return | 1987 - 2007

WEEK SEVEN

2007-10-29T03:02:00.001-06:00

WEEK SEVEN: Mountain culture in a social setting: a walk for the Banff Mountain Festivals.

WEEK SIX

2007-10-22T11:01:00.002-06:00

WEEK SIX: A walk where the predominant theme is the overt physicality demanded by the work.

WEEK FIVE

2007-10-15T11:57:00.001-06:00

WEEK FIVE: A walk which takes place only when nature says so.

Stanley Glacier Group Hike

2007-10-11T09:45:00.000-06:00

HIKE#3: Stanley Glacier - Kootenay National Park
Full Day Hike

Brief description:
Time: 4-5 hours return trip
Distance: approximately 10-12 km., depending on route
Level of Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation Gain: 365 m (1200 feet)

Summary: This is a beautiful hike which encompasses remnants of a forest fire, a hanging valley, high peaks (Stanley Peak, Storm Mtn., Mt. Whymper and Boom Mtn.) and the receding Stanley Glacier.

The first half of the hike leads up switchbacks through a huge burn, an area that fell victim to a lightning strike in 1968. Another burn in 2003 has actually created some quite amazing vistas, as well as generating a great deal of new undergrowth. As the trail continues alongside the creek, the forest thins and gives way to the open Stanley basin, with views of the glacier, a sheer rockwall with a high waterfall, larch trees, caves and maybe some occasional wildlife.

WEEK FOUR

2007-10-08T09:23:00.000-06:00

WEEK FOUR: Go to the library and look for the signed copy of In the Skin of a Lion. Is it still there on the shelf? Re-read it. Stay up all night, fall asleep with it in hand. The next day, return to the library and select a poem of Michael Ondaatje. Try walking the journey of the poem.

epitaph for a short walk

2007-10-07T21:02:00.001-06:00

draw on some newspaper, landscapes.
epitaph for a short walk.
night walk (with headlamps and hip flasks): listen to the railway while walking through Banff.

slow walk among the paint pots

2007-10-06T18:24:00.000-06:00

i wake up at Tinka's to the sound of the phone - hello, this is your wake up call. a rush to the room and go figure, housekeeping is there. in mad dash i do manage to dress in lyers and pull the day pack toghther just minutes, however i do not find my party and know they have driven north without me. i climb the stairs slowly and visit Jen * Jen, who are in their studio working on "Scale a Mountain". their iive collaborative performance today.

at 10:30 i return to Tinka's hallway and we head out to the Paint Pots over in BC>.

here (heart) now

2007-10-05T21:05:00.000-06:00

i phone Damion for his birthday. we don't talk long: he has gear to move and i am in need of dinner. how is your art in Canada? happy in a beautiful place. the pinecones fire away in the raku kiln. i am warmed in the night.

walking in hours

2007-10-04T23:57:00.001-06:00

i am walking in hours. waiting for the last coat to dry, ready to dip a final time at 12:45 am. these past days have been ruled by the coats, the dips, the dry time. i have enjoyed all the things that happen in between. poeple go and visit the pinecones. and i know that the time ihave pent with these pinecone sculptures has changed me too - i see they have come live, and become a whole living system somehow. the hearts, the arteries, the thicker TIGER coverings now in the final phases masking the core. like a body. and then, tomorrow, they are cremated, fired, lost and gone. the shell remains. it is a process i can relate to, i find discovery and solitude, wonderment and appreciation too. these pinecones have come alive over the past days, as objects, as conversations, as actions, as time and as thought. i love all the stories of what has happened around the pinecones.

slow dunk

2007-10-03T18:37:00.001-06:00

i woke up late today, the room dark with curtains drawn shut. i have, in fact, slept all morning. to make up for missing the group walk today, i plan my activity of yoga this evening and pack my mat to bring to the studio. today i have to keep at my layers, with seven more thin and a few thick to complete by tomorrow night. i will stick near the sculpture shop.

at lunch, Jen and Jen and Chris and Will crack me up. Satellite Bureau is working on a new project, which they brainstorm at the table. i take photos and listen intently. amazingly enough, there are chicken sandwiches on offer at lunch. i am pleased. i miss sandwiches, as i was just telling Jen last night. is that a sandwich you've just made up yourself, she asks me at the table. no, they actually made sandwiches today, how bout that! desert includes a maple ice cream, yum.

back at the studio, i make a pass through the dunk room. some of my wax air vents have come loose from the pinecones, hovering near but definitely not connected. i am saddened, they look sad to me these detached "arteries". the coats take longer than hoped to dry today so it is going slow. i will be here all night again, i know.

we do get to pick up our paper today, it is dry! Jen and I are quite thrilled with our accomplishments. we have made paper!

papermaking workshop

2007-10-02T16:47:00.000-06:00

Wendy has a workshop for us this afternoon in the papermaking studio & we try our hand at papermaking. wear pants and shoes that can get wet, and short sleeves she says. i manage not to get wet but see the need for her knee high rubber boots and rubber smock.

many of us attend, and there is a party-like atmosphere among the group down in the studio. perhaps it is the wonderment of tilting pulp in a frame and then pulling ("cooching") the pulp from the frame onto large wet felt in a quick, smooth body-rocking movement.

yes, we are making paper!

double or nothing

2007-10-02T09:48:00.000-06:00

pinecone mold making

2007-10-01T22:38:00.000-06:00

morning walk: Hoodoo Trail

2007-10-01T08:46:00.000-06:00

WEEK THREE

2007-10-01T07:17:00.000-06:00

WEEK THREE: One day I walk on flowers, one day I walk on stone. Today I walk in hours. Listen to lots of Bruce Cockburn songs. Travel beyond the immediate area. Ask fellow participants to join along. Overnight hikes (if possible).

Healy Pass Walk

2007-09-30T20:09:00.000-06:00

muk a muk

2007-09-29T23:56:00.000-06:00

Denis has reserved us a table for dinner at Muk a Muk over at the Juniper Lodge. We watch a deer eating small leaves among the bushes while waiting at the back of Lloyd Hall for the taxi.

At the restaurant we revel in the pleasure of ordering. Barbara and Ainsley take the appetizer platter which includes elk pastrami, bison sausage, and blue cheese among other tasty morsels. I can't resist the scallops, which are delicious and presented well. Around the table we enjoy AAA Alberta pork chops, roasted chicken, and tuna. Denis has selected a delightful red for us.

Before the light slips away, a bare shouldered bride is out on the patio taking photos of her bridesmaids with the spectacular mountain backdrop.

After dinner we retire to the fireplace in the lounge sipping port and await our molten chocolate cakes, which go down sweet.

It is good to be out with new friends on a Saturday night.

type type typing

2007-09-29T11:29:00.000-06:00

i finally set up the blog and spend the morning cursing as i cannot find all my blogger info.

happy birthday Merle!

2007-09-29T08:55:00.000-06:00

snow day

2007-09-29T08:31:00.000-06:00

Tinka's opening

2007-09-28T22:18:00.000-06:00

morning walk: Tunnel Mountain

2007-09-28T10:16:00.000-06:00

walk to town

2007-09-26T19:34:00.000-06:00

and now, presenting . . .

2007-09-26T16:55:00.000-06:00

wakey-wakey :: 7:30 yoga

2007-09-26T10:44:00.001-06:00