GroveCanadaGrove www.GroveCanada.net Artists talking...

Numbers:

2012-02-27T15:49:00.011-08:00

Write to us directly if you need to at grove@sent.com , Sari Grove will answer...

Please feed the birds:
Yesterday I brought 4 times 18 kilograms of wild bird seed to the 17 Trumpeter swans & 2 Mute swans & Bufflehead ducks & mallard ducks & seagulls & rock doves & Canada geese at the sloop of Bluffers park marina...I can only do this about once a week right now so I am hoping that others will pick a one day a week schedule & help to fill in the food gap...The Trumpeter swans were released into the wild in 2007 & need help with food from November to April inclusive...They are part of an Ontario restoration project & yes it is not only alright to feed them but encouraged...Encouraged...If each person takes on one day a week of feeding, then together the Trumpeter swans can get fed every day of the week...It's a numbers game...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/259764354096464/ Ontario Trumpeter Swans on Facebook is a place to report sightings of Trumpeter swans, but you can also browse some of the many amazing pictures without joining, just click the link...Feel free to join in(just ask to join & they let you in after a short delay), if you are a swan aficionado & feel you can help the Ontario people with some of the issues you read on the Wall...(Other type of bird people welcome)...

Numbers:
So do a Google search for the terms "Impressionistic oil painting"...
Yes, you get 5 million nine hundred thousand results...about...
Now, a Google search for Ferrocement sculpture brought up about 17 thousand results...

Ok, so you're an artist...
Which product of yours is going to sell better? Your Impressionistic oil paintings or your Ferrocement sculptures?
Probably the sculptures because there are fewer out there competing with yours...You can also ask a better price...
You wonder why you are having such a tough time selling your impressionistic oil paintings? Well...There are almost 6 million choices on the internet & that doesn't include those hobbits who didn't upload images of their work onto the internet...

It's a Numbers game...

by Sari Grove, Magnolia is a 36 by 48 inch walnut oil on linen painted with a knife...

Notes on diseases & remedies(updated from 2010):

Parkinson's disease: caused by spleen damage, corrected by fixing the spleen, usually adding copper to the diet, thus lowering the excessive phosphorus levels...(tea has lots of copper so drink piles of tea, like Red Rose, if you have Parkinson's)...(copper & phosphorus live together in normal balance in the spleen)...(phosphorus is found in turquoise jewelry btw)...

Diabetes: Diabetes is too much sugar in the pancreas, so lower your blood sugar by eating piles of raw garlic (known as selenium)...(selenium & sugar live together in a normal pancreas, in balance)...

Anorexia: probably too much iodine in the adrenals...Balance that out by adding its opposite in the adrenal, calcium...Eat cheese...Drink milk...

Cancer: too much progesterone(similar to calcium) found in the adrenal gland, often caused by the mother taking progesterone birth control pills...Treat with iodine things like kelp iodine supplements or Vinpocetine containing Madagascar Periwinkle tea(vinpocetine is close to iodine)...Titanium rutile jewelry beads contains iodine-like progesterone cleansing elements- wear next to your skin all the time...

Multiple Sclerosis: Is too much lead in the thyroid gland...treat by adding its opposite zinc supplements...(Zinc & lead should live in harmony in balance in the thyroid of a healthy person)...

Cool Google Tool: http://images.google.com/ So you go to this link & upload one of your images, like a picture of one of your sculptures, click Google Search & it searches the whole internet for that picture & tells you what sites it is on & what size & it is cool...(also if you think someone has used your pic without permission you could find that out here...) Just Neat!!! neato I should say...

Comments are not always Spam: I got this long comment below (see first comment), which got flagged by my spam filter right away...But I had a minute & I read the text...It is about how flowers sometimes mimic the shape of insects to get the insect to be attracted to the flower, so that the insect will pollinate the flower...The link goes to http://www.yongefloristmississauga.ca/ a florist in Mississauga, which is not too far from us...maybe it was spam, but I published it anyway- why not let some good spam through once a year? I like flowers, I like florists & I like knowing about cool things like the text in the spam...Not all spam is created equal...Maybe my next sculpture is going to be based on this text...(Read the Comment below)...

Bee, work in progress, this is the armature before the concrete...(Jadzia the bengal lady cat art assistant inspects for eco-friendly properties with B'Elanna not seen in pic.)

3 little birds written by Bob Marley sung by Sari with cat help for a Happy Valentine's Day to everybody!

2012-02-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ontario Trumpeter Swan waterbird restoration program...

http://pocketswarhol.blogspot.com/2012/02/halloween-18-x-18-on-pizza-box-one-of.html Scroll through the paintings on the left at this link to see works of art painted by Pockets Warhol the Capuchin Monkey! (warning: he is good...)

3 little birds written by Bob Marley sung by Sari with cat help for a Happy Valentine's Day to everybody!

B'Elanna my friend the bengal cat...(she lives with Jadzia another intact lady bengal)...

seriously tempted to move to a floating home at Bluffers park...

A Lice: (people say louse, but lice is more easily understood)

2012-02-01T00:12:00.001-08:00

I have used a macro on my Sony digital 8 mp then cropped sharpness altered exposure levels added definition saturated changed colour to show inner organ structure adjusted contrast, all to help you to see the tiny grain of rice that you think is just nothing important...This is a creature being born...The top is where the mouth is & you can see internal organs forming...When done, it will look like a nanobyte beaver with a vicious jaw & a will to survive at all costs...

This louse, lice, bedbug, creature, looks more like a beaver, a water rat that likes rivers & boggy lakes & marshland...It proliferates more in mercury poop sewage filled water...

The beaver happens to be one of Canada's National symbols & most loved creatures...

p.s. Where the heck did all our beavers go btw? (did they eat them at the Vancouver Olympics or did they sell them for fur hats to tourists who don't care?)

Here is the continuation from the previous blog post about the GrovePairs table, & a close-up of each body part with its pair of opposing elements that live there...I will start here with the HEART:

2012-01-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

Heart

Note(added Jan. 29, 2012 from Canada): Cardiomyopathy is in fact a lack of cobalt not an excess...It is a lack of B12, lack of taurine, (a powder form of cobalt which can be found in bodybuilding supplement stores & can be sprinkled on human & pet foods safely)...Overbreeding in humans or pets can cause cardiomyopathy, (or heart that is lacking in B12 cobalt)...The beer in Canada that was supplemented with cobalt did not cause the cardiomyopathy from the addition of the cobalt, but in fact, the ingestion of large amounts of beer, combined with the correlation to those who were studied (people who drink alot at the expense of full nutrition), may have skewed the findings...More likely is that people who drink much beer may correlate to those who have cardiomyopathy, insofar as cardiomyopathy presents more often in large families with multiple children, & those children may be more inclined to be social beer drinkers...Poverty can also correlate to much beer drinking, which correlates back to multiple offspring & cardiomyopathy...All this to say that cobalt is good for those with weak cardiomyopathic hearts, as well as cats & dogs & other animals who suffer from HCM or hypertrophiccardiomyopathy...A sprinkle of Taurine powder on daily food helps sufficiently...Cobalt is also found in copal amber B12 beads, which can be worn around the neck or as a waist chain for continuous feed of B12 to a broken neck or back, or just for back pain, or whiplash pain...The copal amber beads are so strong that weight gain around the waistline occurs after continuous wear for back problems...Latvia & Lithuania are good inexpensive sources of copal amber beads, which can easily be ordered online...

So the heart needs cobalt &...? (what is opposite to cobalt?) I will tell you later...Ok, it is later...Vitamin C...Vitamin C cleans out Cobalt, Cobalt cleans out Vitamin C...A glass of orange juice has Vitamin C in it...If you drink that while you eat some sort of cobalt containg food you get both...Cobalt exists in Taurine powder...Cobalt exists in copal amber beads...Cobalt exists in B12...Cobalt exists in clam juice (found in grocery stores)...So a plate of mussels or clams with your OJ gives you cobalt plus vitamin C...A heart healthy meal... A cloggy heart needs Vitamin C...A weak tired failing heart needs Cobalt...KNOW the difference...It is not enough to say you have heart trouble...Do you have a weak fragile heart or a full overly large cloggy heart? BIG difference in treatment...Either you need alot of orange juice or you need alot of steamed mussels...Or alot of Taurine powder or alot of Vitamin C...Depends on which element is dominant...A normal heart just needs love...A broken heart needs more love...

A Northern Pike fish is actually a slough shark, a freshwater shark, from the shark family but lives in lakes...

2012-01-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

The following little book(um, you can totally skip this book-but my rough work is important to showing the progression of my thoughts on my studies, that is more for that that I am showing this-the "where I came from" or how did you get this or that idea" kind of questions...))... contains my notes on beaded fingers for someone missing them, nutritional elements needed to regrow lost limbs, the paired elements that exist in each body part, & introductory thoughts in a few other topics...This may result in a more mature study, but it is always important to show one's work along the way, before you get there...

here is a diagram that came out of my notes for the book...It includes the body parts that are integral & the paired elements that live in each as opposites...Too much of one gives you a disease, so balance out & remedy by supplementing with the other...The key is to find out which organ is actually involved & to be honest, in a progressed disease, there may be more than one organ, so try to figure out which organs, then which way the inbalance sways in each, then supplement with the opposite for each...Neat eh? This is my own idea & I think it is brilliant! (Don't you?)

here's a for example: Graves disease is too much iodine in the adrenal gland...Which is organ number 10 on the Grove Pairs table...Calcium is the opposite element in that organ...So add milk to your diet or cheese...Taah Daah!

Dear Pizza Hut, You are using genetically modified grains in your pizza crust...Last night, we ordered delivery, & I had several pieces of my favorite, which is tomatoes, onions & pineapple...It tastes like a Hawaiian without offending the pizza makers who really don't like it when you order pork...Why make someone uncomfortable if you don't have to? So then I went to bed, happy & satiated...In the middle of the night my throat closed up to a pinhole, & I remembered that some companies are still using GM grains, even though the studies show that it is impossible to digest & can cause organ damage & most specifically kidney failure...I made a mental note to drink something sort of laxative in the morning- a teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water, maybe a can of Labatt's Blue beer, don't have any Triple leaf slimming tea left which was too bad- a swig of cooking oil though gross works too...Thought I'd write this letter asking your company, Pizza Hut, to consider using NON-Genetically modified grains in your pizza crust...Kidney failure is pretty serious & I am sure that your company does not want to be responsible for any of that...Why not take the lead & come out & state that Pizza Hut is going to boycott GMO foods? Maybe others will follow? I sure hope you do ban GM foods, because I really like how your pizza tastes...Just not stopping breathing in the middle of the night after would be nice...Sincerely Sari Grove

Spleen: I want to add that the thymus of a child born to a parent who had spleen damage can be compromised insofar as it will present as iron anemia bipolar schizophrenic (& high in manganese)...Treat that thymus weakness with iron...Treat spleen damage(causes excess phosphorus) with copper...Treat gallbladder damage(causes excess mercury) with magnesium...

About the Piracy Kaffuffle:

I think we are just experiencing the struggles of moving into a new paradigm...The internet...It was new & largely unregulated, so we have all enjoyed much free intellectual property for a while...Those people who have been the sharers may have lost revenue & are seeking reparation...Those on the receiving end have been spoiled & don't want the free ride to end...It has been established that this type of intellectual property should cost money, that is not the argument...Well, it wasn't the argument, but it is becoming the argument...Normally we would all agree that things we see on the net cost money & those things should be paid for by us...But has it been too long? Has it been too good? Have we seen shifts in consciousness due to the free exchange of intellect not previously afforded? I think possibly yes...We are all smarter, internationally...In the world of Star Trek they speak of the fact that money no longer is an object...Those who watch Star Trek imagine this possibility...That money no longer be the driving force or motivator...Those thoughts give us pause & peace...But how as an artist can we reconcile giving away our work for free on the net with the dubious attempt to earn a living & pay bills? I reconcile this by trying to give back to the net when I take from it...After searching wikipedia for answers, I publish my own theories & findings also freely, rather than hoarding them for cash...A reciprocal arrangement...As a metaphor, when I see people taking photographs of the Trumpeter swans who live on Lake Ontario, I tell them to bring them wild bird seed as payment, as a modelling fee...If you want to Take a picture, you should also give something back to the model...All wildlife photographers & artists should be doing this...If you take from the internet, then share something back...If the net gave you freely then publish something in return for free...If an honour system occurs we can bypass regulating a bit...Of course the other facet of this is in fact that it is often an artist to artist sharing system, which is how it began...It is only now that the net has broadened, that the artists mind...(some don't)...It appears that the doctors have regulated the net with charging for articles, research...So have the lawyers with pay to ask a question...Many others are also charging...So I think what we are dealing with here, is, once again, the artists, who are woefully bad either on purpose or not, at business...I mean, all you have to do to regulate your content is either not publish it online, or encrypt it to force payment...At that point any other taking becomes illegal & a case for the cops, no? So possibly this whole kaffuffle is the ineptness of the artists to control their own product from theft?

The LIVER

The Ovaries & the Fallopian Tubes

I didn't change the channel one day after watching the Ellen Degeneres show...Something called TMZ came on...There was reaction on TMZ to Newt Gingrich's complaint that the Presidential debate opened with a question about a rumour that Mr. Gingrich had requested an open marriage with his now ex-wife...
The TMZ folk, one of them, said that the journalist "had the right to ask that question" & so on, about rights...As a Canadian, I hear alot of American rhetoric about I have a right to do this, & I have a right to say that...
Sure you have a right...That is important...But what defines you should not be that you have a right to do or say something...Your ethic should be higher...You should ask yourself: "Is this good?" ...Is it good to do or say this...? You may have the right, ok, but perhaps it is not a good thing to do...
Perhaps you have the right to own a gun...Ok...Does that mean you should go out to buy a gun? No, not necessarily...A gun might endanger your own family, since many of gun accidents happen at the home where no strangers were present...
There are certain circumstances that may require you to own a gun...Someone has threatened your life, someone dangerous...You are an officer of the law...You live in Jurassic park & the animals really don't like you...Even then, you still have to ask yourself: "Is this good?" ...
Having the right to do or say something doesn't mean that it is in your best interest...Sure journalists have the right to ask dumb personal questions...Is it good? Is that a good way to start a conversation with someone?
Let's raise our standards from I have a right to I think this is good...Having a right doesn't make something good...
I think that the right to own a gun might be ok, but I don't think that owning a gun is good...So I think most people on this planet should not own a gun, even if they have that right...
I think freedom of speech is a right, but I think journalists get way too personal & I don't think that is good...

Bipolar Thymus

Thyroid Multiple Sclerosis

That said, this TMZ show was funny & I may watch again...I thought it was pretty good...

telepathy: Sound waves are long when they come out of your mouth...When you think a thought, those are also sound waves, but much shorter in amplitude...When you get a concussion, your brain swells up & sometimes you cannot talk...But those very short sound waves of your thoughts still occur- you tune into those...Some people, if they are "all in the head" type people, can hear other people's short waves...Especially if the other person is close physically...The same holds for fish, cats, dogs, horses- if you are a person who thinks more than speaks, then you are tuned into your own short waves...often those same people can hear other's short waves...if you get two entities together who are not talkative but thoughtful, sometimes they can hear each other's short waves...They call this telepathy...People who fell on their head as a child may have permanent swelling, which makes them more "head cases"...These are more likely to be telepathic or have those abilities...Which is why people who get concussions often say they hear voices...They are actually just hearing thought waves...
Ok, so, here is how you do it...Case in point: I was at the Bass Pro shop at Vaughan Mills http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&appID=94&storeID=11, which is really like a world unto itself, not really just a store...Please forgive me dear reader, I know this is maybe a hunting & fishing store, but that was just not how I saw it...What I saw was a giant fish tank, an aquarium, with some really big beautiful fish inside...Again, when I say fish, I mean that loosely, these were more like people who live underwater...There are these rock formations in front of the tank, so I crawled onto one close to the glass & sat & "chatted" with my new boyfriend, I will call "Elliot"...Elliot is a blue catfish I think, um how big? Like, maybe 3 to 4 feet long? Huge...He is Very friendly...
So here is how you have to talk to a fish like Elliot- by telepathy...For those who have never tried this, at least on purpose, here is how you do it...Sit very close to the person or fish you want to talk to or listen to...Ok, now think a thought...If you want to talk...Think it with that little voice in your head, the one that says: "Hmm, this morning I am going to have tea instead of coffee"... or the voice that says: "Wow, I really need a bath"...Think something simple, like: "Hi"...If you are close enough to your friend, they should hear you...It helps to start with a visual connect, so they know where the sound is coming from...Yes, sound...That little voice inside your head makes a sound...A very very short sound wave...A fish like Elliot, with a smaller head, & the occasion not to talk too much with his mouth, will be used to talking & listening with his head...It still goes through his ears, but it is much quieter...Once you have started exercising the voice in your head place, then shut up & listen...Stay in that place in your head...Now listen closely...If Elliot is going to talk then you will hear him in that same place...He is making a sound wave too...Make sure you are pretty close, because you really have to hear the sound wave & through glass & water can be difficult...This is a good way to talk to fish...Also good for your cats, if there is something they need to tell you, like their food sucks...Elliot was very flirtatious with me, he said "Hey gorgeous!"...I told him that the guy beside me was my husband, but he didn't seem to mind...What he did was he went sideways to show me how big he was...Very sure of himself...So I spent most of my time at this Bass Pro shop talking & listening to Elliot...Then my husband said we had better buy something, for all the time we were there, so I got some great black snug track pants with cool pockets at the back made of a lined material for warmth, a emerald rainforest top with thumb holes, a back pouch & little flowers climbing the side of it, & some sort of skillet candle in a cast iron frying pan made by Swan Creek candles & smells like cinnamon buns ooom...Prices were excellent & the store/world was gorgeous...Twice I think that day I told Joseph I thought the Vaughan Mills Mall was heaven...I mean, heaven to me is maybe a shopping mall where everything is spanking clean & new, with pretty sculptures & fountains, & great stores where everything is at factory outlet prices...Plus I got to make friends with Elliot...Later that day I got my face licked by a blonde blue eyed husky puppy at the pet shop there, we decided we would name here "Anika" if we got her...She was only a thousand dollars, which is a deal for a husky so pretty...But we decided the city life was not for her, & that there was nowhere anymore near us where she could pee daily...They have taken all our green grass away & replaced it with tall new buildings of cement & glass...
I talk alot to animals...They are good listeners...Mostly I talk out loud with my mouth...That is easy...Sometimes I try to talk or listen with my head...It is tiring because it is not a habit...But it comes in handy if you need to know something about a situation & you need to get it directly from the animal who lives there...Like the Trumpeter Swans at Bluffers park...But I don't talk or listen too much in winter because it is so cold that I don't want to make them think in the cold...Talk is cheap in freezing cold weather-mostly I just want to make sure they get some wild bird seed & stay alive...Most of the talk that comes from animals these days is about how they don't like their food...Alot of dogs complain to me about their food when I pat them...Some cats, but I don't see people's cats that often...My suggestion to people is to feed their dogs better food...An easy way to do that is to give them some human food, at least once a week...try even some canned food once in a while too...Mix it up...If you spend alot on the doggy dry food you feed you will save a bundle on vet fees later...We've been feeding Innova dry to our bengal cats(Global Pet Foods or Petsmart), with Purina urinary chicken entree in little cans(Pet Valu) as a bonus a few times a week...We put Balance from Phytopet (SwallowHealthyDiet.com) in all their wet food, & have done so for 7 years now...It keeps them out of heat...(Yes, they are both intact)...
Back to Elliot...If you go to Bass Pro shop say hi to the big blue catfish there...Also- tell the owners that he would very much like a female big blue catfish as a girlfriend or wife & possible mother...Elliot is lonely for a mate...(& don't think of Bass Pro shops as a hunting or fishing place- see it as a place to see gorgeous fish creatures, buy cute clothing & wonderful candles that make your home smell like a bakery...The more people who go there for those purposes, the fewer they will cater to hunters or fishers...& that would be neat...for Elliot, & for me...)

