older female geeks

Natalie d'Arbeloff, artist, cartoonist, author of the amazing 'The God Interviews' and blogger with alter-ego Blaugustine continues to inspire me with her colourful career and many talents, her humour and her energy.

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a letter from Teju

My friend Teju Cole is the author of Every Day is for the Thief, which began life as a temporary blog, and was published in Nigeria last year. He is at work on another book, a novel about a young... [Continue Reading...]

Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008

I've just learned that one of my favourite contemporary artists has died at 82: Robert Rauschenberg. The New York Times has a very good obituary on him. In case you cannot get past the registration wall that it may... [Continue Reading...]

Elaine de Kooning

Recently I discovered Elaine de Kooning and some work she had done at Crown Point over 20 years ago...

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Looking back: Jule favourites

Deep in the archives of three years ago is this favourite Christmas season post of mine and reposted here almost fully: My favourite things about Christmas are the things that appeal to the romantic and the child in me.... [Continue Reading...]

Marianna Schmidt

I was very pleased to have seen a large body of Schmidt's mixed media works at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver) on its last day and last hour!

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sun and shadows

summer is here at last
hot days, warm nights
seeking shade, cooling breezes

just finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

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Tove Jansson biography

Way back in February of 2005, I wrote about trolls and my love of folk legends, myths and fairy tales especially anything Finnish. In that context came up the name of internationally well-known Tove Jansson and her Moomintrolls. There... [Continue Reading...]

Kalevala and Vietnam

I know that the Finnish national epic the Kalevala is read around the world, translated as it is into 61 languages. So I've been quite intrigued to read a fascinating story about two Vietnamese women and their involvement with... [Continue Reading...]

Ancient British Columbia

I'm thrilled and proud to have two of my photographs of Hornby Island petroglyphs in this book....

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the xylothek

Alnarp, Sweden is the home of a unique Wooden Library. "The wooden library, or xylothek (from the Greek words for tree, xylon, and storing place, theke) consists of 217 volumes describing 213 different species or varieties of trees and... [Continue Reading...]

mellow

Well, it's still rather soggy in southwest BC, with storm after storm bringing us more heavy rains in the past nearly two weeks than we normally get in the whole month of November, usually our wettest month of the... [Continue Reading...]

Griffin & Sabine

Griffin and Sabine, An Extraordinary Correspondence, written and illustrated by Nick Bantock grew into a series of six books that achieved great popularity and are some of my very favourites. I love the artwork, letters inside envelopes and postcards... [Continue Reading...]

summer reading

"Tita thought of the many times she had germinated kernels or seeds of rice, beans, or alfalfa, without giving any thought to how it felt for them to grow and change form so radically. Now she admired the way... [Continue Reading...]

Canadian books

Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart is celebrating 100 years and has put out their Essential 100 list of books: "Selected from the 700 plus M&S backlist titles currently available, our Essential 100 consists of those titles that  should be on... [Continue Reading...]

Night Gardening

"Deep within each of us lies a garden. An intensely personal place. Throughout most of our lives, this garden remains hidden from view save for brief glimpses during moments spent daydreaming or in quiet contemplation...but many of us long... [Continue Reading...]

Kathan Brown

This is very interesting for printmakers and other artists! Artist-blogger Gregg Chadwick at Speed of Life has written: "Kathan Brown, the founder of San Francisco's Crown Point Press, has a new book out - "Magical Secrets about Thinking Creatively:... [Continue Reading...]

Toronto's Lord of the Rings

"The much-anticipated musical theatre version of The Lord of the Rings made its formal début in a gala première in Toronto on Thursday evening, and the reactions of the audience suggested that the massive production would not be leaving... [Continue Reading...]

Santa Lucia's Day

Illustration by Satomi Ichikawa in "Merry Christmas - Children at Christmastime around the world" (Wm.Heinemann, 1983) In Helsingin Sanomat is an article about the Saint Lucia parade held last night, December 13th, in Helsinki. "As the doors of the... [Continue Reading...]

