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Showing posts from 2014

there's no place like a new home

Finally, after much stumbling around with this untested dance partner (why have two shoes when you can have two dozen?), I've got my new site looking the way I like: clean, simple and only bleeding art. Even the title of the host – Wordpress – seems more in line with my interests. Do I miss good old Google... and this site, red-handed? Yes. It was always a personal blog, which means an everything blog, where I could post my thoughts/ideas as I had them, or as they happened to me. Sometimes literally. But then one day I realized that I did not exist on the internet to sell my personality. Or my person. I was supposed to be using it to share my work. And as far as Google as a blogging platform goes, the menu on offer was a bit... limited . One-size-fits-all because we-are-the-biggest-size-around sort of thing. Please visit my new site or sign up for my circular on Tinyletter; it doesn't hurt and I often give things away.  Thanks djb

the end of red-handed

for a brief, sparkly moment in time, people blogged. they had thoughts and other things to share. to blog about. blogging was a thing that people did. people made blogs, people read blogs, people talked about blogs (some people even made money from blogs!). blogs provided, like, 70% of the content of the entire internet. well, that's done now. that moment has passed. history coughed twice, watched the doctor shake his head and moved on. now people scroll through social media sites on their mobile devices, click click clicking on things that make them instantly angry or delighted (A LITTLE GIRL DECIDED TO BREAK THE RULES... YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!). it's a crowd-world of likes and exclamation marks, fully corporatized. so it goes. i just want to post art things, with little stories. so i'm clarifying. i now just have a very simple art site , my gallery shop , and my newsletter . that's it. no more flickr, tumblr, linkedin, soundcloud, google+

ho ho red crow

My brother Jon (second-last of four brothers, second-youngest of seven kids total, minor anger-management issues) occasionally sends me digital drawings that he's done . I like this one a lot; it's a bird, it's red, it's vaguely menacing. If you'd like to watch me sort through yet another pile of Oona art, go here .

details

Some details of things done lately , if only to remind myself that I've been productive, as summer wants to sap those ideas away. 

what if they gave a parade but it didn't make a sound?

I heard something about an election campaign going on in Ontario. That there's an election coming up. Like, right away. Something. Three choices and one is embarassed and one is delusional and one is confused. Something about gas plants being bad and firing whole cities worth of civil servants and a big ship that is slowly sinking. Something. I know I voted in an advance poll. Or at least, some old people made me go behind a little paper screen for awhile. Whistling show tunes. I heard something about a Stanley Cup thing, too. Or at least, some kind of hockey thing except it was all Americans and all the games were in big cities and in places where nobody really cares about hockey and isn't it June right now? Or did I take too many muscle relaxants again?  What if they gave an election and no one voted? What if they played a hockey game and no one cared who won?  C says it wouldn't matter if a sizable chunk of the electorate came out and spoiled their ballot

when do i get all the money again?

did you hear how they said my name? ; mixed media on canvas, 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches. *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *      The poet Ariel Gordon tapped me for this internet meme called A Few Questions About Writing . FINE. I CAN BE HELPFUL. The questions and answers follow. What am I working on? How dare you. I didn't come here for this. I didn't pick up the phone and then set it down on the counter without saying anything while I made myself a peanut butter sandwich (peanut butter plus butter, which I know most people find disturbing) before realizing that the phone wasn't even plugged in. That this is an internet meme. So the chain of evidence is largely email. Or rather, exclusively email. If you can call the emails you get through Facebook true emails. Like some uncle who has to touch every envelope before it goes into your mail box. An uncle who never tells you what he's really thinking, and always wears a hood. And lives under your st

there are no victories on victoria day

Victoria Day, so we went to Lake Ontario Park to wait in multiple, endless lines for bouncy castles while acting as landing pads for thousands and thousands of (seemingly senseless) Mayflies. Ever blow your nose and have a Mayfly come out in the mix? O, summer cold. Also in attendance were lurching multitudes of families without sunscreen or dental plans. And one llama.  On the plus side: we arrived early, before the all the main hoo-ha, while the park was still sort of a park. And it only took us half an hour to drive the two hundred feet to the exit.  We also had hot dogs.  Of course, Oona loved it. 

bee excited

Always difficult to track down what is what after a sale , but I've started to repopulate my shop .  *     *     *     *     * Did I tell you that I carried home this chair? I carried home this chair. This chair put out on the street. It weighed a THOUSAND POUNDS. But hey, it was only four blocks. As for the two bags I was already carrying, I simply tied them together, over my shoulder. No trouble at all. Did I mention that I was also corralling home a mendacious four year-old? WHY ARE YOU SO SLOW, DADDY? WHY ARE YOU CARRYING THAT THING? Because your mom, passing me on her way to yoga, told me that she liked it. Cracked arms bleeding their terrible, terrible bear tears. Anyway: she plans to recover it. *     *     *     *     * Finally, I have updated my LinkedIn profile . It is much, much more professional now. Time to get with the program, DJB! *     *     *     *     * Oona and I went to the libary the other day. Or tried to .  *     *

one of those overlong catch-up posts

Very, very behind on my posting, sharing photos, etc. SO WHAT. At this point, the only one who cares is Grandma. These are from Easter weekend, and a long walk at Lemoine Point. Don't stop. Don't ever, ever stop.   Goofballs.   C had to carry various stupid branches (for Oona) around half the park.   There are two deer in there. Can you see them both?  How about this one? Hint: the deer is not wearing a red jacket. *   *   *   *   *   * These go back even farther: Prince Edward County, sugar shacks, ducks, sheep, goats, madness, death. Watching watching always watching don't even think about it. *   *   *   *   *   * And then: more Oona art. DOES IT EVER STOP? Well, no. Because the voices emanating from the invisible pyramid won't let it. Also: goofballs. Hello, Crazy Witch. How are you today? Are you here for the souls?  Look – it's jungle fever. On your head. It's a pretty flo

oona drawings, they arrive in piles

Every day I clean out Oona's cubby at daycare, and every day I stuff whole piles of drawings into my bag. She hoards drawings the way crazy people hoard cats and empty bean cans. Last night she wanted to have Nerds for supper. This is the kind of thing I use as reference whenever people talk about respecting their kid's wishes.