Exciting news!

This linocut shows how I imagine the great white stork of European folklore, who carries babies to new parents. The stork is printed in teal ink on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 32 cm by 17.5 cm or 12.5" by 7". There are 4 prints in the edition.

The ancient stork-the-baby-bringer legend was made popular by Hans Christian Anderson's story called 'The Storks'. The stork is quite stylized, inspired by ancient Chinese art, and not an attempt to accurately portray Ciconia ciconia, the white stork, because - spoiler alert! - storks are not actually where babies come from. (The baby is a little more naturalistic and has very cute toes, if I do say so myself). This print definitely goes in the 'UnNatural History' category, with other mythical creatures.

As some of you know and some may have deduced, I'm printing the baby-carrying stork because I'm thinking about how to decorate a nursery. RJH and I are expecting a baby this winter!* I've been debating when to tell people, but I think it should be clear now, should you happen to see me, that something is afoot**, and am far enough along that risk has decreased a fair bit, so it seems like the right time. I'm doing pretty well. I haven't had morning sickness. My doctor is wonderfully relaxed and says the right things to put people at ease. (She told me half her patients are my age or older. She lets me have one large coffee a day, saying there's been no rigorous study showing any harm. She blamed my swollen feet on the weather, rather than my suspicion it was from eating salty Triskets and sun-dried tomatoes, saying, "The truth is, in this heat and humidity all pregnant women have swollen feet." So, I think she's great.) I confuse sonographers with my technical imaging questions, cause it's fascinating and the physics of ultrasounds is basically the physics of seismology, so I get it. I've had some discomfort from other symptoms. Why does no one every warn you about the leg cramps? It's always "weird food cravings" and never "violently awoken by Charley horse at 4 am". Also, I am thirsty all of the time  which is weird for a girl whose mother called her 'the camel' who was rarely thirsty (or needed to pee). I was keeping a glass of water by my bedside until I realized Minouette thought this was a new, convenient bedtime cat watering station, so now I have a cat-proof bedside water bottle. Sleeping is a bit of a challenge and I'm finding the 'extreme heat alert' weather unpleasant. Me and the cat are hiding in the cool basement right now. Mainly, I feel like I've swallowed a large and unruly water balloon, which is flattening all the things I normally keep in my belly.



As you might imagine, I've responded by making things! So far, I've made 7 reversible fabric bibs (whales, mermaids, fortune cats, psychedelic blue squirrels, an urban scene, mushrooms, vintage cameras, constellations, flowers, numbers, cupcakes and elephants) and a block printed camera toy (because baby will want to be like Daddy I figure). I'm planning some fabric, block printed alphabet blocks too. I'll make duplicates for my shop, should you want any for your favorite wee one. I have other plans too, of course, but this is a good start.




* I'm pretty sure if he reads this he'll tell me I've buried the lede, but I'm not a newspaper man and like a little suspense. 

**Though, luckily for me, all the summer clothing is light, and airy and not fitted, so it seems not everyone figures it out on sight.

Otter O & Unicorn U

O is for otter and U is for unicorn. Each is an open edition print on Japanese kozo washi (or mulberry paper). It is available in a variety of colours! Each sheet is 14.8 cm or 5⅞ inches square.

Reading is sexy XLIX

(image: 'In March read the books you've always meant to read' via brainpickings March 25, 1941, WPA Art Project Chicago)

I think it's official. I have reader's block. It's like writer's block, but for readers. I have been a roughly a book a week (40 to 50 a year) sort of reader for the last couple of decades (oh, dear, how is that possible?)... but not of late. I barely read 25.5 books last year, and this year is not off to an auspicious start. I think trying to read 'Myths to Live By' was one of my mistakes.

