Creative process

Tonight I happened upon a project that has been in the back of my mind for a few years now: updating my website. My husband and I designed it in 2005, and it is sorely out of date.

One reason I have put it off this long is that every time I start to think through the process of updating it, I am inspired to paint, so I end up painting and don’t get back to the task at hand. The same thing occurred this time: I chose a website design, which led me to think I should paint some new pieces to put on the gallery. In the meantime, I decided to just take down the old website until the new one is ready. But to do that, I want to design something to say my website is under construction…

The next thing I knew my hands were caked in acrylic medium, I started a new painting and did a small found-paper collage. I thought of all kinds of ideas, including a concept for a new series.

All this to say that I am excited to announce that coming soon, I will be taking down my website to replace it with a coming soon image…and hopefully coming soon will be a new website. And if not, at least I will be doing a lot more painting, and after all, isn’t that what it’s all about?

Our new garden

Building a raised bed

Some of you may remember that last summer we started a .25 acre garden, which my husband was hoping to develop into a CSA garden box program (community supported agriculture). The land we were using was about a 5-10 minute drive away, and after some backbreaking labour tilling it up and planting some food in the fall, the program fell through and we no longer had access to the land.

Over winter, we were left with a garage packed with about 50 bags of top soil, a tiller, buckets of compost, etc. We were at a bit of an impasse about what to do next. We had a chance to use a few other properties, but at the end of the day it was just not practical. I knew with my full-time job and our young kids, I wouldn’t be able to help with the weeding, etc.

So after writing to our strata for permission, we built a 4×11 foot raised bed in the yard. Since it was sunny and over 20 degrees Celcius behind our house all weekend, we quickly finished it up and planted quite a few early seeds. I’m excited to be able to have it so close by that I can help with the watering and weeding, and grab whatever we need for salads, etc. right outside the door. We’re excited to see how well this goes. I also am going to try some tomatoes that grow well in hanging baskets in the front.

Square foot urban gardening

So we said farewell to the rototiller, the soil, the compost and are reclaiming our garage. We also had to say farewell to the idea of making growing food into a business for now. Can’t wait to finish the next project, which will be a neat bench and hook area for our kids to take off their many shoes and coats with all this new-found space.

Revenge of the finger paint

Over winter I have been on a bit of a painting hiatus, but this weekend we had a burst of summer-like weather, complete with actual sunshine, and it inspired me to pull out all kinds of canvases and make some progress on them. I found this one and noticed that after several layers of gesso I had applied, there were still greenish-blue splotches showing through from what was a finger painting that my three-year-old son had done last year.

So I painted on another layer of gesso, and about an hour later, I saw the colour seeping through again! So I applied a layer of heavy body white acrylic paint….again, up came the finger paint.

By this point, I started thinking that perhaps that is what I get for heartlessly covering up my child’s scribbles! On went a coat of acrylic gel gloss. Surely, this would be enough to seal down the colour. On top of that, one more layer of gesso, and what you see in the photo was the result of that! You can still see the finger paint.

I have a feeling that this is not going to be much of a masterpiece, so the question remains of whether I should continue or perhaps give it back to my son, and let him paint in the islands and lake and sky as he sees fit.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this adventure!

 

moss

We awoke to a shining sun in a gleaming blue sky; a rare sight for British Columbians in winter. My three-year-old son and I decided to go for a hike, and he suggested a nearby waterfall. I forgot how rejuvenating the forest is. To walk among trees, permanent and calm, soaked in verdant spongy cloaks of moss. To crouch beside a clear stream and sift the gravel, picking out stones. To hear water streaming over a cliff, gurgling under the footbridge.

I forgot to bring the camera, and at that moment I wanted to record it forever. Then I remembered a time before social media, before digital cameras, when we relied on our memories for this sort of thing. My son’s gold-rimmed silhouette as he dug with a toy shovel in the stream, the sun blinding me through the trees, the heart-shaped hole in a dead lightning-struck trunk. The trees with gnarly finger-like roots overwhelming mossy spoiling logs. We were in paradise. Sunshine. Where was everyone else in this city? We had this beautiful spot to ourselves.

