vocabulary

graffiti, charlottetown - ml 2011

For a small town, there is an awful lot that goes on in Charlottetown.  A friend of mine had a couchsurfer staying with her last night, and in the space of just a few hours we all went to Pecha-Kucha style talks at the library about sustainability, and then had mad group art-making at the bi-monthly City Nights event.  The theme of the night was 'meat,' so several of us collaborated on a rather hilarious cardboard slaughterhouse, complete with blood splatters, a pasture and miniature cows.  Hopefully the resolve of the vegetarians in the group was only strengthened by the experience :)  
You can watch a short video from a previous City Nights here. 

celebrate - ml 2011

This past spring I decide to venture into the world of video, naively thinking "oh, this will be fun and relatively easy!"  Since then I've been engaged in a mighty stand-off with video-editing software, and we had reached a stalemate until a gifted filmmaker friend graciously took the time to show me the many, many ropes of Final Cut Pro. 


The experience of struggling through a new medium had me thinking a lot about vocabulary.  It seemed to be the main reason I was having trouble - because I didn't understand the terms.  Perhaps that is the essence of understanding a new concept/language/process - building a vocabulary.  For instance, when the categories/terms of body, mind, and spirit were first used, it wasn't that the actual experience was new, it was that now there was vocabulary to help us understand it.  And that new vocabulary allowed for abundant growth and change to happen in human consciousness.  I wonder if, with all the rising tides, both literal and metaphorical, that we're faced with right now, if maybe what we really need is a new way of understanding what is happening; a new vocabulary.  Just a thought...


"There is no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. "  - Marshall McLuhan

being at home in a storm

seating at Saint-Germain-des-Prés - monica lacey 2011

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon lately when I meet new people:  we introduce ourselves, exchange a bit of small talk, and then when we come to the what-do-you-do-in-life question and I say I'm an artist, the response is, "really?  Like a working artist?  You do that as a job?"  This response is usually accompanied by a facial expression that is a mix of wonder and disbelief, as though I've just announced I am actually a unicorn.  Sometimes I wish that I had begun my professional career as an artist earlier in life, mainly so that I didn't feel such urgent pressure to 'get somewhere,' now that I'm in my thirties.  Mainly though, I'm thankful for the decade or so that I spent doing other jobs that didn't really mean anything to me, because it gives me perspective, and helps me to be empathetic when these people I meet follow their incredulity with, "I always dreamed of being an artist!" or, "I went to art school years ago, but I didn't pursue it."  It also makes me incredibly thankful for the people I met along the way who encouraged me and inspired me to dig deep and find the courage to commit to this path. 

It hasn't been easy to work lately, as I've just moved into a new apartment with my partner Devon, but I did manage to get a submission sent to Papirmasse, and I was honoured to have two of my photos accepted!  Papirmasse is a really neat subscription-based art-in-the-mail operation where you get art and writing sent to you each month.  You can see my issue here, and I did an interview with them as well.  I also have a mixed-media piece in the Dark Arts themed show (up until November) at GGGallery in Charlottetown.   

sunflowers, montparnasse - monica lacey 2011

As I write this, Hurricane Ophelia is doing her act outside my window, all dramatic gestures of flung branches and sideways rain.  The storm has me feeling both agitated and thoughtful so I'm listening to the Lost in Thought playlist on Stereomood.  Although we returned to PEI in June, it only feels just now like we've fully arrived, now that we have a home of our own, where we can stay as long as we like.  I'm looking forward to getting my studio set up and to get cracking on the extra-large canvas I just ordered.  Oh but it's good to be home.

community can save your life

So, without getting into too much detail, let's just say I had a rough week.  A few things that I was really hoping would work out did not, in fact, work out, and I was feeling kind of bummed.  Kicking the dirt a bit, as it were.  Speaking as I am presently, from the other side of that particularly murky river, I have to say:  If you are feeling down, and therefore feeling like retreating further and further into your cave, don't do it!  Get out of your house and engage in a community activity!  I assure you that it is the right thing to do, if you believe that the 'right' direction is toward the light.  I believe that it is. 

