Traffic and Signs Toronto

I loved spotting these unusual traffic signs in Toronto, and wanted to share them.



I don't know how they do it, but by the looks of some of the traffic we were a part of on Toronto's highways, I hope it works!






How polite!



And while we're at it, here's a sign of the price of gasoline in Canada. No, it wasn't $100, but it was over $1 per LITER.



And here's my chance to talk about the unusual way of getting a traffic ticket in Toronto. The officer was standing (yes...STANDING!) with the radar gun and stepped out in front of us to wave Steve over to a parking lot. He couldn't have been nicer...really! We were impressed, and it was almost worth it just to experience the politeness of the officer and the uniqueness of the encounter. Not to mention that it was only $40 Canadian (less in US currency.) I've never met such a nice traffic officer in my life. When we saw it, this storefront was just a comical reminder to us of the incident.

New Calligraphy and Art Blog

Because this blog has become so family oriented, I have a new blog for art and calligraphy postings. To view what's going on artistically, please see my new blog: http://letterladysletters.blogspot.com/ You can go to the links section below right and click on it there as well.

For those who want to see travel notes and photos, and keep up with Jace, this is still the place.
: )

I have a third blog too, Keep This Ticket. It contains essays on daily life. You can also reach it via the links on this page, or directly at: http://letterlady-keepthisticket.blogspot.com/

My website is: www.PictureTrail.com/letterlady, an archive with many albums of various art photos.

Thanks!

Niagara Falls

Beautiful water. This is a whirlpool further up the road from the falls.
We didn't ride on this tower. We did go up in CN Tower in Toronto later though.
Jace and Daddy in the state park on USA side of Falls. The mist was a cool bonus - very comfortable on this already comfortable sunny day.
Jace flying.
Gull flying. (Jace is cuter.)
Double decker tour buses were in both Niagara Falls and in Toronto.

Fireworks our first night. It was fun to be at the same level rather than looking up.
Here's a night view from our room looking toward the touristy town area.



A wall of falls - this was taken street-side with zoom.
A night view from our room.
Sssshh! Don't tell anyone. Steve and Sandy moved their mattress down on the floor by the floor-to-ceiling window for the first night...a fun way to view the amazing scenery.
A close-up view from the USA side. Being able to get so close and hear the roar and feel the mist - fantastic!
We were in the first room directly under the awning at the top left. 31st floor of Sheraton Fallsview, Canada.
See the rainbow? This is a view from our room. Note the third room down at the Marriott (in the deep grey area.) We had a surprise 'floor show' when a guy danced in front of his window straight from his shower - towel in hand. Sandy caught him with her camera...I only got an 'after-show' photo - I was in shock, and definitely not thinking fast enough. We roared with laughter.

Our 'floor show' guy, enjoying the scenery a bit more sedately with his female companion. Newlyweds perhaps. : )

Night view of falls from room.
Zoomed in on this view from room.
See the mist! The little black speck top left is a helicopter.
The awesome power of the Falls.

Niagara Falls and Toronto with Steve, Sandy & Jace the Face

Vacation with Steve, Sandy and Jace. Niagara Falls (both USA & Canadian sides) and Toronto, with an overnight in Cleveland, Ohio on the way, and a day stop in Niagara on the Lake, Canada.
I took a lot of photos on vacation, and so did Sandy. These first images are hers. I haven't had time to go through all of mine yet - but I really love the range of my new Panasonic Lumix camera with 16x optical zoom, which really got a workout on this trip. Niagara Falls was spectacular! Toronto is a busy, exuberant BIG city! We enjoyed the charms of each.

Here's my sweet traveling companion in the back seat. My vantage point allowed less range for photography, but better baby-doll viewing and interacting. I won! The next photo is one Steve took in my driveway before we left to document how everything fit into the rented Edge. It was tight. I think of it as his way to prevent a lot of souvenir shopping. We did alter this arrangement to allow for safety with a bit of a rear-view.Here is a photo of Jace enjoying the Toronto Zoo. It's a shame he won't remember how much he enjoyed it except from photos. He was so 'into' everything we did. He acts much older than 5 months old. I've never seen a baby so alert and interested in his surroundings. He was a joy on this trip, as always...and he's teething, for heaven's sake! What a sweetie! If we weren't entertaining him, he was content to entertain himself (his feet were a huge amusement.) Frankly, he entertained us as much as we entertained him.



