Category Archives: “Explorations in art”

Sticks and Stones (and maybe bones)

“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it.” George Eliot

Sticks and Stones (and maybe bones) was an all ages PLAYshop offered twice this summer. Both days, we began at Kerry Farm, and then drove to nearby Pheasant Creek Coulee where we spent a few hours exploring the meadows, hillsides, creek bed, and wooded areas around this part of the coulee. We then returned to Kerry Farm for lunch and an afternoon of rest and creativity (and one of the days, tree-climbing).

During the July PLAYshop, the wildflowers were blooming profusely, Saskatoon berries were plump and plentiful, the creek was running due to recent rains. A bone was found! On our August day, a few of the July wildflowers were still in bloom as well as the August beauties, there were still Saskatoon berries, and the creek bed was mostly dry and kind of green where there was moisture. The grasses were spectacular – every colour of green, as well as pink, yellow, rust, purple, and reddish. No bones were found, but a number of sticks and stones came back to Kerry Farm. My highlight during the second PLAYshop was this: a boy, running past me up the hill, declaring at top volume,”OH! I LOVE NATURE SO MUCH!” Makes me smile just to remember.

Below are some photos which will give you a feel for the beauty of Pheasant Creek Coulee, as well as the open hearted spirit each person brought to the day.

Photo Credit: Jody Hyndman

Seeing Through a New Lense – Art in the City

From time to time, I have the great privilege of exploring Regina with a small group of youth, looking for art both inside and outside galleries. We call this “Art in the City” as most of us are from rural Saskatchewan. Often, I enjoy a research trip before hand, make a plan, and I create a little booklet so that we are interacting with the art we see throughout the day. Every time, I come home with the same bit of wisdom which is “Less is More”. What I learn over and over again, is that while it is good to introduce my young friends to things they may have never seen before, their own imaginations are even richer and they can make fun out of an open green field, an empty band stand, or anywhere at all. I am reminded ‘Hold whatever plan you have loosely, and leave lots of room for spontaneous adventures!”

Here is a quick rundown of our day:

Inspired by the wonderful Vic Cicanski show at the MacKenzie Art Gallery (don’t miss this!!), our theme was sculpture and we spent a long time with his fantastical sculptures. They made us hungry (all those fruits and vegetables!!) and so we went out to eat lunch with Joe Fafard’s bovine family. Then, we each chose a statue in the lobby, and imagined a name for the statue and a story, sharing them with each other afterwards. What is out the backdoor of the MacKenzie Art Gallery? More sculptures, yes…….but even better than a sculpture garden, there was a huge green bowl of grass waiting for four girls to come along, kick off their shoes, and run and play games they made up under the blue sky for as long as possible. Although there were more things to see in the MacKenzie, we voted for ice cream instead. (There is a limit to how much beautiful art we can absorb at one time!) As we drove down 13th Avenue to the ice cream store, we yelled “HUBBA BUBBA” every time we saw art on a building, or a park bench or as a colourful sculpture! There were many “hubba bubbas!!” along this route. We tried to get “artistic” ice cream cones, colours that matched our fingernail polish or looked good together. After all this hard work, we went to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, where we had a quick nap, and met up with Rebecca Hay, Earth Science specialist, who introduced us to Scotty the T-Rex, but most especially to the wonders of Tyndall stone…we walked around the whole museum looking at the stone frieze carved by Hubert Garnier in the 1950s. We stopped to look at our skewed reflections in a shiny truck – we were all short and fat. While looking at the stone frieze, we found the illicit Wascana mermaid. She is quite small , tucked in with the fishes, and not really very illicit at all. The mermaid suggested we swim so we headed to Wascana Pool, stopping in the bandstand to perform an impromptu play on the way. We had the best swim, and on the way back to the car, we ran and froze as statues of anything we imagined. The drive home was quiet.

What is your favourite piece?

Imagining a chair growing vegetables

Drawing the “carrot couch”

Some other favourite pieces

the great green bowl where we ran and played

Ice cream that matches

Ice cream that matches fingernails…exactly!!

