christmas album

I was fortunate enough at christmas to get a few hours in with the full 'J' team - Dave, Nick, Nathaniel, Niels & Stef...

At some point in the evening christmas carols came out... It's now past the holidaze but I can't stop listening to the entertainment of this wee carol...

family advent calendar

Well.. heres a sobering toast to the month of December. No no November never ended up happening (for those of you who were in the loop) sooo for Dec 1-22nd (day i fly home) No no December will be starting. Here are my notes:

- As of today, i'm no longer unemployed but self employed. I am now full time all the time towards this business. Hours are logged. Weekdays are regimented. Start time is always 10am. Unfinished sections of business plan completed and ready for editing by home time.
- Production starts. I've hired my first part time employee!! and weekends are now spent in Merrickville designing and creating work.
- system reboot - 10 day fast starting today.
- wow i've missed walking as a bare minimum activity for the day. Rule of thumb, must sweat once a day.. easily done in the hot shop.. less easily done in city... but now mandatory.
- stay focused... everything other than glass this month is a 'hobby' meaning secondary to my now full time job. (this includes music which hurts me but i'll do it)
- 1 glass of wine max a day... noo booze! this one hurts too espeically when it comes to christmas parties such as the one i'll be attending tonight.

To be truthful I really hate announcing my goals in the open but i force myself to do it because if theres anything i cant stand its people who say they're going to do shit and dont. Sooo if i announce it somewhere public then it actually gives me a bit more gusto to accomplish the goal.

There is ONE small extra curricular that i'll be taking on this month and only because 'tis the season. I usually do one personal project for the fam at christmas... previous years have included glass items, mixed cds, photographs etc. This year I decided to make a family advent calendar of sorts. While in Tbay i went through a serious nostalgic kick and ended up sorting through hundreds of photos. I scanned some of my favourites and will edit 3 a day to post on facebook. Usually id try to avoid doing this stuff on facebook but it only make sense because then i can tag the individuals in the photo and if they want a copy of it they've got it.

Anyhow, happy serious work your ass off December.

If you want to view the nostalgic advent album click here.
Otherwise I'll post a few of my favourites from time to time.

jay sparrow

So my uber talented cousin Jay just released a new music video.
lay yr mountain down - pls giver a listen.

More jay videos...
jays song behind the movie trailer for steak & milk

Murder City Sparrows music videos
black hole betty

hammer click

back to the races

Despite best intentions, I seem to have dropped off the radar these past few weeks. And as a consequence, the longer I was away the harder it was to bubble to the surface again and remember where to start.

I sit in what I newly deem my ‘layer’. The layer is my new office where im hell bent and determined to finish that big looming document that keeps me from moving forward with my plans. To recap all those who are out of the loop (and to hopefully keep from repeating myself 20 times a day)… I’ve quit my day job to finish my business plan, to finally merge and relocate our studio into Ottawa, to make a decent living doing something that gets me excited and to better educate the populace of the mesmerizing and inherent wickedness that is glassblowing. I’m in transition… quite the understatement. And yet, every transition has made me giggle a touch more gleefully.

Due to the fact that I’m now unemployed and free to roam as I please, I’ve decided to take this entire month back in my home town of Thunder bay. The lists of reasons to come home are both personal and work related… perhaps contradictory and overly ambitions. I don’t know how I manage to tack on so many extra to do lists or how I fully plan on accomplishing it all but I honestly wish to achieve the following while here:

1 – glass
- complete bus. plan
- launch new website

2 – music
- refine and record 5 of my song
- record lyrics for dads childrens album
- write 3 bones to songs w luc for SOG
- play live jazz, solo stuff, SOG & backup
- partake in as many group jams as able

3 – photos
- capture Tbay in a collection of shots
- practice photoshoots w kel

4 – personal
- relax. get grounded
- regroup. get motivated
- recap w old friends
- good visits w all the family
- fuel creativity wherever inspired
- escape the city embrace all things nature

These lists all have sub-lists presented in order of importance with extra stars, highlights and underlines where needed… but mainly this visit is because I can. I have the opportunity to and ultimately it’s making my heart happy. By no means does this entail me staying in Thunder Bay however. I’m home to relax and accomplish a few goals then get back to the races.

