This Will Always Be His Day

Happy Birthday to my beloved Gramps

who would have turned 90 today,

on Hallowe'en.

I miss you every single day.

xoxo

Celebrating Love

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Baby, got you on my mind!

21 years today and the good news is that I'd marry him all over again, in a heartbeat. Oh wait-I already did! My man's so nice I married him twice!

(We renewed our vows after 10 years, on my 30th birthday.)

I am a very lucky girl indeed. I know this every second of every day.

Happy Anniversary Honey! You're my everything. xox

The Harvest

It's another glorious autumn day on the west coast of Canada! I can't tell you how much I love this time of year. This morning, after we took Indy for a romp in the dog park, we went over to the local Farmer's Market to see what the harvest had brought.

I bought some baked goods from my favourite little bakery truck. Their treats are to die for! I picked up cinnatwists, apple strudel and soft pretzels. You have to get there early to have the best selection because they're quite popular. The guy who runs the truck (and I believe owns the bakery) is super nice.

We also picked up some carrots, onions, apples and pears. One thing I loved was that the farmers had cut up samples of the fruits so you could taste and see which varieties you'd like to have.The apples we got were so crisp, juicy and tangy. There's nothing better than freshly picked apples on an autumn day.

It's at this time of year when I have a deep appreciation for our local Canadian farmers. They are the unsung heroes of our dinner tables. Farming is a 24/7, 365 days a year job that's incredibly hard work. It makes me feel good to be able to buy local-I like knowing where my food comes from and it makes me happy to support them.

Post Cards To Myself

Things have been quiet in the studio the last couple of days. I find the natural ebb and flow of my creativity is that after I've done a big push to meet a deadline, I need time to recharge. When I first got into mixed media years ago, the down time would freak me out. I'd been worrying that I'd never have another creative idea pop into my head, which was just pain silly. As human beings, it's in our nature to be infinitely creative.

I think the important thing is have to have the awareness that we can't function at a high level of input all the time. If we are going to continue to draw from that part of ourselves, then we must also take time to fill the creative well back up again. Everyone does this in a different way. For me, it involves paging art books and magazines, reading blogs and tidying up my studio so it's ready for the next project. It also means doing things that have nothing to do with art-watching movies, communing with nature and spending time with my loved ones. Sometimes my brain needs a mini vacation from thinking about art.

I took this self portrait (pictured above) yesterday. I had the wild hair just to shoot in the hallway outside my studio. It was all very relaxed-I just set the timer, set the camera down and took my chances. When I saw this, I loved the softness of the light, the rug I was sitting on, the way my toes were propped up on the baseboard and the unusual angle.

I have started creating what I am calling the "Postcards to Myself" series. These images capture the micro moments of my day to day existance which I think of as brief moments of quiet and reflection in what is otherwise a very busy, get-stuff-done-and-cross-it-off-the-list life.

At some point, I plan to have the postcards printed. I like the idea of having a collection of these moments that can remind me what's important. Self portraits allow me to see myself from a different vantage point. It's interesting to be on the outside looking in.

Winter Inspiration

Before long, the wet, grey dull of winter will be arriving on the west coast. It can make it hard to feel motivated and inspired to get out and shoot photos. (Especially if you have a new camera and don't want to ruin it!) However, the brilliant Vivienne, who also lives here and knows about wet grey winters has come up with a class specifically addressing these sorts of things....

Yes, there's a new Light Hunters class, Getting Through the Grey! I just signed up because I know if I am taking the class, I will be inspired to keep shooting. I started this whole photography journey back in late January and now I am determined to keep working through to the one year mark. It will be the first time ever that I've documented an entire year of my life in photographs.

The other day when I was out shooting in Chinatown, as I was snapping away, I'd think "Here I am shooting the light, like I learned in Light Hunters." or "This is another self portrait which I learned to do in Wading In." or "I can combine those textures with what I learned in Swan Dive." It's been really wonderful to have so many new skills at my disposal. I used them to create the 26 pieces I submitted for the photo collaborative project I was growling about the other day. While the assembly may have been frustrating and difficult, the actual image creation was painless. I am really excited to have used those new skills in a project and have the result go out into the world.

