Christmas catch up

 I haven't felt like blogging this Christmas. My brother, Simon, is very ill and everything else takes a back seat until we find out what is wrong and what the treatment will entail. To that end I have also delayed my winter travel. So this is just a quick review of Christmas to get some photos off my camera and on to the blog.

The trip to Arizona was a Christmas gift from Christine and Jason and we all had a lovely time there and I enjoyed it enough that I think I will go back.

Mike and Aimee moved into a new house, in St Albert (near Edmonton) at the beginning of December so I went for a visit and to help with some painting.

The whole house was painted brown so Mike, Aimee and I painted the living room (shown), dining room, hallway and kitchen a pale grey (with a touch of blue in it) and it brightened the space significantly.

 

The kitchen is s large space with much less storage or counter space than their last place, so they bought and built this unit.

Avery wanted his room black and white but was talked into a compromise of the light grey and dark charcoal (called "zombie"). Mike and Aimee had to go back to work so this was largely my job. Avery plans on decorating with video game posters and a decal of video game consoles.

I got started on Maya's room...the pale grey and a sky blue (we talked her out of turquoise) and she plans a rainbow and butterfly decal for her wall.

When not painting or babysitting I worked on River's stocking. George's mum started the tradition by making felt stockings for Mike and Chris and I have continued it with stockings for Aimee, Jason, Avery, Maya, Cigi and now River.

The weather was surprisingly warm, and cloudy, for Edmonton and if I hadn't been so busy with the house and kids I would have enjoyed walking around their new neighbourhood. I managed to spend an afternoon with Aimee shopping for their Christmas gifts, which I left for her to wrap.

Chris, Jason and Cigi came for a few days before Christmas and we had a mini Christmas celebration and had Daniele, Fiona and Rick for a Christmas lunch (Nicola and David were sick and couldn't make it).

We also fitted in a walk around the Simcoe Panorama of Lights and Cigi saw her first live Santa. She was mesmerized and when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said "socks" (good job I had bought her some - with baby Yoda on).

So it was then a very quite Christmas, just Rick and I. We did do the whole turkey dinner thing.

Christmas Day was grey and mild

so we had an "urban hike" on the pier,

beach

and around town.

There were lots of people out walking off the turkey

and Mergansers in the water.

Arizona - Phoenix Art Museum

 Built in 1959 and with it's most recent renovation in 2006 PhxArt is the largest art museum in the South Western United States, according to Wikipedia.

I started with the exhibition of work by Amelia Mesa-Bains. Pieces in the first room resembled home alters and ofrendas found in Mexican-American homes.

 

Her other sculptural pieces used diverse materials such as moss "The Amazona's Mirror",

woven material (that's what the label said but it looks like rug hooking or punch needle to me)

glass and

lights."What the River Gave to Me"

I was excited about this as I had been unable to get tickets to her show at the AGO.

It was just one room, quite disorientating (a number of people stepped through the black curtains and then stepped out again, unable to deal with not being able to see where they were going). I reached out, found a wall (all were mirrored) and followed it around to the exit, some bravely stepped away from the wall and risked running into it.

The mirrored walls infinitely  reflected the strands of lights that were constantly changing colour. Every now and then I saw a ghostly reflection of myself, reflected multiple times and when others were in the room at the same time, the videos they were taking on their phones also lit the space and reflected. It was beautiful and I returned to it 3 times.

Next was an exhibit of paintings by Philip C. Curtis. "Mountain Village"

"Entrance with light bulb"

Between the exhibition halls there were large foyers displaying some of the huge pieces in the collection. From the distance I took this for a painting but up closer all those little black marks were people walking. It was a video and mesmerizing. Michal Rovner "Blue Hills"

This oil painting was massive and I loved the way you first notice the figure on the blanket but the way the light comes through the trees draws your eye until you see the figure centre right. Rebecca Campbell "Jack and Diane"

Enough art for now. The next blog post will have more.