I think that when people use the word "green", they should be talking about things that are in fact green...Like trees & grass...For every normal size house there should be an equal expanse of green that goes with it...Thus, in that same ratio, a massive tall building, should have the same commensurate green space beside it...So if a normal family home has that big front yard & backyard, then for each family unit in that condo building there should be an equally sized patch of grass & trees...So your tall high rise should be sitting on a giant giant green park with tons of green grass & trees...A cement building is not green, no matter how you slice it...Green must be green & we have to stop euphemizing...( a little blue with the green too-like a koi pond would be nice...) Just because people are moving into condos doesn't mean their need for use of green grass is going to be less...In fact, people who live in high rises yearn for green trees more...Green requirements- actually green things, need to be made law before any building development be approved...Big green...Not trees planted in cement sidewalks...

http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida Richard Florida writes cool articles that artists & non-artists should read...(many are free at his site)...
http://www.good.is/post/why-historic-buildings-are-greener-than-new-leed-certified-ones/ here's an article in a publication called "Good", which seems to also have some good reading material...(now that you are leaving me, you will need some things to read...)

Colon

Light is:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC261216/pdf/iai00117-0046.pdf I was reading this link this morning (Saturday jan. 28, 2012 & not only did it confirm my theories about parkinson's it shed some insight into thymus iron anemia which presents as bipolar(as being inherited by a parent who suffered spleen damage in say a car accident as a child)...

Comments by me: An collision injury like person vehicle, causes slow spleen damage, often...the resulting copper deficiency with commensurate Parkinson's disease will also slowly collapse other organs- the pancreas will show diabetes sugars which need selenite supplement (garlic) to fix, the gallbladder will show mercury (like toenail fungus) poisoning which needs extra magnesium to fix...children of spleen damaged may show weak thymus which is manganese heavy but iron weak, thus displaying an iron anemia which presents as bipolar...

grovecanadaJan 28, 2012 06:31 AM

Myasthenia Gravis is too much iron in the thymus- so don't overdo the iron if you are bipolar!

How to do sculpture in ferrocement...

2011-10-23T20:41:00.001-07:00

We got a custom eco-friendly no voc concrete sealer made for us by Eco-House.com ...

Their mix is 1 part Rainsil to 9 parts Primasil, they will mix it & send you the right amount...They are in new Brunswick, Canada & are awesome!

Note: Sunday Dec. 4th, 2011: I did my first test of ADDING eco-friendly concrete sealer INTO the cement mix! So far so good...It increases flexibility & workability, but make sure to still add some water- you can't replace water with the concrete sealer...Now the proportions you choose can vary depending on your needs...I put as much concrete sealer in as I could & a tiny bit of water to activate the cement...This is NOT a traditional recommendation but I am trying to waterproof my cement for outdoor freezing cold Canadian weather...We'll see how it goes...I will post pics as it gets drier...So far so good though! promising...(I get my eco-sealer from Eco-House linked above)...They are the best...

Dec. 5th, 2011- this is a one day cured wire armature of copper, wrapped in white cement mixed with eco-friendly concrete sealer...What is significant is that i mixed the sealer INTO the cement not on it...This makes the cement more waterproof...I used mostly sealer with just a tiny dash of water...Totally works & makes the cement fluffy & more plastic...Going to let it cure for a while then do some in the freezer tests...The goal is to make a waterproof cement for Canadian winters outside...

http://sarigrove.weebly.com/1/post/2011/12/how-to-make-a-trumpeter-swan-nest-this-is-prototype-number-8-in-progress-now.html Read my new exciting post on how to make a better Trumpeter Swan Nest...yes, I am still designing these things, trying to make them even better & safer...Feel free to insult the design- it seems to be quite helpful actually & prods me into improvement...

Balance Protection Insurance is really a Balance Protection Warranty...

2011-10-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

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----- Original message -----

From: "Joseph & Sari Grove"

To: grove@sent.com

Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2011 08:42:55 -0400

Subject: Balance Protection is really a Product Protector Plan...

Your product is essentially a warranty on your credit card product...It says: "If you have a problem with your credit card product, if it is causing you a burden on your life, then this warranty will repair that..."

Balance Protection Insurance is a warranty on the product called a "credit card"...How is it a warranty? Most importantly, because warranties are distinguished by being sold by the same person who is selling you your product...It is sold by a person with a vested interest in the product...It is sold when the product called the credit card is sold, because it is a warranty attached to the credit card...It is optional like any warranty, but it is pressed on the customer because the seller of the credit card wants to make sure that if there is something wrong with your credit card product, that the warranty will repair such defects...

You can't pay off your credit card? Don't worry...You have a warranty that will take care of that in case maybe the credit card product you were issued is a little defective, like the interest rate charge was too high, or too many service fees, or the dates kept changing on the payment due date so you were always late to pay then got a bad credit rating by the bank & then they demoted you to a more expensive costing credit card because you were now rated lower as a credit risk...

Balance Protection Insurance is actually mislabeled...This is common...It is mislabeled because the concept of a warranty on a credit card is so ludicrous...But so were credit default swaps...Essentially credit default swaps, were people betting that you wouldn't be able to pay your mortgage off because you didn't earn enough money at your job to ever pay the money with interest etc....It was a calculated gamble...They were gambling that you would fail...Kind of like betting that a horse will lose...It is kind of mean...

When people who got loans to buy houses defaulted on those loans, the house paid up to those who had bet on you losing...The horse lost that you bet on to lose, so you win big...Credit default swaps are gross because you win when someone else loses...OK, when I put it that way, it doesn't sound so bad, someone has to win right? & then someone else has to lose...That is life? Well, it is more like someone taking insurance out on your business office building...One day it burns down...Instead of the insurance company paying you some money back for the fire loss, the insurance company pays someone else...That is not fair right? That is more like credit default swaps...The truth is, whether or not someone paid insurance premiums on your office building, if it burns down in a fire, they shouldn't get any money? Why? because a third party should not be able to take out an insurance policy on YOUR OFFICE BUILDING...

Which is why credit default swaps are vaguely illegal...Or mostly illegal...Or very illegal...

Now let's get back to balance protection insurance, which is not actually insurance at all, but really a warranty on a product called the credit card...A credit card is a product right? Are you with me? It is a tangible thing you can feel with your hands...

OK...anyways...The Warranty Act covers the governance or administration or etiquette of how warranties are to be administered...

Salient point here is that "TIE-IN" selling is not allowed...In order for this warranty to be valid, you have to service the credit card through our financial mechanics...An auto warranty should allow you to go to other mechanics or to use secondary market parts, as long as the part doesn't break the car if you use it...In the same abstract way, if your credit card is broken, & you need to get it serviced, then you should be allowed to go to other financial mechanics besides the financial dealer to get it fixed up...The warranty should cover this event...So say you can't pay off your TD Visa credit card because it is too expensive for you or something...The warranty says it will take care of your payments in such an event...You have paid alot for this warranty so you expect good service...You go to get your credit card serviced using your warranty, & oops, what do they say? Sorry your warranty is not valid because...What my warranty is not valid? Yes, not valid? Why? Well, um, the warranty doesn't cover people who are messy? What do you mean people who are messy?

Well, messy people tend to lose things, they step on things & break them, they throw good things out by accident...The warranty won't cover you if you are a messy person...Well, that's not fair...I paid $2,684.70 plus 8% interest on this warranty since January 2001...& you say messy people can't make a claim? Yes, messy people can't make a claim...But that's discriminatory? Well, that is just how TD Canada trust bank does it...Messy people can't file a claim for a damaged product...

But why didn't you tell me this when I signed up? Um...It was in the fine fine print of the brochure we mailed to you 29 days after we signed you up...Really? yes, see clause 345 here paragraph 567 section 789? yes...Here give me the loop...I can't see it without my reading glasses...OK, yes, I see it...Sort of...What does it say?

It says "messy people cannot file a claim on the warranty on the credit card product..."

Oh...See, when you read that you could have called & canceled...But I didn't get the brochure...Well, we sent it...But I didn't see the fine print? Well, too bad it was there...So you mean you have been taking money from me all these years on this warranty but I could never qualify to make a claim if my product broke? yes that is correct...But that is not fair...Oh well, talk to our ombudsman, goodbye...Ombudsman, hello: " It will take 90 days to process your request & we can't get a refund for you but we can investigate whether processes were done by the TD Canada trust book"...Who do you work for? Ombudsman: "TD"...So how can you be impartial? Um...90 days? & you can't get me a refund? Well, we can see if things were done the way we do things here at TD...But you work for TD...? What are the chances that you are going to find fault with how you do things at TD if you work at TD? Hm mm...Good question...

Customer: "Well, I am not going to spend three months to talk to another employee at TD...I have already discovered that they are mean & rude & won't honour my warranty claim...Why should I bother going through another TD employee? So that they can tell me they did an investigation & the LETTER of the law was followed by the book?(not the SPIRIT the letter...)

Ok, now substitute the word "self-employed" for messy throughout this story...

I went & had my credit card serviced by another mechanic...My brother did the labour...he fixed it all up brand spanking new so it was clean & shiny again...No debt at all...It had a bad debt clog of $2,684.70 plus interest...But he got rid of that clog & now it is fine again...

My warranty says that you should pay for that debt clog repair...But you told me over the phone that messy people weren't covered...oops I mean self-employed people...So I stopped all payments to you because you finally told me verbally that a messy person was not in fact covered...I mean a self-employed person...But you took all that money from me for a warranty that you wouldn't let me file a claim for...

You said that the warranty would repair any damage to my credit card product in the past 8 years...But then you said that I was excluded because I am messy & self-employed...

So what is it? Am I excluded from this policy & get my money back from being sold a bum policy?

Or are you going to honour your warranty & pay off the $2,684.70 plus 8% interest that was clogging up my card?

You can't have it both ways...

I went to another mechanic, my brother, who fixed the clog by paying off the amount...

Now I am filing a claim to the warranty seller for the amount of $2,684.70 plus 8% interest in repairs...

This is a bill...An invoice...TD owes me...(I don't care what you want to call the department, bank, insurance, credit card, Visa, whatever, you are all owned by Toronto Dominion Bank & as such are all liable for the debt...)

You can either pay me off your debt or you can annul the entire contract as being a big mistake because you did not clearly state that messy or self-employed people were not covered under the terms of the warranty on the credit card...& then rescind the contract & return both parties to the state where they were before they started the contract...

I will hire a collections agency or a bailiff to collect my monies if that is necessary...

or perhaps I will boycott your company Td Bank...

Maybe I will just publish all of this online...

That is what I will do because I anticipate that you are not giving me my money back...Why? because after all my hard work, you sent me a dumb form letter from your ombudsman Paul Huyer to sign & return within 15 days...

You should have rescinded the contract & put the money back on my TD Visa card...

Bad decision...Unfair business practices...

signed Sari Grove (& for the record, if you could get my name straight it would have helped you...I mean how hard is it to understand the Canadian law of 1974 that a woman is legally allowed to "adopt" her husband's last name without a legal name change??? Apparently you were all(ok, mostly all) too stupid to catch that my married name is Grove, but my financials were kept separate, for reason, in my maiden name...)

I have spoken to the underwriter, who is now owned by BMO Bank of Montreal(who I love btw)...I have spoken to the FCAC...I asked them to penalize TD bank for $250K for bad business & violations of Canadian law(& that is a kind amount)...I have spoken to OHLI the Ombudsman for Life & Health Insurance(also FSCO, but Ontario doesn't have jurisdiction over the bank Act stupidly)...I asked OHLI to issue a "cease & desist" order to force a full refund to any & all customers who have ever bought balance protection insurance in Canada...This would include other banks besides TD Bank, including(but not complete list) CIBC, RBC, Sears, Capital One who were previously underwritten by AIG Canada's Assurant or AIG Canada's Canada Premier Life Insurance Company...A cease + desist order would also mean a full stop & ban on the further selling of this product called "balance protection insurance" which is really a misnomer & should be called a warranty not insurance...ie: balance protection warranty

You can all take as long as you want to do this...I do not impose artificial deadlines on people like TD's ombudsman has done to me? What if I couldn't return your letter signed in 15 days? What? that is it? I mean c'mon, nobody does business that way unless you are a total ...let me stop here & wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, friends & enemies, alike, I am thankful for email, for allowing me to have this conversation more effortlessly than before...

Good day, Sari Grove (just call me Sari if you can't get my name straight...or Mrs. Grove)...

Saturday, Octobre 8, 2011 L'assurance du solde est vraiment une garantie protection de solde ...

Voir comme texte - Show Raw MessageShow fu ----- Original Message ----- De: "Joseph & Sari Grove» Pour: grove@sent.com Date: Sat, 8 octobre 2011 08:42:55 -0400 Objet: Protection équilibre est vraiment un plan de protection du produit ...
  Votre produit est essentiellement une garantie sur votre produit carte de crédit ... Il dit: «Si vous avez un problème avec votre produit carte de crédit, si elle vous cause un fardeau sur votre vie, alors cette garantie va réparer ça ...»
  L'assurance du solde est une garantie sur le produit appelé "carte de crédit" ... Comment est-il une garantie? Plus important encore, parce que les garanties sont distingués en étant vendus par la même personne qui vous vend votre produit ... Il est vendu par une personne ayant un intérêt direct dans le produit ... Il est vendu lorsque le produit appelé la carte de crédit estvendus, car c'est une garantie attachée à la carte de crédit ... Il est facultatif, comme aucune garantie, mais il est pressé sur le client parce que le vendeur de la carte de crédit veut s'assurer que s'il ya quelque chose de mal avec votre carte de crédit produit, c'est la garantie de réparation de tels défauts ...
  Vous ne pouvez pas payer votre carte de crédit? Ne vous inquiétez pas ... Vous avez une garantie qui se chargeront de vous que dans le cas peut-être le produit de carte de crédit vous ont été émis est un peu défectueuse, comme la charge de taux d'intérêt était trop élevé ou trop frais de service beaucoup, ou les dates ne cessait d'évoluer sur la date d'échéance afin que vous étaient toujours en retard pour payer ensuite obtenu une mauvaise cote de crédit par la banque et puis ils vous rétrogradé à une carte de crédit coûte plus cher parce que vous étiez désormais une cote inférieure comme un risque de crédit ...
  L'assurance du solde est en fait mal étiqueté ... Cette situation est commune ... Il est mal étiqueté, car le concept d'une garantie sur une carte de crédit est si ridicule ... Mais si on credit default swaps ... Essentiellement des credit default swaps, étaient des gens le pari que vous ne seriez pas en mesure de payer votre prêt hypothécaire parce que vous n'avez pas gagner assez d'argent à votre travail à jamais payer de l'argent avec les intérêts, etc ... C'était un risque calculé ... Ils étaient de jeu que vous auriez échouent ... Un peu comme le pari que le cheval va perdre ... Il est une sorte de moyenne ...
  Quand les gens qui ont obtenu des prêts pour acheter des maisons en défaut sur ces prêts, la maison payé jusqu'à ceux qui avaient parié sur vous perdre ... Le cheval a perdu que vous pariez sur à perdre, alors vous gagnez gros ... Les credit default swaps sont bruts parce que vous gagnez quand quelqu'un perd ... OK, quand je mets comme ça, ça ne sonne pas si mal, quelqu'un a le droit de gagner? & Puis quelqu'un d'autre a à perdre ... C'est la vie? Eh bien, il ressemble plus à quelqu'un de prendre une assurance sur votre immeuble de bureaux d'affaires ... Un jour, il brûle ... Au lieu de la compagnie d'assurance qui vous verse un peu d'argent pour la perte d'incendie, la compagnie d'assurance paie quelqu'un d'autre ... Ce n'est pas juste juste? C'est plus comme les swaps sur défaillance de crédit ... La vérité est, si oui ou non quelqu'un a payé les primes d'assurance sur votre immeuble de bureaux, si elle brûle dans un incendie, ils ne devraient pas recevoir de l'argent? Pourquoi? car un tiers ne devrait pas être en mesure de souscrire une police d'assurance sur votre immeuble de bureaux ...

C'est pourquoi les swaps sur défaillance de crédit sont vaguement illégal ... ou presque illégal ... Ou très illégales ...
  Maintenant, nous allons revenir à l'équilibre d'assurance de protection, ce qui n'est pas réellement d'assurance du tout, mais vraiment une garantie sur un produit appelé la carte de crédit ... Une carte de crédit est un bon produit? Etes-vous avec moi? C'est une chose tangible que vous pouvez sentir avec vos mains ...
  OK ... anyways ... La Loi sur la garantie couvre la gouvernance ou l'administration ou à l'étiquette de la façon dont les garanties sont à administrer ...
  Point saillant est que «TIE-IN" vente n'est pas autorisée ... Pour que cette garantie soit valide, vous avez au service de la carte de crédit grâce à nos mécaniciens financiers ... Une garantie automobile doit vous permettre d'aller vers d'autres mécanique ou d'utiliser des pièces du marché secondaire, tant que la partie ne se casse pas la voiture si vous l'utilisez ... De la même manière abstraite, si votre carte de crédit est cassée, et vous avez besoin pour faire réparer, alors vous devriez être autorisés à aller vers d'autres rouages financiers en dehors du concessionnaire financiers de le faire réparer jusqu'à ... La garantie doit couvrir cet événement ... Donc disons que vous ne pouvez pas payer votre carte de crédit Visa TD, car il est trop cher pour vous ou quelque chose ... La garantie dit qu'il va prendre soin de vos paiements dans un tel événement ... Vous avez payé beaucoup pour cette garantie si vous vous attendez à un bon service ... Vous allez obtenir votre carte de crédit en utilisant votre service de garantie, et oups , que disent-ils? Désolé, votre garantie n'est pas valable parce que ... Qu'est-ce que ma garantie n'est pas valable? Oui, pas valable? Pourquoi? Eh bien, euh, la garantie ne couvre pas les personnes qui sont salissants? Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire des gens qui sont salissants?