Annnd at that, maybe its best I get back to this plan of mine.

scrooge

As a special present from Andy, these two photos came to me in an email. It appears I have developed a new disgruntled grandpa smirk, and being the good friend that she is, she thought I should be aware of it.

I assure you this was unconsciously done.

there is no wrong decision

I have an embarrassing admission. When I was a girl I wanted to be a singer. Now I realize this isn’t too silly a notion, you know, a 6 year old kid playing air guitar and lip-syncing to Queen's classics in her fake microphone. My real admission is the fact that I went into glass as my expressive medium thinking I’d outsmart the curse of the starving artist syndrome. My father had made his go at a musical career and retreated back to Thunder Bay when we kiddies came along. I think this knowledge is likely the reason I never went on to study music as a career. I didn’t admire the hard life style, yet I wasn’t about to bow down to the man either and take on a degree I couldn’t get excited about… sooo in all my illogical logic I thought glassblowing would be a much more suitable career choice.

It wasn't until about a year into my design program at Sheridan that I realized I was a complete idiot for thinking there was any difference between being a starving musician artist and being a starving glass artist. They’re both the same, sooo amazingly the same… and even worse, now I have two enormous passions that hold the same amount of importance and difficulty that I have to channel and express myself through in order to feel fulfilled. Wow that’s exhausting. And yet…. exhilarating!

My current life to some may be a complete backwards mess at this point. I could very feasibly still be in a not particularly unhappy relationship; a big somewhat put together home; a steady job I don’t hate with benefits, and likely a lot more money in the bank. And yet, even as I wake up alone in my uncle's basement, most of my things in boxes, no mode of transportation, and a mere week away from being unemployed… one thing scenario #1 has that scenario #2 surprisingly doesn’t have is - doubt. Even more, scenario #2 has somehow guided me to the thing I’d traveled as far as India to try and find again - sweet, wonderful, happiness!

I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to get at here. Had i originally studied music as i likely was too fearful to attempt, I could potentially be a very serious musician or I could have made a few other forks in the road and ended up somewhere completely different. Maybe I needed to pursue glass to build up my starving artist stamina to get to a level where I'm confident enough to attempt music on a more serious note? None of it really matters, I'm exactly where I'm meant to be at this exact moment in time.

I remember asking my Dad for advice growing up. I'd be all panicked and flustered and he'd always respond calmly with 'there is no wrong decision'. To me this was his cop-out way of answering the question without having to answer the question. I'd get irritated, roll my eyes, and walk away. Turns out he knew what he was talking about. Took a bit to sink in but I'm now 2 days away from taking a leap into the unknown world of starving artist again and all i need to really remember is that one piece of advice.

genius vs. insanity

Soooo TED, if you dont know it, is a sensational academic, nonprofit organization that hosts conferences on what they call 'ideas worth spreading'. They bring in some of the most interesting speakers/performers from around the world (recognizable names being... bill gates, jane goodall, al gore) and discus forward thinking concepts on everything from the sciences, global issues, the arts, education etc. What makes this organization extra sweet is that every lecture/performance is free to watch on their website.

This particular performance I must have watched a couple dozen times. The musician is Eric Lewis and he kinda makes my head explode. I love watching other people watch this clip for the first time because at first listen it will definitely receive some interesting reviews. Believe it or not this is an evenessence song that he's covered.

I love discussions on the difference between genius and insanity. Which is probably why I also find this lecture brilliant. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html/ the speaker is Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert. I strongly recommend taking 18mins to giver a listen.

okkervil

a few photos taken from the Okkervil River show. Man i wish i had this lens (it was a rental)

yoga shoot

Not too long ago i spent the entire day shooting some pretty flexible individuals. With about a dozen yogis to shoot and over a thousand photos to edit, here are a few of the shots that were taken that day.

ms. lucy castell


summer, lucy's beauty of a baby


And the intensive student, andy hartshorne


More will be coming, but in the meantime have a look at a few others on my flickr

marbles... glass droplets of goodness

Mass production vs. handmade

How it's made. Brilliant television show... I wish they could do a special series that just featured people in their artistic trades. Each episode would be similar to this, first showing how marbles are made in mass production, then showing the handmade marbles made by the glassblower. Come now, which marble would you wanna buy?