1. Myths to Live By by Joseph Campbell. I pulled this book off RJH's shelf and it nearly did me in. I thought, "It's Joseph Campbell, on myths, how can I go wrong?" I was wrong. It took me the better part of 4 months to read this book. It did not resonate with me. I suspect, as Faunalia suggested, that was because the ideas were not new to me, though they would have seemed far more so had I read it when it was published (which, for the record, would be before my birth - I'm not that old). In fact, in December, I was waiting for the streetcar at Queen and Ossington with F., ranting about my attempt to read this book*, and I was shaking it about, asking "It's Joseph Campbell, on myths, I thought how could I go wrong?" when a lovely lady who had been in our screenprinting class in the fall, coincidentally walked by and said, "Oh hello! How are you? That's my favorite book!" I could only be thankful that she interrupted me before I launched into my attack. While there was interesting information in this book, I found it dated. I was impatient with the asides of "Kids these days!" (these days being the late 60s) and was surprised at his attitudes towards the religious (in sum, they are immature). I'm not religious and that irked me. Also, I know enough geochronology to know his allusions to prehistoric anthropology are out of date. There might be an interesting book in linking schizophrenia to the hero's quest, but this is not that book. Mainly, I learned some things about yoga, and read a bunch of things I had read before. If you are interested in the history of the study of myth, maybe this is the thing. Or maybe the trick is to read a single lecture at a time. I personally think if you are actually looking for myths to live by, you might be better off reading Women who run with the wolves. Or maybe, I've become a cranky reader.

2. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I read this book because Faunalia got tired of recommending I pick it up 200 times and she bought me a paperback copy. I hadn't read any Gibson in years, though I enjoyed Neuromancer and so forth, in my early 20s. This is the story of Cayce Pollard, cool hunter in 2003, charged with finding the source of "the footage", a sort of cult film released anonymously in tiny portions in random places on the internet and obsessively collected by an on-line community of footageheads. Cayce is haunted by the memory of her father, who went missing in Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Cayce's success as a cool hunter is attributed to a sort of allergy to branding. It's a fascinating premise and Gibson translates his cultural exposition and critique from cyberpunk to the contemporary world with great success. The novel works as a sort of thriller, with some well-written characters. She travels the world chasing the source of the footage, trying to tell friend from foe, and finding the place where marketing meets globalization and terror. I was annoyed that she used Hotmail (really, a cool hunter would use something so desperately uncool, in 2003?) and I was a bit disappointed in the denouement. After reading an engaging and innovative novel, I expected a bit more than an Agatha Christie-style "let's contrive to have all the characters have dinner and explain all the missing bits" with a series of letters back and forth to tie up all the loose ends. However, the reason this annoyed me was that the novel was very good indeed up to that point. I do recommend it.

3. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Don't say I didn't warn you that I've been a cranky reader of late, but I expected a bit more from the Man Booker prize winner. This is a good novel, but I wasn't amazed or truly moved. The novel is told in two parts. Tony Webster and his clique at school meet Adrian Finn and vie for his attention. They are pretentious, adolescent boys, who think highly of their own wit and intelligence, and sense that Finn is perhaps more genuine and clever. In the second part he he's retired, after a calm life, career, marriage and divorce (though he still has cozy little lunches with his ex-wife). An unexpected lawyer's letter brings back that adolescent through college years, his girlfriend of the time and his friend Finn. He remembers and slowly learns how the past is not always what we thought. I think the story would have affected me more had I liked Tony Webster.

4. Vintage Lopez by Barry Lopez. I stumbled upon this book and liked the sound of an explorer who had worked extensively in the Arctic. This collection includes non-fiction essays investigating the relationship between literature and landscape, ecology, light, and how air freight works (which is more interesting that it sounds). He has a way of painting indelible images in my mind. I really enjoyed the short fiction written at the intersection of art and science (imaginary anthropology, collectors and naturalists but most particularly the mapmaker). I wish I were the sort of person who could have written The Mappist. He manages to make an obsessive quest to map everything in North Dakota (geology, hydrology, biology, botany, history of the place form Native times, including paths flown by Swainson's hawks, and their principle prey ground squirrels, types of soil in transparent overlays, all footpaths and their history, and so forth) sound downright magical, and the sort of things which would have been in Borges' library.