If you're looking to make the long winter months more interesting, the link button to register for Getting Through the Grey is on my sidebar. The class starts at the beginning of December and runs through to the end of February.

Hope to see you there!

Hidden in Plain Sight

So I promised to share with you something both weird and interesting that Carol and I happened upon yesterday.

On the edge of Chinatown, adjacent to the railway, in an area which was known back in the day as Hogan's Alley (and which up until yesterday I didn't know existed) there is this little red building (street address 207 1/2 Union Street-another quirky half address!) with a small fenced in yard. Handmade signs plastered everywhere around it proclaim it to be the "Jimi Hendrix Shrine".

In the small fenced in yard are some white handmade boxes with baskets of plastic flowers on top, each in honour of members of the Hendrix family in front of what looks to be a tiny stage surrounded by curtains. It's pretty odd.

There is also this doorbell with a sign that reads "Experience Button Press and Hold". Carol and I stood there trying to figure out what pushing the button might do. Activate lights? Or music? Or summon someone from inside? We had no idea, but we decided we most certainly did not want to summon anyone early on a Sunday morning-that was not an experience we wanted. Eventually Carol bit the bullet and pushed the button, as we held our breath.....and nothing happened. The only "experience" we got was utter confusion. It remains a mystery what that button is supposed to do.

In the window were little snippets of information. This one states that Jimi would visit his grandmother here in Vancouver and sometimes live with her. This building was an old restaurant where his grandmother worked as a cook. The info claims that music greats like Elle Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Lena Horne would come here for fried chicken.

See? Jimi as a kid. The windows were dark with curtains, so we couldn't see what was inside.

When we walked around the corner, we discovered that the shrine is only open afternoons in the summer. Of course, me being me, I poked around on the Internet and found this video of the place.

The part of this that is interesting to me is that Hogan's Alley was the black neighbourhood in Vancouver. The black community settled there, as sleeping car porters at that time were predominantly black men.  It was home to the only black church in Vancouver at the time, the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel.  I found a photo of how Hogan's Ally looked back 1958 in the City of Vancouver archives.

In 1970, the community was destroyed by the building of the Georgia Viaduct, which was phase one of interurban freeway which was also intended to wipe out Chinatown and Gastown as well. Community activists and Chinatown businesspeople protested and the second phase of the project was blocked, but not before Hogan's Alley was lost.

If you go to this page and click on the map sections marked in colour, you can get a sense of what the old neighbourhood looked like-the city documented the properties that made way for the viaduct. (207 1/2 Union Street is not listed among these, as it still exists.) It's a crying shame that these beautiful buildings were lost. I am glad the city decided that Chinatown was worth protecting and declared it a heritage site last week.

You just never know what you're going to find in this city, hidden in plain sight. What started out as a photo date with a friend turned into a history lesson for me and all because of a weird little shrine to Jimi Hendrix.

Live and learn people, live and learn!

Photo Date: Chinatown

My friend Carol and I went on another photo date today in Chinatown. I think we could visit it fairly often and always find something interesting to photograph. Like this Chinese lion, for example. I didn't even see a few weeks ago when I was there. There are a few streets I obviously missed the first time.

I found another cool door to add to my collection. This one has a "1/2" address. Apparently this was not uncommon years ago, before the city cracked down on the proper numbering of buildings. I am assuming that any of them still marked like this were grandfathered in. Chinatown was established in 1887 and was declared a heritage site just last week. It's definitely a unique area of our city and deserves to be preserved, not only as an important cultural community, but for the beautiful architecture as well.

Carol and I also wandered through Livingston Park. We were drawn there by the riot of colour we could see from a distance. As evidenced by this photo, Autumn is in full swing here on the west coast of Canada. It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend. We ended up over at Granville Island to meet up with my husband and Indy for lunch al fresco. It was the perfect way to wrap up such a wonderful day.

Tomorrow I will tell you about what else Carol and I discovered today. It's weird...and kind of interesting.

How It Is

Way back at the beginning of the year, I signed on for a couple of photo collaborative projects. The two I was interested in weren't happening till the end of the year-one in October and in late December.

The theme of the one that's due at the end of this month is Portals and Gateways. I love old doors, so I really wanted to do this one. The thing is, I had no idea it was going to turn out to be as much work as it was.

