Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Introducing . . . Cortes Art Space

Okay, you know how last time I said I was blogging when I should have been working on baseboards for the apartment? Well, the baseboards are done and so is the website for our new art space. (Patience, first I must pontificate sufficiently.)
Shanny and I have a home with two apartments in it. Since 2005, when we bought our home, we have endeavoured to provide a home for someone else here on our little island. We have made some wonderful friends this way, but in recent years with our local economy not recovering from the recession as it has elsewhere, we have had more broken leases than honoured ones. There just isn't any work here.
So, we decided that this must be a sign. If the most practical application of the space isn't working out for either party, why be practical?
As you know, I have used house-sitting as my way of getting writing retreats on the cheap. And that works for me, but the chances of landing in a really creative environment are not high.
We live in a very inspiring place, which begs the question; why do I need to leave paradise and find retreats? Short answer: the responsibilities and routines of daily life are the pieces of furniture blockading the door to my metaphoric room of creativity. (Nice, ya? Just thought of it.)
I'll still need to get off the island to find solitude, but the rest of the world should come here! (One at a time please. Line-up in an orderly fashion - you're in Canada, now.)
We live at a lake with a beautiful sandy beach. The ocean is a ten minute walk away. You can walk different beaches every day.
The apartment is now equipped with an easel, worktable, desk, yoga equipment, small but deadly fiction library and of course, a very comfortable living space, recently beautified by the art work of our dear friend, David Ellingsen. (Okay, go check him out, but then come back. I'm not done and you haven't seen the apartment yet.) http://www.davidellingsen.com/
Did you check out "Obsolete Delete"? No? Go back. It's under Environmenal 1.
See? When I grow up, I'm gonna own that whole collection.
Okay, back to the apartment. It's lovely and it looks out over the lake and has its own yard and deck and if anyone is really needing a doggy-snuggle, we'll let you borrow Jedidiah Wiggle-bottom Happy-feet Puddle-jumper Jonassen. You can call him Jed. (Springer/Golden with a very big heart).
Point is, we have a great place and we want to share it with artists. Seriously, if you can't get inspired on Cortes Island, you're just not trying.
Alright, you have been most patient and you may go look at the website now, and consider this your official invitation. Come and write or paint or think about painting or write about thinking or . . .
http://www.cortesartspace.com/

p.s. Jed is really into yoga.



Sunday, October 19, 2014

Swirling Head Syndrome




I am suffering from Swirling Head Syndrome. (That's not real but guess what is? . . . S.P.L.A.T. the society for the prevention of little amphibian tragedies. I kid you not.)
See what I mean? I have no focus. I am thinking about 20 things at once most of the time. I'm pretty good at multitasking (most teachers are) but what I am experiencing is something more like my brain being shot by a ray gun that disrupts synopsis and causes constant interruptions to . . .
What was I saying?
The source of the current problem is partly hormonal ( I believe we covered that earlier in Writer's Blah, June). 
However, it's been stepped up significantly with my arrival at the intersection of Necessity and Dreams. The road which led me here was paved with things like a long and discouraging teacher's strike which has left me broke and quite disillusioned about the future of public education in this province and country. On the other hand, possibilities have also arrived on the horizon, some with more appeal than others. Some with more potential than others.
So here I am, redecorating the apartment to create a space for artists and writers to work and live. (I'm supposed to be working on the baseboards right now!)
I'm also writing - not nearly as much as I should be or want to be - but I have my usual 2 or 3 projects on the go. I'm tutoring and working as a TTOC at the school. I'm revisiting the idea of facilitating workshops for teachers and educational assistants. I'm starting an Artists in the Schools program with a talented visual artist so we can offer mixed-media theme studies for students. I'm starting the process of publishing my middle-grades novel, and entertaining the possibility of joining a publishing cooperative as a project manager. I'm supporting a friend who is running for local office and I haven't finished my Halloween costume.
And then, of course, there's everyday life with the usual demands we all face, including weekly therapy sessions with a partner thrown into a spiral of depression by the dismal performance of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The challenge here is that, at present, none of these things generate any income except tutoring and subbing, and our little school is not generating much of the latter right now.
So here I am at the intersection of Necessity and Dreams and I'm getting a neck spasm from looking one way, and then the other.
This is a busy corner. There are lots of us milling about, muttering to ourselves about building a house right here where these two roads meet. Can following your dreams pay your bills?
Ah, the eternal question.


Monica is the author of "Thanks for chucking that at the wall instead of me."