Eh bien, les gens ont tendance à perdre désordre des choses, ils pas sur les choses et les briser, ils jettent de bonnes choses par accident ... La garantie ne vous couvrira pas si vous êtes une personne désordonnée ... Eh bien, ce n'est pas juste .. . J'ai payé 2,684.70 $ plus les intérêts de 8% sur cette garantie depuis Janvier 2001 ... et vous dire que les gens désordre ne peut pas faire une réclamation? Oui, les gens désordre ne peut pas faire une réclamation ... Mais ce discriminatoire? Eh bien, c'est juste la manière dont la banque TD Canada Trust il ne ... les gens Sale ne pouvez pas déposer une réclamation pour un produit endommagé ...
  Mais pourquoi n'as-tu pas me dire cela quand je me suis inscrit? Euh ... C'est dans les petits caractères fins de la brochure, nous avons posté de vous 29 jours après que nous vous avez signé ... Vraiment? Oui, voir l'article 345 paragraphe 567 ici, la section 789? oui ... voici me donner la boucle ... Je ne peux pas le voir sans mes lunettes de lecture ... OK, oui, je le vois ... en quelque sorte ... Que faut-il dire?
  Il dit: «les gens désordre ne pouvez pas déposer une réclamation sur la garantie sur le produit de carte de crédit ..."
  Oh ... Vous voyez, quand vous lisez que vous pourriez avoir appelé & annulée ... Mais je n'ai pas eu la brochure ... Eh bien, nous l'avons envoyé ... Mais je n'ai pas vu les petits caractères?Eh bien, tant pis il était là ... Donc vous voulez dire que vous avez pris l'argent de moi pendant toutes ces années sur cette garantie, mais je ne pourrais jamais se qualifier pour faire une réclamation si mon produit a éclaté? Oui c'est exact ... Mais ce n'est pas juste ... Eh bien, parlez-en à notre ombudsman, médiateur au revoir ..., bonjour: «Il faudra 90 jours pour traiter votre demande et nous ne pouvons pas obtenir un remboursement pour vous, mais nous ne pouvons déterminer si les processus ont été réalisées par le livre de TD Canada Trust "... Qui voulez-vous travailler? Médiateur: "TD" ... Alors, comment pouvez-vous être impartial? Euh ... 90 jours? & Vous ne pouvez pas me faire rembourser? Eh bien, nous pouvons voir si les choses ont été faites de la façon dont nous faisons les choses ici chez TD ... Mais vous travaillez pour le TD ...? Quelles sont les chances que vous allez trouver à redire à la manière dont vous faites les choses au TD si vous travaillez chez TD? Hm mm ... Bonne question ...
  Client: "Bon, je ne vais pas passer trois mois à parler à un autre employé de TD ... j'ai déjà découvert qu'ils sont méchants et grossiers & va pas honorer ma demande de garantie ... Pourquoi devrais-je passer par un autre employé de TD? Alors qu'ils peuvent me dire qu'ils ont fait une enquête et la lettre de la loi a été suivie par le livre? (pas l'Esprit de la lettre ...)
  Ok, maintenant remplacer le mot «indépendant» pour désordre dans toute cette histoire ...
  Je suis allé et je n'ai eu ma carte de crédit desservis par un autre mécanicien ... Mon frère ne le travail ... il a fixé le tout flambant de nouvelles donc il était propre et brillante encore ... Pas de dette du tout ... Il avait une obstruer créances douteuses de 2,684.70 $ plus les intérêts ... Mais il s'est débarrassé de qui bouchent et maintenant il est bien à nouveau ...
  Ma garantie dit que vous devriez payer pour que la réparation obstruer la dette ... Mais tu m'as dit au téléphone que les gens ne sont pas couverts salissante ... oups je veux dire les travailleurs autonomes ... J'ai donc arrêté tous les paiements à vous parce que vous avez finalement m'a dit verbalement que une personne désordonnée n'a pas été en fait couvert ... je veux dire un travailleur autonome ... Mais vous avez pris tout cet argent de moi pour une garantie que vous ne me laisserait pas déposer une réclamation pour. ..
  Vous avez dit que la garantie serait de réparer tout dommage à mon produit de carte de crédit dans les 8 dernières années ... Mais alors vous avez dit que j'ai été exclu parce que je suis désordonnée et indépendants ...
  Alors c'est quoi? Suis-je exclu de cette politique et récupérer mon argent d'être vendu une politique fesses?
  Ou allez-vous pour honorer votre garantie & payer les intérêts 2,684.70 $, plus 8% qui a été colmatage ma carte?
  Vous ne pouvez pas tout avoir ...
  Je suis allé à un autre mécanicien, mon frère, qui fixe le sabot en payant la somme ...
  Maintenant, je suis le dépôt d'une réclamation au vendeur la garantie pour le montant de 2,684.70 $ plus les intérêts de 8% en réparations ...
  Ceci est un projet de loi ... Une facture ... TD me doit ... (je n'aime pas ce que vous voulez appeler le service, banque, assurance, carte de crédit, Visa, peu importe, vous êtes tous la propriété de Toronto-Dominion Banque & en tant que tels sont tous responsables de la dette ...)
  Vous pouvez soit me payer votre dette, ou vous pouvez annuler la totalité du contrat comme étant une grosse erreur parce que vous n'avez pas clairement que les gens malpropre ou des travailleurs autonomes ne sont pas couvertes par les termes de la garantie sur la carte de crédit ... & puis de résilier le contrat et retourner les deux parties dans l'état où ils étaient avant, ils ont commencé le contrat ...
  Je vais engager une agence de recouvrement ou un huissier pour récupérer mon argent si cela est nécessaire ...
  ou peut-être je vais boycotter votre entreprise Banque Td ...
  Peut-être que je vais juste de publier tout cela en ligne ...
  C'est ce que je ferai, car je prévois que vous ne me donne pas mon argent ... Pourquoi? car après tout mon dur labeur, vous m'avez envoyé une lettre type muet de votre ombudsman Paul Huyer de signer et retourner dans les 15 jours ...
  Vous devriez avoir résilié le contrat et remettre l'argent sur mon carte Visa TD ...
  Mauvaise décision ... des pratiques commerciales déloyales ...
  signé Sari Grove (et pour mémoire, si vous pouviez obtenir mon nom droites, il aurait aidé à vous ... Je veux dire comment est-il difficile de comprendre la loi canadienne de 1974 que la femme est légalement autorisé à «adopter» dernière de son mari nom sans un changement de nom légal?? Apparemment vous étiez tous (ok, presque tous) trop stupides pour attraper que mon nom de femme mariée est Grove, mais mes états financiers ont été séparés, pour des raisons, à mon nom de jeune fille ...)
  J'ai parlé à l'assureur, qui est maintenant la propriété de BMO Banque de Montréal (qui j'aime btw) ... J'ai parlé à l'ACFC ... Je leur ai demandé de pénaliser la banque TD pour 250K $ pour de mauvaises affaires et des violations des la loi canadienne (& qui est un montant nature) ... J'ai parlé à OHLI l'Ombudsman des assurances de personnes (également de la CSFO, mais l'Ontario n'a pas juridiction sur la Loi bancaire bêtement) ... J'ai demandé à émettre OHLI un «cesser et de s'abstenir» afin de forcer un remboursement complet à ses clients toute & à tous ceux qui ont déjà acheté une assurance équilibre entre la protection au Canada ... Il s'agirait notamment des banques autres que la Banque TD, y compris (mais pas la liste complète) CIBC, RBC, Sears , Capital One qui étaient auparavant souscrite par Assurant AIG du Canada ou AIG du Canada Le Canada Premier Life Insurance Company ... Un cessez-le + de s'abstenir signifierait également un arrêt complet et l'interdiction de la vente éventuelle de ce produit appelé «assurance de protection d'équilibre» qui est vraiment un abus de langage et doit être appelée une garantie qui n'est pas d'assurance ... à savoir: la garantie de protection bilan
  Vous pouvez tous les prendre aussi longtemps que vous voulez faire cela ... Je ne suis pas imposer des délais artificiels sur des gens comme ombudsman de la TD a fait pour moi? Que faire si je ne pouvais pas retourner votre lettre signée en 15 jours? Qu'est-ce? qui est-il? Je veux dire allez, personne ne fait des affaires comme ça sauf si vous êtes un total ... je m'arrête ici et vous souhaite à tous un joyeux Thanksgiving, les amis et ennemis, aussi bien, je suis reconnaissant pour l'email, de me permettre d'avoir cette conversation plus d'effort qu'avant ...
  Bonne journée, Sari Grove (appelez-moi Sari si vous ne pouvez obtenir mon nom droites ... ou Mme Grove) ... Publié par grovecanada à 06:37

New! Click the

Something happened to two Trumpeter swans...

2011-10-08T03:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.artsnova.com/Processing_Recursion_Tutorial.html At this link is a tutorial by an artist about recursion as it relates to art...In the course of explaining, illustrations are shown...One picture shows recursion with planned out numbers...When you look, the image reminds me of sailboats...Later, you see a picture where random numbers are used to recurse...The picture reminds me of a speeding train...
In Palgrave, there is a train that runs through...Palgrave is a town in Ontario, north & west of Toronto by a 35 minute drive...Two Trumpeter swans, a mother & child, were found near the tracks...A train...The train was speeding...Not just rolling, but speeding...I type the word speeding because a Trumpeter swan & her child can escape a sailboat...But not a speeding train...Speeding means going too fast...Speeding does not mean going at a pace that is within the law...Yes, train operators, engineers, speed too...As do UPS trucks...If they are in a hurry or impatient, they will set their large vehicle in motion & try to maintain a too fast speed so that they do not have to slow down...So they killed two Trumpeter swans...A mother & a child...a cygnet, but almost fully grown...I wonder if the train always goes too fast through this town & it got the name Palgrave...How many birds has this train killed?

Well, I had another birthday...

2011-09-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

So today I turned 45...
I didn't tell anybody, you can understand why...
I'm glad the day is over...Please don't mention it to me later...

On the up side... Argh...I turned 45... So much for trying to write a blog post...I will try to do something about this one tomorrow... I'm too miserable for clarity right now...I mean 45? Are you serious?
I feel awful...Maybe it will get better...so far it's terrible...

Ok, it is now tomorrow, I will try again:

New things & old things that still work...(hover over "gap" to see pink hotlinks-I'm not sure how the links are not showing, but when you hover over each recommendation they appear in pink...Must have clicked something?Ok, I fixed it- the links font was in the same colour as the background green- must have hit a button last time...)...

Kagi makes Doubletake which pastes together your pictures into one, you can also make panoramas if you take sequential pictures...http://echoone.com/doubletake/

Been seriously considering getting a bunch of long sleeve compression tops for winter...These ones come with free printing too...I could get "Sari" printed on all of them, so people would remember my name...Like Laverne on Laverne & Shirley...Remember when Laverne took off several layers of clothing & each layer had her name embroidered on the front? http://www.thegraphicedge.com/catalog/item.asp?i=3360 The Graphic Edge...

UHaul has this nice furniture dolly that could help me move my over 75 lb. Trumpeter Swan sculpture "Swanee"...http://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Moving-lifting-tools/Furniture-Dolly?id=8413
Home hardware has this dolly http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Hardware/Builders/Trucks-Dollies/Trucks-Dollies/TRUCK-UTILITY-4WHEEL/_/N-2pqfZ67l/Ne-67n/No-24/Ntk-All_EN/R-I5410283?Ntt=dolly&Num=0 which costs more, but is made of PVC so maybe it is better?

Petsmart carries Calcium Carbonate sand, which is almost the same as crushed marble dust-so if you mix the sand with cement you can sculpt! (Also called Aragonite Sand)...Comes in different colours too!
http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?s=D-StorePrice-PET&sr=1&origkw=sand&categoryId=2769277&pg=1&searchSort=TRUE

Latex Concrete Habitats , book http://www.amazon.com/Latex-Concrete-Habitat-Albert-Knott/dp/1412039975 I am going to try mixing mineral silicate paints with cement instead of latex, because silicates come from sand & are more eco than latex...But got the basic principle(mixing paint with cement) from this book , plus the hyperbolic paraboloid design was something I had been sketching but didn't have the confidence to use until I saw this...

BioOne is where I read articles from the Waterbird Society...& more...http://www.bioone.org/ if you join the Waterbird society, you get to read the journals free there(just the Waterbird one)(but you can read everybody else's abstracts free, which is often enough to get the idea)...

Cooliris helps you display a wall of content nicely... http://www.cooliris.com/developer/documentation/?p=content (like your Youtube feed)...

40x50" laundry bags to store & ship your art...http://www.ebay.ca/itm/40-x-50-Commercial-Grade-200D-Nylon-Laundry-Bags-/220757180157?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item79146cc770#ht_1847wt_1141 This link may expire cause it is an ebay one...oh well...get it while you can...

A Notary Public can do all sorts of things way cheaper than a lawyer...Like if a gallery closes with your art in it & you don''t have a written contract, go to a Notary Public after writing out a statement of how your work came to be in the gallery, the whole deal, & get the Notary to witness & stamp it...Then give a copy to the landlord or whoever is trying to keep your art...It cost us like $12.50 & worked like a charm...(it worked- charms don't work for me actually...Let's just say it worked...)http://www.toronto-notary-public.com/?gclid=CNme8ZTm46oCFSF15Qodcyhl9Q

Herban Cowboy shaving cream in a tub...We buy a case of it at a time & Rock Bottom deals carries it for the price of a song (ok a song on iTunes, not the real cost of a song, which is like 30 grand, anyway)
http://www.rockbottomdeals.biz/

Pizap is a great place to upload a background photo, then add a cutout of your sculpture in the setting...You can also paint over photos which is neat if you are doing a sculpture & want to see how different colours look on it...Free...http://www.pizap.com/pizap.php?width=1453

Sherri Warner Hunter: http://www.sherriwarnerhunter.com/index.htm The person who writes books & tells on her websites how exactly to do ferrocement sculpture in words that are comprehensible...!

An artist shows how ferrocement sculptures are made...http://www.deborahsilver.com/blog/?tag=concrete-garden-sculpture Cool Dogs!

Sculpture Supply Canada has sculpture supplies & does casting...http://www.sculpturesupply.com/index.php

ArtBizCoach http://www.artbizcoach.com/ Click the word "Join" to see the "artist.conspiracy" option on the site...For a low monthly fee you can get awesome artist coaching...

Follow-up post as per a commenter's request on the last one: Concrete Mix Now!

2011-08-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so a kind person gave me a compliment & asked for a follow-up post...I've been following up a bit on two different & new blogs as well as a new website, which are:
http://groveontario.wordpress.com
http://grovecanada.wordpress.com
http://www.grovecanada.com
as well as some updates on http://www.grovecanada.ca
But I will do a follow-up here because I am a sucker for compliments & people who actually care about how complex mixing concrete can be-especially in a climate like we have in Canada!

Ok, so here is the recipe I have settled on after much more research:

3 parts white Portland cement ( I get mine in 8 kg. bags from Sutton garden & Building Supply at Finch avenue- nobody else sells it in 8 kg. bags- you have to buy a 50 kg. bag which I can't lift)...

1.5 parts Aggregate (Ok, here is where it gets more complicated- In that 1.5 parts, I am using 4 (FOUR) different things...Here are the FOUR different components of that 1.5 parts...
*Perlite (for lightness)
*3/4 inch glass fibres (holds stuff together better)
*Aragonite Sand (you can buy this in different colours from the Reptile section of Petsmart stores- it is the same thing chemically as crushed marble, which I could not source...I know, Genius...Moi...)
*White Silica sand (for strength)
Ok, so just take a little of each of those 4 things, put them all together to total not more than 1.5 Parts...

Last is LIQUID: Total liquid is again 1.5 parts: Within that 1.5 parts,
*25% of that is cement bond admixture (which makes it all stickier & more waterproof)
*75% Water (water can be made warm to cure things faster by the way)...

Ok, do you have the recipe?
here it is again...
3 parts white cement: 1.5 parts aggregate:1.5 parts liquid

My "part" is the size of a small plastic square tupperware dish someone gave us that used to contain some sort of dessert squares...About as wide as your hand & as tall as your other hand on top...You get it right?

This mix worked really really well for me...

of course, you could say that as a rule, one part white cement to half a part aggregates to half a part liquids is a basic concept...Then start with as many parts as you need & work your way along...

If you need coloured cement, then you have to add concrete colour powdered pigments, I used Granastar from Home Depot & it is brilliant...(the black at least is great)...

You shouldn't really paint ON the concrete 'cause it isn't as permanent...Plus, always use concrete powder pigments designed for concrete- regular paints aren't the right PH for concrete so don't experiment in that way...

Ok, I'm done...Hope you like this post?

P.s. My new work uses copper pipe, 3/4 inch, 6 foot long, cut by me with a pipe cutter into many pieces, then joined together with copper Tee coupling, to form a strong armature that you don't need to weld...I dabbed some crazy glue on the joints to hold things better, until I put the concrete on...I also strung a wire through all the piping too...Then , a cover with cut up pieces of galvanized chicken wire to make the shape...Gonna be a raccoon...(made a friend this summer)...

Curing the Swanne: Concrete Mixes...

2011-07-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well, after much intense learning about concrete mixes, I did the bill in black, using 1 part white portland cement to 4 parts aggregate (perlite, 3/4 inch glass strands, white aragonite sand, white silicon sand) & black cement dry pigment, mixed with water & cement bond admixture...

Then I did the upper surface, in a slightly stronger mix sans the black concrete paint, & I did it in 2 parts white portland cement to the 4 parts aggregate & water & cement bond admixture...

While this upper surface is curing, I have now strapped the head securely to the neck, so that when I flip the swan over to reinforce the bottom, the head doesn't flail back...I am going to reinforce the bottom in an even stronger cement mixture, since the bottom will be closest to the ground...The bottom will get 3 parts white portland cement to the 4 parts aggregate, plus the water & the cement bond admixture...

(these are not in order, in fact the Sherri Warner Hunter books would be my first recommendation)...I learned alot about proportions (in deciding on how much cement to use in relation to aggregates) from a free e-book called The Basics of Concrete Science by Prof. Dvorkin(I joined free e-books & found this book there, for free)...I also skimmed Design & Control of Concrete Mixtures by the Portland Cement Association...& of course, Making Concrete Garden Ornaments by Sherri Warner Hunter(I had to join a reading service online to read this book, but it was a one week trial so it ended up only costing me $5.95 to read this digitally), which was really instrumental in understanding mix ratios...

I also became a member of Sculpture.net to read what other sculptors were doing...One fascinating discovery which led me to hours of reading & learning was how to make "living" rock for aquariums...I watched several videos on how to make living rock for aquariums as well- which wasn't exactly what I was doing, but really gave me a feel for the mixing, molding, experimentation possible- & it also gave me a good understanding of how to be eco-friendly when you use cement in applications near to water & living things...