The event I went out and participated in tonight was the PoeARTry Playoffs at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown.  The event was put on by the Art Gallery and the PEI Writer's Guild (who also have a great series of events - the Pen & Inkling Festival, Sept. 27-Oct.2.  The event was also part of a really wonderful alternative student orientation called Community Roots, which, hopefully will be a part of the fall fabric from now on here in PEI. 

Anyhow, the night was pretty darn great:  there were 4 teams, each with a team captain from UPEI,  an artist, a poet, and then two other team members chosen from the audience.  There were 4 rounds of stunts/challenges we had to perform, and then a panel of 2 judges who gave us a score.  We wrote haikus, created clay sculptures, and responded to exhibits with wu-tang style raps.  And it may be partly the adrenaline talking here since my team won (go Team A!), but boy did this event ever lift my spirits. 

I think that by nature we tend to retreat when we don't feel our best, but tonight was a great reminder that we're all in this together, we really are, and we need to support and uplift each other; to share our experiences; to be reminded that there is nothing we can feel that another human being somewhere has not also felt.  A sense of a larger community is long what the arts have been about, and it was so exciting to see that in action tonight.  All problems solved.  :)

sandbanks - monica lacey 2011

keep your windows up on the highway

While on the trip to Paris (post), my sister celebrated her 30th birthday.  For the occasion we rented a Renault Magane convertible, and drove north of the city to Senlis, a lovely medieval town where we had lunch.  It was my second time in a convertible, and I learned a valuable lesson about maintaining comfort:  keep the top down and your windows up!  Sage advice, I assure you.  We then continued on to Chantilly, the horse capital of France (and yes, also the birthplace of the famous lace), and home to the Musée vivant du cheval (living museum of the horse), where we got to see a variety of breeds in the grand stables of the Château de Chantilly.  We took riding lessons and had horses growing up, so this was a real treat, and a surprise for my sister, who loves horses and really loves a good Château.  Here are some pictures:

the streets of Senlis - ml 2011

Senlis - ml 2011

everything in France is decorative -this is some sort of window bolt - ml 2011

the token donkey at the Musée vivant du cheval - ml 2011

mini horse in need of a haircut - ml 2011

the saddle/tack/coach room at the Musée - ml 2011

an antique coach - ml 2011

one of the horses out for his exercise in the courtyard - ml 2011

in the jardins of the Château de Chantilly - ml 2011

the Château de Chantilly - ml 2011

the fountains in the front yard, no big deal - ml 2011

the pet swans - ml 2011

climbing the Eiffel Tower is more satisfying than taking the elevator

So this will sound a bit surreal, but last fall, after dedicating considerable time to entering travel contests on the Internet, I won a trip for 4 to Paris for 1 week.  True story.  I'm just returning from that trip.  I took my partner, and my sister (who had her 30th birthday while we were there!) and my mother.  Before you get jealous, let me just tell you that when you win a 'free' trip, it's not really 100% free.  We had to drive to Montréal to catch our flight, and pay the taxes on the flight, which amounted to not much less than a plane ticket would've been.  But anyway, it was, indeed, a prize, so that was neat.  Even neater when you say Grand Prize.  :)


Now, if you're not into other countries or traveling for some reason, this post will likely be boring for you as I'm about to give you my brief(ish) thin-slice travel guide of La Ville-Lumière.  I was only there for a week, so my apologies to anyone who disagrees with any of the following - it speaks to my own experience.  I shot about 24 GB of photos, so I've not done any editing yet because it is overwhelming, so my apologies as well for the lack of images in this post.  The next one will be nothing but.  Promise.