We did gather some moss and planted it on our rock wall in the yard. I also had a short moment of inspiration and made a few planters out of these insulators I’ve had since summer.

I inherited some old insulators in the summer but hadn’t thought of a use for them until now.

Just added some greased fencing wire.

 

I captured some tiny bits of moss in these planters.

Baby moss planters now adorning our little tree in the front garden.

“Tell me, what…

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

Before I even had children, I used to admire the blog of SouleMama. I was so inspired by her creative life, her sewing and knitting and simple natural world. I recently started looking at the blog again and this quote appeared painted on the wall.

I still hope to continue to become more creative and create space for our kids to learn to sew and create like this. Making soap looks tempting too.

New year painting series

watercolour backgrounds

This evening, I was finally able to give some thought to the new year. I was taken quite ill on Christmas Day, and as a result have not been up to doing any art or anything really over the holidays. Also, my usual art table relocated itself in November to a more private room, as I have been working from home. Its absence in the kitchen has led to an absence of art on my part as well.

My intention with this little series was not to make New Year’s resolutions, but rather to play a little with art. I was sitting, thinking about how I am overdue to reinvent my art website, which led me to contemplate the point of having an art website if I don’t do any art. So I cut up a scrap of 300 lb watercolor paper I had narrowly saved from my five-year-old’s creative gaze earlier this month and made these.

Almost finished

My husband caught me cutting these crooked papers out with the exacto knife without a ruler (using rulers and measuring devices don’t usually occur to me). So I don’t expect that this series will be of much value. But the process of making them helped me think through my new year’s thoughts.
I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions, and I don’t want to make the classic self-improvement or fitness goals. As I worked, I came across some phrases in my scraps of paper that resonated with me, and included them. For one thing I am hoping to draw nearer to God. Also, my experiences this past year have made me want to focus more on others – making others better and raising others up.

I haven’t quite decided how I will arrange these yet, but probably in a square, mounted on paper. I wanted to try to work small scale and on paper, rather than canvas.

January 3 thoughts for a new year series, mixed media collage on 300 lb Arches watercolor paper, by Nancy Hildebrand

Completed series, January 3, 2013 thoughts for the new year.

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, antique books

Les Misérables, 4-volume French and 2-volume English editions.

The whirlwind pace of the new Les Misérables movie inspired me to pull out my books to re-read the novel. I noticed my English copies are starting to fall apart, and I became curious what year they were printed. I started looking around the internet and came across someone else’s post on the same topic. In fact if you look at the link, his book looks very similar to mine.

And I am excited that this post finally led me to some information that will help me put a date on my own copy. A link about the company A L Burt says that the company had different addresses over the course of their operation, from 1883-1937. The address on my book below was apparently from 1900-1912. So there you go, it is at least 100 years old.
I would like to purchase a new, unabridged version in a readable translation – any suggestions on the best edition?

To give an idea of other things going on in my great grandmother’s household around the time theses books were published, I took a photo of a few of my postcards:

The top left one was sent on Dec. 22, 1908 at 10:30 pm to my great great grandmother by her grown child. The top right was received by my great grandmother, about a year before she got married, sent Dec. 20, 1908 at 3 pm from Toronto. The bottom one I find particularly special. It was sent to my 3-year-old grandfather on Dec. 20, 1923. I have a 3-year-old son, so it is fun picturing what my grandpa was like at that age, receiving this card. The front of it reads, “To A Nice Little Boy Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! May old Santa with his presents Fill your heart with joy.”

These Les Misérables books belonged to grandpa’s sister at some point in her life, but I am not sure where she got them from and at what point. Her name is written in the front in pencil.

My French set came from an antique bookstore in Toronto, when my husband (then beau) picked them up for me. I started reading this one last night, but noticed it too is falling apart. And while I was surprised that I can understand almost every word of it, I may get tired of reading it in French at some point.

I am not sure of the date of these volumes either, but a brief glance at a website about this publisher in French shows that they published from the address in my book from 1911-1925, so it would have been from around the same period.