Surrealism at the Vancouver Art Gallery

The Art Gallery Crew

The VAG
Had much fun on Tuesday. Met my friend Ritch at the Vancouver Art Gallery. A surrealism showing. Ritch and I have been friends since we were teenagers. His real name is Rob but to me and my family, he'll always be Ritchie :) He never ages, even though it's been a few years since our last meeting, I recognized him instantly from a bench inside the VAG lobby. I love surrealism--anything goes. So inspirational and mind expanding.The surrealists of the early 20th C were heavily influenced by West Coast Aboriginal art. Also interesting is that the VAG was the first art gallery in the world to show Aboriginal Art as art rather than craft in 1955.

 It was a pleasure viewing Dali's work again. I feel a special link to Dali after being in Spain this summer and experiencing so much of his work. I also saw some of Leonora Carrington's work--she only recently died this past year--one of only a few female artists surrealist work displayed.
 I must say that it is a shame that our surrealist history is dominated by male artists. Because, the truth is, this was a time in European history, when feminine sexuality was finally just beginning to emerge as existing. Thus, the male surrealist artists were really at a loss as to how to express this in their works. They really should have left it for the women artists to express. Women's sexuality is perverted by the male surrealists. I think what will truly be interesting is to see how Western women artists express feminine sexuality in this century.

BTW: what does it mean when a man continually smiles at you and then double raises his eyebrows at you Groucho Marx style? I kept ending up in the same viewing room at the art gallery as this stranger--a male. Each time we acknowledged each other's presence with a friendly smile--until after several floors of viewing his smile was accompanied by a double eyebrow lift? A true surreal experience while    at the gallery.

Vancouver Science Centre

This is Pip, in awe of the moving dinosaur exhibit. They were lovely feathered dinosaurs. It was a very wet and windy Monday in Vancouver. The girls voted the Science Centre as the top attraction they wanted to experience for the day. It was fun yet (not surprisingly) there were too many pushy, obnoxious children trying to budge in front of us at every exhibit :P Of course, the teacher in me set them straight--"the end of the line is over here!" Some kid actually asked me if I could buy him and his friend a treat from the vending machine. I said no but he could buy me one.

I am waiting in the hotel lobby for Peter to meet up with us for our long drive home. I am so tired. A whirl-wind weekend in Vancouver can be so exhausting. Pip has been a little out of sorts with a cold and up each night. I had to sleep 3 in a bed last night and got very little sleep. The night before, I was bathing Pip at 2 am. Travel is always fun but often exhausting.

Pip and Mom

Mist and her Dad

Tabs

Pip and her dad

Mist and Tabs wheel chair racing

Peter and I wheel chair racing

Tabs and Pip racing

Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver BC

Have arrived in Vancouver. I love staying at the Hotel Vancouver. We always stay here so it is familiar and comfortable. Sun on our first day. We spent some time at the Tom Lee music store. I was looking for DJ lighting systems for my dance class and sheet music for the girls. We found great piano solo music for Mist: David Bowie and Harry Potter. And Glee for Tabs. Pip received an outfit from H&M. 

Today it rained and rained--typical Vancouver fall. 

I don't eat very much at home. Yet let me just say that Vancouver is a whole other story. First of all, our supper at Griffon's, at The Fairmont, included a dessert buffet. I usually avoid buffets like the plague. I find them disgusting. However, the Fairmont knows how to do a dessert buffet: double chocolate mousse, cream puffs, chocolate mousse cake...I felt ill all evening and took to my bed early. And then tonight...I had to try a blue berry milkshake from the Whitespot. I blame Peter's brother Bruce for that one! He ordered one from the very same Whitespot a few years ago when we all met in Vancouver for Peter's PhD graduation. And wouldn't you know it? The girls and I remembered and just had to order ourselves one! Again, tonight, I don't very well...Eating sweets just isn't worth it. I feel sick. I am looking forward to returning to my usual diet of no refined sugar and no wheat. I never feel ill at home. 

I was up at 2 am last night with Pip. She has a head cold and her ears bother her. At 2 am she was having trouble breathing. The sounds she was making frightened Peter and I. I gave her a decongestant and drew her a hot bath for the steam and fed her lemonade. The result was that she was able to sleep but I found myself a wee bit tired today.

I must break and get down to work tonight. I have writing to do for a few deadlines. I will write more about our trip to the Science Museum and other adventures tomorrow.

