CHESTERMAN BEACH AGAIN

George & I have come here many times, & love it every time.

Patterns galore, new discoveries, & the on-going presence of surf, tides, & walks in fresh air.

This time, because we were here for the 2nd August full moon, the blue one, we have had extraordinary low tides. I have been able to explore a bay around a point to the east of us. It has many rock slots. Well, that's what I call them. Some are cavernous, some are pathways to adventures I don't dare to have, & some lead up hill.

I have also been able to have a really good look at Life on the Rocks.

This one shows the amazing gooseneck barnacles in a colony, part of which is exposed by some event.

And here's a view of starfish slowly ingesting large mussels.

I see these starfish in an entirely new way.

Surprises on the beach.

                                       This crab was caught out in the open. It froze! No place to run to.

In that photo the critters below the crab are very small shells, slightly larger than a pill capsule. They make all kinds of patterns in the sand as they feed. Snail calligraphy!

I found a set of wheels. I think of them At the Surprising End of the Road.

This is the first time out here I have run into a migration. The birds in question are Sanderlings, the little ones, & Greater Yellow Legs are larger & darker, both shorebirds heading for South America.

Their footprints were everywhere! 1000 or so on this beach alone.

The very low tide exposed a bed of eel grass. I'd never seen that before.

Finally George & his brother, Alan at sunset last night.

And yours truly the night before.

That's it for now.

        

Showing New Work for a Weekend

 Thirty years ago  Pnina Granirier & her friend Anne (who has passed away & whose last name eludes me) started Artists in our Midst. The idea was people could walk around a neighborhood & go into the homes & studios of artists some of whom operated a bit outside the high end gallery scene. I first participated in this event was in 1997, three years before I retired from teaching. 

When I moved to Yaletown in 2009 I couldn't see a way of continuing to participate, so I dropped out. But earlier this year, Alice Philips invited me to show at her house & I jumped at the chance. She's another textile artist & I really enjoy her work & her company. She is now chairing this event which has a new tag name: West of Main Art Walk.

While I've been living on the east side of George Wainborn Park, I made opportunities for myself to show my work in a lovely grove of trees on the west side of the park. One year & showed the eighteen number quilts I made, & another year I hung "recent work".

The thing about putting up a show is that "a public" gets to see a curated collection, & for the artist, it's an opportunity to take stock, look at a body production & reflect on it. That's really important. The artist has to pause production while all the show-hoopla is happening. This is, as Pooh Bear would say, A Good Thing.

Alice has a marvelous garden, so I could use my clothesline approach to hang larger work in her front & back yard, for the room she gave me was in her basement room which is maybe 12 x 20 feet &, it turned out wonderfully suited to showing my smaller & more recent work.

So here we go, mostly recent work... First the CheckerBoard Series. I've posted most of them before. I am still thinking about re-visiting this zone. I don't think I'm quite finished with this playground!

 The "Confetti Quilts" have been another theme. In a dyeing workshop I came home with a batch of Procyon dye recipes & postage-stamp swatches glued on paper. I soaked by dye recipe pages in water, got the paste out of the samples, & voila -- confetti patches! In various stages of completion.

Then the Fiji/Post Fiji series. 

          I did some of the sewing work in Fiji & the major composition work when I got home.

    This quilt (Fiji Hot & Humid) is patched by hand & quilted by hand, so the surface is very textured.

Then a final category: Most Recent Work

                                                    
                   And finally 'the look' of the room in Alice's basement & the quilts hanging in the garden.

                                                    Me setting it up with Erica's wonderful help.

Other parts of the room.

The Garden

So what my take-away was: right now my work has an airiness of soft sweet colors & shapes. 

It seems to make me happy & others too.

And the Last Word goes to The Garden!

HEAVEN!

That's it for now.