• Lord knows I've tried...But getting a nice spherical shape is hard to do actually...You know, like a ball...or a grape...I had an idea for a 13 grapes on a vine large sort of semi-soft sculpture...Probably with a steel rod under-skeleton with woven nylon on top...Silly...Who knew getting a sphere shape was going to be so challenging? Anyway, so I am working on that...(possibly going to give up, since maybe the idea itself is flawed...Flawed maybe by its normalcy...Things that are too normal, like 13 grapes on a vine in a giant soft sculpture, maybe they are not worth following through...At some point in the work of art making, I have to decide whether the time & effort & materials that I am going to need are worth it considering the final product...)
  •   I still have the raccoon sculpture to finish...I put it on hold, because my two large paintings are breathing in that same space, & I don't want the marble & glue materials from the raccoon to breathe into the two paintings...The paintings are going into a library space & I don't want patrons telling me that my paintings stink like glue...It'd be nice to have a proper indoor studio space for winter...I try to use the Great Outdoors as my main studio space, but winter is cold here...
  •   Below, in one of the photos you will see my second attempt at the prosthetic left hand...This time I decided that maybe the essence of a hand is really the grabbing motion that occurs between the index finger & its opposable thumb...If you just had that, you could still grab at most things...carry groceries, dog on a leash...So, I did a prototype of just that...Eventually, I will figure out how to move the thing...It totally bends at every joint, but HOW to make it bend, from a command given by the owner? probably going to be something like a pair of pliers or something...God knows...I've been tooling around with this one for a while...Backburner type thing...
  •   I have also been handed to responsibility of walking my neighbour's dog Pushak daily at 5:30 pm...My husband (Joseph Grove, also a Vase- visual artist self-employed), decided to walk her dog because she has not been able to walk, like at all, since last November...(2011)...So he was doing it & that was fine with me...But Joseph is in Ottawa right now, taking care of his Dad & one of his adopted brothers(Joseph is biological, but his parents adopted 6 disabled children of various ilks over the years...) So I sort of said I would step in to his dog walking responsibility...The reason this lady, our neighbour can't walk btw, is because she has been on an osteoporosis drug (Actonel) for 7 years that turns out can actually cause hip fractures, femur fractures, necrosis of the jaw, & severe musculoskeletal pain...She had a knee replacement 2 years after starting the Actonel, & 5 years later (now) she needs a total hip replacement...The Class Action lawsuits about osteo drugs are allover the place now, so I was able to tell her about them...I was also able to get her to STOP taking this drug...But the damage has been done to her cartilage...It is a very very bad thing that the doctors in Canada did not know that her knee troubles & even now that her hip troubles were caused by a drug they gave her...Very bad...I had to do the research myself & force the doctors to let her withdraw from the drug...Very bad...I hope cutting short my work day to walk her dog will somehow help me with my art career...That will help me to justify the time spent...Oh I just remembered- while walking with Pushak the dog(Russian name)(half Bishon Frise half poodle, white fluffy), I saw a giant dragonfly on the sidewalk cement...That is when I decided to do the Wall Dragonfly sculpture...
  •   Oh, it wasn't a wall dragonfly to begin with...It was a normal standing sculpture, but Jadzia, one of our intect bengal cats kept rubbing up against it & knocking it over...So I decided to try sticking it up on our wall...It worked! & Lo & behold I had a new design concept...
  •   I maybe will do a line of wall bugs...Maybe...We'll see...
  •   Bye for now, Sari


Oh wait...You can see below as well the GroveBodyPartChart...It shows the TWO elements in each body part that must live in balance...Adding more of one will also lower the other...So figure out which body part in your body is affected, then figure out which way the imbalance sways...Then you can either drop supplementation of the one in excess, or add some of its opposite...

Also, big funny news: We got a phone call on Friday Oct. 19, 2012 from the FSCO saying that TD bank, after a year of us getting no answers, after a year of us complaining to every governing & non-governing body in Canada,( & some in the U.S. & the U.K.), that Td had "CHANGED ITS POSITION"...FSCo stands for Financial Services Commission of Ontario btw...I await the letter from Td to confirm this information...Wow! A year of fighting...A year of no...We had given up...Now out of the blue we get "changed their position"...A victory...
p.s. we had been sold a credit card insurance policy that didn't allow self-employed people to make a claim...I asked for a refund of premiums...All...They said no...Banks are not licensed to sell insurance by the way...Which is why they screwed it up...I am pushing for Canadian Federal legislation that forbids any selling of insurance without a licence...That way, banks, & other charlatans can't screw people with stupid insurance policies, fine print & phone telemarketers...

My letter back to the FSCO in regards to their saying that despite the fact that we are going to get a refund, that TD Bank did not break Canadian Insurance law:


 
  Everyone that called or emailed or wrote a comment on one of my blogs,  for help in getting a refund, was disqualified from making an insurance claim from the get-go...
 
  One was an unemployed first year university student, one was a lady who worked almost full-time hours but found out that some of the 20 hour work weeks she did disqualified her from ever making a claim because she was considered freelance or seasonal or part-time worker...I am self-employed...Another lady was an artist like me, self-employed...
 
  Another man was a retiree...Someone's wife found this policy on her husband's credit card-he had a pre-existing medical condition that ruled him out from claiming...
 
It seems that there is a large group of people who have credit card insurance who can never claim on it...They were simply not pre-qualified over the phone...Once you say yes over the phone the product has been sold to you...Paperwork does not have to be signed or confirmed or sent back in order for debits to begin...
 
  The "out" that people can cancel if they actually get the written contract in the mail (I didn't see mine), & find the fine print exclusions (good luck with that), is not sufficient...
 
 Insurance salesmen know that 97% of people never read the fine print after saying yes to a policy to a salesman...Right or wrong, it is a fact...
 
  But these are not even licensed insurance salespeople...These are unlicensed telemarketers...
 
Perhaps TD Bank did not break any laws according to the FSCO's opinion...
 
 Which means that the law is needy in Ontario...The law is severely lacking...There needs to be legislation across the board saying you just can't sell insurance without a licence...
 
The "incidental" thing is a loophole that needs to be closed...
 
If the Canadian government continues to allow banks this "incidental" loophole, one might start to assume collusion...That this "incidental" thing is bringing in so much revenue, & the government loves revenue, that it is turning a "blind eye" so to speak...
 
Td bank violated many ethical issues...TD Bank violated fair business practices...If another human being did it to their neighbour, it would be the start of a feud...
 
Selling insurance to people who are not ever able to make a claim, then standing on their heels when a refund is asked for?
 
I mean...A YEAR???
 
It is wrong...The law in Ontario is wrong...This insurance was not incidental...It is almost 3 thousand dollars to our family...That is not incidental...
 
Sari Grove
 
p.s. Please excuse my harsh tone- it is not you, just some big feelings about this...The least of which is my own stupidity for trusting a bank...Sigh...

  
Picture
here's the "Wall Dragonfly"...Getting alot of kudos for this...Joseph says do a butterfly...But I'm tired now...Weaving the wings was HARD!!!