...are watching from the wall of Cape Breton University's Gallery One!
Friday evening was opening night for a very special art exhibit by Jan Gyorfi-West, featuring approx 40 of Jan's portraits of Cape Breton visual and performing artists (lil' ol me included!) Opening night was a blast... with a full crowd of interesting faces both familiar and new to me, the mingling was never dull!
If you missed opening night, you can still check out "The Many Faces of Art" as it runs till June 12th. Get thee to the gallery to see the results of Jan Gyorfi's beautiful, generous spirit.

Today's installment of "trek around your neighborhood and see what's happening" led me to a goldmine of rusty cans in various stages of breakdown. Rust is an interesting and sometimes beautiful phenomenon where random mottled colors and bubbled out textures can create abstract patterns far more inspiring than the original shiny object. I brought home a few particularly good specimens, and am working out the details of how best to use them in an art project.

Today's path took the form of a circle...my personal favorite type of walk. I enjoy not having to return home along the same route I just travelled, preferring instead to keep seeing new things right up till the end. I was thinking about this concept as I walked, and about how it's a pretty good metaphor for life...can you imagine if at, say, age 40 we all had to "turn around" and re-live all our previous experiences? As much as I'd love to go back and be five all over again, I'm not willing to go through junior high school to get there!!
I hope the weather is as spring-y for you as it is for us here in Cape Breton. Our yard smells of hose-water and freshly turned sod, there is the drone of someone's mower going for the first run of the season, and the steady warmth of the sun's rays wraps the whole scene in an old, familiar, snuggly blanket...glorious!

"and she shows you where to look,
among the garbage and the flowers..."
-Leonard Cohen

here's my booth right before the doors opened on the first day of the Saltscapes East Coast Expo 2006.


Thanks to the organizers, staff and of course the many wonderful customers both new and returning, this was my busiest and best show yet...I brought enough stock to last into the Autumn season (I thought) but went home with orders to fill due to all the things that sold out before Sunday! THANK YOU!

It turns out that my own "use-what-you-have" approach to art and design is a good match for Saltscapes' "rediscover-your-own-backyard" theme, meaning I met with a lot of people sharing my same values and philosophies on living. Many encouraging conversations were had with fellow beachcombers, hikers and self proclaimed "packrats", but to those who I was too busy to chat with: Sorry, and please come and introduce yourself next time!

We went home with plenty of goodies purchased at Saltscapes, such as some of the finest chocolate this side of the Atlantic (Thanks Kevin&Jeanine at Just Us Coffee!). Also, thanks to the Taste of Nova Scotia People among others, our fridge now houses fine specialty items produced right here in the Maritimes...yum!

Although I couldn't leave my booth long enough to shop like I wanted to (so many interesting products), I did manage to steal away in order to snap this pic of one of my long-time fave Atlantic Canadian personalities...Chef Michael Smith!


Saltscapes East Coast Expo:An altogether excellent event, with exceptionally fine people, products, and experiences...a great place to go in case you've forgotten why we are so fortunate to live here!

Thanks again to all those who signed up to receive my e-newsletter...I can't wait to see you again next year at Saltscapes 2007!!

my usual "today's-theme-expressed-in-a-song-lyric" is an oldie that could be the theme song for the Saltscapes Expo:
"These are the people in your neighborhood,
in your neighborhood,
in your neigh-bor-hood.
Yes, these are the people in your neighborhood,
they're the people that you meet,
when you're walking down the street,
they're the peo-ple that you meet,
each.
day."
-Sesame Street

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