It's a Beautiful Day

The title of this drawing is It's a Beautiful Day by artist Pippi age five. 

It is a picture of a dog with an orange on its back, standing near a strawberry bush. There is a baby bird on the lawn as well as a bird flying above. She just completed this work this morning. 

I asked Pippi if I could have the drawing as I really liked it. She said, "Yes, but it is for sale. 35 dollars. 35 cash." Yes, she really said all that.


So if anyone out there is in love with the drawing and willing to pay $35--it is for sale.
I love my daughters--they teach me so much each day. They are business women extraordinaries. Tabs has informed me she is now writing a cook book--and she should. She is the best baker I know. Her ginger snap cookies and brownies are the best I've ever had.
And my Mist is the most mature soul I know. I asked her to come with me when I taught my first Zumba class at UBC campus. She obliged. I wanted her to do the desk work (signing in students for me). She was so mature, so helpful, so encouraging. I honestly could not have done it with out her. We had over 35 students dancing! It was an amazing class with lots of energy. I worried, being the first time I've taught Zumba to all adults, as to how my students liked the class.  My answer came during the cool down song I played. I put on Hero by Enrique Iglesais and told the class, "We're cooling down to Enrique whether you like him or not." Enrique is my one crush. I just love watching him perform. He's so adorable :) Anyway, when the chorus came on, the entire class began to sing it--they sang through the cool down :) Very cool.


Had a very difficult week. Human against human issues--so new to me. I live in a world of human against self, human against nature. But having to teach Zumba Thursday night and again Friday afternoon focused me and exhausted me in good ways and all the other crap floated away. Of course I have delt with the other crap--stood up for my human rights and will take this struggle step by step. But thank God for DANCE and Dancers! I LOVE teaching Zumba--so much fun :D


Off to the beach this afternoon +30 o C again! And then off to Vancouver for a few nights at the Hotel Vancouver :) Bringing all the babes with us this trip.

Con Movimiento

This is a sample of the song Con Movimiento that I choreographed to be an easy warm-up song. Forgive the video quality and my darling Fernando who constantly wanders around my feet :P (note his little bedroom on my right).
 It will give you an idea of an easy warm-up song if you ever end up in one of my Zumba classes :)
I do hope my head is not cut off for the entire video--it gets so warped: I start with a flip video, then I upload it and create an i-movie and then upload it again and create a Youtube movie and then load it onto blogger--things get a little cropped and fuzzy :(

Me and My Dog: Happy Canadians!

A study published in Scientific America Mind, indicates that Canada is the only country in the world whose citizens scored in the top 5 for the highest in both overall life satisfaction and positive feelings. We Canadians are apparently the happiest of people! Wow--who knew?
Two reasons for the pic of me and Fernando: #1 we are the only family members that don't run and hide when I bring out my camera. #2 to prep you for the world's cutest dog video. Mist and I filmed Fernando this evening being absolutely crazy! I will post it as soon as Mist uploads it from her camera.

Just returned from a movie night out: Contagion. Disturbing. I could only watch it now--pre flu season. Even though every cough in the theatre made me want to bolt.

Attacking my career on all fronts. It keeps me busy. 8 manuscripts to be mailed tomorrow. Love that I am writing fiction again.
 Demanding an end to the delays regarding my thesis. No one messes with me for very long.
 Another gym to approach in the morning about teaching more Zumba (I want to teach a class a day or at least 3x/week). Decided my class was too hard-core cardio and it might kill most people. I took out one of the hardest songs and added a really easy warm up at the very beginning. My students will thank me. I had a favourite song, I really wanted to dance to so I choreographed the song and had in memorized in an hour. I felt great about that--I have come so far with my abilities to choreograph and memorize dance steps quickly. Peter and Mistaya were my Guinea pigs and they both said it was a great song. I get super nervous before I teach a new class--the way I handle the stress is to tell myself just how excited I am to be teaching the class--I channel the fear into excitement--seems to work.

Transferred Tabs from Private voice lessons into a choir--she agreed only after I mentioned how she might be asked to sing with The Barenaked Ladies in concert if they come to Kelowna again (the choir was asked to do this once, 2 years ago).
Pip is enjoying kindergarten. She likes the bus ride the best and lunch visits from Tabs. Although, I find the full days too much for such a young child. She is quite pooped out by the time she arrives home.
Mist is tolerating high school--she finds 2000 students too big. She loves her art class and is doing very well in science--her teacher keeps us posted.
Peter is being interviewed by CBC radio tomorrow morning (Thursday) about copyright at UBC. Apparently the provost insisted on him as he speaks eloquently ;) --it is true but I do like to tease Pete about this :)

ZumbAtomics!