*I care enough about books to discuss them in a heated fashion while flinging the book about... or something like that.

{Series so far: books read, more books read, books read, books read continues, more books read, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII,XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XL,XLI, XLII, XLIII,XLIV, XLV, XLVI, XLVII, XLVIII}

Pilsen

Pilsen in a Mexican neighbourhood in Chicago. Lady Redjeep knew that her husband had taken visitors there. She had me interested as soon as she said 'mural'. I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do. We took the El to 18 Street Station and then just tried to explore based on what we read on wikipedia (which turned out not to be too accurate), but we eventually found a lot of wonderful art on the sides of walls, murals old and new as well as mosaics. The station itself is impressive. We also had a great, late, Mexican lunch. I took so many photos, I'm going to embed a slideshow, but first I'll highlight a few.






And this one is for reqbat :

Auckland Museum, K' Road & Ponsonby

I arrived in Auckland about 3:00 pm. I got myself a hotel room downtown where I could park the car, and get internet access, to catch up with the world. I went out on foot, in the evening to get my bearings and some food. In the morning it was overcast and rainy, so I thought I would go to the Auckland Museum. I thought I would take in the Maori Cultural Performance. I didn't make it to Rotorua, where you can participate in a traditional feast and see the long houses, so I thought even if it were contrived, in a museum, it would be a chance to learn and see something I wouldn't elsewhere. So, I walked over to the Domain, a large park where the museum is found. I had an umbrella, so I was okay. If I learned anything living in Victoria, BC, it is to carry an umbrella. Though, the rain and the gloom wasn't ideal for shooting photographs.


Auckland is built on some 50 odd extinct volcanoes - and is not far from possibly active ones. It is very hilly. You can recognize it because the buildings all have the awnings I saw throughout New Zealand, and are on a steep grade. You are perpetually walking up and down. It is ringed by inner-city suburbs. Technically only the downtown core of skycrappers is Auckland proper, but the city effectively spawls as far as is possible on an isthmus, and houses a quarter of the country's population (about 1.2 million).


At the museum, I paid for the tour, which I could have skipped, but also the Maori performance. The museum contains exhibition halls for Polynesian culture with beautiful wood carvings, natural history, volcanoes (of course) and a war museum. After going through all of these quickly with a tour, I saw the performance, which was actually quite good. They were excellent singers. It was song and dance, and demonstrations of traditional games with poi (balls on strings) and various types of sticks, with banter and information. It ended with the Haka, a postural dance traditionally used before entering battle to intimidate one's enemies. It involves chanting, slapping limbs, stamping feet, stiking out tongues and bulging eyes. A version of the Haka has been co-opted by the national rugby team, the All Blacks. So, while not entirely authentic, it has entered the culture as a whole, regardless of heritage - and I have to say it's quite effective. There were images of New Zealand troops performing the Haka during WWII and the Vietnam war in the war museum upstairs. I bet it even serves its purpose on the rugby field. Variations on the Haka had more peaceful uses.




I left the museum and checked out the Wintergarden in the Domain before continuing along the funky Karangahape Road, known universally as K' Road. It was a pretty ethnically diverse neighbourhood with also sorts of different shops, cafés and bars, and it lead to Ponsonby, one of the inner-city suburbs. I quite liked Ponsonby. There was great fashion, interesting shopping, a few little galleries, and lots of restaurants.



The Cookie Time monster was everywhere.





New Zealand is proud of their traditional anti-nuclear stance. Aotearoa is the Maori word for New Zealand, the land of the low-lying cloud. Aotearoa is supposed to be the greatest creation of the god Maui. The North Island is a fish, with Wellington harbour as its mouth, and the South Island Maui's canoe.

Happy Birthday Faunalia

[Arnold Böcklin (1827 - 1901) Faun Whistling to a Blackbird, 1875, Oil on Canvas]