“Home” 24″ x 18″ Mixed Media (Acrylic, community newspapers, found material)

An Ottawa gal’s love song to her hood. I came alive when I moved my wee family permanently to Centretown. As heARTbeatgal, I am drawing on the eclectic energy of my environment, creating, making collaborative collage.
“Home” uses the flavours of Centretown in a hopeful expression of my profound affection and attachment to the area.

Love.

heARTbeatgal

The first step in my creative evolution required simply starting. This sounds easier than it was.

Next came clearing the hurdle of declaring something finished. Check.

Now…

3. I am no longer precious about my creation.

The piece above is something I started in the summer. It was deeply personal. Intensely fun. But I didn’t stop when I should have.

For months it stared at me, taunted, and filled me with regret. What total nonsense. So I tore it apart, covered it over, returned to white. Relief.

“Sometimes you`ve got to let everything go – purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything . . . whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you`ll find that when you`re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.” – Tina Turner

You tell it Ms. Turner! I simply cannot wait to see what comes next.

heARTbeatgal

I had an extra special Valentine’s Day this year. Well actually, more like an extra special Valentine’s Day Season, because for a few weeks I have been working on love letters to my “Sunshine Rainbow Magic” collaborators.

Some of them may have arrived. Some not quite yet. All of them contain my love. From the outset, the project became a reflection on the unique nature of each of my most important connections, my connection to the world. These collaborators are my nearest and dearest augmented by a formidable collection of newcomers on my scene.

[Fack!!! Shut it nauseating happy lady!]

The truth is today is Monday. It sucked in varied and uninteresting ways. But at least I know, in some formal measurable way, the utter abundance of love I have in my life.

One more GIANT thank you.

heARTbeatgal

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It is cold. It is grey. But, I am actually enjoying it. Weird.

heARTbeatgal

Early spring!

Not so long ago I attended with a talented pal Ottawa’s Sexapalooza. I had thought that it might be an interesting venue to continue my meditation on touch. I was wrong. I did however predict an early spring by peeking my head outside the giant vagina.

No, these thirty days, these collected images are destined for something else. A blurry vision, a shadow, has hung over this idea from the outset. It wasn’t until a friend, my best, rudely, benevolently, ripped the scab off all my vulnerabilities that the idea sharpened. I am excited to start making this real. I am equally uneasy. I bet that is a good equation.

Dear collaborators: Once again I am in awe of your willingness to indulge my silliness. The photos, the parts, make a beautiful whole to start from. Some are from friends, many are from others. All of them gifts.

Thank you.

So now it is my turn. Give me another thirty days and I will see what I can do. It is behind my eyelids every time I close them. Here we go…

heARTbeatgal

I have been busy hibernating. Physically, mentally, spiritually. February has arrived and that alone is enough to lift my spirits, rev my engine, and ask “Hey, what’s going on out there?”

Now, I am not about to get carried away. It is only February, and while that is progress, my movement remains constrained by the bulk of my snow pants, my mind is slowed by the frozen air, and my spirit is sluggish from the lack of vitamin D.

So by “out there” I am really only talking about a journey as far as my internet connectedness can take me.

Here is something cool, the Google Art Project. This project has put online the masterpieces from the world’s top galleries. Granted, nothing compares to the contextual pleasure of visiting a great work in the flesh, but the ability to access and zoom in to incredible detail on some of my all time favourite pieces from my bedroom or my cube sure is fun. Not only that, I can also create a personalized gallery of my favourites. So far, only El Greco has made the cut.

El Greco's View of Toledo - a total favourite!

When technology, creativity, and collaboration collide in this way it gives me hope that we are on a path that I want to follow.

So what of our technological creative collaboration? The thirty days are almost up. Sunday night is the cut off. I am antsy and need to start working again. I am thrilled with the input I have received thus far, and encourage any others interested to contribute before Sunday.

Peace and love and hot chocolate.

heARTbeatgal

Me through January's eyes

The image above is a snap I took a few days ago of a very familiar vista here in Ottawa. The sky that night over Mooney’s Bay was beautifully grim. Until this morning, that sky had wrapped around me like a heavy blanket. The moon is waning and a few very well placed words have set me straight.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” -Albert Einstein

While watching the “news”, Jon Stewart had as his guest American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (a.k.a. the absolute living emperor of the coolest nerds. All that intelligence is super hot!). Mr. deGrasse Tyson quoted Einstein while explaining his passion for challenging the boundaries of knowledge through creativity. While it is comforting when men of extraordinary intelligence acknowledge the rightful place of creativity I wish I saw it more in the habits of the people who run this place. For now, I will settle to fold it more significantly into my quotidian life.

I need to come back inside a while. Do a little creating without strings. The kind that grabs my wrist and drags me running. Blissfully.

And I don’t even like running!

Off and running...

heARTbeatgal

thirty parts

I am cold today. And a little blue. But, that is how it is meant to be this time of year. So I won’t fight today. The moon is pulling on me. It will pass as it always does.

In the meantime, I am meditating on the images I have been blessed with thus far. I am inspired. I worry about doing justice to the enthusiasm of my collaborators, and to the vision in my head. Much more than that, I am hugely thankful for the impact this little journey is having on my life.

Thank you collaborators.

…and keep’em coming. The more the better!

heARTbeatgal