Happy Canada Day!

British Columbia & Happy Thanksgiving

The symbols of British Columbia, its provincial flower, the Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttalli) and its animal, the Spirit Bear (also known as the Kermode bear, a white morph of the American Black Bear, Ursus americanus kermodei) cover the hand-carved map of BC in this linocut. The block was inked 'à la poupée' (with different colours, green and gold, in different areas) and printed by hand on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. Each print is 23.5 cm by 31.8 cm (9.25" by 12.5"). The print is one of an edition of eight.

The lovely dogwood flowers thrive along the west coast, and can even be found aas far north as Haida Gwaii. The Pacific dogwood has been a symbol of British Columbia since 1956. Once protected it is now considered secure and not at risk of extinction. The same fate is hoped for the newest symbol of the province, the Spirit Bear. This colour morph of the Black Bear is due to recessive alleles common in the population. Genetically, this means they are more like human redheads than albinos. National Geographic estimates the spirit bear population at 400-1000 individuals. Because of their ghost-like appearance, "spirit bears" hold a prominent place in the oral stories of the First Nations people of BC. They were named after the Kermode Bear after Francis Kermode, former director of the Royal B.C. Museum, who researched the subspecies.

I was never lucky enough to spy a spirit bear in the temperate rainforest of Canada's west coast, but saw many dogwood. I was a bit torn when designing this linocut. The provincial bird is the Stellar's Jay, which was very common and a bird I saw quite regularly when I lived on Vancouver Island. In the end though, there is something magical about the Spirit Bear and it was on my 'to do' list of animals to depict in linocuts.

I hope everyone celebrating had a great Thanksgiving long weekend! I know Minouette loves any holiday which involves turkey. This is a photo RJH took two years ago. He titled it "Turkey Dazed". I hope this is how you are feeling, but not too much.

Giant Pacific Octopus screenprint

My friend Faunalia and I are taking a screenprinting course. It's a nice way to try out a variety of methods. Our first class, we used paper stencils. Though this is the method with which I've made most of my screenprints, mine was a complete disaster. I managed to destroy my stencil on my first attempt at pulling a print by over-doing it and getting ink everywhere. Failure is a harsh teacher sometimes, but I need to remember I am there to learn, and I did learn something. I'm happy to say my second print is much more what I had in mind.



This is my screenprint of a Giant Pacific Octopus. It's large (the sheet is 50.5 cm by 36 cm or 19.9 inches by 14.2 inches). It's printed in a dark raspberry colour on white paper. I made it using screen drawing fluid and screen filler, which allowed me to paint directly onto the screen, so it has a rather spontaneous feel. This is one of an edition of 9 prints. I was inspired by seeing some of these amazing creatures off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Sometimes we work with remotely operated vehicles (basically, submersible robots) which allow us to see what, or who is on the seafloor.



Enteroctopus dofleini, also known as the Giant Pacific Octopus or North Pacific Giant Octopus, may be the largest octopus on Earth. They have been weighed at as much as 71 kg (156.5 lbs) and measured with arm-spans exceeding 6.1 m (20 ft) ! Though more typically, adults usually weigh around 15 kg (33 lbs), with an arm span of up to 4.3 m (14 ft). They are quite astounding creatures.

My former neighbour was a scuba diving instructor who had a job at certain BC tourist trap, where visitors were able to descend into a building with windows on the shallow ocean floor, where there was a small aquarium collection of creatures. More than anything, my neighbour dreaded the giant Pacific octopus, which he felt was mischievious to a frightening degree. He swore that the octopus pulled pranks. Often, the tourists would complain that there was no octopus visible in the window. So, my former neighbour D would have to enter the pen and coax the octopus into view. He said it would hide above the window, just out of sight. After the octopus tired of this game, it invented a new one. D would swim into the pen, only to find that the octopus had hidden above the door, swam out as he entered, and the latched the door behind him, locking D in the pen until he could alert his co-workers.

Victoria

After our research cruise, we did a tour of the city. Our local volunteers and I (the former resident) showed the others around. It was a beautiful day.


Emily Carr and monkey friend


I kind of liked how Parliament was overrun by children.







I had to explain this reference to my colleagues, none of whom had seen Portlandia.
















I remember playing on the Cadboro Bay octopus when I was in grade 3, and we came to visit my grandfather.




I spent the rest of my time up on the peninsula.


The California poppies are something I miss from my time out west. They're everywhere.


I went to the bird sanctuary. This is an oystercatcher.




That's a great blue heron, but you'll have to take my word for it. Mainly, I got decent photos only of snakes.








R2D2

I spent the evening with friends in town.





There are a lot of vintage cars there. There's no winter really, and they seem to last forever.