So the idea is that each person makes 26 pages, using a 5x7 photo of a door. I shot this one a couple weeks ago, in Chinatown. I love this door. I love the chipping red paint of the walls that flank it, I love the creepy metal grate over the window and most of all, I love the style of the numbers.

 The door is cut to open, the back of the door covered with paper, so you're not looking at a blank white space. Behind the door is another photo, with a quote pertaining to the theme.

I chose to use a layered photo I made from two images also shot in Chinatown-the graffiti number 32 I found in an back lane and a pair of runners tossed over a wire in another back lane.

The quote reads:

"The story of my life is about back doors, side entrances and secret elevators."

It seemed perfect for this project.

On the back we were supposed to put one more image with our contact info. I chose a second door I shot that day in Chinatown. This image has be altered. To the right of the door was (in reality) a window, which made the whole image look off kilter and not very pretty. I finessed it by cloning the brick on the left hand side and putting it up in place of the window. You'd never guess that this isn't how the building really looks in real life, would you? I'm becoming my own architect through the magic of digital editing! All three of these images were work I did in Swan Dive. I've got mad skillz now!

Anyway, it all seems simple enough, except that in order to fabricate 26 of these 5x7 pieces, it required an insane amount of careful cutting, gluing, double sided taping and meticulous matching up of edges. Challenging for anyone, but ridiculously so for me.

You see my hands have deteriorated once again, due to nerve damage in my spinal cord from MS, so doing anything that requires fine motor skills has become extremely difficult once more. It's been hard for a long time now, by by and large since I first lost feeling in my hands 4 years ago, my brain has adapted to the changes. Now, with what seems to be fresh damage, I feel like I am back at square one again.

Yesterday night, I sat for hours applying double sided tape and then trying to find the edges of the paper to peel it off. Then I had to ever-so-carefully line everything up and stick it down. It took forever and it became the project that almost broke me. It was NOT fun. It was like torture and I could not wait to be done. I sat here verging on tears and madness. Imagine trying to peel double sided tape with oven mitts on and you get some vague idea how frustrating it was.

In any case, because I am me and giving up is not in my DNA, I grit my teeth and by sheer force of will, got the job done. I sent them off this afternoon. I'm hoping the payoff is worth it.

Some people do art as a passtime, then there are the diehards.

I may be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.

Cranberryfest 2011

Hello again! Well, another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. It was pretty busy! Saturday, my husband, Indy and I went to Fort Langley's annual Cranberryfest. This is my 5th year and I think that judging from the crush of people present, folks have finally caught on that the best little Autumn festival is happening there. Seriously, I have never seen so many people in attendance! I think it helped that the weather was perfect too.

We had a wonderful brekki-pancakes, cranberry sausage, breakfast sausage, juice and coffee for $5-can't beat that! The sausages, which were made by Freybe were so yummy! One of the cooks even gave us a spare sausage (for free!) for Indy. Indy was super happy about that!

After brekki, we toured around town looking at all the vendor's booths. Everyone comes from far and wide to get fresh cranberries for their holiday dinners. Langley is one of the largest exporters of cranberries in the world. A couple years ago, I actually took a tour of the bogs. It's incredible to see acres and acres of land turned scarlet with berries. These guys were scooping and filling bags for sale just as fast as they could. The lines were 10 people deep!

These are the sweet ladies who have a booth in front of the little white church every year. They have buckets galore filled with dahlias. You can pick 6 stems for $5. There are florists who have vendor's booths at the festival, but I always hike up the street to the church to buy my Thanksgiving bouquet. I'd much rather give my money to these to gals. They are just so lovely and their flowers are gorgeous. I love dahlias and they looked very cheery on our dinner table.

All around town are these huge pumpkins. I couldn't resist snapping pics to play with when I got home. I love how this one turned out. The pumpkins are really big and they bring them in on skiffs because they are so heavy. They have to move them with a forklift.

I also came across these gorgeous mushrooms, which were waiting for me like a gift, just as I stepped out of the car. They are 100% real, I promise you! This is the season when you see them and these ones were huge! You can't tell their scale from this photo, but they stood 7 inches high and the caps were as big as my palm.The only other time I've seen them this large was hiking the wilds of BC last autumn on Vancouver Island. I love photographing them.

