Wishing You Deep Peace

Deep peace of the running water to you,

Deep peace of the flowing air to you,

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,

Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

Stars and moon pour their healing light on you,

Deep peace of the light of the world to you.


A Gaelic Blessing

Thanks so much everyone for a wonder filled year, for the meeting of new friends, for joining me on the journey, for making me use spell check, which you may of noticed but have been far to polite to mention, I sometimes forget to use, for leaving comments, for making me laugh and think, for expanding my world in ways I never dreamed, and especially a huge thanks for providing a place for my work. So 

here is a toast to you all, with all best wishes for 2012.

Fun With Christmas Lights

The sofa beckons but I am resisting; only because I have found a new way to play. Think I will call these Drawing With Lights. Should I warn you that you could be seeing a lot of these? I'll try and restrain myself.

Drawing with Light 4,

Drawing with light 2

Feet up and contemplating

It's over for another year.  And while I love seeing family and friends I find Christmas exhausting, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Perhaps my favourite time is when it is all over, everyone has gone home, the house is still clean or as clean as it can be with Zoe, the fridge still jammed full with lovely bits that we have been given, and John and I put our feet up on the coffee table and contemplate which book out of the pile of goodies we received we will start to read. Bliss.

Feet up and contemplating which book.

Listen:

"There was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honour. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I 'A feather on the breath of God'."

That is how one of the most remarkable creative personalities of the Middle Ages describes herself. Hildegard of Bingen has been one of my heroines for years and when I found this feather on the floor of the hall the other day I thought of this sublime music. I  had used this music in a sound-scape I created for a show many years ago.  Here is a link to just the music [link] and  to the sound-scape The Sweetness of Truth the Body Reveals  [link]. You will need to scroll down the page to find it . Below are the words in Latin and the English translation. Perfect words for any time of the year, but especially resonant now. 

Caritas abundat in omnia, de imis excellentissima super sidera, atque amantissima in omnia, quia summo Regi osculum pacis dedit.

"Love lives in everything, from the deepest depths to the highest stars, and she is the most charming of all, because she has given the highest King the kiss of peace."

A feather for  Hildegard of Bingen

Light Retourning

We've made it. The shortest day of the year. Tomorrow the light stays longer; small wonder we celebrate. John and I put our tree up Saturday and like most, checked the lights before they went on and preceded to decorate the tree. Well actually its' branches and they are a bit fiddly to decorate. Then we did the one for the kitchen. Congratulating ourselves, we noticed that the living room tree didn't seem quite as bright. One strand of lights had gone out, but with some gentle shaking they decided to work again. The next night we noticed it was getting darker in the living room. Two strands out and no amount of shaking, and a few broken balls, was turning them back on. On to plan B. Buy more lights, but I have to admit I hate the LED's and want my old fashioned tiny white, electricity sucking lights. Sir Galahad to the rescue, he finds 4 BIG boxes of them and so the challenge today was to take out the old ones and replace with the new. Easier said than done. However we are now alight and looking very fine. Happy Solstice everyone.

Christmas light reflected on fridge door

The Most Beautiful Sunrise

O.K. maybe a slight exaggeration but it was a beauty. Only a couple more days to the solstice. The light is so far south, the sun rising after 7 am, and with last nights' cold and a dusting of snow we watched the wonder unfold. Rubies, amethysts and emeralds sparkled in the snow. Feathery hoar frost coated the trees. The sun came up in all her glory. When I ventured out I found the frost had also made the most beautiful patterns on the pond.

Sunrise, Dec 18, 2011

Frost on pond Dec 18, 2011

Needs

Ordinary Light

The snow has stayed on the ground these last few days and the sun has shone making the light inside the house quite wondrous. There is a window on the back wall of the kitchen that we call the moon window, and because the light is so horizontal at this time of year, it shines in casting the most glorious light and shadow. It stopped me in my tracks yesterday morning. Later, when when I got out of the shower, light was illuminating the facet. I began to pay attention to the unexpected places that the light was finding. It also highlighted all the dust, but that's a job for another day.

