2008 certainly wasnt boring. 2009 is proving so far to be equally exciting, sad, happy, inspiring and challenging.Part of the culture of the Basin involves independantly minded people doing whatever they feel is right and good.

Being independant when it comes to emergencies is another matter. Recently for a few days in early January, we were cut off by road (avalanche hazard), no power except in one part of town where there has been a small power plant (which serves about 12 of the community’s homes and has done so far more reliably than the power company for over 40 years), and we also lost our phone service .  Road and power not being available I can handle, but I do admit to being nervous when the phones went out. However, all was well and no one required urgent help.

We were isolated and for the most part on our own. Thats one thing I like about Kootenay folk. Mostly, after the roads opened and the power and phone came back on, when speaking to locals about how they survived it all, they would just shrug and say ” well, when you move here, you have to expect this type of thing and prepare for it”. So they really werent too worried. They had candles, and wood heat, and lots of good books….  And thats as it should be. When you live in the sticks, you take care of yourself as much as possible. There were, of course, newbies to the area, and even those who have been here for a while, – who were not prepared for anything. They needed a bit of help. (and encouragement to be more prepared NEXT time……).

(I considered it a golden opportunity to find out what we can do better next time for ourselves up here in the north lake area. )

With the Art of Philately project, Ive become far more experimental and exploratory in the support structures Im using for the artwork. (Once again, a golden opportunity to discover “what works”.) Due to a definate lack of funds to spend on (oh so lovely but) expensive pastel paper, I began looking into alternatives. And the best one yet (yes, even better than sliced bread) has been the construction grade sandpaper (600 grit) that Ive been working on over the last few months. Cuts like butter! very smooth to work with, particularly using Schmenke or Pan pastels. Oi! Love it love it love it.

And thanks (again) to my intrepid partner I was able to track down a ROLL of sandpaper (18″ x 50 feet) that I can use to produce bigger pieces than on the wee little 8 1/2 x 11 sheets I had been buying at the building supply store.

Faux suede material is also rather delicious to draw on with pastel. I also plan on exploring velvet and real suede before the entire set of pictures is complete. I will be digitizing a chunk of the images next week, and following that (I know Ive been promising this, and it really will happen!) will put some of them up on the blog.

A set of lesson plans mentioned in previous blogs is also inthe works, after just a bit more tweaking by someone who actually uses lesson plans in the classroom (so they are functional, as it were). I had a lot of fun writing them, and can’t wait to see the results from a classroom of 6 to 9 year olds, in designing and printing and using postage stamps made from their own artwork.

And with the small glimmer of hope for something good and positive to happen (via that new guy now living at the white house down to the south of us…) perhaps this year will NOT turn out to be a train wreck for the world ; but something exciting and a time we will remember well.

Until next time……keep shoveling and keep creating! chrs,DB