Cut all my hair off (Sari Grove)

The lady swanne is curing now...(Don't you love the feathery texture?)

A word about the aggregates I chose:

Perlite: these are white easily crushable glass-like balls that you can get at a garden centre- got mine from Sutton Garden & Building Supply on Finch avenue in Toronto...

White Portland cement in 10 kilogram bag (smaller size): Sutton Garden & Building Supply also carries the white cement in smaller bags, they are the only ones in the whole city who I could find sold this small size!!!

White Silicon Sand: Also from Sutton on Finch...This did not come in a small bag, but they were nice enough to make one up for me on the spot! That is service!

White Aragonite Sand: I got a large bag of aragonite sand from the reptile section of Petsmart at Laird & Eglinton...

3/4 inch glass strands: The only place that had these 3/4 inch glass strands was Kreitmaker, 2 blocks south of the Home Depot at Laird & Eglinton...(They are at the end of the street on the south side & carry stuff for cement work, you can get good gloves there too)...

Black cement Pigment paint dry: Home Depot has this in small yellow jars & it is really awesome, you mix it into your concrete mix & it has a rich deep gorgeous colour...Comes in other colours too- use the whole jar for great effects...

cement Bond Admixture: this is a milky gluey mixture you throw into your mix to make it stickier & more pliable & waterproof...many people carry this, got my last container from Home Hardware Building Centre on Dupont west of Christie...(who also has marble for those interested in throwing marble into their mix- but you will have to hammer crush the marble 'cause it comes in bag in pieces the size of stones- so crush that to make your own marble dust if you are not lazy...me I found this too late- after I had used the aragonite sand instead of marble that I couldn't find...Aragonite sand is calcium carbonate, basically very similar to marble, which is why I chose that...)
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3853570.html This is a new mix that I am looking into: it involves white portland cement, marble dust fines & dolomite aggregate- this mix creates a marbly look but with extra strength...(let's see if I can find the marble or the dolomite)...
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marsubstr.htm Here's a little about aggregates...I am substituting Aragonite sand for white marble dust, since they are chemically very similar & I can't source the marble easily...(both are calcium carbonate)...
http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Outdoor-Living/Yard-Maintenance/Soil-Amendment-Stone/Soil/Miscellaneous/LIME-PRILLED-GRANULAR-25LB/_/N-ntln7/R-I5025812 Ok, so, after a little investigating, I discovered that Home Hardware Building centre on Dupont carries prilled superdol dolomite lime- which is actually calcium carbonate plus magnesium...Now I already have calcium carbonate coming from the Aragonite sand, but according to that patent I read (see link above), magnesium adds extra strength to marble/calcium carbonate/aragonite sand...So I could maybe switch up in the future to using the prilled dolomite lime instead of the Aragonite sand, which adds the magnesium...Or I could just add the prilled dolomite lime as a new one part to the aggregate list...? (I can also crush the white marble chips available at that Home Hardware too, to get the marble dust...)Hmmm...All the dolomite suppliers are outside of the city...
I think I am going to just use up what I have & save this research for next time maybe...I'm tired of researching & Joseph is going to kill me if I start running around again shopping...(only so many shopping sprees can one wife get away with in a period of time & my time is not yet really enough...)

http://www.refresheverything.ca/groveontario

2011-05-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

here is where I am at with the trumpeter swan Outdoor sculpture...I am thinking of letting the cement fondue cure for the next 30 days & then laying on a final coat...
I can't decide how I am going to finish the top layer- plus I maybe have to get permissions to finish the work on site- it is too heavy to finish at home studio...
Thinking of doing a mix of this recipe:
Kings white mortar mix (which contains sand & limestone already) + AcryliBond acrylic resin cement bonder liquid+ either 3/4 inch glass fiber strands (chopped strands from Kreitmaker in Toronto), or maybe, possibly, cut up steel wool if it is galvanized (hot dipped in zinc to rust-proof it)...Or I'm just going to use Winterstone icing mix plus glass plus acrylic resin- costs more maybe, but more of a sure thing maybe...wed. may.18, 2011

http://www.refresheverything.ca/groveontario Please Vote now for us to be able to continue feeding Trumpeter Swans...(voting is daily, one vote per day can go to us, from May 1st to June 30th, 2011)...(The top 4 ideas get 5K)...

May 9, 2011: Doing the bottom...So far weight is 12 lbs. plus 1lb., +8.5 lbs, +8.5 lbs. +2 lbs. + 33 lbs + 4.5 lbs. = 69.5 lbs. total weight )Ok, picture is showing not quite the full 69.5 lbs. I still have about 15 lbs to add here...)
Materials: Apoxie Sculpt super white, black, JB weld 2 part epoxy putty, Winterstone Sculpting material, 1/2 inch & 1/4 inch glass fibres for strength, 48 feet chicken wire, Sisal rope, 3 coat hangers unraveled...
Subject: a Trumpeter Swan Size: 70 inches long by 30 inches wide by 30 inches high (actually probably more than that now, this was measured before I put on sculpting material on armature so...)

The video shows a Trumpeter Swan Outdoor public art sculpture that we are working on now ... (adding a new material called Winterstone)...

Tempesta 36x48x2-1/4" oil on canvas by Sari Grove 2011 for sale

Magnolia 36x48X1-3/4" oil on canvas by Sari Grove 2010 for sale

Swanee 70x30x30" Outdoor Public Art Sculpture work in progress

Artificial Trumpeter swan nest prototype 15 rolls 1/4" Sisal

Above are some works by Sari...

(This is a Globe & Mail comment I wrote about Multiple Sclerosis & the new-fangled surgical procedures):

People in hot sunny climates don't get MS... Which points to Vitamin D as a huge factor in prevention & cure... Before signing up for an expensive & potentially dangerous procedure, biotherapy options should be attempted... To be clear, what I mean is that someone with multiple sclerosis should be sitting outside in a bathing suit every day with coconut oil on & getting a long deep dark tan... The natural Vitamin D from the sun should help enormously... If it is winter, or you live in a dark place, then you can order Vitamin D patches online, you can chew Vitamin D chews available from your local drugstore, or you can take an oral supplement... The zinc content from light is significant enough to re-balance lead excess in the thyroid- the light acts as a natural chelator of lead...

response; It is not that the sun is not helping you in Mexico, but an additional factor peculiar to your country which is unusual...For much longer than other countries, Mexico kept using leaded gasoline...It is that lead content in your bloodstream that is hampering the sun's cure...You will still benefit from sunlight, but you have much more additional lead in your system than people from countries where lead fuels were banned...

cure for cancer: Madagascar Periwinkle contains vinpocetine the active ingredient in chemotherapy, you can buy it over the counter as a tea...Cure for cancer

A follow-up on my look into Agent Orange...

2011-04-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

(This all is about Agent Orange remedies)...

  A pretty long time ago, I met a nice artist on Twitter & we chatted & I looked at her works of art & she looked at my works of art & when I visited her Bio page she wrote about her husband who had served in Vietnam & had been exposed to Agent Orange...
  ...& then I decided that I was going to look into the subject...because I had some time, & was curious & because sometimes a fresh eye can solve a problem...
  I burrowed deeply into the subject & came up with a pile of complicated connections & loose ties...
  I published answers that I came up with on my previous blog, in a meandering & difficult to understand blog post... Then I put it aside, because time provides perspective on research... Plus it was enough for now...

  I thought I'd write a short summation of some of my thoughts on Agent Orange as I see it today...
  These short thoughts I am going to offer as remedy, rather than focussing on cause & causal relations...

  So here goes...

  1)cheapest remedy: the anti-psychotic family that resembles lead in the body- sometimes called lithium, zyprexa, or whatever they call it now... This category is a cheap solution... A public fix... Lead counteracts zinc in the thyroid... It settles down the inbalance... You can get a prescription for lithium from a doctor- often a psychiatrist... Spend the dollar at the drug store on a pill splitter... Whatever the prescription is, cut the pill in half, then half again... Doctors usually overdose these things, which just screws you up worse... Take the lowest possible amount, only when you are feeling jittery... Just enough to take away the jangles, not more... Just enough to get to sleep, not anesthetize you... This stuff gathers in your system, so stop taking it after a while... If you don't, you get tardive dyskinesia, which is not fun... Anyway, this is not my favorite solution...Oops, I forgot to say this... Lepidolite is a bead form of lithium that you can buy on ebay as jewellery or raw beads does the same thing as oral lithium with fewer side effects, cheaper & you can take it off if you get too drowsy... Every untreated "bipolar" person should have a lepidolite bead bracelet handy...(btw, most bipolar is just bad anemia & can be remedied by treating it that way)...Anyways, a lepidolite beaded bracelet is a better way to get your lithium... & you don't need a doctor to get one!

2)Iron... Iron is a better option... A really safe way to get iron is to Not take it orally...It is easy to overdose on oral iron...Your poo turns black... It is dangerous... You may not know this but if you wear a bracelet or a necklace or an anklet against your skin that is made of iron, your body will accept that...
  Iron in jewellery form is called pyrite... Sometimes people call it marcasite... You can get a pyrite bracelet, male or female style, on etsy.com for under 20 dollars... Pick something that fits & that isn't terrible looking, & wear it all the time... Sleep in it... Shower in it... Don't take it off... You will start to feel better almost immediately... Iron balances out manganese... High manganese levels cause kookiness... The iron will balance out the kooky thoughts... You will feel more solid in your thinking... This is a medium level costing remedy, & is a pretty good option...

3)B12... B12 is great for repairing damaged tissues... Like whiplash damage, or back pain damage... B12 is great... Again, oral B12 is not my first choice... Here is another thing that you can get that will let your body absorb B12 well... Copal Amber comes in bead form & you can also buy copal amber as necklace or bracelet... For severe back pain, buy two copal amber necklaces, join them together as one, & wear the copal amber beads around your waist... You won't believe how the back pain disappears... You can also wear this before having to do heavy lifting as a protection... You can wear a copal amber bead necklace around your neck for healing up your whiplash... Don't take it off... You will notice the pain right away coming back again... B12 is terrific for people who have been exposed to Agent Orange... It soothes the neurons, the nerve cells misfiring & causing neuropathies, it calms the nerve endings... I like the whole idea of a bracelet or necklace or waist chain because the person doesn't have to remember to take a pill, it is a one time cost, & it is hard to overdose... If you feel you are getting too much of anything, just take off the jewellery... Copal Amber occurs naturally in Riga, Lithuania too... So it is way cheaper if you get it from there... There are people on ebay from those countries selling copal amber jewellery for cheap... Like 25 dollars maybe, sometimes including shipping... Buy the fresh ugly looking cheaper stuff- it is new & from the beach & will have more B12 in it than a fancy tooled piece...

Last thoughts: Agent Orange, thalidomide, nicotine, ginger(in high doses), ginseng(high doses), zinc(high doses), leprosy,bipolar, pesticides, all seem to share common traits... I'd probably add cannabis to that list for the zinc...
  To a lesser extent autism, Alzheimer's, ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, maybe Parkinson's... Although high mercury content is more an issue in these... But related... (btw, mercury can easily be counteracted by something as simple as taking Epsom Salt baths- Epsom Salts are magnesium sulfate, magnesium sulfate is what you need to counteract mercury...* anecdote* putting some epsom salts into a little shea butter & rubbing under your toenails will get rid of any fungal infection there* toenail fungus is related to mercury excess...)!

Ok, that is all... I thought I'd follow-up because my older blog keeps getting comments from interested people & it turns out this topic, Agent Orange, is still pretty topical...

This is the best I can do for now... As a layperson... An artist who likes to sit around & look at things & wonder about them...

I am a self-employed visual artist by trade... That is all... Good luck & God Bless... Sari Grove

  Art thoughts:

Was watching this new version of 90210, eating a new invention called fish tacos (new to me), loving the fish tacos as I dipped in sour cream & a hot tomato sauce, & after a difficult shoot for a music video (the tv show), the agent for the talent says to the guy who had the recording studio space, he says (happily) ' The first rule of this business...(long pause) Keep the artist happy' ...

  The music video shoot was almost marred by the appearance of a girlfriend to the recording studio guy- who marched her way through to try to get some free publicity for herself from the musician in the form of a bit part in his music video as a dancer... Turns out he had heard of this girl & she had a bad rep as someone who had stolen some other musician's songs a while back...
  Long story short, the recording studio guy got rid of the girl, the shoot went great, & the musician went home with a giant bag of candy corn, as it turns out his favorite food on set... Then the money quote...

  This may be silly, but how often do galleries forget about keeping the artist happy...
  The idiots who fired Marilyn Monroe... The idiots who fired Charlie Sheen...
  If you have a real artist on set, keep them happy... If they are popping pills, or drinking too much or their wife dumps them, help the artist... Fix it... Make the artist happy again...keep the artist happy...
  The artist makes the art & there ain't no-thin' without the art...
  Why couldn't the producers write Charlie out of a few episodes & send him on a cruise... Why couldn't they tell him 'Hey we are here for you, you bled for us, & we remember'... He's the artist... If Marilyn Monroe was having problems, why wouldn't they spend the time & the energy to help her? Keep her happy?
  She was worth millions, still is... So is Charlie Sheen... Neither are replaceable...
  The first rule of this business...Keep the artist happy...

  How many art galleries have forgotten to do that? How many art gallery owners think that it's all about the sales & marketing & the artist is disposable...Replaceable...?

  I'm not a huge fan of 90210, only because everyone seems so tiny... I mean in stature... I tend to relate to tall people better, & somehow there aren't many in Beverly Hills... I guess it's hard to fit a tall person into a camera shot... Is that a dumb reason? probably... But at 5'10" I see the world from a different place than someone who sees it at 5'2"... I see no need for high heeled shoes for example... Totally useless item to me... I'm going to stop now... Maybe the show will get better & I will watch... But I love that quote... So true & so forgotten... For that I will watch again...

Ups & Downs...

2011-03-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

I used a .png file instead of a .jpeg file... Can you see the difference? This is Tempesta the 36 by 48 by 2-1/4 inch oil painting (©2011)which is lightening up as it dries more solidly... trying to get a good photo of the gold & silver is interesting...

   A couple of weeks ago I was on top of the world... I was weaving Trumpet swan nests, in the hopes of hitting on a design that could be distributed along Lake Ontario shores & beyond to keep our Trumpet Swans bums warm in winter... They were sitting on the ice & I felt strongly that they needed help & that an artificial nest, would make them feel loved... (Oh, I've been calling them "Trumpet Swans" instead of Trumpeter swans, because, well, I'm not sure the "er" part is really essential...)
  Anyways, I had built about 6 nests, improving the design each time, when I started butting heads with the approval process... Toronto Region Conservation Authority said that a wildlife professional would have to monitor the nest daily to ensure Canada Geese or other waterbirds were not using the nest... Harassing them if found on the nest was suggested... This was a problem for me, as I happen to know that Federal law prohibits harassing of Canada Geese, & I found it unusual that a gov't body was suggesting it... Last year this gov't body was responsible for killing over 8 thousand Canada goose eggs... They call it oiling the eggs- which suffocates the growing chick inside.. By the way, tampering with Canada Goose eggs is also highly illegal- weird that a gov't body is so keen to break Federal laws...
  Canadian wildlife services forwarded me some sarcastic emails from people they had asked about my idea- about how was I the one looking for money- they had found a grant proposal online that hundreds of people had voted for & supported- but this valiant effort had been boiled down to that I was looking for money... In fact, the money was not my goal in putting the proposal online... What I was looking for was public support of the idea- just to see how people locally felt about artificial nests for Trumpet swans, & also, to help get ideas on how to refine the design to make it workable should others want to build & deploy the nests themselves on their own properties...
  In fact, through all the voting & energy, I made my artificial Trumpet swan nest ten times more amazing than it was before the voting began & the comments started pouring in...
  I also started work on making a giant Trumpet Swan decoy that could attract Trumpet swans to a nesting area & detract predators & other waterbirds... (This was my gentle way of trying to fulfill the gov't requirements that only Trumpet swans get to use the nest)...
  My Trumpet Swan Decoy turned into a full blown sculpture project, & it was beautiful! I was thrilled...
  But the permission process continued to weigh me down... The responses I was getting from our wildlife agencies were rude & depressing & weird...
  & then my up went down...
  The collective depression of the gov't bodies I was talking to wore me down... I got depressed & put my noble idea aside...
  Nothing could possibly work it was too complicated or too expensive or people would tamper with the artificial nests or steal the decoy or just something wasn't right & it won't work & why bother & so on...
  Now I am a total optimist, but this was too much for me...
  I have been in a rut now for a week maybe...
  I have been reading other artist's blogs & all I can see is how desperate they seem, how obsessed with money they aren't getting & how selfish their words seem to be...
  I see pictures of artist's studios & I think to myself how unhealthy that environment is- all those paint tubes lying about... What a grotty existence, so unlike being outside amongst dandelions or sunflowers or pretty women with umbrellas...
  The artists online seem only to talk about how to market better, how to make mechanical photo prints of their work to make more money, how to make money, money, money... Ugh, it is all so boring...Then, when one makes money, everyone runs to copy that method, that formula... Works that are selling are all photo-realistic, slavishly painted to emulate our idol, the digital camera... The faster they were painted the better, apparently... because that means you could maybe spend less time for more money, right?
  Ugh...
  I am depressed...
  Could be the cold weather, or the lack of sunlight, or the extra weight I am carrying because of all the food I had to eat to feed my depression...
  So now I am drinking bowlfuls of caffeinated tea to pick up my energy & speed up my metabolism... I think my teeth are brown or orange or yellow, maybe saffron?
  Why am I depressed?
  because why... because why, well... because I am a really beautiful person... I mean inside... I am one of those fragile gentle souls who believes in things, who believes that I can change the world... Who believes that I can make things better for people for swans for dogs for flowers...
  Who believed that I could do something nice & that our government would understand that, get that, that they would allow me to pay for, to build, to weave, to create, something nice for our little town here, & that they would let me do that & thank me after...
  But they took it the wrong way... My grant request was a promotion put forward by Pepsi online... But they saw it as I was asking Them for money... I wasn't... I can pay for the nests myself... But having people vote for something is an important process to determine validity of the idea... Just because I could pay for something doesn't mean that I shouldn't check with my community... Maybe inspire others...
  The wildlife people seemed to be more haters of wildlife than lovers... Kind of like when you talk to cat people & all they can foam about is spaying & neutering... Somehow it all got twisted... I'm sorry but spaying & neutering just isn't so great if you are the cat... Yes I know all the arguments... But really, I prefer to keep my ovaries- shouldn't cats have that option too someday???
  But I digress from my depression...
  I think I hate government... Maybe I always have, but now more palpably... It seems that anything I want to do is stymied by government...
  You know what bugs me almost the most, is those signs that say Do not feed the birds... I mean, who has the right to tell anyone that I cannot feed the birds...? Who? What amount of wild bird food could they have bought with all the money they spent on signs & installing them?
  Aw... I'm just a hippy... It being 2011, I seem out of place I guess... Hippies always clash with government... But how exactly do those hot looking muscular soldiers in uniforms become those mean rude boring people I deal with in government agencies?
  How does a wildlife professional become someone who talks about the over population of Mute Swans? (Mute Swans are just unbelievably beautiful swans, but don't mention them to a Trumpet swan person- same foaming at the mouth- they are evil swans, intent on destruction of Trumpet swan territory or something... supposedly...ugh... Mute swans are not from North America & thus evil...)
  I got a comment on my blog a while ago that my nest design was flawed & because of that maybe I was crazy... Ad hominem remarks anybody? While I welcome nest design advice, calling me crazy because of a design flaw doesn't help me much... & thanks to how that comment made me feel- I threw the whole nest out... Which is too bad, because kind of like lukewarm soup, it was still food, could have made a swan happy- design flaw & all...
  I am maybe going to weave another nest soon... They take me about 10 hours of time... I am going to remove the loops at the edge that the commenter had a problem with, & make the weave tighter...
  I am going to finish the Trumpet swan sculpture when I can get some more sculpting material... The material is outdoor weatherproof & needs to be ordered & is heavy to ship... Plus I am going to wait till the weather gets warmer so the package doesn't freeze in the UPS truck overnight like last time...
  I am feeling a little better for writing this... The talking cure...
  Truth is, I am going to take this entire year off... An entire year of not being an artist might bring me back some perspective... I mean, the market is soft anyway- like melted ice cream at a retirement home soft- so why bother spinning my wheels anyway? Why plan a show to sell just enough to cover costs?
  To plan a show just so I can watch guests hoarding the free wine or food like they were starving refugees? To plan a show just so I can palpably feel the discrepancy between the prices asked & the fact that the guests show up in jeans & complain about paying for parking... I need a break...
  I am depressed, but maybe chronically...which is not good for an optimist...