Finnish libraries

The Dome Hall, National Library of Finland As I've mentioned before, I love reading Virtual Finland for all kinds of interesting facts about my birth country. I knew that Finns have long led the world in reading and literacy.... [Continue Reading...]

a blog adieu

"This blog is thinking about hibernation. I'm an Adorable Little Rodent (TLB blog ranking) with hundreds of hits a day. But I'm getting bored with my humble self and I want to spend time on other things." Sadly for us... [Continue Reading...]

Picasso and grandson

Protean Picasso: Drawings and Prints from the National Gallery of Canada and Selected Paintings from International Collections, an exhibition that brings together the full scope of the artist’s career through drawings, prints and paintings, opened at the Vancouver Art... [Continue Reading...]

Finland, Cultural Lone Wolf

This is the unusual and attention-grabbing title of a new book on Finland, as announced in the aforementioned e-newsletter from Canadian Friends of Finland. The announcement reads: DEAR FINN OR PART- FINN: Finland is revealed in a new book by... [Continue Reading...]

a rubbing

This is a rubbing I made of a wonderful image embedded in the cover of a book I found in the library a few days ago. 'Indian Rock Carvings of the Pacific Northwest' by Edward Meade (1971) has numerous... [Continue Reading...]

Pekka Kivikäs

As my readers know, I'm nuts about prehistoric art, particularly that of northern Europe. One site that I check periodically is Arkeo.net, a Finnish portal for archaeology fans. Recently I spotted a notice about some new books (PDF) that... [Continue Reading...]

Spirit in the Stone

"Salmon Man" on beach at Quadra Island - drawing by Hilary Stewart I am slowly savoring 'Spirit in the Stone' by Joy Inglis, a book that was recommended to me by reader Irene from Manitoba and which I recently... [Continue Reading...]

Lascaux Caves replica

The Unicorn in the Great Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux Caves A few days ago I picked up a gorgeous book from the library - Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest Times by Jean Clottes, and Paul G. Bahn... [Continue Reading...]

Land of the Saame

Photo by Pekka Antikainen, in "Land of the Saame" As my dear readers know, I'm fascinated by the northern indigenous cultures, in particular the Saami people of northern Europe who are a branch of the Finno-Ugric family. Some time... [Continue Reading...]

on artists & celebrity

Poking around in my bookmarked "articles to re-read", I was taken in once again by this Guardian interview of JG Ballard about a year ago. His thoughts on today's art scene struck a chord with me: "Today's art scene? Very... [Continue Reading...]

Hans Christian Andersen Bicentenary

A few days ago I received a lovely letter from a good friend in Denmark. She mentioned that the whole country is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, as are many countries around the... [Continue Reading...]

reading break

"And when at last a puff of air would toss a delicate thread of scent his way, he would lunge at it and not let it go. Then he would smell at only this one odor, holding it tight,... [Continue Reading...]

book meme

Amy passed on the stick for this book meme which I didn't want to do for a lack of time, but it stuck in my mind. So here's a quick list because I've not been reading as much as I... [Continue Reading...]

'Rings' debut in Toronto

"The much-anticipated stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy will have its world premiere in Toronto, producers announced in London Tuesday. The $27-million show, co-produced by Toronto's Mirvish Productions, will open in March 2006 at the... [Continue Reading...]

all about trolls

Illustration by Rudolf Koivu, "The troll and the shepherdess" in "Matka Satumaahan" (A Trip to the Land of Fairytales) by Raul Roine, Otava, Helsinki 1954 Sometimes I wonder if some readers think I'm silly when I write about my... [Continue Reading...]

why do we like art?

Recently (Jan.17th) Arts Journal had a post with a question, "We like art, anyone know why? .... why do we care about art? And, given that we obviously do (and that this is worldwide phenomenon that has stretched throughout history),... [Continue Reading...]

My favourite things

about Christmas are the things that appeal to the romantic and the child in me. I love the visual delights of little white lights, red candles, evergreens, snow, red berries, pine cones and red folk embroidery on linens. I love... [Continue Reading...]

