Hilma Af Klint Project
Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944) was a Swedish artist who explored the intersection of nature, spirituality, and emotions in abstraction. I recently read Hilma Af Klint: Notes and Methods, a curated book of her sketchbooks and notebooks edited by Christine Burgin, and have been inspired by Af Klint ever since. This ...
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Learning to Paint Water
Pandemic times have given me a lot of mental space and time to keep working on my watercolour painting. Since I started painting five years ago, I've ALWAYS wanted to paint beautiful water scenes and just. couldn't. get. it. right. I saw a short online course from Shari Blaukopf, an artist from Montreal, and it was ...
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Tracks by Robyn Davidson – Illustrated Review
I drew this camel from my memory of Davidson's descriptions of the camels in her book Tracks. One of my favourite pastimes during COVID social distancing has been reading. I especially love reading in the summer, hanging on my patio, but this year reading gave me more than just a relaxing evening. Just like in my ...
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Glimpses of COVID Summer in Edmonton
I don't have much to say on this post, but rather showing some glimpses into COVID summer in Edmonton. To be sure, it was different; no festivals, less friends, less family, more hand sanitizer. But there were some special moments and I'm infinitely grateful for the community we have here. It was also oddly familiar to my ...
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Indigenous Histories of my Homeland
Have you ever wondered who lived on the land of your hometown before your ancestors? I really started to wonder in earnest this summer. Four generations ago, my family were Norwegian homesteaders that came to the Alberta prairies, some even by covered wagon, from states such as Minnesota and North Dakota . I thought, ...
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Trout-Mere
I am loving Lynda Barry's new book 'Making Comics'. This is a result of one of her brilliant exercises from that book. She says that you need to just let your hands and your mind wander and something personal will come out. So out came this Trout-Mere but living in a pacific ocean environment (notice the kelp and purple ...
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Making Maps – My Hometown
I went to a session about Indigenous relations (and making sure you are in good relations) and one aspect of introducing yourself that was discussed as vitally important was rooting yourself in place and where you come from. This ties closely to the importance of ancestors and passed on knowledge. I stewed on that for a ...
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