First of all, learn a little French before you go, as a courtesy.  It'll exercise your brain and enable you to chat with some of the very nice local folks.  French Immersion and a few times living in Montréal  prepared me enough that I was excited to practice speaking another language and prior to leaving subjected a few of my friends to some Franglais while I got my bilingual motor started.  :)


Paris is a very expensive city, and the most visited city in the world - you can easily spend a fortune there, so if you're on a budget, here is some advice:


Find a nice boulangerie in your neighborhood and get your food there.  You can get cheap beer or wine at any little market and you will save a bundle grabbing a nice quiche or croque monsieur (really good grilled cheese with ham) and having a picnic in the park.  Have a nice dinner out once or twice, but be prepared to spend more than you'd expected. 


Also, if the weather is nice, and you're into active transportation, get a 1 week pass for Vélib, which has stations with rental bikes literally every few blocks.  A half-hour is free so if you keep docking your bike & getting a new one, it can be dirt cheap.  The bike paths are plentiful and so are your fellow cyclists.  A 5-day pass for the Metro is also very afforable, about 30 Euro, and the subway system is one of the most user-friendly I've been on.

A couple of warnings:  if you're someone who needs really excellent customer service everywhere you go, this is not the city for you.  They get a ridiculous amount of tourists, which may or may not be the reason for the unparalleled rudeness you will encounter in shops, restaurants, and attractions regardless of the level of your spoken French.  The other thing is that the bathrooms are tiny - in public places especially.  There are generally no hooks either, so ladies, leave that giant purse at your table with your friend because I guarantee you there is not room for both you and it in the bathroom.

If there is one thing I love, it's a good park.  Paris has these in spades.  My favorites:

Parc La Villette -  this is an amazing place in the 19th arrondissement.  It is full of wacky modern sculpture, canals, trails, and is home to the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie and the Cité de la Musique as well several outdoor festivals including a film festival and the Grand Ramadan festival du monde Arabe et du Maghreb which we happily stumbled upon our first night in Paris.

Jardins du Luxembourg - this gorgeously manicured park in the 6th arrondissement is a joy to spend time in.  There is a plethora of chairs arranged all over the park for you to lounge in - even choose from an upright or a recliner :)  There is a lovely take-out cafe, fountains, sculptures and statues everywhere, and don't miss the Orangerie, which is used as a gallery space, and yes, we luckily happened upon an opening, complete with champagne and macarons. Be warned though - the grass is just for show, and there is only one designated area where you can walk/sit on it! 

If you want a little more solitude, try Parc des Buttes Chaumont, which is in the 19th and is really lovely - if you have kids you can send them on a pony ride while you check out the grotto and waterfall.

What else?  Take the shoes you normally wear, not the ones you think are going to be comfortable.  The weather is just as unpredictable as it is in eastern Canada.  If you are vegan or have a wheat or dairy allergy, stay away from the French restaurants because they will have nothing for you.  Museums can be exhausting as well as uplifting so choose a couple that you really want to see, and don't try to do them both in one day.  DO go down to the banks of the Seine near the Pont D'Austerlitz in the early evening for the dancing that happens there - you'll find Lindy Hop, Salsa, Folk Dancing, and much more.  The people are extremely welcoming and you can take your wine down there with you.

Oh, and when you go to the Eiffel Tower, go at night.  It's much more beautiful lit up, and it's open until midnight.  You can pay a few Euro less to take the stairs rather than the elevator, and even though you may have walked over 20 km that day already, and your feet may be throbbing, and you can't wait to get back to your hotel, when your partner turns to you and says, "You know what, let's take the stairs!"  just do it.  It's worth it when you get up there. :)

Rule #1: Don't Panic

footprints at sandbanks - monica lacey 201

Yesterday I babysat the two young children of a good friend.  We had a pretty jam-packed day of activities, but in a quiet afternoon lull the three of us got to talking about swimming.  It turned out they didn't really understand floating, so I explained about the air in your lungs and so on.  Then they asked 'how come people sink sometimes?' and I explained the concept of panic to them, and how you stop breathing when you panic and then you won't float.  They thought about it and concluded that it was best, indeed, not to panic. 