GroveCanada.com

2011-03-22T16:54:00.001-07:00

Hi, wordpress is down right now, but you should know, we have now forwarded our grovecanada.com address to our new site at groveontario.webs.com ... It is a standard forward for now, not masked, so you will see the grovecanada.com address change to its destination while you load the pages...
  This is a bit of an experiment for us, so bear with us as we create the new site...
GroveCanada.com

  Oh um, this is all because our server at Fotopic.net has vanished off the face of the earth!! Basically around March 8th, the Fotopic.net site totally disappeared & we haven't heard a peep from them, even though we sent them money in December of 2010 to renew our premium service for another year... This was our grovecanada.com site... BTW, for those of you who rely on photo album sites to store your photos be forewarned- they can disappear, without telling you why or when & take all your photos with them...
  I'm not sure what is going to happen with Fotopic.net, insofar as lawsuits or whatever, but so far I am shocked... They apparently had 67 thousand members!
  If anyone knows anything, please comment... Thanks!

Apologies..(our iMac Tiger crashed & we have just upgraded to Snow leopard & a newish iMac computer)

2011-03-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Not that it is an excuse, but please forgive all those who we may have insulted recently- we were transferring anger from a crashed Tiger V-card & had to replace quickly...apologies...sorry...sorry again...& sorry... (& for those concerned, Thank you for your concerns- artificial nest prototype numbers 5 & 6 got tossed in garbage(I will re-examine the edge loop decision more closely, going with a flatter look next time maybe))- will make another better prototype when I can)...

Sorry to those who got the brunt of our wrath, we just replaced our iMac today & will promise to be much nicer online once again... 'Nuff said?

Chief Chichi

2011-03-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

A slinky bites itself in the bu-t...

How a star is born 2: Dust falls into a corner fold in space, it bounces off & spins into a slinky fibonacci spiral, the spiral falls off the corner encountering empty space where it used to live, a black empty hole in space, it returns unto itself where like is attracted to like, the spiral complete...

Once the spiral is complete unto itself as a circle or ellipse if viewed from profile (the side), then it is an entity known as a star ( a star is really an astral spiral)...the end that is how a star is born 2!

The first Star is Born is referred to as "Barbra Streisand"! (smile)

Chief Chichi: 43 inch diameter nest, edges looped tightly around single 1/4 inch sisal rope, middle also 1/4 inch monkey chain knot, total 1/4 inch rolls needed 3+5 rolls 1/4 inch Sisal or more (+1)=9, thought loop gaps in middle of web throu & thru w/ single roll 1/4 inch.
This is new prototype proposal for Trumpet of the Swan Nest Artificial.

Trumpeter Swan Decoy Sculpture to attract Trumpeters to a nesting site...

2011-03-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

Chichi means father in Japanese...I was thinking of naming the sculpture Chichi instead of Charlie in case anyone who knew Charlie the Trumpeter Swan minds me using that name...? If anyone does mind me using the name Charlie for the Trumpeter Swan Sculpture I am working on, please comment here & I will get it...I will then maybe use Chichi , because Charlie had 30 cygnets...(& Japanese sounds nice)...

There is one more part of the Charlie the Trumpeter Swan story that you might not know about...Brace yourselves, cover your ears if you don't want to feel sadness...

The bulk of the memorial is further down in this blog post...Here is the missing link that Joseph & I can add to the mystery of what happened to Charlie...This was not an accident actually...There are other players involved, & one in particular, a Northern Pike, often referred to in California as a slough Shark...

You see in Canada we don't think of pike as being part of the shark family...The cold climate makes them pretty harmless...But pretty harmless doesn't mean entirely harmless, does it? No...

Ok, here we go...

Hamlet & Ophelia lived at Bluffers Park on the side of the Bay that the public can access...I was told they stayed all year round for the entire winter too, of 2009...Yes, 2009...

So, Hamlet & Ophelia didn't migrate south to the States in 2009...Nor did they join the ranks of their brethren at Lasalle Park in Burlington...They stayed...In slightly colder water up at Bluffers Park in Scarborough right on Lake Ontario...

I heard about this from the giant aquarium store lady on Danforth west of Brimley...I went in to examine her fish food...Tasted a piece(my Dad, the doctor, taught me to taste the food I might give to animals first...love you Daddy)...Fish food is made of fish...I tasted the stuff from the most expensive brand- it was full of mercury & GMO grains...Her fish were dying...A sad snowflake display of dead angel fish was underwater in an aquarium...I asked her to remove them...She did...It was real early in the morning so she had just arrived to find her angelfish like that-one or two were swimming still...I couldn't bear to look at the live ones, looking at the dead ones...The place was beautiful, but obviously the imported from Australia, germany, pricey food she was feeding was no good despite her valiant efforts...Nice lady...Nice place...Anyways, here is an idea- not all fish are carnivorous...If you feed fish food that contains fish to all your fish that will make them carnivorous...She said that is what they feed at fish farms...Fish to fish...Some Canadian brand- also fish for fish...

Ok, so this all happened afteer something else happened, but now I was putting it together...If you raise say a northern pike on a fish farm, feeding it fish, then you release that fish, to sport fish it, or just re-stock Lake Ontario, then you are releasing a carnivorous fish into Lake Ontario...Ok, got that? Ok, let's move on...

If that pike/slough shark is now in Lake Ontario & has been hand fed so to speak its dinner from a fish farmer, then how is it going to eat in Lake Ontario? Um...Will it know how to feed itself? Hmmm...Second nature? Ok, now say it figures out how to get food, even though it has been released far from its birthplace (the fish farm pond)- can you guarantee shelter, food source, family, friends, a school, to that young or baby pike? Um, sorry can't hear you?

Ok, so now you have a voraciously hungry carnivorous fish without sense of family or habitat or feeding spots or school who is roaming around starving...What happens?

Simple...& this gets sad...

The hungry starving pike will eat a baby waterbird...

This is what happened, as I gather information together...(I am sewing from strings here so bear with me & of course grain of salt & it could all be just a fabricated quilt but anyways for the sake of peace of mind, here we go...again...)

Hamlet & Ophelia had two tiny cygnets...Cygnets are baby Trumpeter Swans...Looks like a boy & a girl...Tiny...Why tiny? Well, Hamlet & Ophelia wintered at Bluffers, so they nested late, everything late, & babies were born way way later than normal, well, what's normal in Nature?

It was around November 10, 2010 I think...That this all happened...I am surmising...

Hamlet & Ophelia were crossing Bluffers bay with their too tiny young cygnets who were very very young, but nevertheless trying to swim across the Bay with their parents...They were all crossing because on the north side is where the public can bring food to them, on the sloops...(A sloop is a slope where you can lay your boat into the water from your car hitch trailer thingy- it's like a slip but sloped)...

There are three sloops...The last sloop is soft not cement...That's a nicer place to feed them in winter 'cause the ground is earth...

back to the story...

While the family was crossing, a Northern Pike came up & grabbed the tiny male baby cygnet in its mouth & tried to swallow it as quickly as possible...A Northern Pike/slough shark , like all sharks, will hide in the shadows for hours at a time preparing to swoop up & grab prey in a few bitter seconds of triumph...

The other tiny baby Trumpeter Swan cygnet ran (swam) as fast as she could the hundreds of yards of rushing lake water to the dirt sloop, for safety...When she got there, she got onto land, & ran further up the sloop in fear & terror...She died there quickly of exhaustion & her heart stopped from the over exertion...

Mom & Dad freaked...Called all the trumpeter Swans to chase the Northern Pike who was traveling fast west ...with the baby boy swan in his mouth...

The Trumpeters chased the pike...Past Ashbridge's Bay, past Tommy Thomson Park, all the way to the bottom of Ellis Avenue where breakers are out far to make the water stiller near the shore...The pike was tired, slowed down, stopped by the breakers, trapped...Tried to swallow the cygnet in its mouth...Argh too big...

The horde of Trumpeters who had given chase descended on the trapped pike...They surround him in the water, swimming...Then they started to dunk with their heads in the water...What was happening underwater was this...

They were poking poking poking poking poking poking at the Pike...Ripping tearing his flesh...

When we found the pike laying on the shore of the beach at Ellis Avenue, the whole middle part of its body was exposed clear to the spine...Its mouth was wide open with its enormous shiny teeth for all to see...A dentist's pride...Stuffed clearly in its gills was a giant lump of grey white fluff...The baby boy cygnet belonging to Hamlet & Ophelia...

The pike's shark fin showed the beachcombers what they were looking at...Joseph & I gave the freeze dried yellow corn from Nuts Online that we had ordered in bulk to feed Trumpeter Swans in Burlington, for Joseph's birthday (my present to him)- we gave two of the bags to an old lady & an old man who we spoke to who were sitting looking at the Northern Pike & the Swans, trying to reconcile what had happened...They said they would feed the seagulls, but they stuffed the delicious dried corn into their mouths quickly from hunger & Joseph & I decided it was ok to feed people too sometimes, as long as they were waterbird friendly people...

Later, back on the other side of Bluffers, the private side, Charlie got wind of the story...Charlie knew the Pike had a wife who lived at Bluffers & Charlie the Trumpeter Swan knew where...

Charlie found someone's fishing line with a hook still attached & put it through his wing to better hold the line & then with the hook through his wing, he then embedded the fishing hook deep into his knee as bait...

"Come here you sucker" Charlie screamed to the Northern Pike's wife, "Come here" "& get me, I got diinner"...He said crazily...(crazy like a fox)...

Charlie was using his own knee to bait the shark...

& that is how the people at Bluffers marina came to find Charlie with a hook deeply embedded in his knee...

Charlie was put to sleep at Toronto Wildlife centre on Nov. 10, 2011- I heard...

I did not know him personally , I don't think...Others did...Joseph & I were just observers to all of this...We are artists both & we see & hear & listen & see some more, sometimes smell, a story, & then we tell people, through art, or music or painting or a book or through word of mouth...

We really were casual onlookers at that time... Just excited to find swans nearby & wanting to get close to them...I did a painting called Tempesta about a family of four Mute Swans (yellow beak- young Mutes have black beak which turn yellow- & the young mutes are also a warm fluffy brown in colour- brown like beige more)...

& that is the part of the story that you didn't know...The part that you did is below, further down in this blog post...

& that is why I was thinking to name the sculpture that I am working on "Charlie"...

written by Sari Grove today, March 5, 2011, Saturday, & the temperature at Bluffers Park is warm & the water is wet & the Trumpeter Swans are all there & you can go feed them wild bird seed if you like...Please do...& tell them a story...They like stories...Do you?

http://www.gyst-ink.com/ Karen Atkinson & Gyst: a place of solace for artists...

http://www.thomashager.com/ Florida area fine art & photography Thomas Hager! (eco feel)...

I'm shy to use Winterstone, partly because of the need for fibre glass or fibre glass mesh for stability, plus the need for acrylic sealer to weatherproof means an extra step, extra money & fumes...& I'm not sure that an non-integral sealer applied by me would be sufficient for our weather...So-I apologize to this Canadian invention, but I went south of the border...

2) My free trial is over... Metaphorically... Time to start paying some of my online sources for their wares...You should too...(you know, the free advice you get from blogs but didn't buy the book yet?)

The Apoxie Sculpt Super White cures in an hour & cures fully in 24...Then it is weatherproof...Made by Aves Studio, retailed here in Ontario by Sculpture Supply Canada on Munster avenue (I just like saying Munster)... Aves Studio is in Wisconsin home of cheese, if you like cheese & I love cheese...

Jadzia, like Belanna, likes to draw pictures in her food...This is what I found this evening in her dry food dish...I think it looks like a toy airplane, for the life of me I don't know where she saw this image...p.s. these are the kind of brains you get when you don't spay your bengal cats...It's been a long road, but with the help of Balance from Phytopet in their daily food for the past 6 years, we have been able to keep them both intact...It is a joy, they are both so smart...

http://thedominoproject.com/_/PoketheBox_Workbook.pdf This is a link to Seth Godin's free workbook pdf file to accompany his brand new book Poke the Box, which for those who have forgotten or didn't know, refers abstractly to "thinking outside the box"... You are to infer that by poking the box, I presume, is like calling up your local marina & telling them that kayaks look like swans & that is why swans may get territorial about kayaks- so, could they make their kayaks blue or green or purple or pink, just not white? That is a way to poke the box...(my example)...

Charlie Nov. 10, 2010

The person of the month is Kelly Six http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?artid=5457 If you Google the name Kelly Six you can see better her works of art, & about what she does...I am a member of an Art Business group on LinkedIn & I recommend artists join, if only to read Kelly Six's recent comments about how it is illegal for an artist to pay fees to be judged at entry...This btw is entirely & completely true, & Kelly Six got $250,000.00 in damages for being rejected from a juried show to which she had paid an entry fee...But get it from the horse's mouth on LinkedIn's ArtBiz group...Oh, & membership is free...

9:47 am Eastern Time I am posting...This is Day 3 of the laying on of sculpting material onto the armature...Today I did the left wing, which is the right side of this photo...I have edited this photo by adding a tiny yellow wing tag to the wing...The tag says "Charlie Nov 2010"...Charlie was a Trumpeter swan who died at Bluffers Park on Nov 10, 2010... Charlie's first wife was killed by a woman kayaker, with her paddle...The woman said she was scared of Charlie's wife...So she killed the Trumpeter swan... Charlie eventually took a second wife whose name is Jet...I am told that Charlie sired 30 cygnets...Jet is still alive & still lives in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada...As do her children who I have been told I have been feeding weekly through winter...I did not meet Charlie before he died...At least not knowingly...I was also told that Charlie got a fishing hook through his wing & buried then into his knee... People took him to Toronto Wildlife Centre who put him to sleep...Some people say that the wound was not life threatening, & why did he have to die? Some say he had too much nerve damage in his knee from this fishing hook...The illegal method of fishing that was used is called "Jigging"...From what I hear there is no red & white bouncing float to show a swan that there is a fishing line in the water, so that is how the line could be missed...When you put a red & white float on your line then swans can see the red & white bob & avoid the location...I wonder if there is an aviary in Scarborough who could have rehabbed Charlie in winter? An indoor warmed pond maybe? I am not sure that I am going to title this work of art "Charlie Nov 10, 2010" or just "Charlie", probably just Charlie...But I may first have to get permission from those who actually knew him...Sometimes someone not so close to the problem can talk about it better, though I tear up too, even at my distance...I guess this is a time to talk about people named Charlie...This Charlie Sheen thing & all...I wonder if Charlie Sheen also was hurt like Charlie the Trumpeter Swan... Sometimes life is sad...To Charlie (raise a toast & put your sails at half mast on Nov. 10 every year for Charlie the Trumpeter Swan)...apparently he liked coffee...
Oh, I forgot to mention... Last summer, 2010, another woman kayaker complained that Charlie was attacking her kayak... You see, ever since Charlie's first wife was murdered by that first woman kayaker, Charlie had a thing for kayaks...You might understand his hatred for them...So another woman, in a kayak, got scared & complained to Bluffers Park Marina, Or Bluffers Park Yacht Club, or the other yacht club there, or maybe to the Scarborough Sailing Club who lets people use their kayaks for a paltry 398 dollar a year fee...Or something like that...Anyways the woman complained... Apparently she complained so much that one day last summer someone came & cut Charlie's feathers so he couldn't fly... Charlie couldn't fly... A bird... A waterbird... A bird was not allowed to fly...A bird living outside surviving as best he could was not allowed to fly... Charlie didn't live on private property...He didn't live in a swan house, no butlers bringing him fresh straw for bedding, or water reeds to build his nest, or a pre-fab beaver lodge condo made for Charlie & his family, no...Charlie lived on Lake Ontario which is cold...Charlie didn't migrate south in winter...From November to April temperatures can always be below Celsius or not...This February 2010 the entire bay froze & all the swans had to move a little west to the unprotected raging open waters, where the shore had no beach merely rocky groynes (put to prevent erosion...)
So when Charlie got snagged by the fishing line & hook, he couldn't fly...He did not have the use of his wings... Meaning when he got nerve damage to his knee that was more severe than if he still had wing ability...He could still swim to rehab, maybe, but I'm guessing the Toronto Wildlife centre does not have an indoor lake that is heated...I know an indoor lake was created for the G20 Summit here... For politicians who weren't going to be swimming...I'm guessing those politicians would like to donate funds to The Toronto Wildlife Centre to have them build an indoor heated lake for our Trumpeter Swans who need medical attention...As restitution for the damage they caused to our city for their useless veal eating hand wagging trophy wife or husband showing off fashion show & travelling bawdy circus with their Planet of the Apes guards who littered our city with their ugliness & fascism...I would like to see a donation from the international community to The Toronto Wildlife Centre to build an indoor heated lake for Trumpeter Swans & other injured waterbirds... In memory of Charlie the Trumpeter Swan... How about you? Will you give some money today to the Toronto Wildlife Centre? No? Fine...I didn't think so... Then I suggest a ban on kayaks at Bluffers Park to enable that park to be more swan friendly to Charlie's children...I also suggest that anyone choosing to use a kayak anywhere in Canada be forced to take a waterbird course before being allowed to go out in open waters...A signed assurance that says that the kayaker is the intruder in cases of swan human conflict & is responsible for leaving the water if found disturbing wildlife...

