photos by prehistoric canadian (2).

Items From the Workshop.

A list of woodworking projects - with an artistic flavour - is getting longer as my list of workshop projects for others nears its end. I have had my fill of birdhouses and Swap Boxes and Little Free Libraries and custom orders and as my seventieth birthday approaches I am transitioning to a different gear.

My new approach will place an emphasis on a few hand-carved whales and projects that include the use of distinctive roof slates and bicycle gears. Oddities, I know, but they suit my nature.

 "Swim, Forrest. Swim!"

 I may add a blue, wooden frame to the above piece

 This is my first whale project using hand chisels. With frame. Sold.

 I'd like to try this again with different colours of paint

As well, WW2 research and writing - related to my Dad's 'Navy Days' - is high on my list of things to continue at least for another decade.

So, this prehistoric Canadian is in a mild curve in the road.

More to follow.

Please link to photos by prehistoric canadian

Photos GH

The Athens Block

I discovered the single block beside the Thames River a few days ago and because I was walking at the time I left it upon the ground. Later the same day I learned a few things online about Athens Blocks, enough to make the block an 'interesting find', and when I returned to the same spot yesterday in the car the brick was where I left it. I brought it home and will say, I now possess a simple treasure.

Athens Blocks or bricks have been produced in Athens, Ohio since the 1800s and reportedly sold for 25 cents each in the early 1990s. However, thanks to petroleum-based tarmac and giant metal rolling machines, roads are not made from Athens Block very often anymore, if at all.



The Athens Block as history: Link to The Post

The Athens Block as art: Link to Athens Block Collectibles

And what will I do with my single block? Likely use it to hold open the workshop door on a hot summer's day.

Link to My Morning Walk

Photos GH

Gord's Journal

I like birds that keep an eye on things around here.

enemy sub, bombs away

swimming could get dicey

link to Gord's Journal

iPad GH

Gord's Journal

I like towns and cities on the horizon line. And sharks.

be careful out there

link to Gord's Journal

iPad GH

art in the shop 10

while stacking logs yesterday
(log cabin birdhouses are underway)
I zoomed in for a closeup.

to me, this looks right on target.

some wood finds the mark.

photos by gah

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art in the workshop 9

If the shades are drawn I'm dancin'. Or singin' along with Roy.

Photo by GH

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art in the street 5

The 1929 Roadster, sitting in front of a garage between Featherfields on Stanley and CN tracks a half block south, has a long was to go before its completion date. I was told "a 1941 Buick engine is hard to find."

["I found the Roadster on a sun-shiny day last week"]

Even though the car sits partially under a gray tarp, I think the shiny bits qualify as art in the street.

Photos by GH

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Please click here to view art in the street 4

art in the street 4

If you start at the corner of Wortley Rd. and Stanley St. and start walking south toward The Village you  might soon spot - if it is parked outside - a 1929 roadster that sports a few glaring defects. It has no motor. An old tarp covers the upholstery.

["artsy fartsy signal light"]

["artsy fartsy headlamp"]

However, it has several shiny bits.

Photos by GH

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art in the workshop 6

straight lines are everywhere in the workshop. saws work that way most of the time.

["Butch McLarty threw me a curve, a bagful"]

sometimes the right birdhouse perch is a rounded cupboard door pull, and I've got a bagful, thanks to an observant friend.

photo by gah

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art in the street 3

Yesterday while riding home to Wortley Village after a trip to Labatts Park (where bird watching can be a very absorbing, reflective activity) I spotted a 1920s roadster loaded with colour and style. The seats were covered with an old tarp and the motor was missing. But it still qualified, in my opinion, as art in the street.

Know where it's parked (besides "between Labatts Park and Gord's house")? 

Photos by GH

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Please click here to view art in the street 2

art in the street 2

The tables and chairs parked outside The Black Walnut cafe (in Wortley Village) were sitting out in the open on a hot, bright day last week, and Don Kelly and I ordered mugs of coffee.

What a combination. Heat plus coffee equals more heat.

Though I was soon itching to get back onto my bike in order to catch a breeze, I noticed that the tiled table tops looked pretty cool.

