First of Three

Yesterday I completed the first of three Baby Princess dresses for the Langley Arts Council.  It is a great achievement considering my homeless status;

The Salvation Army is kicking me out under false pretenses. I am, once again, being scapegoated by a psychopath. It is with great pleasure Karen Hofer, my so-called-adviser gave me till July 31, 2013 to be out of the room.  She knows this is a big hardship for me, and she's thrilled to be causing harm to another. My experiences match her reputation.

Last night I attended an opening for a new gallery in Fort Langley and the young owners want to see more of my textile work to show.  I am becoming an overnight success after 53 years of working with needles ;)

When to Draw the Line

Other's demands:

I have been living in the Gateway of Hoipe transition house, in Langley BC. It is run by the Salvation Army.

These people say they have a "program" and it is there to help one find a permanent home.One gets approved to live in this place (and one pays rent) by having a plan of action regarding finding appropriate housing and possibly work.

I was approved because I am on a disability pension and working towards making a living as an artist. Not an easy path with the greatest of supports.  But, since the beginning the women who claims to be my 'advisor' has tried to get me to look for work and take housing that is not appropriate for me. She's made things worse with her meddling with the government and is now expecting me to give my input to build a workshop with a local credit union.

In return I get her entering my private space without notice and for no reason.

I emailed the contact person at the credit union and told her I would not be giving any more of my time and energy to build a new workshop because of my advisor's disrespectful behaviour.

The line is drawn. No more of my time is going to help anyone else when my needs are not being met.

Platitudes

This is what I envision the mental state of the people employed by the province of  British Columbia.  They speak of 'caring' but really there is an enormous empty space between their words and intention.

The last one I spoke with said she took the job because she "...wanted to help people". I replied, "So, the excellent wage, benefits and pension package had nothing to your accepting employment?" She remained silent.

Box Art 01

Any thing can be made into a piece of art: Boxes have been used for more than a hundred years as a 'canvas'.

This September the studio I work out of is doing a collection of box art as part of the show, and we will have boxes with any subject matter, shape or size one can imagine.

Here is one of the mini boxes I've done.

Living the Homeless Life, Part 1

For those who don't know...

On November 15, 2013 the police pulled me out of the apartment I was living in to protect my life from the numb-nut criminals in the complex.(Had I been informed that the landlord is associated with gangsters I would not have moved into the place in the first place.  Because I know me and me always calls the police upon witnessing a crime, and living in a den of thieves is not conducive to my well being.)

Since then I have been in the homeless state of sharing a transition house run by the Salvation Army.  I have no say on who my roommates will be, and army life is not something I have ever needed. For more than 50 years I have learned self-discipline by engaging in the arts. Artists are masters, and masters create something from nothing. Simple as that. Do these Army folk understand this? No.

The majority of the people who work and live within the Salvation Army are people who need to be told what to do and how to do it. A case in point:

This morning I had a discussion with one of my roommates about the effects of drugs and alcohol on the human mind. She has not used crack cocaine for the last eight months after 15 years of using. She was saying the addiction is a disease, and I said it is a lifestyle choice. I backed my statement up with the fact that drugs and alcohol suppress the mind's inhibitors, allowing for the user to express whatever emotion they feel or think about in the moment; and, that it takes a great deal of practice to control one's emotions. She ended the conversation with stating she needed to get ready to go to church. 

She needs the structure of basic rules because she has spent a great deal of her adult life in the state of being out of control. For her, the daily church attendance is an absolute need, because it is the comfort zone where she does not have to take responsibility for controlling herself. Someone else is in control, she's obedient to her faith instead of a substance.

What I know...

In more than 50 years of engaging in one art form or another I have discovered self control. Each art form is a skill, and those skills require practice to achieve proficiency, and the practice demands self control.

Irish Crochet - Baby Princess Dress

Irish Crochet is one of the youngest of the domestic handcrafts, and developed in response to the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840's. The women who were making lace for the aristocrats upgraded their work to more complicated motifs, thereby assuring their income to save their homes and families. By 1890 the motifs had become even more complicated and wonderful.

Traditional Irish crochet uses size 30 thread, which is about the size of heavy machine thread, and is usually cotton or silk.

I used size 10 thread in this baby princess dress. It is very simple in design, predominately using the half-double crochet stitch, a bit of filet and the ruffles a combination of half-double and double crochet stitches. The buttons and picot-edge (dark purple) are the only truly traditional Irish crochet in the work.