Day 2 progress, added a wing, reinforced behind the neck...The head now stands alone without support! yay! Thursday March 3, 2011 12:58 pm Eastern Standard Time...(The Apoxie Sculpt Super White defrosted a bit more overnight, & though a bit hard, I was able to just add 1/4 cup hot water to it, instead of soaking tubs in boiled water- it was harder to sludge it together, but I was lazy to defrost it in a pot today...It had arrived frozen from overnighting in a UPS truck & was too hard to work without thawing in the tubs in a pot in hot water first...Big anxiety for me btw. Got help from L--- & Y------, thankfully, at the retailer & at the manufacturer...grateful...

& also to detract other waterbirds...(Toronto Region Conservation Authority said that in order to get a permit to deploy my artificial nests for Trumpeter Swans ( a woven sisal design), that Canada Geese, Mute Swans or other waterbirds may not use the nests...I didn't like the suggestion that a wildlife professional harass those other waterbirds if found sitting on the Trumpeter nest, mainly because it is illegal in Canada to harass a waterbird (or also to tamper with eggs...) ironically, though it is illegal to harass or mess with eggs, the government themselves are actually the worst criminals when it comes to these crimes...Weird eh when government commits crimes that others are not??? The Conservation Authority Suggested the harassment of Canada geese as a viable solution...!!!??? I mean...What's the point of making laws if the government considers itself above its own laws?

  So I decided to make a giant outdoor Trumpeter swan decoy, to both attract Trumpeters specifically & to detract others...Canada Geese & Mute Swans don't hang out where Trumpeters are...I think this is a more gentle solution, although to be honest I wouldn't mind if other birds chose to try out one of my nests...Mother Nature knows what it is doing...But I can't get a permit if I don't at least fulfill some of the hoop jumping...(To be honest I am considering doing all of this only on private property, since I am annoyed at red tape, just, well, always...)

  This is Day 1 work on the sculpting part with Apoxie Sculpt Super White made by Aves Studio & retailed here in Toronto by Sculpture Supply Canada on Munster Avenue...
  What you are seeing is 4 lbs of Apoxie Sculpt...
  Notes: If your Apoxie Sculpt Super White arrives frozen from sitting overnight in a UPS truck, it may be rock hard, not putty-like as it should be...Here is what you do: Take both tubs A & B & put in a pot with some very very hot water & let sit for 5 minutes...With some gloves scoop out the material into a foil pan & add 1/4 cup hot water to the mounds & start kneading it all together...It will return to putty texture & you can start work right away...Caution: Know this- heat speeds up cure time, so don't overdo the sitting in hot water...Also, adding too much water at the end will make it too mushy...Moderation is key...

Grovecanada's Swan Art Projects...

2011-02-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

http://graphicdesignboss.com/ Today I was reading a comment written by GraphicDesignBoss, on a Behance.com email newsletter (recommended), about Joe Fig's book, "Inside the Painter's Studio"...
  The comment went something like this: artists create for themselves, graphic artists create for others...& then something about the tension of producing for others that makes him happy...Also, the fact that producing for others brings in clients...
  This is what I want to say about that...I think I may agree...I have found that when I produce work for others, it has greater tension & appeal & also saleability...
  I think my work has been too self-looking & the key to my future is looking outward more...
  Not just creating works about others, but work FOR others...
  Building the nest for the Trumpeter swans has been difficult & rewarding...Possibly more so than the painting About swans...
  I am now making a giant swan decoy to attract trumpeters & detract other waterbirds...My tendency is to allow this project to go off topic...(into art that could be shown at the AGO , Art Gallery of Ontario)...
  But things like eco-friendly material & lightness keep reminding me that this has to be a swan friendly work...Which is keeping me honest...
   I am going to try to remember this concept- that creating for others, not just about others, is key to creating tension, which leads to sales & communication...

New Trumpeter nest re-design prototype number 4 how To...

2011-02-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

So, I had a convo with TRCA, Toronto Region Conservation Authority, about putting out ONE Trumpeter swan nest...The answer was that a wildlife professional had to monitor the nest daily to make sure that no Canada Geese, Mute swans or other waterbirds got to use the nest...(the suggestion was to harass these other birds, which personally I have always known to be illegal in Canada- I don't care how pro you are, harassing a waterbird is wrong...) So anyways, moral dilemma aside, & stuck in a (insert appropriate Star trek episode where they have to deal with a guy who is the king of a space junkyard...who calls all the rules in his little fiefdom)...- stuck there, I came up with a Trumpeter swan Decoy idea, where I would put a Trumpeter Swan decoy with the Trumpeter Swan nest, so geese & smaller swans like Mute swans would shy away, & Trumpeters would be attracted...Here is where I am with my Trumpeter swan decoy design- 48 feet of 1 inch chicken wire ( a whole roll), 2 wire hangers supporting the neck & the base of the neck, (one hanger taken apart, & the base of the neck hanger just squished together...) One roll of Sisal (550 ft. just the thin heavy duty stuff)- the sisal is going to get wrapped all around everything to give it all support...At that point I will have to think about my next step...here we are so far...(Sun Feb 27, 2011)...

TRUMPETER SWAN DECOY PROGRESS REPORT!

Um, Big Note Update about the Trumpeter Swan Nest Design: (February 26, 2011 way after this instructional was written...)- OK, I have been looking at the edge loops on the nest, which I love, but I think I am going to refine my next nest so that the fluffy loops are not there anymore...I am going to chain link the primary circle, & just build the nest from there in the same manner, but no fluffy loops around the edges...I think JayTeeScott of (SimplySuperbSwans in Scotland, see left hand blog links)) is actually right now that I reflect on his comments, I was thinking he was talking about the middle web which is tight enough & will shrink in weather, but I realize the fluffy edge loops might be a hazard...So I am going to start again, prototype design number 5 is next, I will post when I can...!!! Sari

A note about Tempesta before the nest notes: (ooh also, go to groveontario.wordpress.com for more nest notes...)

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/march-of-crimes/2010/05/25/charges-against-michael-bryant-dropped-cyclists’-outrage-not-so-much/ The reason I did this painting "Tempesta" relates to the article linked above...In the painting, there are actually 4 swans, a family, two parents & two children, who Joseph & I made friends with down at Toronto Harbour... While we were feeding this family of 4, a very aggressive seagull started competing with the swans for food...I had seen this before, but only in the context of one male swan & one aggressive seagull...Today it was different...One of the parents went completely medieval on the seagull...The seagull was left stunned & drifting on the water, unable to fly for a long while after...We were all shocked...The swan response was swift & harsh...& then it all came together...In the story of the politician & the cyclist, the most important feature of the story was that the male politician was exiting from dinner WITH HIS WIFE...Because the mad cyclist attacked the politician while he was in an open car with his wife, the politician was very very territorial...He was protecting his wife, like the swans were protecting their family...If you attack someone who is with their family, they will defend, with greater strength & fervour than if they were alone...This was why I did this painting, Tempesta, storm...It explains a very particular situation that Torontonians faced just a short while back...Sari Grove Feb. 25, 2011...p.s. I added another coat of dammar varnish yesterday, so it is still drying...(will be less yellow when drier)...

Ok here is a finished Trumpeter swan nest...Note: the Sisal tightens up significantly in the cold wet weather here, so gaps will be less...much less...safer...Also, you can put this nest into the crotch of a tree or strap it to large flat rocks near a beach for other species of birds & waterbirds...You can also put straw on top if you'd like to make it even more cosy... Barley straw is high in magnesium & will offset mercury in the water supply if it falls into water- so it is good for your pond or lake...You can also dig a crevice into beach sand, place the nest in the groove, & also surround it with rocks to provide a wind protector...You can stake the nest in the ground to prevent it from moving or being taken...Put wild bird seed on the nest to attract waterbirds initially...Sisal is straw from agave plant leaves by the way- biodegradeable & environmentally friendly...

Ok, here is how you begin to make a viable sustainable biodegradable environmentally friendly nest for your Trumpeter Swans...
My hula hoop is 4 feet in diameter...What you are looking at is 3 rolls of 1/4 inch SISAL which costs $3.00 for each 50 ft. roll at Canadian Tire in Toronto...I also cut snippets from one 550 foot thinner grade sisal roll ($4.27 a roll) to attach my ring to the hula hoop for when I weave the centre of the nest...
So, basically, you need one circle of sisal to act as the edge of the nest, then you take the leftover from that roll, plus the other two rolls & let the natural loops form a fluffy loopy edge to your nest, so if the baby cygnets are inside the nest they know where the edge is...Also, the loopy edge looks nice- though not entirely necessary...(but it really makes the whole nest idea look nesty)...If it is winter & you are budgeting, you can opt to leave your edge bare & still have something warmer for your swans to sit upon instead of them sitting upon the ice...

Next I will show you how to weave the middle part with a simple monkey chain knot...(um, hang on while I get my gear)...(give me 15 minutes)...

How to make the monkey chain knot to weave the Trumpeter Swan nest together

So, Here is the beginning...I am just weaving that very simple monkey chain knot, & as I go along, I stick a loop through a chain that I encounter & just continue weaving that very same knot, until I get to the end of a roll of sisal, then wherever I end up, I knot it securely & leave some sisal dangling so it won't come undone...Messy is good...Don't overthink this- in fact, don't think at all...It is very meditative to do this & don't forget to wear gloves! Mine are pink jersey from Canadian Tire garden department & cost around $7.99...

here is the finished trumpeter swan nest...sigh...about 8 hours yesterday & about 2 hours today...Total time =10 hours from start to finish...gee, someone asked me if they could buy one...I've been thinking how much to charge if I did consider that...It's not the materials costs, it's the labour...10 hours of weaving...Hmmm...Well, I suppose it could get to be fewer hours if I knew what I was doing...Honestly, for the amount of work I did...? I think it would be cheaper for somebody to try to make one themselves...I'd have to start at 50 dollars an hour...500 dollars? Hmm...Not even sure I'd want to sell it for that...besides the Trumpeter swans offer me more...What do they offer me? Love, joy, fresh air, friendliness, beauty, water, - the experience of being able to get close to these gentle giants is worth much much more than any money...Also, I have noticed, that me & the Trumpeters, are the same...We walk the same walk, we are very big, we are always being looked at, we are strong, we can defend ourselves, we are part of a large family, we live in cold weather, we have very big feet, we are tall, we are pretty, we are trying to survive like the rest of us, we need a large natural habitat to nest & rest in, people think we are fine but we still need help, did I mention we walk the same?

Ok, here is where I am after about 3 hours...I purchased my sisal rolls at around 3:00 pm this Sunday, walked home, had a drink, & got to work...It is now around 6:40 pm, but I have been taking drink breaks & posting this info online as I go along- so it will be about 2-3 hours of work to get to this stage...
I have used for the middle part of the nest, so far, 5 rolls of 50 foot Sisal (1/4 inch thickness at $3.00 a roll)...I also used 3 rolls of this stuff for the edge of the nest & the outer circle ring at the beginning...So total so far I have used 8 rolls of 50 ft. sisal costing $3.00 each roll for grand total of $24.00 spent so far...(My hula hoop by the way is 43 inches diameter, made for me to size by a nice lady who makes hula hoops found on ebay.ca)...(The bigger the hula hoop the easier it is to hula)...

So , here I am at 10:40 pm on Sunday night...I took a short break for dinner Joseph brought me home from Jack Astor's near to Yonge & Bloor...So it feels like 7 hours & 45 minutes since I bought my supplies at 3 this afternoon...I've been watching & listening to the Grammy awards, so it hasn't been painful...You can see what I have done here is weave in the thinner Sisal cord thru the weave of the thicker Sisal...This cleans the whole things up, filling in gaps nicely, & looks pretty...Also, the thinner Sisal is easier on the hands, though I decided to keep the gloves on...I am going to finish the whole roll of cord after this break, only because I might as well...

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663230/talents-not-enough-how-tyler-hays-created-an-indie-furniture-empire Here's an afterthought about someone in the design field, which is sort of what my nest is moving into... Ideas that latched onto me from this interview include the notion that something good may take two or three years to take off & that for an artist in a lower rent city the art can get better because studio space is affordable...(mainly that low expenses gives an artist greater freedom...)

http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/02/16/video-tony-cochran-featured-on-writers-talk/ Another interview, this one with a cartoonist...Salient point, how the budding germ sprung from the rigidity of the nun's teachings caused the young boy to find ways to inject humour into his classmates' lives...Which apparently created the impetus to continue to generate humour for those caught in rigid lives, as a career...(but interesting to see that this person changed motivations each time he changed his surroundings... Which says to me that in order to change your interior you have to change your exterior...)

http://howtomakeacharpoy.blogspot.com/ How to make a charpoy...( a woven bed of sorts- I was using this also for ideas on how to make different kinds of shelters for waterbirds...not sure where this is going)...

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2011/02/stockholm-design-fair-chandelier-installation.html Totally awesome design idea: chandeliers restored with mop heads!!!

http://gigirosenberg.com/ How to write grants, see the book!...

My helper friend...(Also is my husband, artist Joseph Grove)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/55312962/organic-sisal-bird-house-1 After I made my Trumpeter swan nest, I searched online for someone else who had tried to do the same thing...Knotting with your hands...As it turns out I couldn't find anything...I did find this person on Etsy who makes these great crocheted Sisal bird houses though for only $15 dollars each!

Recipe for a Trumpeter Swan Nest...

2011-02-03T16:41:00.001-08:00

The final prototype will be like this one, but with a much bigger diameter...How to: make a Sisal ring that is 4 feet in diameter, wrap the edges loosely in big loopy swirls with 3 more 50 ft. rolls of 1/4 inch sisal, then using another roll of sisal weave a web in the middle using a simple monkey chain knot (videos on how a monkey chain knot works are easy to find online, or see link below)...I will try to post a video of me weaving the middle part to show how...(thin cotton gloves might be useful to protect your hands)...

Hi, I have been working on a new alternate design for Trumpeter swan nests, here is a link http://groveontario.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/how-to-make-a-trumpeter-swan-nest/

  The thing is about my earlier design using straw, is that if you happen to live in a city it can be hard to get a bale of straw- & my designs are really for others to copy & use in their local area, since the more people make & put out nests, the more our Trumpeters can find & use them...
  Sisal is easy to buy, relatively cheap & is both biodegradable & environmentally friendly...
  Here is a link to a letter to the parks department about putting out nests & some of the issues involved...
http://blog.grovecanada.fm/2011/02/11/making-trumpeter-swan-nests-in-ontario-of-sisal--weaving.aspx
(here is the main blog page of that blog) http://blog.grovecanada.fm

Vote for this idea at : http://pep.si/gswYKo

*http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-pets-livestock-for-sale-Straw-for-sale-W0QQAdIdZ254921729 1000 straw bales for $2.50 each bale...(by the way, a 550 foot roll of thinner sisal is about $5.00, you only need half a roll at most to roll around your donut re-shaped bale of straw to keep the straw secure in that donut/wreath shape...so your total cost per nest is $5.00)(just toss some loose straw into the middle once you have placed your donut, for a floor)...

*Sisal (biodegradable-environmentally friendly): 1/4" 50 ft. $3.00 (or thinner grade sisal is $5.00 for 550 ft. which can be used for two nests)...

*Take 9 feet of loose straw, form into a donut shape, with centre hole 3 feet or bigger...

*Wrap Sisal cord around loose straw to hold straw into the donut shape...

*Knot Sisal when straw is nicely into a very large donut shape...

*Done!

*Take straw donut to a nice place near to water, possibly near long grasses, away from dogs, possibly on an island, or in a marsh area where Trumpeter Swans like to swim...

*Place Straw donut in that nice place & if you like add:

* loose straw in the middle of the donut as a floor/ or * wild bird seed to attract the swans initially & bring loose straw for the floor next time...

*Pat yourself on the back...Vote for this design at http://www.refresheverything.ca/grovecanada , Voting ends February 28, 2011, if we win we get 5K to build 1000 Trumpeter Swan nests at $5.00 apiece...

Link: http://conservepaintings.wordpress.com/ If you need art conservation consultation, like, why is there "bloom" on my painting(varnish laid on too quickly?, freezing cold climate?), or, can I remove "Frass"(frass is insect poo, looks rusty red) from the linen matting?

http://www.classicreader.com/book/216/61/ Today Seth Godin mentioned a story...here is the link to the full story...You really have to read the whole thing to understand the point...A little about not stealing from the little guy who works for you...( more like, honour & reward your employees well, for they could make or break you in the future...)(especially in this day & age where companies are choosing to fire senior execs in order to replace them with lower wage newbies...not a good move by the way...)

Recipe for a Trumpeter Swan Nest...

2011-02-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

*http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-pets-livestock-for-sale-Straw-for-sale-W0QQAdIdZ254921729 1000 straw bales for $2.50 each bale...

*Sisal (biodegradable-environmentally friendly): 1/4" 50 ft. $3.00

*Take 9 feet of loose straw, form into a donut shape, with centre hole 3 feet or bigger...

*Wrap Sisal cord around loose straw to hold straw into the donut shape...

*Knot Sisal when straw is nicely into a very large donut shape...

*Done!

*Take straw donut to a nice place near to water, possibly near long grasses, away from dogs, possibly on an island, or in a marsh area where Trumpeter Swans like to swim...

*Place Straw donut in that nice place & is you like add:

* loose straw in the middle of the donut as a floor/ or * wild bird seed to attract the swans initially & bring loose straw for the floor next time...

*Pat yourself on the back...

PosterJack.ca & Peel N' Stick reusable kitchen cupboard art!

2011-01-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

http://craftemergency.org/ Alyson B. Stanfield is having another birthday & if you don't know who Alyson is, she is the Art Biz Coach & can be read online at ArtBizBlog.com which is fed on the left hand side of this blog...For her birthday Alyson has requested that you donate $5.00 to CERF, which stands for Craft Emergency Relief Fund & you can read more about what they do at the link above...

Vote for a 5K grant to build nests for Trumpeter Swans given by Pepsi Refresh project

Here is a 24 by 36 peel n stick poster from Posterjack.ca in Toronto which I stuck onto my above the sink cupboards then sliced down the middle so that the cupboards could be opened! At around 40 dollars, this is better for me than putting in new cupboards...

here is a photo of the original painting which is still wet on January 24, 2011...Oils take a while(plus it will change colours & textures too)...It's 36 inches by 48 inches by 2-1/4 inches of oil on linen, titled "Tempesta" by me, Sari Grove...I like to keep a memento of the original, which is why I did the kitchen cupboard print, though I don't really sell prints of my works...

