So... http://creativeyarnsource.com/index.html Joseph looked at the Dragonfly, still missing one wing colour...I asked which colour I should make the final wing... He said blue...But I didn't have blue(blue Mason line is what I mean) & blue is hard to find here... So after much searching I found the Creative Yarn Source in Ohio...Great resource not just for the cord but as a knowledge base too...As it happens, Mason's line(Mason Line is what they use to make sure their brick walls are straight) doesn't come in blue...But number 18 nylon cord is pretty much the same thing...It should fit in...I picked the variegated Blue cord which is two colours of blue in one spool...Next I have to decide on the leg colours...Any ideas?
p.s. Newfoundland's unofficial flag is green white & pink(three rectangles, like a Barnett Newman painting sort of)...Hence the tentative title "Newfoundland Dragonfly"...


  Thursday: I'm at 12 hours total, spent maybe 86 dollars...I put the dragonfly on the wall today to see how it looks...Awesome! Wall Dragonfly! (see pic)...


Here is a recent decision in the United States about foreign art versus local art...
  http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2012/07/10/u-s-museums-issue-brief-against-court-decision-with-crushing-copyright-implications/comment-page-1/#comment-4714


Here is the comment I wrote about that decision:
What is important to note, or to wonder about, is the WHY of all this...Why did the United States make this decision? Why? 

  It must be a response to a problem...Let us guess the problem...People are going to other countries besides the U.S. & buying art for cheaper money than they can buy locally...Then they are bringing that art back into the U.S. & exhibiting it for ticket sales at American ticket sale prices...This is a microcosm of something that tourists having been doing for decades, but on a museum scale...

  What is the result of this foreign art buying? Well, artists local to the U.S.A. don't get paid...That is probably the biggest repercussion...Also, alot of travel & shipping happen, which is not very eco-friendly...The fact that foreign artists sell for cheap & then the work gets overinflated when back in the States is a bit of a cheat too...You know the gallery owner who buys cheap native stuff, then brings it home & charges exorbitant retail prices for it?

  I think that is what has been happening which has caused this stern regulatory response...

  What will distinguishing between local art & foreign art do for Americans? It will bring more money to local artists...I think that is a good thing...Nobody likes protections & censorship & laws & rules & such, but I think that Americans are losing out to countries who produce stuff for cheap because they don't have as many labour laws...Like having people live in pods to make iPhones or whatnot...They don't earn much & they don't live well...So the stuff is not made local to the States...It's not good for the foreign countries either...

  Laws come in when people start hurting others...Computers, cellphones & tech stuff are an arm of art, & serve as telling examples of what is happening with the more traditional stuff...Getting made elsewhere for cheap then being resold in the States...

  This is only my take, one take, on the why part...But to sum up, I think local is good...& if laws are needed to make people go local, well it's too bad but I still think it is better than the current way of doing things...Diversity may suffer...But knowledge is not always a good thing is it? 



Links to good people who do good art & who teach too:
http://www.anniestrackart.com/ Annie Strack is a very funny person...(humour is so integral to genius)...
Also: Link to very cool idea designer named...Beste Miray Dogan: http://www.bestemiray.com/
This is Beste's cool envelope with google map idea- print one for yourself...http://www.mapenvelope.com/


new Blog to read that I just discovered today: http://www.jeriflom.com/blog/ Don't know much, but I think the work is cool!
I think this work & what I am doing now with the Dragonfly crosses paths a little bit...




 
Hello & Thank You...

  The incidental exemption, or enrolling activity by the banks, is actually quite massive...

 Estimates are 2 million dollars a year per bank to administer, with a 20 million dollar profit per year...

 This is for the incidental enrolling...

 So the banks ARE selling insurance...

 That little afterthought exemption took $3,000.00 dollars out of my pocket...During the worst decade of my self-employed business life...

 There are probably tens of thousands of people like myself in Canada who were missold this exempted insurance by the bank, over the phone...

 Once you say yes over the phone, the money is automatically taken from your credit card without another word or any signed confirmation at all...

 Statistics on insurance state quite factually that in insurance "enrollment", the vast majority, over 90 per cent, of people who say yes to an insurance policy over the phone, do not or are not able to read or thoroughly understand/comprehend any written documentation that may or may not appear 10 days later in the mail...People who can say yes over the phone are not necessarily qualified to read or give informed consent to complicated & obfuscatory written insurance policies...

I have been through the entire ombudsprocess with the agencies mentioned...I have also attempted to use other intervention with other agencies not mentioned below...

 The insurance industry is making HUGE money on balance protection insurance...

As are the banks...

 Which is why I have not gotten my money back yet...They don't want to give it back...Even though they know that it is wrong...

 They all know they have taken money wrongly...But they are hurting too, so they have turned a blind eye...

 I have been in touch with a major Class Action law firm here in Canada...

 They are looking into a Class Action lawsuit against all the banks in Canada who have sold balance protection insurance...

 In The States & England this has happened already & ALL people sold a policy by a bank are getting a refund...ALL...ALL people who have EVER been sold a policy on a credit card by a bank...

 That is how bad this is...

Canada is the last country to correct this wrong...

It should be our government who initiates this action...Not a law firm...

But our government has been slow to act, because they are in bed with the banks...

The answers below sound good don't they?

But they are meaningless when one person attempts to jump through those hoops...

The incidental exemption is key...

