STREETS RIDGE: Art ProductionOnce a year our Pugwash Art Collect...

STREETS RIDGE: Art Production
Once a year our Pugwash Art Collect...: Art Production Once a year our Pugwash Art Collective is having an art-show. We meet, we talk, laugh, and eat but finally we vote on a th...

Art Production

Once a year our Pugwash Art Collective is having an art-show. We meet, we talk, laugh, and eat but finally we vote on a theme. 

Usually we write down nouns and verbs on different papers and put it together in a hat. We each draw some and read them out loud. Hopefully inspiration strikes us and we come up with a great title. This time we came up with 'Lore'!

I don't work with title's the best of times, but ' Lore'. Well, it had me stamped. Nevertheless, I set out to work. 

While listening to my favourite music I am creating new artwork.

 Recently I have started to explore with mono-prints and woodcuts. I like the intensity that woodcuts give me and the unpredictability of mono-prints. I think of myself as an artist that likes to uncover emotion hidden underneath the surface and the medium of woodcut and mono-print fulfill these requirements without me having to dissect the subject on the canvas.  

I always thought I would create more art in the winter but the opposite is true. Summer is my time to create art. My spirit sings when the sun is blazing through the window and I am sweating while cutting into the wood plate. 

 After having worked on cutting the image into a wood-plate, I do a first cut, roll ink on the wood plate and make the first print on inexpensive paper. I am examining the result and decide if I have to cut more or if I have to compensate with ink something I have cut away by accident.
 

Drawing and some cutting

First print

Woodcut plate

With the mono-prints it is different, I am still using for the first prints inexpensive paper but the mono-print is one of a kind so even though, I am doing numerous prints as a warmup at some point I will switch to better paper. For this show, I have decided to do again a print by wiping the ink of the plexiglass and printing what is left on the surface. It may be hard to understand. Let me explain in more detail. 

I have a photograph of the object I want to print. Further, I have a plexiglass plate and ink. I am mixing the ink with a slower drying medium (which makes the ink dry slower, not right away, rather than, in a couple of minutes). Then, I take tissues or cotton swabs and start wiping the ink of the plexiglass plate. Basically I am drawing with the tissues and the cotton swabs, till I feel I have the desired result. I have the paper ready and put it on top of the plexiglass plate and rub with my hands the paper so that the remaining ink prints on the paper. 

These two are done the way I decribed it up top. You can see the difference. 

In this blog I will not reveal my new artwork which will be shown starting with an opening on August 15 at the Fraser Cultural Centre in Tatamagouche at 7 pm. Hope to see you there!

STREETS RIDGE: Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax...

STREETS RIDGE: Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax
...: Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax It has been awhile since I have written, nevertheless, here it goes a new eating experie...

Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax

It has been awhile since I have written, nevertheless, here it goes a new eating experience in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Mary and I wanted to check out some new food establishments in the city and we came across a new Vegan restaurant - enVie (I have attached a web-link at the end) .

As we were sitting in this small, stylish restaurants and listening to music that to stimulate our senses, rather than, in so many other restaurants insult every sense you have, we looked out the window and saw people walking by with paper bags filled with produce. EnVie is placed on the corner of Charles and Agricola Street in the North End of Halifax. Around the corner is the Local Source which supplies local produce and other local sourced food products (Web-link is attached at the end).

EnVie has not a large menu but a very tasty one. I found it interesting that you can compose a meal entirely of juices. However, we did not. I had a Lentil Burger, lentil and brown rice burger, tomato, avocado, seasonal greens, enVie sprouts, chipotle almond aioli and a kale Caesar salad. If you love garlic go for the kale Caesar, wow! Even though, I loved the lentil burger, the combination with the kale Caesar was not great. The lentil burger has very subtle flavours, where as, the kale Caesar was so dominant. However, both separate were very tasty and satisfying.    

Mary had  the Pulled Jackfruit Burrito,smoky pulled barbecue jackfruit, roasted sweet potato, black beans, avocado, sesame hemp carrot slaw, shredded lettuce, served in a whole wheat tortilla. Mary was not able to eat the whole burrito so we took it home and had it the next day for breakfast, very good and tasty. 

However, we were kind of disappointed not to see any desserts on the menu. The disappointment did not last long as the waitress came and gave us the run down of their vegan desserts. Mary thought the raw chocolate strawberry torte sounded great. I was kind of full and wanted just to try the torte not have half of it, however, I changed my mind very quickly after having tasted the torte. 

With a lovely presentation of green tea came this decadent piece of torte. Oh my goodness, on a walnut crust was this lovely vegan chocolate mousse topped with coconut cream and a strawberry the combination was just divine.

If you are in Halifax and are interesting to try a vegan food experience, enVie is a great place to come to and around the corner is a local source food store with a lively coffee, eatery, bar attached. 

We found this corner in the Halifax North End to have a lovely energy and for sure worth of supporting.

http://enviehalifax.com/

http://localsourcemarket.com/