Oct 9 2021 - Singing like Sweet Adelines

 

Choirs are returning to practice.  There are special masks for singing. The website choralcanada.org has information on them.  There is a mask on the Broadway relief project website and it is available there.  The Singer’s Mask was developed by singers FOR singers by Broadway professionals to help contain droplets while allowing space around the mouth to sing comfortably. There's information on the mask HERE. You can buy music and masks from the same sites now - JWpepper.com has lots of masks.  There are also masks for various wind instrument players.   So this seems extremely encouraging - as though choir singing can begin again this Fall.  But that doesn't seem to be the case - there's a very cautious set of guidelines in Ontario. The Region of Halton published this update of Ontario COVID guidelines/requirements on September 17th: Adapt or suspend singing, choirs, and the playing of wind or brass instruments. Consider audio or video recordings instead of live singing or wind or brass instrumental music.  Group singing is strongly discouraged. The number of persons singing should be limited to the fewest possible. Anyone singing or playing wind or brass instruments should be separated from others by a barrier and should maintain two metres (six feet) distance from others. The conclusion seems to be that safe masks for singers will be for professionals, and us amateurs have a while to wait. The important key indicator of when singing would be safer is having fully vaccinated singers.  Canada has over 80% of the eligible population fully vaccinated, but that isn't the case in the US at all.  So websites that are dominantly US are negative on singing. Our image today is titled "Bubble Up".

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Sep 6 2020 - That Character Named Q

 

Remember the character 'Q'?  He was in Star Trek.  Earlier was Ian Fleming's fictional character in the James Bond films - Q - stands for Quartermaster.  Like M, it is a job title. M doesn't stand for anything. Q was played by Desmond Llewelyn, and there are a number of commercials that feature some variation on the character 'Q'.  Jump now to recent past, to October 2017, when Q emerged on the internet message board 4chan with a post asserting that Hillary Clinton's arrest was imminent.  There were more than 4,000 posts from Q, who claimed to be a government insider.  Reminiscent of Ian Fleming spy novels, Q used a 'trip code' that allowed followers to distinguish his posts from those of other anonymous users - those anonymous others were known as 'anons'.  And only 3 years later, here we are: QAnon is now a major media 'ecosystem'.  Our public attention was drawn to it just last month when the #SaveTheChildren campaign got hijacked into the QAnon 'narrative'.  The predictions for the future are in the  News headlines this weekend says: "QAnon began in the internet's darkest corners.  Now it's set to enter Congress."   I have looked through images of QAnon supporters - and see a consistent expression on the faces.  There are big smirks and big smiles that remind me of high school rebels with their accompanying obnoxious and offensive behaviour and a sense of being superior.  There's a sense of "Just try to stop me".  And what should they be stopped from?  According to the FBI, it is domestic terror and violence in the making.   On the bright side of summer, here's a recent print I created.  I have figured out how to sample my images and use  sections as patterns - they fill the centres of the circle-dots and the background vertical stripes.

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White Space Ahead

What is white space? It's not blank space.  It has a purpose.  In design is is also called negative space.  Wikipedia tells me that in the print and web world, it is the negative space where the page is left unmarked - margins, gutters, space between columns, etc.    A more recent application is to represent the minimalist life. Jocelyn K. Glei says that if you analyze your daily schedule with an eye toward design, you will find out if you have preserved enough 'white space' within your daily workflow.  I wonder what the visual representation is for a day that is "extremely busy and cluttered".  Another author, Brian Gardner is clear on what to do.  He suggests we declutter our physical space, paint our walls white, designate a quiet spot, get enough sleep, and hide the screens (the phones, etc).   I wondered if there is a relationship between connecting dots and white space, but found myself in unchartered territory.  It is only unchartered from a 'tag' point of view on a google search.  Whenever I go after more complicated search terms and relationships, google reveals its limitations. I found a wall art app the other day, and had a lot of fun with it. You drop your image into a room setting of your choice. Here are a few applications.  This is the Lake Effects Series followed by the Dark and Stormy Night Collage.

Dotted

The 'dot' has evolved during our time from one of the great patterns of polka dots in clothing to the address of an internet site: "What's the web address?" "www dot cambridge dot org."  Polka dot patterns have been in existence a long time. In the 19th century, “Dotted-Swiss referred to raised dots on transparent tulle,” and in France, “quinconce described the diagonal arrangement of dots seen on the 5-side of dice.” Meanwhile, “[t]he large coin-sized dots on fabric, called Thalertupfen in German, got their name from Thaler, the currency of German-speaking Europe until the late 1800s.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines “polka dot” as “Any of a number of round dots of uniform size repeated so as to form a regular pattern, usually on fabric.” The term itself first appeared in the mid-1800s (“Scarf of muslin, for light summer wear, surrounded by a scalloped edge, embroidered in rows of round polka dots,” 1857) In 1928, Disney introduced its cartoon character Minnie Mouse wearing a red polka dot dress and matching bow.  In 1951, Marilyn Monroe was photographed wearing a polka dot bikini in 1951. Here's the LINK to see Minnie and Marilyn. The AGO has a link with polka dots in the Yayoi Kasama Infinity Mirrors Exhibition:  throughout the ’60s, the artist  was a walking medley of polka dots. Yayoi Kusama became known for the busy dotted swarms that covered her paintings. “Our earth is only one polka dot among millions of others,” she once said.  To see images of her dots google 'kusama exhibition images'.  We see dots and spots as Spring arrives - in our natural world - as on these lilies and in the urban world - a bit of rust spots on metal.