In case you missed it the other day, Manual Dexterity #3 is now available. It's chock full of Autumn and Hallowe'en art, inspiration & goodies! There is also the second mini house zine in the Rue du Maison series, which I had so much fun making.You can find these two zines (and more!) here.

THEY'RE HERE!!

Yes, I've finally finished the long-awaited 3rd issues of Manual Dexterity! Just this minute, in fact. If you want to get a sneak peek at what's inside or to purchase a limited edition copy for your very own, please visit the Tattered Edge Mercantile.

This jam-packed issue celebrates my favourite season, Autumn and has a touch of Hallowe'en for good measure. There are tutorials, articles, inclusions, (which means goodies for you!) art, photography and a whole lot more!

And in case you missed it last week, there's also a brand new Rue du Maison mini house zine (the second in the series) in my shop.

No rest for the wicked-today is our Thanksgiving celebration, so now I have to go put a bird in the oven. Nothing like multitasking!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Canadian Thanksgiving

Copyright Lelainia Lloyd/Tattered Edge 2011

This weekend is one of my most favourite of the whole year:

it's Thanksgiving!

It's going to be a busy weekend, as we observe our family's holiday traditions and I work to print and assemble the 3rd issue of Manual Dexterity. It's going to be a bit of a whirlwind!

Amidst all the holiday goodness, I am also acutely aware of all the things I have to be grateful for in my life:

-The love of a good man

-The love of a good dog. *grins*

-Our son who makes me laugh

-Work that feeds my soul

-The opportunity to learn new things

-Friends far and wide who make my life better simply by being in it

-Opportunities to make a difference on other people's lives

-Laughter

and so much more.

It's become a tradition here on my blog for me to post this harvest prayer. It's a personal favourite of mine because it pretty much sums up my life's philosophy and its message is timeless.

Harvest Prayer

(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others.

We are all children of chance,

And none can say why some fields blossom

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.

Take hope that your season will come.

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.

Care for those around you.

Look past your differences.

Their dreams are no less than yours,

Their choices in life no more easily made.

And give.

Give in any way you can.

Give in every way you can.

Give whatever you possess.

Give from your heart.

To give is to love.

To withhold is to wither.

Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared,

And your life will have meaning

And your heart will have peace.

 

***

 

To my fellow Canadians, whether at home or abroad, I wish you a beautiful harvest celebration with your family and friends and a safe journey if you are travelling this weekend.

Magic Mailbox: Hallowe'en Petite Inspiration Swap

Last month I signed up for the Petite Inspiration Box: Hallowe'en exchange. I was assigned two partners and so I made two boxes to send out, which I shared a couple of posts ago. This week, the magic mailbox delivered the two boxes my partners sent. (Apologies for the darkness of the photos-I took them last night and the studio was gloomy in the evening with the rain.)

Jamie Vowell sent me this yummy book bundle along with her box, which is in the foreground with the vintage doily on top. The book bundle was so pretty I almost didn't want to untie it!

This pretty card was inside the parcel. Jamie lives in Bozeman, Montana. I just love Montana-it's so beautiful and the people are incredibly nice. I've vacationed there a fair bit and it's one of my all-time favourite states.

These were the goodies tucked into the matchbox. Acorns (real ones!), mini pumpkins, silk ribbon, a teeny silver shaker (adorable!), buckles, glass stoppers, string on an old spool, paper inchies, trims, a skull bead...fun stuff!

Inside the book bundle was a selection of fabric pieces and more trims. I LOVE this piece. It's got a circular embroidered pattern to it and it's tea stained. I am so taken with it and I think I am going to make an ROD journal cover with it. I think it should stay in the largest piece possible to be used and it's perfect for a cover. I have a hand crocheted lace snowflake another friend gave me that her grandma made which I think would look cool sewn in top of this. Yes, I have plans!

My second partner was Diane Bouchard who sent me this fantastical crow box. Isn't it cool? She even made a crown for it!

It always amazes me how much you can pack into the wee drawer!

 

Ephemera, stamped fabric swatches, wee boxes of trinkets, a ceramic doll arm, trims, a vial of googly eyes, stickers, metal bits...

