him over night. I really feared the worst and kept dreading a call saying he’d passed away.
This is Yuuki on Friday afternoon a few hours after he arrived at the hospital. He was very sleepy and out of it.
Twenty-four hours later I visited him at the hospital again and he was much more his usual lively self. The doctor decided to keep him for observation and treatment until Tuesday, just to make sure he’d be alright.
It was a relief to bring him home yesterday. He’s doing better, though I have to keep him in an enclosure that restricts his movements and he has many medicines to take throughout the day.
I’ve been calling him “old man Yuuki” for the last while and now he really seems like an elderly gentleman with these health problems. I have no idea how much longer he’ll be around, but I plan to appreciate him while he’s here. That’s all you can ever do with someone you love.
Turning Thinking Into Doing
So far 2012 is shaping up to be the year of turning thinking into doing. You know how it is, there are all these intentions and ideas in your head, and you never quite get around to them. For me this is completely focused around art, and all the things I’ve been thinking about for ages and not getting around to are ones that could contribute to my development as an artist.
In the past month there are three of these intentions I’ve taken off my list and transformed into reality. The first was to begin hosting an evening of art making with a small group of fellow artists. It was a terrific evening of good conversation, productivity, and sharing of art – exactly what I’d hoped for. I can hardly wait for the next Artist evening…
The second intention/idea I was happy to finally get around to was to launch my very own artist interview series. This was an item I’d written down on a list of goals for last year. It was the series of Food Advocate profile interviews I started for the Foodtree blog that got me going. I was impressed by the level of information people were willing to share about food that encouraged me to finally bring this idea to life and reach out to artists. You can read the first interview here.
This week marked the beginnings of getting started on a third goal that has been languishing away on a to do list, which is to establish a mentor relationship with a more experienced artist. Until recently I wasn’t really sure who to approach about this, especially knowing there isn’t another artist doing work similar to mine in Vancouver. But I realized this wasn’t a detail I should get hung up on, and came up with someone I wanted to reach out to. Yesterday I met with M.A.Tateishi, a mixed media artist I admire, and we discussed this idea of having her become my mentor. It was a really good conversation, and I look forward to her input and guidance as we trial this relationship over the next three months.
It feels very satisfying to get these long held thoughts into a forward motion. Now I just need to keep up the momentum…
2011: A Year End Review in Twelve Photos
One photo chosen from each month of 2011 – excluding ones of artwork. Doing this made me realise how little I’ve been using Flickr this year, and how much I use Instagram. I’ve also come to rely on my iPhone as a primary camera rather than my DSLR.
It was a year filled with lovely moments, which these photos only hint at.
Here’s to a good year in 2012!
Paper Inspiration: Amazing Pop-Up Paper Sculptures
I’m in pre-Christmas chill out mode, and so was catching up on blog reading when I came across this video. These large-scale pop-up sculptures are really incredible.
Perhaps I need to revisit paper engineering in the new year.