Pic is from this past summer--a dancing moment I had with Fernando ;) The pug portrait on the wall behind me is a painting I did of my first beloved pug named Weldon (Weldy).

I had so much fun teaching ZumbAtomics this past Friday. I have 11 students--one boy. We danced for 45 minutes and then played 2 dance games. The kids have so much energy and are so open to using their imaginations. For example, one song we dance to has a calypso beat. I told the kids to imagine that we were in Brazil at a carnival dancing in the streets to the song. One little girl asked, "don't they speak another language in Brazil?" I said, "Yes, they speak Portuguese." She said, "Do you speak Portuguese?" I told her no, but to pretend that I was speaking it and that everyone could understand my Portuguese. They were all game to pretend to be Brazilians, speaking Portuguese for the song!
Their favourite song was the Chihuahua song. I felt happy about that because I invented all of the choreography for that song myself--sometimes we dance as though we are the owner of a wild little chihuahua and sometimes we dance as though we are the naughty little dog ourselves. I get them to do their best chihuahua howl at the end of the song.
 I realize one of the reasons I love teaching Zumba so much is that it feels just like the days when I was a high school cheerleader. I loved being a cheerleader--dancing, stomping, clapping and the odd woot-woot brings all the fun back to me :)

Dear Peter Kent, Don't allow our wolves to be salughtered.

This is a little something I've been working on in my spare time. I am trying to get 1000 people to like the above page and then I will send the page to the Canadian environment minister, Peter Kent.
The government is planning a mass slaughter of thousands of Alberta and British Columbian wolves. They say it is to help repopulate the dwindling caribou herds. But this decision is short sighted and wrong. Scientific research points to human encroachment on caribou territory as the main threat to caribou survival. Projects like the Alberta oil sands contribute greatly to caribou decline. It is a horrible case of wildlife being blamed for human destruction. Canadian wolves were hunted to near extinction in the 1950's. Their populations have only just rebounded. To mass slaughter wolves again will lead us down a very dangerous path. The ecological balance will be drastically altered and our wolves are at risk of a mass decline not to mention so many other species that will be affected by this mass slaughter.
Please help support my project: you can link onto the facebook page and like it (if you're a member of facebook) on the left sidebar of my blog. Thousands of wolves lives depend on us stopping this mass slaughter.

Snails Climb Trees

There is a tiny patch of forest left between a pond and tennis courts near our home. Inside the forest lives a wondrous world of snails. Each tree is covered in the chartreuse creatures. It is a like a magical snail forest. Pippi and I had the pleasure of exploring this little forest before her first day at kindergarten. I think I shall create a series of snail paintings. But after the wolf series of course. 

All my babies are in school. So very unusual. I have had a preschooler at home for 15 years now! Oh, how I love my babies. So now it is time to go crazy building my painting career, publishing all of my waiting books and saving Canadian wolves! Wish me luck.

Very excited to teach my first ZumbAtomics class tomorrow and then I start teaching Zumba at UBC next week :D

A little blown away by the cost of private voice lessons for my Tabs at the Community Music School--don't know how to get out of them now--Tabs LOVES them. Yet, how can I justify 30$ per 1/2h lesson? I thought the Community Music School would be geared for allowing the masses to learn about music. Wrong! The cost makes the school elitist :(

My Little Pistachio has a Mustachio

I've been saying the above phrase to Pip all morning so that is why it is the title of this blog--she had a little chocolate milk mustache after breakfast. Pictures are from Pippi's first day of kindergarten. We stopped at the park before the big day for a picnic. Pip was so excited to start school, she was trembling and said, "this is the best day ever!"

Good news, at least 8 students for my ZumbAtomics class--we start Friday. 

My little mermaid Tabitha has decided she must enter the lake on a full moon, just at its peak in order to determine if she will indeed become a mermaid. Tabs is a huge fan of the Australian television series H2o: Just Add Water. I was game to take her down to the lake last night for the full moon until, I could honestly not think of one close beach I could take her to at 2 am that would be safe (unfortunately we could get mugged at all locations except the one directly down our mountain,  but who wants to walk through the forest at 2 am down a steep mountain with a flashlight?). Thank G she decided to wait until May's full moon when t he moon is at full rise at 8:20 pm. Phew!