In addition to the box, Diane also sent extras: a container of spider putty (which reminds me of "slime" which was the "in" thing when I was a kid) which I WILL be playing with! Tons of cool trims and a bag full of ephemera.

I am so thrilled with everything they sent and blown away by their generosity. Thanks Ladies for spoiling me! I know that all these wonderful things will find their way into my various art projects!

Swan Dive Wrap Up

1. Ladybug, 2. Rise Up, 3. Apparition, 4. Twilight, 5. In This Moment, 6. Picket Fence, 7. Broken Mirror, 8. rebel, 9. Once, 10. Autumn Afternoon, 11. Song of the Sea, 12. Perspective, 13. Alone With Yourself, 14. Urban landscape, 15. 1000 fishes, 16. By My Hand, 17. Heart of Winter, 18. Indiana Jones, 19. Meditation, 20. The Vigil

Hello! Hello! I have meant to write a wrap-up post about Swan Dive for a few days now. That got sidelined for a couple days as I was suffering (the operative word being suffering) from silent migraines for a couple days. They seem to have settled down today, so here I am.

Anyway, Swan Dive wrapped up about a week ago. I feel like I learned so much about post processing in this class. I had no idea all the wonderful ways I could manipulate my photos to make them into something special. It's like equivalent of mixed media but in digital form.

At the beginning of class, I felt a bit of a pull towards being a purist (meaning I felt like a good photo should speak for itself, with very little editing except for perhaps cropping and colour correction) but I felt that in order to get the most out of this class, I needed to push past that. Fortunately, by the second week, I began to see the merit of experimenting. As the weeks wore on, I became a convert. The potential to be creative and to transform images, using the same aesthetic I use for mixed media work was what got me hooked. I realized that my creative voice translates well to this medium.

As I've said before, I am continually surprising myself. I feel like this is the year I've grown the most as an artist. I feel like I've really immersed myself in taking risks, putting myself out there and making an effort to capture and create work that really reflects who I am and what I love. The pay off for showing up for myself and doing the work has been huge-it's been so deeply satisfying.

The images I've share in the mosaic above are almost all the ones I created in this class. (There were alot and not all would fit!) If you want to see them larger, just click on the photo names to see the originals. 

Vivienne just sent out her newsletter and there's a new Light Hunters: Getting Through the Grey starting in early December. Here's the scoop:

"A second Light Hunters adventure is running this winter, called Light Hunters: Getting through the Grey which is inspired by my pacific northwest rainy winters!  Each Monday for the months of December, January and February you will find an inspiring post in your inbox packed full of inspiration and learning to keep you creating and taking photographs in a season when you might normally find yourself feeling uninspired."

 Winters on the west coast of Canada are typically wet and grey which is good if you're a duck, but not so good if you're wanting to get out and shoot. (Photos, that is, not ducks!) I am going to sign up for Getting Through the Grey. It looks like I will be ending this year the way it begun-learning, growing, documenting and creating. Sounds good to me!

Zines A-Plenty!

 I've been quiet the last few days because I've been working on finishing zines! Yes, I've finally completed 71 Rue du Maison, the second in a series of limited edition mini house zines!

 12 full colour pages of artsy goodness!

 Each zine is lovingly (and painstakingly) made by me, using my own original design.

They are available in the Tattered Edge Mercantile right now! If you missed the first zine in this series, 78 Rue du Maison, and want to collect the whole set, I still have a couple copies left, but once they're gone, they're gone!

Now the really exciting part: in addition to finishing these mini house zines, I am also in the home stretch of completing issue #3 of Manual Dexterity! Yes, it's true! By this time next week, I should be posting that they are available for purchase! WOOHOO!!

If you'd like to order both new zines at the same time, just message me through Etsy and I will set a copy of 71 Rue du Maison aside for you until copies of Manual Dexterity are ready.

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting this small press adventure. It's so happy-making to be able to self-publish and have people embrace it!

 In other zine related news, got an email recently asking if I would be willing to donate copies of my zines to be a part of a brand new zine library at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. Copies of everything I've made so far are winging their way to Missouri right now. The university has a FB page as well as a blog. If you're a zine maker and would like to donate your zines to the library, you can get in touch via either of these links. Tell Jenn I sent ya!