Gift (2)

More than a year ago my friend Susan Tilsley Manley proposed that we barter - I would provide some coaching with respect to her website and business and she would interpret a photo that I had shared with her. The photo showed my mother and Shelby, my pet porcupine. The story about why I had a pet porcupine can wait for another day. It is enough that the photo is precious to me.

I agreed to Susan's proposal even though I would have gladly helped her without compensation of any sort. Then our lives took various turns, with deadlines and family illness and finally my cancer diagnosis. We never found a time to get together to do the work we needed to do.

At the Anna Torma workshop Susan thrust something into my hands and suggested that I knew what it was. I didn't, in fact. But when I unwrapped it here is what I found.

It hadn't occurred to me that Susan would work on her half of the exchange. I am familiar with the pressures she faces in caring for her family, volunteering in her community and keeping her art business going. There really wasn't time for another project. I am overwhelmed with gratitude that she took the time to work on this for me. The true gift, though, is a friendship beyond value.

Susan - get ready.  We are going to go to work very soon!

Gifts (1)

I went to work today to prepare for the resumption on Thursday of my indoor cycling classes. As I often do, I stopped in to see Judith. I had several things to show her. Some of those will appear on the blog very soon; others will have to wait until after Christmas.

After I had shown her the first item, Judith broke in to tell me that she had a small gift for me. She reached out and put a white ceramic thimble in my hand. The thimble was marked on the inside with a black X and a signature. She told me to slip it onto my finger and see if I wasn't suddenly struck by the calm that comes from handwork. I did - and I was. She explained that she had picked it up at an exhibition at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic art during a visit in September. The artist, Robin Lambert, had designed his piece to invite visitors to pick up and take away a thimble.

Here is a link to the site for the RBC Emerging Artist People's Choice Award. Each of the photos links to more information on the artists. 

The video gives some insight into Lambert's piece, entitled I Should Like to Give You a Kiss. In October it won the people's choice award. 




It is is difficult to tell from the website but Judith told me that there was a display of white thimbles on the wall with a white shag rug on the floor beneath them. Visitors were allowed to touch the thimbles and even to keep them. Apparently the staff have made some interesting observations about the behaviour of the visitors with respect to what they touch. I am fascinated because this work is parallel to my interest in repeated forms and participatory art. It bears an eerie resemblance to my 'community' piece (which is awaiting a delivery of hundreds of snap fasteners.)

Judith thought that the thimble could serve to calm me during doctor's visits or at other times when I wanted to induce feelings of contentment. But it does much more than that. That small piece of white ceramic reminds me, again, of the number of people who share my interests and who care for me, either in person or in their thoughts. I will never be alone and that is a priceless gift.

Tomorrow I will share another item - another perfect gift.

HDMGG - November 9

I harvested the last of the peppers today - jalapeños and a long green, slightly hot variety which I will use in place off green chiles throughout the winter.

 

Anna Torma

I spent the afternoon at the St. Francis Xavier University art gallery in a workshop with Anna Torma.  The gallery is currently showing some of her recent work. The free (!) workshop was organized by the All-of-Us Society for Arts Presentation with a grant from the province of Nova Scotia.

Anna embroiders on multiple layers of silk and used the transparency of the silk to great advantage. Sometimes she puts coloured fabric behind the front layer so that the embroidered images appear 'painted'. At other times she uses actual paint and dye on the surface of the fabric and embroiders over the spots of colour. She also uses her needle and thread to draw in black on white.

She was a generous instructor. After a lecture on her inspirations she passed out kits which included two pieces of luscious silk fabric, a hank of hand-dyed silk thread, a needle and a piece of tracing paper which she had previously used to create one of her own pieces. We were encouraged to used the supplied 'pattern' or develop one of our own. After tracing images onto fabric we used coloured fabric to highlight some areas. Then we stitched. This was my first experience with hand-stitching. To some extent, that put me at an advatnage. Anna does not follow some of the common protocols for starting and stopping the line of thread. I was able to do as she suggested while other people found themselves falling back into their old habits.

I brought and used images which will allow me to tell a story that resonates in my household. I got the first part stitched and had enough fun that I will return and finish the small project - after Christmas presents are under control.

Anna Torma and Kate Madeloso

I have seen the future and it is now

This blog doesn't exist to report on every detail of my life and health. But I have made a number of references to my cancer diagnosis, surgery and recovery. So I'd like to address my status so we can all move on. This phrase describes how I am feeling: I have seen the future and it is now. I said that when I met with my surgeon this morning and I think he was a little puzzled. What it means to me is this. My surgery was a success, my new bladder works better every day and the pathology shows no remaining cancer. I feel today like I expected to feel in eight to twelve months. I am back to normal activities and next week I will return to teaching indoor cycling classes.

I am amazed that it is only five months since my diagnosis and just nine weeks since the surgery. So much has happened that it seems that much more time must have elapsed. And now that I am on the other side it feels like I have found a way to time travel- thus the future is now.

 

Flavour profile

People who think they know me often express surprise when they learn that I watch reality TV. I have already written about So You Think You Can Dance. I also watch Survivor, The Amazing Race and Dancing with the Stars. Recently several food shows have made it onto the list of items to be recorded each week. I just finished a season of Master Chef and have started with Master Chef Junior. I also tape all possible episodes of Chopped when my cable provider makes the Food Channel free for a month. I could go on and on about what I learn from watching these shows but I don't think it is necessary. I'm not doing any harm so don't think I need to justify my behaviour.

The snobbish food-speak of the hosts and participants on the cooking shows is often hard to take. Recently the hot phrase has been "flavour profile". I have no idea what that means and I often suspect the participants are also vague about the term. But yesterday I got an inkling about what they might be describing.

In an effort to use two huge squash from the CSA I searched for a recipe for squash soup - something different from my usual approach. In a book about the cooking of the indigenous peoples of the southwestern US I found a recipe that would also let me use some old frozen corn, the end of a piece of ginger and some limes that wouldn't hold up much longer. The corn and squash went into the soup and the ginger and lime were mixed into whipped cream that was served on top of the soup. When I took my first bite, I suddenly understood what a flavour profile might be. I could taste layer upon layer. Some of the associations were familiar and others were surprising. Here's the recipe if you want to taste for yourself.

Quilts=Art=Quilts

I have written about my visit to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Centre in Auburn, NY. The Schweinfurth has a special interest in textiles and each year mounts a show of art quilts called Quilts=Art=Quilts. The 2014 show opened a couple of days ago. 

This is the quilt awarded best in show. It is 65" x 65".

Chaos: the Butterfly Effect, made by Kit Vincent of Ontario

You will get a different view of the quilt by visiting Kathy Loomis's blog. She was one of two jurors for the show and selected the prizewinners. This post contains a closeup photo of the surface of the quilt. I think it illustrates the magic of fabric as a medium. While paintings and sculptures can often look different as we get closer, I think there are more surprises when the artwork is composed of fabric and thread. That might be because we have certain expectations with regard to those media, based on our familiarity with them in a domestic setting. No matter - it is fun to think about how something will read from a distance and what changes can be induced in the viewers when they are allowed to carefully inspect the surface.

Kathy has also written about some of the other prizewinners. The Schweinfurth website has a link to a virtual tour of the show.