Legislation is only regulating licensed insurers...

Nothing about the banks...

That is the loophole...It is a giant black hole loophole...


Sincerely, Sari Grove
grovecanada.ca

Dragonfly...

7/16/2012

 
   Joseph & I went to walk our neighbour's dog...His name is Pushak...A Bishon Frise...Our neighbour hasn't been able to move that much since she injured her back maybe 6 months ago...So mostly Joseph walks her dog...It's good because both Joseph & Pushak have extra energy...It also gives me a little time to work quietly...But sometimes I join the boys...As we walked home I saw the most gorgeous gigantic Dragonfly on the sidewalk...Not alive unfortunately...But I stared & stared & decided to do a memorial sculpture...
  1)Went home & did a preliminary sketch...see below...
Had a talk with Joseph about the Dragonfly sculpture just to make sure he was ok with it...Joseph pushed me to weave the wings myself out of rope instead of covering with the aluminum mesh I have been using...(This turned out to be very tiring...)
2)Next day, browsed Canadian Tire for supplies I needed...5 hours later, I have the bare bones of the sculpture...Next I have to figure out how to stabilize the legs...


Health Notes: Cut up raw garlic into some rich plain Greek yogurt...Eat with a spoon...Garlic lowers blood sugar in the pancreas...Garlic is an antibiotic...I learned this from Jeanne Claude & Christo...(from an interview about The Gates in New York project)...Eat raw garlic if you have lice or bedbugs or whatever you call them in your state...
  Goji Berries contain Oxygen...Oxygen dries Hydrogen up from your liver...The common cold is essentially a wet liver- too much hydrogen...So eating Goji berries will dry up your liver, & your cold...It is like eating fresh air...
  If you have the flu, it may not be the common cold...Flu symptoms may appear if you have eaten meat from an animal who is unwell...Animals have been unwell lately because genetically modified grains get clogged up in their system...GM grains are big looking but straw-like...Not enough sugar acids...They just look like food...But they clog up your bum & you can't pooh...Then your kidneys start to fail...Because gm grains look like food they sell for money...But they don't taste good & aren't good for you...The justification for gm grains is that people are starving & any food is better than none...So that is why gm foods are on the market...Kind of like strippers who go to law school...Some sort of rationalization there that it is ok to strip as long as you are paying for your schooling...Of course the fact that they are breaking the law seems to be a moot point...Anything to justify strippers...Sigh...Anyways...If you eat some meat & then get the flu a day later that is not a cold...You need to treat that with Magnesium...Magnesium cleans out your Gallbladder...Magnesium is found in magnesium pills, lavender, forsythia (which can be bought from herbalists)...Dolomite is a magnesium rock you can carry in your pocket if you like to carry rocks in your pocket...I do sometimes...Especially if I am going to a marina area where mercury levels are high...Magnesium cleans mercury out of your gallbladder...Magnesium fixes ADHD, ADD, autism, stuttering, jaundice, toenail fungus, jock itch, rashes, violent behaviour, dyslexia, anti-social behaviour...Baby Powder the talc kind is magnesium silicate...Silicate just means sand...Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate...Sulfate just means it dissolves in water...You can get oral epsom salts...You can put Baby Powder (the talc kind not the corn starch kind) in your shoes, your socks, your bra, your underwear...You can put Epsom Salts in your bathtub...Anyways, that is what fixes the swine flu or H1N1 as it is now called...(maybe also lay back on pork eating right now...if you top a pizza with pineapple, onions & tomatoes, it tastes like a real hawaiian pizza without the pork...Ok, the tomatoes are secondary to that flavour...But really, those three toppings are the ultimate pizza choice toppings...)
Picture
first sketch to map out sculpture...
Picture
spent the afternoon in the sun, weaving the green stuff, then cutting copper strapping & bolting it to the rods...
Picture
wrapping the head in white mason's line & the tail in pink mason's line...Put some "feet" on the legs...I think I am at 6 hours of work now...
 
Picture
I feel like titling this "Good Samaritan"...What do you think? It is made of cultured marble that I made all by meeself & it is on top of two separate no-weld armatures that I made...My first foray into making my own marble!
 
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gee I'm still working on this...I keep thinking I am done...I am now doing a second patina coat as we speak...feel like calling it "Good Samaritan" now...
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  So I had some gold powder from KamaPigments.com (Montreal), 

I took an empty Febreze bottle & filled it with some of the custom eco-friendly concrete sealer (no VOC) from Eco-House...Then I added a painting knife full of raw umber mineral silicate paint for cement, also from Eco-House...Shook it all up...
  Put the hand & the wrist cultured marble sculptures into the Petsmart cat litter box, & sprayed away...Flipped them over with my dishglove coated hands, sprayed some more...of course while wearing my super cool clear lens frameless Oakley  Glasses for eye protection...
  Now I will wait as it dries...Cool patina though eh?
  

Picture
Here is a pic of the Oakley Dartboard rimless clear lens sunglasses I wear to work in...They are hard to find now...newer models are not so esoteric...For working you need frameless, because the frame interferes with your line of sight...You need the shield type lens to block out dust & fume...You need a clear lens to see...Very hard to find & no the cheaper brands are not just as good...Eye safety is one of the most important things for an artist...Spend your money there...Said by the daughter of a neuro-ophthalmological surgeon...(me)
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Here's maybe a better picture...