Aug 08

Those Three Little Words

Breath halts
In anticipation.
Yes, I know
What's coming next.
Quiet now
I contemplate
How the threeness
Of the words
Call out core of being.
Like Beethoven's
Dum, Dum, Dum
...then
Dum.
Three resolve
Into One.
Chords complete.
I sit quietly
In the knowing.
Here,
I share vision.
I close eyes and

Bite

Into

This

DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE

...then

YUM.

July 08

O Canada! Happy Birthday to You!

Canada Day found us at Harbourfront along with thousands of other celebrants. Many opted to stand in line for the ferry to Centre Island. Our view from the shade showed us people learning to canoe and kayak, people walking and watching, ferries and other boats and Centre Island in the background. Lots of kids and dogs, lots of music, lots of sun and lots of water. A perfect day.

June 08

Spring's Greeter... Friend or Foe?

North Americans decry
Dandelion's ubiquitous invasion.
Japanese praise
Her unwavering tenacity.

Grown-ups call her weed,
Endeavour to eradicate.
Kids just can't wait for her
Summer seed-blowing crown.

To a person standing on a piston
The world goes up and down.
Seems a lot rests
On our point of view.

I suggest we choose
The piston or the world.

The dandelion doesn't care.
She'll be here long after
Our own seeds face distant
Yellow-topped challenges.

........Bette
........Toronto
........1 June 08

While you ponder your own point of view, let me encourage you to enjoy the dandelion's reincarnation in your path. If you gather the greens before the blooms appear they're less bitter and delicious added to your salads. For the blossoms, let me suggest this surprising Dandelion Blossom Syrup. It's a traditional European recipe that you can use it as a substitute for honey in any recipe to make it "wild."
........4 cups dandelion flowers
........4 cups water
........4 cups sugar
........½ lemon or orange (organic if possible) chopped, peel and all
Note: The citrus is optional, it will give the syrup an orangey or lemony flavor. If you want the pure dandelion flavor, you can skip the citrus.

Put blossoms and water in a pot. Bring just to a boil, turn off heat, cover, and let sit overnight. The next day, strain and press liquid out of spent flowers. Add sugar and sliced citrus and heat slowly, stirring now and again, for several hours or until reduced to a thick, honey-like syrup. Can in jars. Makes a little more than 2 cups.

Happy Luke Skywalker Day
Polish your light saber today... and celebrate tomorrow with a couple of spicy tacos and an icy Tecate.

May 08

His name was Bill Robinson...
AKA Bojangles

Bill was born May 25, 1878. Orphaned as an infant, he was reared by his grandmother, Bedilia Robinson, who had been a slave, but he ran away at the age of seven to start his dancing career. No one knows how he came to be called “Bojangles” except that it appears to have been a somewhat generic nickname for vaudeville dancers. Bojangles Robinson danced in all the vaudeville halls and night clubs in the South and North. He changed the face of tap dancing forever, moving it from the buck-and-wing shuffling developed by the slaves to the lighter and crisper sounds we know today. He was already famous when he started his film career, which brought him to the whole world.

Was Bill Robinson the “Mr. Bojangles” Jerry Jeff Walker wrote his famous song about? Probably not. Instead of doing jail time (inspite of his two famous vices: ice cream and gambling), Bill Robinson donated his time selflessly to raise money for charities and lived in Harlem as the locality mayor. He died in 1949 and his funeral was the largest attended in the history of New York City. Adam Clayton Powell delivered his eulogy.

Maybe Jerry Jeff Walker didn't write about Bill Robinson, but he did find a way to link us with the universal joy and spirit that makes the Bojangles in each of us want to dance.

May 25th is now named as Tap Dance Day in honour of Bill Robinson. Get out there and do a few flaps, cramp rolls and shim sham shimmies to celebrate. I will.

Apr 08

My secret is out...
After all these years in the design mileau, I've decided to fess up. If you're someone who has had reason to read my resumé, you have seen that I have a degree in art from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Tis true. You probably thought, however, that my speciality was graphic design... or, as we used to call it, "commercial art." I admit to letting you assume that. I probably even encouraged you. After all, that's the industry you've found me in for years and years.

Today, tho, I'm announcing to everyone who wasn't around then: my speciality was sculpture. I was fortunate enough to study under a very talented man from England named Philip John Evett. He was a great influence with his guidance and non-stop puns. Go here to see what he's up to these days. www.philipevett.com

This month's postcard features a limestone carving I did then. I call her Wishful Thinking. She greets me at my door every day when I get home.