Photos by GH

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Do you see art in the street? Where?

Please click here to view art in the street 1

art in the street 1

after a bicycle ride: while Don bought coffee I snapped art in the street.

"one chair then another"

"a missing tile"

photos by gah

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Please direct me to more art - in your opinion - in the street.

Please click here to view art in the workshop 5

art in the workshop 5

shadows moved atop my paint pot

photos by gah

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Bits and Pieces: Tir na nOg - a curious name

Recently, Kim Douglas Harrison, my younger, taller, and very artistic brother, held an art show in his own wee gallery on Dundas St. East, London.

Thirty or more paintings - many of Irish themes - covered the walls, art cards and food and drink filled the tables.

A piece caught my eye. I reached for my wallet.

“Could you add something to this painting before I pay for it?” I said to Kim.

He rolled his eyes. “What?”

“A man rowing a boat that’s filled to the gunnels with Jamesons and Guinness.”

He rolled his eyes again. “No.”

I didn’t even get the usual 2 per cent family discount. Ever so slowly and reluctantly, I paid in full.

‘Tir na nOg’ the painting is called. It’s a curious name.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, Tir na nOg is the name of a local pub at 218 South Blount Street.


“Named after the mythical Irish land of eternal youth, this cavernous pub is one of downtown's most popular hangouts for Raleigh-ites both young and old,” says an online site. No pub appears in my painting. No Jamesons. No Guinness.

There’s also a Tir na nOg Cottage in Bunbeg, Donegal, Ireland. No cottage appears in my painting.


At another website I found the following description:

“Tir na nOg is the land of eternal youth.  This mythical and magical island was once believed to be far off the west coast of Ireland… beyond the edges of the maps… and could only be accessed by an invitation by one of its magical inhabitants. 


It was a land of happiness, pleasure, youth, and beauty where sickness, death, want, and need did not exist.  It is said that only on the rarest of occasions this magical land can be seen on the horizon.  Wrapped in mist and mystery Tir na nOg only stays visible for mere moments before disappearing again for hundreds of years.”

Now, that tells me something that relates to the mystery and mood my brother’s painting evokes, at least in me.


Priceless.

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Zoom w a View: Saturday Night Lights Out

Soft light, from a nearby streetlight, was all that fell on the back deck.






Soft lines on a quiet Saturday night.

[Photos by GH]

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Recommended Reading: The birth of a good question

I’ve never seen a live salmon. I’ve never held a live salmon.

While walking with friend Don to our city’s fine Remembrance Day service last Thursday my question to him was inspired by a sentence or two from Carl Safina’s book, ‘song for the blue ocean.’

After seeing a salmon clubbed Safina writes:

“The gleaming fish goes still in a spreading pool of blood. This animal is bullet-shaped, sleek, strong-looking. Its back is purplish black. The sides, bright silver.”

“In the transition zone between the purple-black and silver, each scale is lavender or purple, in a different luminously iridescent shade, and framed in black. These scales together make a miniature gallery of abstract paintings, like an exhibit of similar lacquered works by the same artist, gathered and brilliantly displayed side by side so that the slight variations among them set up a subtle shimmer that draws the eye.”


["Wooden fish by John Doherty, Rosseau, Ontario": photo GH]

“With a magnifying glass, one could enter this gallery and stroll at leisure.”

I thought his words were intriguing. Fish scales as wondrous art. A walk through a gallery with magnifying glass in hand.

My margin notes read:

“We should see FISH as ART.”

But first, I’d have to catch or see or hold a salmon.

Thus my question to espresso.

Have you seen a live salmon? Have you held one?

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Within 2 or 3 years I should find myself standing on Vancouver Island in a spot my father saw “bank to bank salmon.”

Maybe then will be my chance to see even one.

See right side margin - Read This: song for the blue ocean

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Zoom w a View: Outside the workshop door

While cleaning stain off an old brush I noticed a few interesting details in the wood on The Shed wall.




Now, back to that Adirondack chair that needs sanding!

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I should build frames and display knots and twists in the wood - as if art. Then sell it for big bucks.

Am I onto something? The perfect job?

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