Light and shadow from the moon window

Light under the facet

Light under my studio speakers

Temporary Alphabet or A Time-Based Alphabet

This alphabet continues to elude me. Every time I think I have it, it's somewhere else. Maybe I need to tie string to it. Yesterday I decided I was taking the whole thing way to seriously and decided to play. Take a roll of paper, staple it to the wall, add a container of joint filler, and a paint scrapper and let's see what happens. The letters only lasted a few moments as I kept smoothing over the surface before writing the next letter; and I only forgot one letter, which I faked for the photo below. Next time I will use heavier paper and if I am really smart use a gessoed board so I can really move into the surface; the wet joint filler and my use of the paint scrapper ripped the paper several times. Oh well, just smooth that into the whole.

The Temporary Alphabet

Christmas Cards

One of my rituals is to make our Christmas cards every year, and even with the event of email, Face book and all the rest of the virtual world I still want to keep in touch with friends that we never get a chance to see, but still are a part of our lives. I make them and John writes the notes or letters to that keep us connected. It's all very satisfying except when you realize it's Dec 8th and they need to get made, printed, written and in the mail. Thank god for Ah ha moments [ don't know how that should be spelled and can't find it in the dictionary]. So here is this years. I think you need to hold your phone up to the code and it will tell you what it means. Which in this case says  Everybody wake up! Open your eyes! Stand up! Be children of the light, strong, swift and sure of foot. Hurry, clouds from the four quarters of the universe. Come, big snows that water will be abundant this summer. All hearts be glad. Love Liz and John. The words are from a Pueblo Song. Love this grid. Wonder if will read if I print it in red.

The Montreal Massacre, December 6,1989

About 4 pm, December 6, 1989 a lone man carrying a semi-automatic rifle and a knife, walked into the Ecole polytechnique [an engineering school, part of the University of Montreal] and into the classrooms. He separated the men from the women, telling the men to leave and shooting the remaining women before moving on to the next class room, and the next. At the end of the rampage 14 women were dead, 14 were injured. Collectively we were in shock and as the years passed a group of committed people helped to form Canada's gun registry, now under attack by a misguided conservative government. This anniversary day always brings up a lot of mixed emotions, rage that the gun laws seen to be going the way of the dodo although police chiefs across Canada praise it, sadness that women in the world still hold little value, cynicism that much will change, hope that it will. But really what's important to me today is that we remember their names and the vows we made to them to keep on with the struggle. To help create a society, a country, a world that will not tolerate the discrimination and abuse of women.

In Memory of 

Geneviève Bergeron

Hélène Colgan

Nathalie Croteau

Barbara Daigneault

Anne-Marie Edward

Maud Haviernick

Barbara Marie Klueznick

Maryse Laganière

Maryse Leclair

Anne- Marie Lemay

Sonia Pelletier

Michèle Richard

Annie St-Arneault

 Annie Turcotte

Stone Circle on my studio floor

Quiet Light

For the past month we have been experiencing the most beautiful light. Sharply angled and illuminating forgotten corners of our world. This is usually a gray time, the withdrawal walk towards winter; not this year. Yesterday morning we had our breakfast coffee out side, bundled up, the sun almost as far south as it goes. Not quite 3 weeks to the solstice, my favourite day of the year. "Ah," I say," done it," as I eagerly count the increasing minutes of daylight. So, if you are living in a dark place where the sun sets at 4 pm, this light is especially for you.

More Paper Shots

I can't believe I wrote that title. Yesterday I got a friend to use his nail gun on a book block to try and do my alphabet. We used finishing nail. Not pretty. What the title is referring to is my latest love affair which I am being most indiscreet about. Last year a friend moved into a new house and while she was waiting for the curtains to be installed, she covered the windows with white paper. Needless to say I was over there with my camera. Couldn't believe the soft, diffused light. Think we should call this decorating tip Minimal Curtains.