Skip to main content

Blue

blue (blue); mixed media on cradled wood panel; 18 x 24 (x 1.5) inches; painting surface is birch hardwood mounted to a basswood frame

* * * * *

Canadians are blue. It's a fact! "A higher percentage of Canadians are clinically depressed than any other population in the world," states Dr. Vera Grey of the Tristful Centre for Wayward Studies. She explains: "There are some key factors at play in Canada -- the ten-month winters, frequent lectures by the Queen, a national fondness for cough syrup, the popularity of Nina Simone, psychic vapours, etcetera -- that combine and reinforce each other to create a culture of bitterness and unhappiness." Glinda Moody of Chapfallen, Saskatchewan describes her own psychological makeup as typically Canadian. "Oh absolutely," she says. "I've hated everyone my entire life. Some days it takes all my strength not to hit the milk man with a broom handle, just because he said good morning to me. And if I see one more picture in the newspaper of Paul McCartney and that little smirk of his, by God I'm going to set this whole town on fire." Other Canadians embrace their weary and downhearted ways. Says Donna Grimshaw of the new mothers support group Melancholy Babies, "Look, everyone knows that things are never going to get better. The world is doomed. So lets have a drink or two or eleven and crank up the karaoke machine. We're all going to be dead soon anyway."

* * * * *

This painting is part of the "O Canada, O New England" show I'm having next Saturday with my friend Susan at artstream studios in Rochester, New Hampshire. I'll be posting more throughout this week.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Kim Hambric8:56 am

    I think central Pennsylvania must have a lot in common with Canada.

    Every time I see the mailman, my hand instinctively reaches for the broom.

    And now that the leaves are falling, I go into my usual Autumn funk, wondering whether or not I will survive the winter.

    I'm sure I'll be listening to Nina Simone over the next several cold, dark months? Is there a problem with that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. red-handed9:11 am

    Never, Kim. There is *never* a problem with listening to Nina.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beth5:06 pm

    It’s the “psychic vapours” that really get me down...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8:28 pm

    How do I gets me a job at the Tristful Centre for Wayward Studies? Surely they need a wayward archivist...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kay9:06 pm

    wow

    ReplyDelete
  6. susanna10:27 pm

    Okay, you got me at Melancholy Babies. This blog is definitely going on my blogroll. Thanks for the laugh tonight. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the indisputable weight of the ocean

People are always telling me that my work is too dark. So I've put up this sunnier story, but even it has a shadow, as its original publisher – a fine Atlantic Canadian literary magazine called the Gaspereau Review – is no longer in business. ---------------- It was a simple enough thing and that thing was simply this: Edmund Kelley was a gentleman. Of course his mom called him her 'little gentleman', as in 'Oh Edmund, you are my perfect little gentleman,' which did seem to hold to a certain logic that these type of things often follow, considering her affection for him and the fact that he was, after all, only ten years old. Still, Edmund himself was not particularly fond of the diminutive aspect of that title. Gentleman was enough; gentleman summed up the whole thing rather nicely, thank you. He was definitely a more refined version of your average child. He lived in a state of perpetual Sunday m
2 comments
Read more

Oona Balloona (doesn't care about new tables)

Well, it's Friday, and since I'm pretty depleted in the chit-chat department, I might as well put up some pictures of Ol' Giggles At Ghosts before Grandma starts sending me hate mail. Man, what a goofball. At this rate it's going to be, like, eighteen years before she has gainful employment and moves out of the house. I mean, come on . * * * * * C is especially crazy and frantic today. About two months ago she decided that she no longer liked our dining room table (take that, dining room table! no more BFF for you!). Since then she's switched the dining room and kitchen table (and all the rest of the furniture in the house -- about thirty times, but that's another story) as a provisional solution while she scoured area stores for an upgrade. And she thought she had found one, on Wednesday, at JYSK ( Whatever , I said). But when she ordered it, JYSK called back to say that they were really low on stock, and that the stock they did have was damaged, and
44 comments
Read more

glamour, by extension

C is friends with the fashion stylist Rebekah Roy (left in both pics above) ... one of those people who personify calm and smiling success. On her blog she presents glamour in this very sincere, straightforward way ... whether she's taking pictures of people on the street , talking about stain removers , her favourite videos , or attending some glittering party . One minute she's ruminating on hair extensions, and in the next she reveals how she's been featured on the Vogue UK site. A real disarmer and charmer (and this without meeting her yet, although I feel like I know her because we both did our time in Winnipeg). * * * * * Coming home from Russia, we did many bad things. ; mixed media on canvas, 10 x 10 inches. In my own life, the glamour is wholly imagined. * * * * * witches, smoke ; mixed media on canvas, 10 x 10 inches. My second go at this one, and for some reason I'm painting a lot of smoke lately (note to self: tell C that I want to be cremated). *
7 comments
Read more