This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.- Amanda Blake soule

Joining in with Soulemama

Ways we're enjoying winter...

:: Tiny strawberry feet, on tiptoe, no less.
:: Science experiments for pre-schoolers- (from here and here)
:: Playing outside. Briefly, before the windchill warnings start up again.
:: Feeding the birds, there is something so soothing about just sitting out there watching them flit around.
:: Snuggling on the couch, listening to the new words blossoming "Get down", "Noooo" (said oh so sweetly...), "Birdie", "Ball", "Nose", "Mouth", "Eyes", "Hi", "Bye"(said after someone leaves, or after we hang up the phone, of course)
:: More science experiments- this time bending candy canes (which was an excuse to eat candy canes...)
:: Chocolate Croissants, that were devoured in no time, leaving only sticky faces...
::Sour Cream Brownies, and the (almost) empty sour cream container as a treat, my kids eat Butter and Sour Cream like some kids eat candy, is that odd do you think?

Monday Inspiration: Prudence Heward

Prudence Heward, Young Girls, 1945, (source)

Prudence Heward, At the Theater, 1928, (source)

Prudence Heward, Girl in Yellow Sweater, 1936, (source) 

Prudence Heward was a member of the Beaver Hall Group, a group of modernist Canadian painters ion the 1930's. It was really uncommon for women to be considered professional artists those many (short!) years ago, regardless of their skill, or training, most women who made art (painting, pottery, sculpture) were termed 'hobbyists', while men (also regardless of education or talent) were deemed professional. The Beaver Hall group were one of the first that actually included women. What I mean by that is that women were exhibited in galleries right alongside the men of the group as their peers.

It's not as though women weren't artists back then- they still painted- it just took the exceptional one to be considered a peer of the men- Prudence Heward was exceptional- and was asked to exhibit with the Group of Seven. The thing that is so unfair about this to me is that, seemingly, if you were a man- all you had to do is pick up a brush, you might stink, but no one would call you a hobbyist. It's somewhat hard to fathom that as recent as the 1930's  this was the case, there are still women alive who were born when 'good girls' just didn't do that sort of thing- mind boggling.

Anyhow- back the actual art...I love these images- I love the expression on the women- which is almost always somber, self reflecting. I love the luminous quality of their skin, the way the whole thing just seems to radiate inner light. The way that the edges are clean and sharp- but the painting is still so 'painterly'. I also love how they are like a time capsule of their period, there is no way that those images could be deemed timeless, and I think that's a good thing, they are most certainly 'of their period' (funny that last week I talked about how Brancusi's work was so good- because it was not 'of it's period', and now Heward's work is so good because it is. No accounting for taste right?).

This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.- Amanda Blake Soule

linking up with Soulemama

In Bloom: Amaryllis

The copycat, she'll do anything she sees you do- be warned.

This big beauty is such a treat, such large blooms, and so many of them- 4 on each stalk, it's an Amaryllis "Minerva", and I highly recommend it to anyone else out there that's buying them, it's so much nicer than I thought it would be. Also don't throw them out! ( I'm assuming that people throw them out and that's why they're so cheap right before Christmas- I've thrown out a couple myself... if you buy them from proper bulb sellers they're way more expensive) just keep on watering and fertilizing until July-ish, then let it die off and start watering again in October. My other plant (amaryllis 'Red Lion') bloomed the first year then just produced leaves, then produced blooms last year- I assumed it would be a bi-annual bloomer- but it's got a flower stalk again this year- and lots of leaves and also a tiny baby plantlet starting out- so I think fertilizing regularly is the key, isn't it always?

Monday Inspiration: Brancusi

Constantin Brancusi, La Muse, 1912, (source)

Constantin Brancusi, Portait of Mlle. Pogany, 1912 (source)

Constantin Brancusi, Little French Girl (the first step [111]), 1914-18, (source)

Constantin Brancusi, Bird in Space, 1932-40 (source)

Okay I'm going to give a go at Monday inspiration again, turn this blog back into more than once a week postings if I can summon the courage to go against the tide of tiny people wanting me to play all the time (while I arranged these images I was served up a litany from N- "ooh, it's so frustrating when my kids don't listen to me" I was supposed to be playing house with her- putting my baby brother 'Duke' (aka baby A) to bed, unsurprisingly N was annoyed that both her 'children' weren't listening to her, I know how she feels...).

Where was I? oh Brancusi, Right. well. I have not always loved Brancusi's work, in school I thought it too reductionist and minimal, but now I love it- the lines! so flowing and perfect, space aged, but in 1912! It's a good example of work that needs to be appreciated within it's historical context. I put up this post because I thought the smooth flowing brass lines are really appropriate to winter somehow, but while I was looking through the works, I fell for his women. They are so charming, there's something about them that allows the imagination to follow. The lines are so simple- but so perfect in how they capture a moment, it is beyond me how a twist of oak can perfectly encapsulate a toddler's wide gait during her first steps, but it does, somehow.

(Now I've been told by N that "it's midnight, and she can't understand how I'm not doing what she's asking me to do", better go before I get a time out, cheers)

This moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

-Amanda Blake Soule

Joining in with Soulemama

This Moment

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see."- Amanda Blake Soule

joining in with Soulemama

A Year in Pictures

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

52/52

Well- it's the last one- and I have to say I'm a little surprised at how fast it went- but also a little relieved that it's over- halfway through I gave up linking over to Che and Fidel- because it started to feel strange- almost like a popularity contest- and I'm not great at that sort of thing (too reminiscent of being picked last for every team ever?? will my ego ever get over school?). But I didn't want to give up fully- still intending to have these photos to look back on, marking the changes in my children. But then I also realized that that's what I do here anyways- and it doesn't really have to be every week, planned or forced, it can be random, and seasonal, and incidental too.

Sometimes I only have time to post here once a week, and I'm not sure I want to use this space only as a place to document my kids- I think it's more than that- I'd like it to be more than that, and so I'm not doing the 52 project again. Because if I only have one hour to put up a post I want it to be about art, or gardening, or cooking, or just sharing something lovely, which is not necessarily the same as the photos of the adorable-atti  (it's like the illuminati- but they plan to rule the household based on cuteness alone- so far, it's mostly working).

And so here's to a new year- full of lovely things for all of you, I hope.