Mar 08

Realities in triplicate...
1. March has 31 days and all of them are herein included.
2. This epistle finds us still covered in snow in Toronto.
3. My snail-mail box shows proof of (2) above... even if it finds itself somewhat of a (well-designed) relic in today's e-age.
March entered with gentle lamb-like flurries, so I guess we should brace ourselves for an eom lion in the form of dramatic winds with snow and freezing rain. Time for us all to enjoy some good warm rental movies and Monopoly and Scrabble.
Bake something round and celebrate...
...the perfection of the circle

Feb 08

Some scrapbook memories...
OK, you already know I'm an artist and you probably know my daughter Kate's an artist, too. I think it's high time you learn where it all started. My mother, Elizabeth Pollard, started her career about 1930 as an architect working for the firm M.C. Kleuser in Dallas, Texas. She designed several homes, a school and the clinic reno shown in the newspaper clipping above. The effects of the depression cut that career short. She went on to other things then married and had me. In her later years she discovered oil and watercolour painting. Like the Mexican courtyard scene above, many of her paintings involved architectural subjects... not a surprise. Here's a little surprise, tho: see that clinic? The addition was for several doctors among them a Dr. Carrell. That was 1931. In 1963 I was studying sculpture at Trinity University in San Antonio and one of my classmates was a painting student named Richard Carrell Fisher... the grandson of Dr. Carrell. Here's wishing you a warm and romantic February, filled with fond memories of your own place in time and the pleasures of creating fresh new ones.Leap Year Day...
Just buzzing by with your special Leap Year Day to add to your February calendar. How come none of you wrote me about my short-changing you with your Feb calendar?

Jan 08

Hopes... Wishes... Resolutions...
Now that the season of indulgence is past, we come to the season of change... The time we look for ways live up to our ideal potential. This month I offer you a taste of my personal determination to bring the best into my life. In this case, a glorious healthful drink presented with full visual impact... plus, it offered olfactory delights as well as crunchy topping for texture. How many senses does that make? (Thanks for Éric for the friendship and the pic.)

Dec 07

Circles... as this year’s circle prepares to close,
the next awaits in the wings
David Essig (www.davidessig.com) played the blues in Orangeville at the home of Heather Katz (www.heatherkatz.ca) and Michael Griffin.
We listened and watched... the circles resonated... the man and his resonator guitar. I painted this in response.
David sang, “the past is rising fast and I'm searching for high ground.” Here I wish you a happy circle completed, linked to an approaching and ever higher new one.

Nov 07

Memories of summer as autumn slowly sheds its leaves...
It was a hot day in August that Leslie and his niece Laura and I went to Rockwood, west of Toronto. We swam and basked then explored these ruins of an old mill.
My attempts to capture the colours this fall have fallen short of my hopes. Our uncommonly mild autumn has kept the green leaves green. Eventually they just fall to the ground in a brief overnight rain. I'm not complaining, but I will be getting my hat and gloves ready for the inevitable.
And yes, I'm a couple of days late this month. Like the leaves, I've been avoiding my responsibilities... but again, like them, I'm catching up in the rain.

Oct 07

Kate said come to NYC to see a movie with her...
I said yes.
I arrived on Friday afternoon, dropped my things at Kate's Greenpoint (Brooklyn) apt and we found our way to tacos and cupcakes then to see a fabulous doc about Helvetica--yes, the font, celebrating its 50th birthday this year.

Designed by Zurich type designer Max Miedinger, the font is seen just about everywhere. The doc, titled simply Helvetica, is directed by Gary Hustwit and is all about how graphic designers see fonts, specifically this one.

Hustwit spoke after the showing along with Tobias Frere-Jones, one of the type designers featured in the flick... for you other type-addicts, he designed Interstate & Gotham among other well-known faces.

Here's what Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune had to say:

By rounding up a great group of eloquent obsessives eager to explain their feelings about a font, Hustwit has come up with 80 unexpectedly blissful minutes.

I recommend this kind of bliss to you... and it wouldn't hurt to go to NYC just for a movie, sometime.

P.S. You'll see this month's postcard sports a change to Helvetica in honour of the year AND it shows Kate standing below a sign at her subway station... set in Helvetica, of course.

Sep 07

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