I'm calling the next photo 'Muscrat Love'. (I'm telling my age. Anyone else remember The Captain and Tenille?) I think it's a mama and baby groundhog. Sweet!


Many more photos to come. I need to get to some calligraphy jobs right now. The current work is on big, beautiful envelopes in a mixed grey ink. Letter style is Rook rather than my usual ornamental script. It's going more slowly than usual because of the mixed ink, which must be stirred frequently, and the less familiar letter style. Very pretty though, and not much time to finish them. Sayonara for a while.

Mental illness as art_ I am lonely

I was totally transfixed by this framed piece of cloth at a Mental Hospital Museum in the midwest. A poor soul embroidered her random thoughts into this fabric and the art and words held me tranfixed for many long minutes, wondering about her. Of course the calligraphic nature of it appealed to me - the power of words, the need to communicate. Fascinating. I don't recall the age of the piece, but I believe it's from several decades ago when the museum was a mental hospital.

Indian wedding envelopes

Art fix: Gorgeous Indian wedding envelopes...this is the second time I've lettered envelopes for an Indian wedding. Both times the envelopes have been over-the-top gorgeous. After the wedding I'll try to remember to post a few close-up photos.

Jace eats peas

Jace was all smiles when pea-time was over. The next photo shows how he really felt about them. This was his first time to try peas. He was game, and ate several spoons-ful, but he made this same face each time. To avoid the anticipated mess, he was stripped down to diaper and I sat on the kitchen floor to feed him. No need. He was pretty neat.

It's rare to see little man without a smile.

Pat Pleacher is Artkerfuffle

My friend Pat Pleacher is an incredible mixed media artist. She sent me a package of 'stuff' that I didn't need but couldn't live without this week. I now am obliged to produce some ART using her treasures. In the meantime, you will not regret visiting her site: http://artkerfuffle.blogspot.com/
Her wry sense of humor is one of the things I love best about her.

TM Gratkowski

I "discovered" a "new" collage artist tonight...new to me, anyway. TM Gratowski. You can see his work at http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://assets1.artslant.com/work/image/19152/sthumb/Myth1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.artslant.com/la/artists/show/16345-barbara-kolo&usg=__sIGeE-2npV_xVyceYNW-j2yK7qg=&h=70&w=70&sz=17&hl=en&start=121&sig2=J6j_xnaPOWTXMnffd5pNtg&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=UuD311f2pxlU2M:&tbnh=68&tbnw=68&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtm%2Bgratkowski%26start%3D105%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=oYM-TMuKO4LGlQe5vJ2iBw

Oh, wow - that's a looong url. You might prefer Googling him if it doesn't click. Nice stuff.

A Few Art Book Reviews

I thought I'd share a few mini book reviews I've posted on Amazon.

Bridging Time and Space (essays on layered art) is a beautiful book. It is full of good information and inspiring images. It is much more discussion than instruction, but experienced collage artists will appreciate the essays and visuals. I have taught collage workshops and own several collage books. This one is probably my favorite. More fine art than craft, the collage examples in this book are varied in technique. It was produced by the society of layerists, so naturally layering is a prominent factor. Sometimes it is paint that is layered, sometimes paper, sometimes it is more assemblage and sometimes it may seem to be more layered thoughts than any obvious layering of media. Although this book was published in 1998, I was fortunate to find a copy in 2001. If you can find one, you won't be disappointed. (This one is out of print and rare to find - usually very expensive if you do.)

