doreyme

3 winter lombardy trees, 14x14", oil on wood (carved)

finished this painting + worked on a variety of very large oils...ugh. fumes gave me a head ache.
after I use up this batch of paint, it's back to acrylic.

speak no evil, 11x14, oil on board, 2008

I got tagged by

the talented Ms Nicole a few days ago + the rules are as follows: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Okay...5 things about myself I haven’t previously revealed?

1) I had two babies (18 yrs + 24 yrs ago) and each time I did, my feet grew a half an inch.
2) I know when I fly on an airplane, the only thing keeping the sucker up is my steadfast devotion to sitting motionless until our destination is reached.
3) When I’m alone with the animals -- Angus (my dog) + Eukie ( his best dog friend) + the two cats, my talking (to them) usually turns to singing. Somehow it seems more appropriate.
4) I spend more time with the animals than people.
5) I have to force myself to read novels. (as opposed to non-fiction, which I am most always reading).

And my tagees are. Envelope, please....
pascale
grandma
erik
jennifer
liz

mean world syndrome

lately I've been thinking the world's going to hell in a hand basket. I can't read the newspaper or watch the news after 6 if I want to sleep that night. I turn on the tv to chill + with some scant exceptions, if it isn't total "reality tv" merde it's merde contributing to "mean world syndrome", an amazing concept/movement phrase I have not made up, a fine fellow called George Gerber did. Along with founding the Cultural Environment Movement, which is working to reassert democratic influence on the media. A man of my own heart. In his own words..."Most of the violence we have on television is what I call happy violence. It's swift, it's thrilling, it's cool, it's effective, it's painless, and it always leads to a happy ending because you have to deliver the audience to the next commercial in a receptive mood.
Our studies have shown that growing up from infancy with this unprecedented diet of violence has three consequences, which, in combination, I call the "mean world syndrome." What this means is that if you are growing up in a home where there is more than say three hours of television per day, for all practical purposes you live in a meaner world - and act accordingly - than your next-door neighbor who lives in the same world but watches less television. The programming reinforces the worst fears and apprehensions and paranoia of people.
Another consequence of watching a lot of television is that one comes to believe that the violence portrayed on television is normal - that everybody does it, and that it's a good way of solving problems.
A more pervasive effect is that television de-sensitizes viewers to victimization and suffering; they lose the ability to understand the consequence of violence, to empathize, to resist, to protest.

The third consequence, and I think the most debilitating one, is the pervasive sense of insecurity and vulnerability. Our surveys tell us that the more television people watch, the more they are likely to be afraid to go out on the street in their own community, especially at night. They are afraid of strangers and meeting other people. A hallmark of civilization, which is kindness to strangers, has been lost." to read more

hear no evil, 11x14, oil on board, 2008

see no evil, oil on board, 11x14 2008

banff x2, 8x8+8x8, watercolour on arches paper (on stretchers) 2008

back to the banff series, a study for future oils...

Mount Royal Trees, 20 x41, oil on wood 2007,

not a new painting...painted this last year, but was at friend's house + it was on the wall + I saw it with stone cold eyes...it's not in my memory bank at all...so saw it fresh...very interesting experience...alas, it's much longer than the pic shows.

the jointe

Finally took down the wall the Bethune people put up, wow, what a difference. Can rollerblade in my studio again.

happy Robbie Burns Day

swiss plaid, watercolour, toscana paper, 7x10

Fille#3, 7x10 watercolour, toscana paper,2008

Madame N #3, 7x10, watercolour, toscana paper, 2008

Elvis #1, 2008, 11x14, watercolour, arches paper, 2008

Elvis is back in the house after a long absence. Traditional training of artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries included studies from life-size plaster casts of classical and Renaissance sculptures. My life-size plaster is of Elvis. You can’t get much more classical than that.

fun with photoshop

artist josh sommers

fille#2, 7x10 watercolour, toscana paper,2008

fille de Madame N, 7x10, watercolour, toscana paper, 2008

cup 85% full

..typical debby downer separatists -- they send out a young journalist (whose English must be pretty good) during the busy Christmas holidays when stores desperately need help + pretended she couldn't speak French (practically a capital punishment offense in some circles here). 85% of the businesses wouldn't hire her. 15% would + so it's back to hair pulling oh poor us the sky is falling down on the talk shows/scare mongering circuit . Perhaps, next the Journal will send a bilingual journalist with an anglo name to a government agency to apply for a job? ( Anglos occupy less than 1% of all Quebec government jobs.)

Madame N, deux. 7x10, watercolour on toscana paper,2008

my e-mail is

or something. I'm getting e-mails, but I can't send them + I have all sorts of Mac pros at Bell trying to figure out why.

Madame N, 7x10, watercolour, toscana paper

if it's sunday, it must be Heartland, CBC at 7

La Bonne Cuisine de Madame N, 7x10, watercolour, toscana paper, 2008

(it looks curved, but it's not, took this pic while it was wet + it curled a bit)

the rocket

senator, I knew rembrandt, 8x8', watercolour on portofino acquerello, 2008

+ of course I didn't know Rembrandt + I'm no Rembrandt, but do I empathize with him + his ongoing obsession with self portraits. Recovering/surviving dental surgery. Empty nest syndrome (the little birds are in Cuba, sunning their wings sans Canadian volt hairdryers) + just general January, so this is it. Is that all there is blues, the Muse on sabbatical, what can you do? Stick a mirror in front of you and paint. And the thing on my nose is yet another dog injury. A loving paw pawing.

oh montreal is so ugly right now

without the snow + all the filth, but I liked these stripes I saw today.

snow sky, oil on wood, 8x8x1.5, 2008

good night glenda

for another year as the good witch on top of our tree gets tucked back into a box and into the attic.

scary teeth, watercolour, 2007

I posted this about a month or so ago, as part of a local anti-separatist rant. So I'm repeating myself, with a different, or strangely, perhaps a similar message. Can't help it. Tomorrow I'm having 2 molars extracted plus some hideously painful hideously hideous gum stuff done + I can't think of anything else tonight. I am a big chicken. Yech, unable to "cowboy up". Yech.

good episode yesterday, CBC's Heartland

if you missed it, episode available here

sudoku sunday, 8x8", acrylic on hardboard, 2008

doin' it well

winter trees #38, 7x10, watercolour, 2008

a friend send me this

a very insightful short film about shopping/consuming

4 winter trees, 8x8x1.5, oil on wood, carved, 2008

+ the pendulum swings back to abstraction...while on tv, the first Iowa caucus results. Thur 8:40, Edwards leads for Democratics, Huckabee for GOP...

the poor house, 8x8", acrylic on hardboard, 2008

the view from my painting room window -- a century ago it was the "poor house", a home for unwed mothers, homeless families. Now it's an upscale, interior parking, 12 foot ceilinged development across from (on the other side) the beautiful St. Jean Baptiste Church, where late this summer, bizarrely, Patti Smith, gave, allegedly, a heart rendering concert. Alas, I was in Ontario or Alberta + missed it.

a trek through the alleys of Montreal

with Edith Edithson + Angus

to the lighthouse, 8x8, acrylic on hardboard, 2008