Nap time…I obviously should have napped too because I took no photos of Rebecca and our wonderful tour of the outside of the museum and meeting of Scotty

As summer begins, these girls reminded me how you don’t need very much to have fun if you have an active imagination. They never go straight from a to b without making it into a game or a play or something to laugh about. What a joy to spend a day with 4 girls, each one knowing they are absolutely loved, each one expecting something wonderful around the next corner, each one delighting in being with their three friends. They have amazing parents, and being with this group reminded of this poem, which appears on Facebook from time to time.

Make the Ordinary Come Alive

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples, and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

By William Martin, The Parent’s Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents.

Guest Blog: Art in the City

by Lanelle Muirhead and Dominique Baggett

Su’p, I am Lanelle (left) and I and want to tell you about Art in the City. This day was so much fun (laughing ha! ha!) and I hope that you have as much as me while reading it. (Fun, that is!)

Hello, I am Dominique (right) and this is our post about Art in The City, a day we spent with Sue, Rebekah, Ruth and Brenda way back in July. It was Rebekah’s birthday!!!!

Brenda, Rebekah, Ashlie, Ruth (peace sign), us (Sue took this picture)

picking out our sketchbooks at Regina Public Library

We started at the doctor’s office which was not really a part of Art in the City and was really boring.

Things got better!! We went to the library and borrowed our very own sketchbooks which we borrowed for a year (you can see them in the picture at the top.) We never want to return them.

Riding fake trikes outside the library

We saw art everywhere – even on the rug at the library!

Artist: Dominique

We sketched in the park with our new sketchbooks.

Lanelle:

“Sue would not tell us where we going next. It was a surprise. But we accidentaly guessed it! I was telling a story about a henna tattoo place and then Sue said, “Was that a guess or were you just telling Dominique a story?” We were confused….Suddenly Dominique said, “Are we going to somewhere they do henna tattoos?” Sue said, “Nooooo, but you are so close.” We thought and thought and we guessed and we guessed and finally we guessed we were going to meet a tattoo artist. We were right! Sue told us we were going to meet Ashlie of Tattoo Nebula! We were so excited!!

Here is the real Ashlie, owner of Tattoo Nebula. Look how purple her walls are.

Ashlie sharing her sacred geometry designs(Photo Courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Here is the real Ashlie! Artist: Lanelle

Ashlie’s hands. Her tattoos come from sacred geometry in nature, like on the book cover

Tattoo Nebula was deep purple inside and very magical and we learned all about tattoos. Ashlie loves mandalas. She gave us all temporary tattoos. Rebekah chose first because she was the birthday girl.

Rebekah’s tattoo (Photo courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Look at our tattoos! Lanellle on the left, Dominque on the right( Photo courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Artist: Dominique

Artist: Lanelle

Photo courtesy B. MacLauchlan

Photo courtesy B. MacLauchlan

Then we went to have a picnic with the cows at the Mackenzie Art Gallery.

Picnic, Joe Fafard cows… (Photo courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Riding cows (Photo Courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Picnic (Photo Courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

We saw art everywhere – even in the fossils on the Tyndall stone at the art gallery (Photo Courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

meeting the statues in the lobby of the MacKenzie Art Gallery…where is the statue?(Photo courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Dominique telling us about her statue Henry (Photo courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Lanelle and her statue Susan (Photo courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

Rebekah and Ruth (Photo Courtesy of B. MacLauchlan)

We are doing a great job imitating this statue!

At Rebekah’s house, time for a rest!

Us two snuggled under a quilt

We saw art everywhere – a purple kitchen floor at Rebekah’s

Once we were done napping, we just had to have a snack. What better place than the Mercury? There were even nebulas in the art at the Mercury!

Milkshakes at the Mercury. Dominique: I was mad at Lanelle because she dipped her fries in the milkshake. Yuck!

Milkshakes at the Mercury, plus drawing in our sketchbooks. Dominique: I was mad at Lanelle because she dipped her fries in the milkshake. Yuck! (Photo courtesy of B. Maclauchlan)