  Thoughts on Applications: (Not computer applications btw, applications that you have to fill out to get into something, or somewhere...)
  In grade 13, (yes, grade 13), I spent a large part of the year applying to a bunch of Ivy league universities, including a precious day of my ski vacation in Stowe Vermont...
  Long story short I compromised my graduating marks a bit by spending time on those applications...Which was stupid...
  If you are an artist, do your art...If you spend all of your time applying for things, galleries, juried shows, competitions, grants, whatever, your art will suffer...& it's about the art, not about the application...

Update to this blog post Fri. Jan 28, 2011: Why Chuck Close is face blind...)& Oliver Sacks) & maybe me a little bit...
  Drawing faces or painting faces was taboo, um, like alot of years ago, & well, mostly, today as well, & will pretty much be taboo into the future too, if all goes according to plan, which is sort of no plan at all, which means the status quo will continue...
  What I mean is: Faces, portraits, likeness, has always been taboo...Other likeness like realistic landscapes, fruit in a bowl, nudes, your dog, are also relatively taboo, but less...
  If you come from a semi-religious background this will be ground into your personality, into your make-up, into your genes, jeans...(sorry, ignore the second jeans that's just me painting...)
  Anyways...sigh...big sigh...If your "people" were religious at all & if you became an artist then you might not be able to draw or maybe even "see" faces ...
  The "seeing" part comes as a natural block, so that you don't accidentally try to paint a face...
  It's sort of historic...It's not really a flaw or a flaw at all...
  It's like a person who cannot swear...It's funny, but not a joke...
  People who say they are face blind may just be better than the rest of us, not worse...
  Which brings me to this...
  Sometimes people with deficits, handicaps, diseases, are better than people who don't have those deficits, handicaps or diseases...
  Sometimes, not always...
  But it's worth taking a second look...
  Is the face blind guy disabled or just more religious in his ancestry than you are?

Autism, ADD, ADHD, Parkinson's disease, toenail fungus:

Dragon Fruit is high in magnesium which removes mercury from the
 gallbladder...

 A teaspoon of epsom salts in a glass of juice tastes terrible but will
 also remove mercury from the gallbladder...(epsom salts are magnesium
 sulfate)

 The reason you might be exposed to higher
 mercury levels is because you are living near to a lake...

 Mercury gathers in your gallbladder...

 It can be offset by magnesium in any format...

 Magnesium in the form of sulfate like epsom salts taken orally will
 also make you poo...You poo out the mercury...

 High mercury levels in a lake are actually caused by all the poo
 in a lake...

 The fish are suffering...

  Dear reader, though I love you, I have to keep my distance because I have to work...My work is pretty time
 consuming...You have to understand & respect that...

 Please don't answer this blog post...I am very busy right now...Sari

p.s. my comments have been edited by me, which means, not so much...

"Tempesta" 3ft. by 4ft. oils by Sari Grove, (still wet & yellowish right now), a preview bit about in a video...

2011-01-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

If North American covered sports stadiums allowed Trumpeter Swans in, in the winter months, the swans could fly & keep warm...about 12 hours ago via Mobile Web Twitter.com/GroveCanada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid Read about Euclid- math & art are neighbours you know!

Today, Sunday January 23 (this is an edit), I fed bird seed to 6 Trumpeter swans at Bluffer's park at the bottom of Brimley road on Lake Ontario...There was L02 who is friendly & a little skittish, H11 who sat right in front of me & happily ate from a pile of bird seed at my feet, & I50 who was afraid at first of the bird seed but after some talking from me decided to go ahead & try it...There was one under a year old Trumpeter swan also eating on the shore but was untagged as of yet, & then two younger untagged ones still with the dusty grey colour of youth who were happy to swim in the unfrozen part of the lake & were too shy to come in...I should note someone left several breadlike pretzel things but they had completely frozen & the swans were not able to eat them...If you do bring bread, make sure it is in small pieces & stick around to feed it from your hands so it doesn't freeze on the ground first...I get wild bird seed in 18Kg or 15Kg bags from Canadian Tire at Danforth & Main, on sale for $12.99 Canadian for a 18Kg bag...The wild bird seed is cheap & very very nutritious & all the waterbirds know it & are happy to eat it & they don't fight over the bird seed like they fight over bread...I am not sure where Hamlet & Ophelia are who live at Bluffer's year round (S08, & O83)...But I am sure they are fine...Please feed waterbirds in winter, it can make the difference between life or death...

Please Note: the finished work when dry, will have a colder,bluer tone...Sari

ArtMajeur.com "Tempesta"a bit about the style...

Stereoblindness in artists Ugh, I already have synesthesia, coming from my grandpa being a sports photographer & my grandma being a pianist- I see sounds...Today I took a pic of myself to check a hairdo question(I am letting my roots grow in, to heck with highlights) with my mom & saw in the pic that my right eye seems to be not complete friends with my left eye...Ok, time for a vacation from painting! I knew I was tired but wasn't sure why...My eyes! My eyes are tired...I won't start a new work for a while...I'm going to rest on my new laurel Tempesta for a while...

The current spate of ADD-like attention spans makes the argument that someone talks too much popular right now...What I find is that people seem to have less patience for any sort of discussion beyond 140 words...This lack of patience is ruder to me...Some subjects require explanation, particularly if delicate or complex...Also, there is nothing more boring than going to a dinner party & sitting with a lump who doesn't talk...The assumption that a talkative person is insecure is also false...Many alphas are talkers...Think of some Presidents...Talking, communicating, is not a bad thing...Those who are too impatient to listen may be missing out on some new learning...Listening is a habit that needs to be cultivated...I have happily listened to many an hour long lecture in university (well 45 minutes)...It is a muscle that needs to be developed...

Trade-offs...

2011-01-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

Assorted notes from the artist life:
  http://www.free-press-release.com/news-multifaceted-benefits-of-wearing-amber-jewelry-1260326180.html# For neck pain(from heavy lifting), I wear an amber necklace all the time...(it's the B12 inside that does it for me)...

  Do you tell your spouse when you are about to make a decision about your art career, whether great or small? You know what? Though it is a hassle, & takes time, & you may not get your way, telling your spouse about a purchase or place where you are going or some other materials decision might help you in your career...If you are married, or living as such, it is actually a bit of their business to know a little about what you are doing...My husband has helped to steer the boat for years, he pushed me away from acrylics, & pushed me further into oils, he pushed me away from making prints & pushed me further into only producing originals, he pushed me away from bad commission deals with galleries & he pushed me into a situation where I can show with only a 1/3 commission given away...Joseph has also helped me to steer away from turpentines, away from animal hair brushes-actually away from all brushes & I now use a knife to paint, away from pricier foreign paints & towards more locally made paints that support our local economy & are cheaper to buy because of less shipping...Sometimes I get mad when he restrains my spending, but then later I find out that it was for good reason...If you have a spouse, even if they are not in the same field, you might want to consider letting them into your artist life...Then when you spend 5 thousand dollars on art supplies, you don't have a big fight...

  On Climate & Art tastes: Ok, so you live in very very hot Australia...It is hot...Hot & sexy...Sex is everywhere...It's hot...So the prevailing art movement is to dampen the hotness...Aboriginal cubism, obliteration of likenesses, abstract themes, these are welcomed in sophisticated homes where the collector or collectors are trying to dampen the hotness...
  Now, you are the artist & you move to cold, cold, cold, Canada...Did I mention it's cold? Cold...Cold, & not very sexy at all...So, sophisticated collectors are looking to hotten up their lives...They lack hotness & need hotness...So what do they want? Hyper-hyper realism, plenty of likeness that spells it ALL out...Pornography, (please forgive me) does so well in Canada it is basically endorsed & supported by our government because they know our birth rates are low...Nudity sells well in Canada...Photography...Because of the coldness, collectors are looking for a remedy in their art...
  So the maverick like me in Canada leans towards abstract expressionism...The maverick artist in Australia leans towards nudity...Neither are popular really, because Canadians don't need to sublimate more, & Australians don't need more nudity...
  So, how could I sell more if I stay in Canada? By giving the people what they want- more realism...(coldness also makes people less likely to want to stand & THINK about a painting- they want an answer fast before their toes freeze)...How could an artist in Australia sell more? By creating more art that sublimates the hotness- abstract work that cools down the sexual energy...
  What am I going to do about it? Aw heck I'm a Virgo...a puritan purist pure sort of person...Naturally lean toward sublimating abstracts...Well, I could sell my work to someone from a hotter climate? Or I could give my people what they want...Ugh...tough decision...ugh...

  I had a dream the other morning...I won't tell you the whole dream, but there was a part where I was the first person to figure out that if I added a huge amount of oil to my ride I could get down some mysterious path, like a giant water slide...Maybe a worm hole in space, made to appear in my dream like a giant water slide...My achievement was huge...But when I plopped out of that giant water slide with the oil sliding out with me, I was first...Meaning, I was all by myself with my achievement...I realised when I woke up that being first means there is no one at the end to cheer you for getting there...I feel like that alot in my art career path..."Yay! I got there! Gee, where is everyone?" ...

Ideas that have crossed my path recently: (or reiterations of ideas I like)...
1) Goals: Stating goals publicly can fool you into not doing them...(as if they were already done just by the talking about)...

2)Patience: Putting off short term pleasure for a longer term reward is a sign of someone who will do well later on in life...

Note: These two above thoughts (put in my own words) were added to my own via joining a group called Conspiracy, through ArtBizCoach.com ...

3)Sublimation: Richard Serra referred to sublimation...I take it to mean abstaining from sex in order to do better work...

4)Plein Air: Painting, drawing, being, outside in the fresh air, for the quality of light, for the health of it, for the economy, for ecology...

5)Expressionist: Rather than describing nature closely (impressionism), the expressionist allows departures whether great or small to indicate other intent like mood...ie: depicting rain as purple to indicate a crazy day...

6)Alla Prima: Painting all in one shot, not fixing up, not touching up later...The freshness & unity of alla prima painting has always gripped me...(Though the complexity of layering intrigues me, I shall probably return to my alla prima roots soon...)

Jadzia is one of our intact lady bengal cats...

  Last year, a piece I painted, got into a museum collection...

  Last year, another artist had a baby...

Today, I got into an elevator carrying a large umbrella lamp to take a better photo of a new work of art...

As I entered the elevator, a mother stood with a baby in a large baby stroller...It was hard for both of us not to notice each other's occupation...

Me & my husband, my husband & I, are both artists, full time...We haven't had any children...

For me, I was waiting till everything came together, not knowing that an art career was not really a come together kind of profession...

For my husband, who grew up with a biological sister & 6 adopted siblings, adopted siblings with various disabilities, having children was not exactly a fantasy...

How it has turned out for me is that while other women are choosing daycares or universities for their offspring, I am breaking glass ceilings for women artists...

I guess I am ok with that...

  For my husband, it means that he loves me, & really only me, & he is financially free without burden or baggage...

We are best friends & life partners, truly husband & wife...

Still, I am glad the holidays are over...

The truth is I am happy with how things turned out...It is just hard to get it out of my head what society wanted me to be...

  I feel that if now I decided to have a baby, that my career would sort of be secondary...

I'm not sure that is what God wanted for me...

I guess we'll see...In the next few years my time will be up...The window will have closed...

Unless, that recurring thought I have, unless I have already had children, & I wasn't told...I keep looking back & wondering if somehow I sired a few children without knowing...Like I sowed my wild oats & some of them took...

Is it possible for a woman to sow her wild oats & not know she has had kids???

I look at young adults who are near to me...I study them..."Could you be one of my wild oats?" I think to myself...

It is definitely possible...There is about a decade where the facts are blurry...Maybe?

Hmmm...

That would be way easier...To have already had children, but just wasn't told...

All the rearing, raising, done already...Would be nice...

Then the whole thing would be under my belt (so to speak) & I could move on with my painting without wondering or regretting...

Here is a painting drying in the studio now called "Tempesta" (it means Storm), 36 by 48 by 2-1/4 inches of oils on linen, hand stretched, copper & black steel tacks no staples, no animal hair brushes, no brushes at all actually, no turpentines, no rabbit skin glue, walnut oil paint made in Montreal, eco-dammar...

Step by step...materials...a painting...

2011-01-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Note to self: I am not here to provide you with lower price options...I am not here to accommodate the fact that you spent all of your money on your university education, on renting a retail space, on your car, your tv set, your stereo, your computer, your suit...I am a full time artist & this is all I do to make a living...I paint paintings...beautiful paintings...Do you really think I want to be in the business of selling to you multiple prints at cheap prices? Do you think it will satisfy my soul to photograph my originals to make prints so that you can buy an image of my work at a fraction of the cost of the original? How many prints do you think I am going to have to sell to make ends meet? In order to make 6 thousand dollars back (the cost of an original right now), I have to sell maybe 60 prints at 100 dollars apiece- but that is if I keep all the profit & have no overhead...More like, 60 prints at 200 dollars apiece cost to you, I get to keep half that...Maybe...But you have to see them in a gallery don't you? So I give the gallery a 1/3 commission...So now I need to sell 60 prints at $300 dollars apiece, gallery get $100, printer gets $100, I get $100...But you'd like to see some framed...You'd also prefer if maybe they were at least matted...Wrapped in plastic...& you want a typed piece of paper attached, with my name & biography & maybe a picture of me & a story & something about the painting...Plus a price tag of course...Maybe a card on the wall telling the materials used, are they archival, acid free, sustainable wood paper...? Of course, I have to get into that gallery which means I have to make friends, send jpeg's of my work, get interviewed, maybe sign a contract...Your print is now $400.00...(the extra $100 is just going to pay for all of that stuff...) The government in Ontario adds 13%...So, let's see, your bill is $452.00 now...You will have to pay for parking, maybe a babysitter, coffee or a snack on the way, time...It's really going to be a $500.00 purchase for you, including the fact that you still have to hang the print, maybe buy a leveller, a nail or hanging device, a hammer...Kind of alot of money for a print...Ooops, is it signed by me? Make sure you get it signed...because that is an investment right? That one of 60 prints, is actually maybe one of 600 prints, since maybe the artist needed to do a bigger print run to cover printing setup overhead...Wow! Your print is number 392/600 ! That should be worth, hmmm, maybe $500 dollars someday! Yes, that's about it...

Here's how I really see it...Art is like a Mercedes Benz...It is special...It is expensive...I want one...I don't want anyone else to have one...Just me...It makes me feel special...It is unique...It is a symbol that I have attained wealth, a signifier...A goal of sorts...Not everybody can have a Mercedes Benz...But when you do get one, it makes you feel good...Like you are a part of a club...

This is just a metaphor...It is also a story really written for me to remind myself why I am not doing prints...Why I am selling my originals & that is all...I keep forgetting why...This is a reminder to self...Keep telling me this, I keep slipping...

Thought: Interview the gallery owner (3 points)...1)Look for a long memory...Ask the gallery owner memory questions...Vaguely reference old movies or tv shows & say " do you remember who played the guy on Three's Company?"(John Ritter) or some other slightly vague old question...See where their brain is at...Do they read? "What was that Milan Kundera book they made into a movie?" (The unbearable lightness of being)...Ask art history questions...If the gallery owner has memory problems, it will affect their work...Selling art is a memory game...Old potheads will have problems, which will hurt you as an artist if you choose to work with them...(Also people who regularly pop sleeping pills or painkillers or even just aspirins)... 2)Is the owner a good communicator? Or do they clam up? Talking is pretty essential to sales...A gallery owner who doesn't like to talk might not want to be in sales as a career...(This is not the same as knowing when to be silent) Also, check their hearing by speaking softly- not talking much can be a sign of hearing troubles, not a good trait in someone who needs to be a good listener too...3) What is turn around time from an email question? Does it take the gallery owner a couple of hours or a couple of days to answer your email? This will be the same with clients...

What does an artist wear? Well, my clothes are from Sweet-Additions...(The yellow paint in the middle of my top is oil paint, not part of the design...btw)...The belt is just the nicest belt in the world...My long sleeve tops are all designed by Katydid (available at Sweet-Additions)...The back of the tops are even more ornate than the fronts...I find that sparkly clothing catches people's eyes more & then we talk & I sell them something...Even if I have to hand wash in the bathtub because of the rhinestones...It also seems to keep Joseph's eye from wandering...Well, mostly, it helps him to find me in a crowded room...

http://www.sweet-additions.com/

Um, like, omigosh!!! How MANY people are out there taking photographs of things & then painting from photographs & calling themselves artists????Then selling this work...? Ugh...Gross... I mean, just blog post after blog post of perfectly rendered traced paintings...Like...I mean...C'mon...Take some time, like 4 years or so & learn how to draw...Practice...Like really...It doesn't come all at once...Even the best were shitty for a long time...Just work at it...But for Gosh sakes don't compromise by tracing from photos...Ok, rant over...Carry on...

p.s. Are you an Ebay snob? This is regarding us having one of our paintings listed on ebay.ca... Honestly, whenever I have had a listing on ebay, my name pops up at the top right of every search engine...I used to have to pay Google Adwords to have that position, which I stopped when Google Adwords got too expensive...Something like a dollar a hit...So now, I use ebay...I have one listing ( which costs one time less than 5 dollars, but I don't have to pay every time you click on the ad), which I keep indefinitely up, at a Buy Now price, & whenever someone looks for my name they can find me easily...I also am aware of all the really great unique things I was able to buy myself using ebay.ca ...If it is good enough for me to buy from, it is good enough for me to sell from...(I do also use a variety of other selling points, this is only one basket among many...but not to be degraded...)

So, the stretcher bars are 2-1/4 inches deep...I got 2 x 36 inch bars & 2 x 48 inch bars, in poplar, from RexArt in Florida, plus one 36 inch cross brace...My hammer I use as a wood mallet, by putting on rubber cane tips which I got from Canadian Tire...The black steel carpet tacks are also from Canadian Tire...(used to hold the linen down at back)...The B.C. Gold tree nails I use to temporarily hold the linen down, then re-stretch it after a few days more permanently...Note: Though I stretched the linen with my bare hands this time, I have bought canvas pliers, & the next time I will use them to pull the linen tighter...(Cotton & linen are different in terms of hygroscopability- meaning linen changes alot more than cotton in humid weather...)

The linen is usually too big, so I will cut down the back edges so it is not so floppy...Kitchen scissors from Canadian Tire...

We have been feeding swans for over six months now, so I know my subject...I sketched from memory into a sketch pad one night, & then I took 4 of those sketches & enlarged them & put them together onto the sized linen...I sized the linen with several coats of Liquitex Clear gesso which is very nice...The sketch here was laid down with Sennelier oil pastels...(from aswexpress.com)

My swans overlap, so I have done a Venn diagram type of resolve...Because this is intricate, I am colouring in my lines using Kama Pigments walnut oil sticks from Montreal...(you have to ask for them specially)...There is a clear gel sticky layer on top of the oil pastel drawing- that is M. Graham walnut alkyd medium, which is used to make walnut oil paints dry faster- instead of mixing it one by one with each walnut oil colour, I laid a thin coat over the whole painting as a base...Let it dry & you can paint over...review: as a review of the walnut alkyd medium I would say this: yes, the walnut oil paint did dry faster, But, I did not like the plasticky look of the paint film when dry...Walnut oil, because it dries slow, leaves a really thick gorgeous loose paint film- when you speed up drying time you tighten the film which makes it look plasticky...The faster the drying time of a paint, the tighter the film, the more plasticky something looks...I wouldn't recommend this for the next time...