It was a timely and interesting conversation for me to have with these wise little ones in my current in-between state of post-graduation, post-residency limbo.  An excellent reminder:  don't panic.  Okay.  There are so many things they don't tell you in art school, and maybe if they did tell you it would make you run the other way.  They don't tell you that if you open yourself to be authentic in your work that it will open you to feeling most everything around you.  They don't tell you how to deal with that or filter it.  They don't tell you that when you finish you will suddenly be in the middle of the ocean on a tiny ship with no map and no compass.  They certainly don't tell you that there is no map or compass.

This is the point where faith must kick in and be the water in which you can float.  Absolutely everything that has happened since I started down this path of dedicating myself to my art has been a clear validation that I am going the right way.  So I suppose I'll just continue and see where it goes, attempting to bludgeon my harsh inner critic into a submissive silence all the while.  Amazing that some people imagine the life of a working artist to be an easy one...but honestly, I can't imagine doing anything else.  :)

So, back to the drawing board.  Literally and metaphorically.  And trying not to get hopelessly distracted by the internet feeding me things like this and this and this.  Recently I went to see Beginners at the wonderful local rep cinema, City Cinema, here in Charlottetown.  It was a wonderfully cathartic film - at one point all you could here were quiet sobs in the theater, followed not long after by laughter.  It's all about starting over, and doing your best because it is always worth it to try.

he who would travel happily must travel light

summer field, county road 5- monica lacey 2011

Even as a little kid I always carried too much stuff with me.  It used to be bits of paper, rocks, sticks, little treasures, all stuffed into shopping bags, and now it’s a computer, a camera, sketchbooks, novels, art supplies, magazines, clothes, a yoga mat, several pairs of shoes…I haven’t really learned how to travel lightly yet, but this trip is certainly motivating me to master that lesson.  Getting on the train in Belleville yesterday with 4 bags was a bit much.  All the Via posters proclaiming ‘a more human way to travel’ in reference to the train, and I was thinking, “one bag - that would be more human(e)”. 

So yesterday marked the end of my 4-week residency at Spark Box Studio in Picton, Ontario.  I went there almost immediately after graduating in June, and my assessment is that, for art students, a residency is an excellent transition aid when you finish school.  I really had time to reflect on my studies and experiences, and to process where I had come from and where I wanted to go next with my work and my life as a professional artist.  

When I was deciding where to go to do a residency, I looked at places all over the world.  With the funding I had for it, and because of some other scheduling constraints, I knew I would have to go in July or August.  Due to my inability to cope whatsoever with temperatures above 30 degrees or so, I automatically eliminated large cities and anywhere south.  I then began focusing on what my goals were, and one of them is that I would like to develop an Artist Residency/Arts Centre in PEI and I wanted to learn more about that kind of operation.  During my seemingly endless Internet research this little printmaking studio in Ontario kept popping up.  :)

the 'mediterranean courtyard' at Spark Box

Spark Box was a really excellent choice – selected mostly on intuition and affection for the atmosphere of their marketing; I just had a feeling it was the right place.  And it was.  The owners are exceptionally kind, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and generous folks who I shall certainly miss and hope to see again before long.  The landscape is serene and uplifting, the studios spacious and well-equipped, and the house comfortable and beautifully decorated with care and a keen eye for antiques and unique details.  Despite not usually liking dogs of small stature, I even fell hopelessly in love with Rico, the Chihuahua/Corgi little dog who won me over with his wacky personality and big brown eyes. 

Rico

In the month I spent at the residency I managed to complete all the work I set out to do, visit with my sister and a family friend who came to visit, spend quality time with my fellow residents and the studio owners, go to a film festival, explore the towns of Picton and Bloomfield as well as 8 different beaches, maintain daily yoga and exercise, experiment with new techniques and practices, go on several photo shoots, and write this blog.  Great success!  Now I have a day in Toronto and then home to my island and all the joys ahead. :)