Mistaya is all set for dance this year--she is taking jazz/hip hop at school and ballet privately. Outfitting her in shoes and leotards proved to be most costly. However, she is excited about dancing. All girls started piano today--little Pip had her first lesson. She said it was good. She's going to play for me tonight. Tabs starts voice lessons tomorrow. Tuesday to Friday we will have evening classes in this family. But thank G we have 3 free evenings :P

Our new fridge arrived today. It is huge. I love it! A family of 5 needs a big fridge when they live on a mountain top and want to cook at home each evening. Down side is that it is too big--Peter is trying to remove a cupboard at this very moment to make room for it. I hear "MJ, I need your help!"...to slip out of the house and into the dark night unnoticed...

Working on a campaign to save our Canadian wolves from a horrific mass slaughter--will post more  about this soon.

Nathalie Decosta at Mission Hill, Kelowna, BC

Spent yesterday afternoon at Mission Hill Vineyards, where French artist, Nathalie Decosta was signing wine bottles with photographs of her sculptures on the labels. Mission Hill Vineyards is the first and only Canadian (I think North American as well) showing of her work. She lives and works in France. She is inspirational to me as a fellow artist. Her sculptures are large in size but also rather slender and delicate looking. This blog includes only some of her work on display at the vineyard.

 I had the most wonderful afternoon, out in the sun with Peter, photographing the sculptures. I believe a sunny September afternoon in the Okanagan is the Shangri-La of the Americas. I must add that the evenings are just as warm and lovely--watched the sunset from on top of Knox Mountain last evening--truly Shangri-La...

Mission Hill vineyards overlooking Lake Okanagan
Shangri-La of the Americas 

A rose is a rose

Recontre dans le Temps (Meeting in Time)
Sculpture by Nathalie Decosta

Walking beside Arbes de Vie (Trees of Life) 2008--Decosta

Cube de Fragilite (Fragility Cube) 2010--Decosta

Me, at the vineyard, enjoying the most beautiful September Saturday

No Pannic (Under Control) 2001--Decosta

Under the Trees of Life

Espace Temps (Space Time) 2010--Decosta

September Saturday Shangri-La

Triple delire (Triple Delirium)

Triple Protection (More Protection) 2010--Decosta

Reporter at Work

Pistilde de Vie (Seeds of Life) 2002--Decosta

Peter at Mission Hill Vinyards

Pas de Limite (No Limit) 2001--Decosta

Posing Goofy for Peter

A rose is still a rose

Señorita Penélope Goes to School

Today was Pip's first day at kindergarten--we met privately with the teacher for 15 minutes. She doesn't start real classes until next week. She was ever so thrilled to go and of course, she wanted to look her best and decided her Barcelona dress was a must! Pip is the happiest, most fun loving and joyous little girl. I will so miss her being gone to school for full days. However, I am so very blessed to have three amazing girls to love.
September is the month when I feel like saying, wake me when all the red tape is finished. Tuitions to pay, lessons to sign up for, too many forms to fill out, classes cancelled...
Up to my elbows in red tape. Working very hard to procure enough dancing classes to satisfy me.  Working hard trying to defend my thesis despite delays and delays. I could scream, the delays are costing me money--I pay tuition until is is done. So much to do as I am starting my studio art career this month as well. This year will be one of my most intensive. My baby is in kindergarten and my career has begun. Creating the life one wants is a 24/7 job. Wish me luck and more luck once more.
On a light note, my disco ball just arrived and it is cool. I do hope I will get to use it next week! My ZumbAtomics class may be cancelled :(
I had a most lovely evening last--hiked up the mountain with Peter to the best lookout on Knox. Spread out a picnic blanket and popped open a bottle of Pinot Noir and watched the sun set (yes, for all those who know Peter--he cracked open a bottle of grape soda).

Señorita Penélope arrives at school

Señorita Penélope and Mommy

Señorita Penélope enters the school

Señorita Penélope and Mommy waiting to meet the kindergarten teacher

Señorita Penélope and her kindergarten teacher (she's so nice!)

Señorita Penélope stops by to say hi to her sister Tabitha

Señorita Penélope arrives home to greet her best friend (and cousin) Artemisia