This review is on Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists: Experimental Techniques for Composition, Layering, Texture, Imagery, and Encaustic
I first discovered Ann Baldwin many years ago when surfing the net in search of collage examples for a mixed media collage class I was teaching. At that time she was doing collages with authors as the main focus. She's branched out since then, and I like the direction she's taken. A few years ago I bought her video, "Telling Stories with Collage & Paint." It's an excellent resource, so when I saw she had written this book, I made sure to buy it. It has many new examples of her work, and includes chapters on abstract design, materials, composition, combining words with paint - something I love to do as a calligrapher, using digital photographs and even encaustic painting. Ann is an excellent instructor and doesn't leave gaping holes in the process as many authors of how-to books tend to do. I'm looking forward to exploring this book more thoroughly, but I've already seen enough to convince me of its worth.

The Chinese Brush Painting Bible: Over 200 Motifs with Step-By-Step Illustrated Instructions
I have a few Chinese painting books, but I believe this will be my favorite. It's a small format, but has 256 little pages full of nice images and good directions. In the early pages, there is some history, some discussion of materials and technique, with direction for making various strokes. The bulk of the book is full of examples of many Chinese motifs. It is not 'how to paint a Chinese painting', but more on how to paint small motifs including animals, flowers, insects, trees, berries and more.

That's all the reviews I've posted so far, but I have at least 100 art books and will review more of them. I purchased 5 more this week! Will review them as soon as I determine how I feel about them...right now I'm excited to know they're coming in the mail very soon.

Art in Speed Park Poster

Hot off the press! Doreen Barnhart DeHart with the poster she designed for this year's 20th anniversary of Art in Speed Park. This juried show is a jewel...small enough to see all the art and not lose your way, and large enough to have great variety. The quality is excellently maintained with the help of Kim Johnson and her capable and friendly staff. If you're within driving distance of Sellersburg/Speed Indiana you won't want to miss it August 21 and 22.

Does This Baby Look Sick to You?

I babysat last night to give Steve and Sandy a break. Jace had been sick and they'd had a few rough nights. After he napped in my arms for about an hour and a half, I gave him a bath in the kitchen sink...didn't want to risk getting his ears wet in the tub. I think he's well now. He sure looks great to Grandma!


Sandy and Jace.

Steve and Jace.


Here are two drawings I did this week. I'm still loving the pencil pressure and release lettering, but they don't photograph well. (Maybe that's a good thing, as I can see lots of room for improvement.) I don't know whether to use colored pencils to finish these or not...the paper is too flimsy to handle watercolors, which is what I'd prefer. I'm enjoying drawing again too. Will probably do more of it as I recover from oral surgery.

What the heck is it with big ego "King" James? He's not MY king! I'm surprised that it's considered so newsworthy, but I guess no (real) news is good news. Give me more of this tripe if it means nothing worse requires reporting.

New Work Beginnings and family stuff and FiReWorKs!

A bit of the family fireworks in celebration of Natalie's birthday, July 4. Nat had a cool plan...cookout, then outdoor movies after the fireworks. Operation Petticoat with the suave and swoonably handsome Cary Grant.


Three pieces I started today. One is very large (maybe 30x40) and two are 16x20. Teal is base color. I added orange to the two smaller ones and didn't like it. Covered it up. We'll see what happens. These pix were taken at dusk today and are a bit darker than actual color. I began all three pieces with squirts of white gesso. Pretty awful at this point. Let's see if I can rescue them. I have adopted my friend Diana's philosophy - "I can fix it." : )





This is a grouped shot, but truer color.



Here is a drawing I did today of some totems with an African influence.



Jace with Pappy and also with Daddy on big Lowe's home center shopping expedition.





Natalie admiring Jace's chubby knees.



Celeste with Grandma. Celeste fixed Grandma's pretty white hair for Andrea's graduation.

Amazing Video

I made the mistake of clicking on this link this morning when I should have been leaving for work. It is spectacular! I was spellbound at the calligraphic flourishing put to music. Enjoy.

http://50.drmartens.com/artists/cinematic-orchestra

Live Right

My Facebook/calligraphy friend Alice Hancock, along with her late husband Al, started "Greentherapie" - www.greentherapie.com. I lettered this piece tonight for her 'Live Right' campaign. It's pencil drawn lettering in a pressure release technique first taught to me by the British calligrapher, Peter Thornton. I am rediscovering the style and loving it even more than the first time around.