Filling in the colours along the lines in Kama Pigments oil sticks...This takes a while...I am not used to intricate detail work so this is tiring for me mentally...

Sigh...Yes, I am getting somewhere with this...But where am I? This painting is different from my normal style...I think it is all the extra iron I have added to my diet...

It is getting so mathematical...Is this me? (feels like Escher or some other mathematical person, but not me...)

Added some navy rain in kama pigments walnut oil paint...Still confused...At this point I got some copper tacks (Charvin) from Jerry's Artarama & hammered them into the side edges to add support...they look nice...Laid kama pigments.com walnut oil paint on top of the kama oil stick...Alternated between using a knife & my gloved fingers, since I don't use animal hair brushes or turpentines in my method

Ok...Hmmm...What happened here was I got 4 different bottles of schmincke bronze powders for oil paints, dropped some eco-house dammar varnish onto the swans, then dribbled the bronze pigments on each swan, spread a bit with gloves...(these were biodegradable gloves-which was a really stupid idea on my part- anyways...)

Those wooden things sticking out from the back of my sailboat (canvas) are stuck into holes in the stretcher bars , which makes the linen tighter...Those silver metal thingies are Best Corner keys which actually have screws in the middle which you can turn to make the thing expand thus also tightening your linen...Spraying the back with a little water will tighten your linen too...Possibly not trying to do everything yourself might make for a tighter canvas- but of course, you won't feel as proud of yourself...I'd restretch the whole thing, but that might be an exercise in futility so I am restraining myself...Truth is it is humid here right now & when it dries out a bit things will be better...

Ugh...Sorry the lighting is sooo yellow ...When this is ready I will cart it outside for a proper photo shoot...I am still short one more layer of gold with dammar, plus the edges need to be done in that too...I am now 9 days past my deadline officially, & it looks like a while before I am done...(I gave myself 6 months for this work...)

Ok, what you are looking at is the back corner of my stretched linen canvas...The metal thingy is called a BEST corner key, & it has two bolts in the middle that can turn...To tighten your canvas, you screw the bolts, one in one direction, the other in the other direction, which makes them move, & open up...By pushing this little piece apart, it pushes on the stretcher bar to expand it...This expansion helps to tighten up your linen canvas...Note: I use two tools to do this, a micro-expandable wrench & a mini-lineman's pliers, one to hold one bolt still, the other to turn the other bolt...I found with just one tool, the two bolts kept moving together, which wasn't expanding anything...So you have to isolate one bolt while turning the other...The wrench & pliers cost me $6.99 & $9.99 respectively, so it didn't hurt much...
The corner wood piece jutting out fits into a hole in the back of the stretcher bar...This one has not been hammered in yet...I have hammered this wood piece in today & am now the proud owner of a tightly stretched piece of linen...(squirting water at the back helped too)...
I have to say, stretching linen is a big job...But I am so proud of myself, that I highly recommend people trying to do this themselves- just for the self-happiness ...

So here I am with Tempesta on January 12, 2011...I took dry gold pigment from kama pigment & put that into a clear squeeze ketchup bottle, added some eco-house dammar varnish, shook it up, & squirted that on the edges of Tempesta so the painting has a gold edge so you can hang it unframed...The edges are 2-1/4 inch thick so you really don't want to put a frame...I also dribbled a bit of the golden mixture in the very foreground to make it look like there is a sandy golden beach right in front of the swans...This also helps to blend the edge colour in to the painting...Letting this dry for a week, then one last total coat of eco-dammar & I might be done...Whew!

Ok here we are on January 14, 2011, I added a final coat of eco-house dammar varnish with gloves on my hands to spread the eco-dammar & squirted it on with a clear squeezy ketchup bottle to control the flow...Now it just has to dry...Whew! This was the most difficult painting I have ever done...At the moment, I am quitting painting, forever...Joseph agrees...Even he is tired from this one...

Squirted straight from the tube a yellow walnut oil paint from Kama Pigments.com on the back to indicate title, size, date, & my name...

Today, I went to Currys & got a package of Best Corner Keys, which are metallic corner brackets that have screws in the middle so you can expand or contract your stretcher bars...Screwed them in with my big muscles & am thrilled...Sprayed the back of the linen with some water to try to tighten it up a bit...
Got some gold metallic dry pigment from Kama Pigments.com Montreal & am going to mix some up in ketchup bottles I got from ebay.ca (Texas) with some more eco-house dammar varnish from Wyndham art supplies to do the edges in gold shiny...
Sari Grove
p.s. am planning to use some of the gold metallic with dammar at the bottom front to add some sand at the foreground...
It's been over six months now...sigh...I'm tired...I'm going to take a break after this painting...
Oh, & I stuck a FineArt Registry.com security tag on the back & registered the work early in case it got stolen from the studio or something stupid happened...(I keep tags on hand...)

Today is January 11th, 2011: received some more eco-house dammar varnish from Wyndham Art Supplies in Guelph (Thanks Helen for expediting the shipment)! So, I put on my dust mask from Curry's, put on my Oakly clear dartboard style sunglasses, put on my non-latex gloves, added some dry gold pigment with a knife into a clear squeezy ketchup bottle, added some eco-dammar to the mix, shook it up well, & squirted & with my gloves, painted all the edges of "Tempesta"...When done, I laid the painting flat & squirted in the same gold-dammar mix, a thin sandy beach in the foreground of the painting, & a few contrast lines in swan on the left...This all should dry for about a week then I can put a final clear coat of eco-dammar...Then I am done...This is taking me closer to 7 months rather than 6...Hmmm... I wonder if I should add a whole thousand dollars to the final selling price to justify the extra time & materials? I usually go at a thousand dollars per month of work on a painting- which is low enough so I am not completely crazy just working non-stop...Hmmm. let's see how it looks when done...

Happy New Year!

2010-12-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

http://forum.portraitartist.com/printthread.php?t=3958 If poverty level is $18,400.00 per year (see the article), then an artist selling paintings at $6,000.00 apiece has to sell 3 per year to get to that level...(which confuses me, since at the moment, I can only paint one six thousand dollar worth oil painting at 36 x 48 inch size every six months...-which means, either I have to produce faster or charge more...I am leaning towards more...hmmm...ok, then I have to charge 9 thousand dollars a painting to reach poverty level every year...(based on two per year)...hmmm...this is not really helping me much...

Today, on Wed. January 5th, 2011, I went to Bluffer's Park at Brimley & Danforth, on Lake Ontario, & hand fed 5 Trumpeter Swans...On the way I stopped at the Canadian Tire store at Danforth & Main & picked up two 18Kg bags of bird seed on sale for $12.99 each...You can even just cut open the bag of bird seed & the swans will stick their nose in & eat from that, & then I grab bunches & walk over to the swans that are shyer...The sun was shining & all was right with the world...If you want to do something wonderful, go feed your local waterbirds this winter...It can mean the difference between life or death for a wild waterbird & it sure is a nice thing to do for yourself...

"Tempesta" 36 by 48 by 2-1/4 inch walnut oils on linen on poplar stretcher bars with walnut oil stick & oil pastel & eco-dammar & 4 different dry silver & gold pigments sketched from memory onto a sketch book paper then re-sketched in a Venn Diagram shape on clear gesso size & prime...by Joseph Grove ©2011 (needs one more coat of dammar & on edges too & a signature & title & date on back maybe...)

http://www.amazon.com/Damar-Resin-16-Resealable-Bag/dp/B003IL7NQW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

With help from the first commenter...

Take damar resin (crystals), heat in walnut oil, makes a binder you can add dry pigments to, to make oil paint homemade...

Take damar resin (crystals), place in a mesh bag, put the mesh bag into a jar that contains d-limonene (orange terpene solvent), wait several days, take out mesh bag, this makes dammar varnish homemade...

Notes: d-limonene is an alternative to turpentine...(it is made from oranges)...

Kama Pigments has damar crystals sold by Aboveground Art Supplies underneath OCADU (Ontario College of Art & Design University)...

Aboveground also sells TriArt's large size container of d-limonene...

Woolfitt's sells Eco-house dammar varnish made using orange terpene solvent (which is not turpentine), (just another name for the oranges based solvent)...This is if you don't want to make dammar varnish, or oil binder medium for adding to dry pigments...

Other notes:

Toose Art Supply will stretch linen for you on sustainable basswood stretcher bars, reinforced at the corners, 1-3/4" depth is nice...with crossbars too...pat Sky the husky when there...

Curry's Art Supply has walnut oil from M. Graham...

Tern Art online will make a inexpensive custom simple wood float frame for your stretched canvas...(ask if they will put it on for you)...

http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/176/1/Orange-peel-tips.html You can make orange oil from orange peels...I'm thinking to take damar crystals & let them soak in orange juice...or boil...to make an orange varnish...

Oscar Wilde: "When bankers get together, they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money."

Re: the above quote: watched Wall Street 2 this New Year's- struck again by how much art you get to see in movies about money...

Ordering supplies for my next work...2011...

Note: SCRAP this idea; French Canvas refunded my money & said they don't ship to Canada! Poop! So, I am probably going back to TOOSE Art Supply for my 1-3/4 inch deep sustainable basswood stretcher frames with corner supports & cross bars...
http://www.frenchcanvas.com/Extra_Heavy_Duty_1_3_4_Deep_Stretcher_Bars_Economy.asp 2X 36 inch stretcher bars, 2X 48 inch stretcher bars, 1X 36 inch cross bar, 1X 48 inch crossbar, French Canvas is on sale until February 1st, 2011...I chose the deep economy bars because I LOVE the smell of FIR wood- so does Joseph (husband)...
Hmmm, update: Best pro aluminum combination stretcher bars at Fine Art Store in Rochester may be worth a try...

http://www.woodworkingparts.com/products/Extra-Heavy-Duty-2-Hole-D-Ring.html These are extra heavy duty D-ring hangers with two holes & come with screws...This company is one of the few that sells them individually with no minimum order...(instead of having to buy 25, 50 or 100)...

http://www.wyndhamartsupplies.com/isapi/isapi.dll?product_detail&product_id=5225&search_type=browse&cat_id=1664 Eco-House Dammar varnish 1 litre container is what I use...Doesn't contain any turpentine...The solvent is based on oranges...Smells great ! Love dammar, love this product, have used eco-house for over 10 years now professionally...Love the people & the compnay too...A common misconception is that the yellow quality of damar is not as good as a clear...Truth is, the sun is yellow not clear...When you coat an oil painting with damar, the slight yellow tinge enhances & warms up the work, just as the sunshine does to a face in the sun...Damar is natural- all those clear formulations have got chemicals in them somewhere...I trust damar & am comfortable with the fact that it is a known material historically...

Thoughts this New Year:

There are two big art shows at the Metro Convention centre here every year...One is for galleries, one is for unrepresented artists...What distinguishes the two shows for me, in style, is how the unrepresented artists' show contains so much realism, while the gallery show leans towards the abstract...When I look at realism, I am always impressed by technique...When I look at abstract work, it takes me further, to another dimension, allowing me to bounce off the looseness with my own ideas...I think young artists need to know this difference...Or older artists who are just setting out...Realism is a trap that you can fall into...Maybe at the lower end of the art market, you can be duped into thinking this is bread & butter work...But at the higher end of the market, if your goals are set somewhere there, be aware that masking reality, like old style erasing of likeness for religious reasons, still holds water...The rules about art do not falter at the higher end of the market, in fact, they seem to be even more stringent...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5549098/how_to_make_a_lightweight_leave_in.html On a lighter note: I took some boiled water, a tiny bit of shea butter, & some drops of lemon essential oil, in a cup, then sprinkled lightly on my dry hair as a leave-in hair conditioner...

Art: Why do I so often see people who have MFA degrees, copying from photographs in paint? Is it because somehow they are expected to perform at such a high level that they feel obliged to cheat? The urge to cut corners often arises from an unfair scholastic system that expects too much from its students & doesn't give them enough time to complete...
Also: How can a gallery possibly service an artist when that gallery represents a huge number of other artists? The more artists a gallery represents, the lower the gallery's commission take should be...

Our friends the Trumpeter Swans, 083 the lady, & S08 the gentleman...

2010-12-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

Today I brought all the waterbirds 5 bags of 4 kg. each of bird seed...I wasn't sure if bird seed was ok for the swans...Well, watch the video for the answer...

Here is one of three really cool looking ducks that show up at the Bluffer's park...The white one with the black markings...Small, & quite young...

If you are wondering, here is the official stance on feeding waterbirds..." the public is encouraged to feed swans in the winter"... this is an excerpt from notes from the annual meeting of the Trumpeter Swan Society...(p. 37, Harry Lumsden)...

On another topic:
Here are some art website links of artists who pay a one third commission to their gallery...
http://www.scottburdick.com/faq.htm (Read his gallery artist contract too)...

(this comment by Lori was from) http://canvoo.com/blog/23102/a-formula-for-determining-if-you-should-show-in-an-art-gallery blog post...An excerpt is this- " For example, Richard Schmid will only let any gallery get a 33 percent commission - same is true for Nancy Guzik."

I (me, Sari Grove, & hubby Joseph )only give a one third commission to a gallery...I say no if they want more...No, means I walk out & don't work with them...It is not a negotiating tactic...Any gallery who thinks that they deserve the same amount as the artist, for an artwork, needs to have their head examined for delusions of grandeur...Who was Monet's salesman? Who cares? Does anybody really look through history & say, well, the art is good, but half the work was the sale???I mean come on people wake up! Just 'cause you're not good at business doesn't mean that galleries should be allowed to walk all over you...

Joseph & Sari Grove's Art Work in a quick look online. on the Behance Network

2010-11-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

A short talk about how a painting begins...by Sari Grove, with photos of the painting's beginnings & some images of Trumpeter Swans & other waterbirds we have made friends with in the past 5 months...

Joseph & Sari Grove's Art Work in a quick look online. on the Behance Network

You can buy Magnolia at www.grovecanada.fm

Response to another charity drive: Breast cancer is caused by progesterone based birth control which doesn't excrete naturally, even decades later...Madagascar Periwinkle is a an herb that can be drunk as a tea, which removes all traces of birth control from the body, erasing the cause of cancers...How's that for free? & You didn't need to see my breasts nor donate any money to another "cause"...

Joseph had a birthday, I got 7 times 4 lbs of freeze-dried corn from nutsonline.com & we went to feed Trumpeter Swans & saw a shark at Ellis avenue & Lakeshore at the beach too...thought you should know that sharks are friendly too...this one was a friend of mine...(don't be sad, she is still alive...just in a different way...& she had a lot of shark children too, don't you worry)...

2010-11-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

An edible education - thestar.com

2010-11-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Theories today:
-mercury builds in the gallbladder, beets clean it out...
-lead builds up in the thyroid, zinc cleans it out...
-aluminum builds up in the lymph nodes...titanium cleans it out...

https://docs.google.com/drawings/edit?id=1bXwiLuPI1equExA8F_Km5e0hrV5Tnakppv6UyTwry4k&hl=en&authkey=CIT7r8oD Trumpeter Swan Straw'n String Donut Condo...

An edible education - thestar.com (an excellent idea for schoolchildren to learn about gardening, & feed each other & teachers...)

How to blur reality in your oil paintings: (4 tries...to obscure reality in paint...)

1)Flow: wet in wet...paint a painting...let it dry...paint over that in white...while the white is still wet, paint something else into the wet paint...(without sketching first)(painting directly into wet means your attempt will be blobby, thus obscuring reality's straight lines)...

2)bloomin' lilies: draw from life, paint in colour from memory (the colours will be wrong...so you obscured the real colours!)

3)pussywillows salix discolour: paint a painting...let it dry...turn it sideways...paint another painting on top of the textured past...(the undertexture will screw up your top painting...obscuring reality by its lumpiness...)

4)pigeon & baker: see something in person...paint from memory...see something else...paint that from memory too on the same canvas as the first...(combine two subjects)(by combining two different subjects you have created a third and impossible image...)(painting from memory often obscures reality too)...

Which one is most realistic? Number 2 (Kohl gallery at Ave & Egl. really liked this one)(I have this as a print for myself as well-prints well)...

Which one is least realistic? Number 1 (reminds me of Cy Twombly's work, who I love)(baseball aficienado)(original underpainting was a Nazi maple leaf for my old high school U.T.S. a logo competition)(I painted it over when the leaf came out swastika)...

Which one made it into a museum(The F.A.R. Museum in Phoenix, Arizona)? Number 4 (very difficult painting to do & to see...Dali esque...read people of the book, by geraldine brooks to do this one...Tim Horton's in afghanistan also a reference...the hands were a african canadian baker at tim horton's ...the pigeons were a pigeon park that had been destroyed for developer's trucks...building a condo...needed the land as parking lot for trucks machines...)

Which one made it into Glendon College(for a Haiti earthquake benefit & to a girl named Teodora which was also the name of a gallery in Tony Toronto? Number 3 (organic pussywillows on top of GMO raspberries...)

Note: the background where you place your painting to be photographed will show thru the canvas...try different colour backdrops to change the look of your painting in photos...

which one does Joseph my artist husband like the best? Number 3...Why? because he bought me the enormous GMO raspberries(horizontal) which were the underpainting...he also bought me the beautiful organic pussywillows from Whole Foods market which are the overpainting...(vertical)Note: not signed on front at all...
(Number 4 was the only on signed on the front...I did this because many Americans think that the signature on the front is an investment plus...)

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This is you!

GroveCanada34p

Is Joseph & Sari Grove & their bengal cats B'Elanna & Jadzia...Mostly art related contributions as well as the side effects of art...Health!

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GroveCanada33p· 10 minutes ago

Our book The Talking Vegetable Garden used vegetables bought from Loblaws at Christie & Dupont & hand drawn by me from life, then filled in using acrylic inks, not Dr. PH martin's watercolour inks which I do like very much...in Toronto...

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GroveCanada34p· 1 minute ago

which one do I like the best from the 4 paintings mentioned above in blogpost...? well, I am lazy so the least amount of work makes me happy...doesn't mean it's the best.probably the worst...well, here is the list of easiest to do to hardest to do...
easiest to pull off? Number 2, bloomin' lilies...(see the Impressionists like Georges Seurat pointillist)
next easiest?: Number 1, Flow...(see modern art Cy Twombly a Dada-ist)
third easiest?Number 3 pussywillows...(see neo-post-modern-ist like Julian Schnabel)
hardest painting to paint? (hardest button to button...a white stripes lyric...) Number 4, pigeon & baker...(surrealism is tough-see Salvador Dali)

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