Pierre Berton 1920-2004

Pierre Berton died today at the age of 84. A well-known award-winning author of 50 books and a broadcaster, he was one of Canada's best known and beloved figures. He wrote about his life in the Yukon and about Canada... [Continue Reading...]

more about Elvish

Shelley at Burningbird wrote this about a Guide to Elvish: "If you're a Tolkien fan, or interested in linguistics, David Salo's new book on the linguistics of Elvish, Gateway to Sindarin, A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J. R.... [Continue Reading...]

Stonehenge book

Here's an interesting tidbit about Stonehenge found in today's Arts Journal: Daily Arts News: 'Stonehenge Under Attack (For 150 Years) - Debate is roaring over a plan to redo the Stonehenge site to accomodate tourists. But photographs over the past... [Continue Reading...]

archaeology & anthropology books

As my dear readers know, I'm fascinated by archaeology and anthropology. So, this article in the Guardian caught my eye: Michelle Paver's favourite books on archaeology and anthropology. All the listed books, some new to me, make me greedy for... [Continue Reading...]

The Museum Called Canada

Imagine this - an interesting website with a virtual tour about a book The Museum Called Canada. The "tour guides" are "a renowned academic and author with a documented love for unconventional histories" Charlotte Gray and "museum curator" is the... [Continue Reading...]

Nick Bantock exhibition

"URGENT 2ND CLASS": The Art of Nick Bantock and Book Launch for his new book, Urgent 2nd Class (Raincoast Books) - opening tonight Tuesday, September 7th and continuing until Sept. 26th at the Ferry Building Gallery, West Vancouver, BC... [Continue Reading...]

man and beast engravings

Eliane at Sellotape Files pointed to Bezembinder who has featured a gorgeous online version of Le Brun's System on Physiognomy by Morel d'Arleux (after Charles Le Brun). "The present exhibition concerns a rare and astonishing album of engravings first published... [Continue Reading...]

the artist in a gift economy

I am really going to have to get my hands on this book: "The Gift - Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property" by Lewis Hyde**. I am very intrigued and find the quotes really resonate with me as a... [Continue Reading...]

alphabet books

Abecedarium is an online exhibit of lovely hand-made alphabet books by the Guild of Book Workers. "Given only the 'alphabet' theme, each participant has created a unique interpretation of the letterform, delivering two- and three-dimensional works in a plethora of... [Continue Reading...]

ancient pages

A few days ago when visiting Mysterium, I found this treasure: the Diamond Sutra, a Chinese Buddhist scroll printed in 868 that is the world's oldest, dated, printed book.... yes oldest! It is featured in the British Library's website Turning... [Continue Reading...]

the artist's childhood

As a child I loved reading books and fairy tales were my very favourite. My first books were in Finnish written by Finnish authors, but most loved were the tales collected by the Grimm Brothers. This edition, a very... [Continue Reading...]

an artist's retreat

Last week my husband and I went to our favourite retreat on the west coast of Vancouver Island, staying in a small, rustic oceanfront cabin near Pacific Rim National Park and Tofino. It had the basic necessities of a small... [Continue Reading...]

for the child in us all

Now, this is off my usual topics but I really want to share what I found on Keri Smith's blog: "If you haven't been, run don't walk to Shel Silverstein.com". I thought I'd have a look and then fell in... [Continue Reading...]

Rock art research

In my research into the history and art of my ancestors, a wealth of information has come from Loit Joekalda. He believes the best researcher of the rock art of the Fenno-Ugrians is Väino Poikalainen, chair of the Estonian Society... [Continue Reading...]

Fenno-Ugrian people

Some of my image research delves into the marks left by early humans, particularly the Fenno-Ugrian peoples. Their region includes Finland (my birth country), Karelia (now in Russia), Estonia and Lapland or Sami. The Gallen-Kallela Museum in Finland had an... [Continue Reading...]