Upon the suggestion of ArtBizBlog.com coach Alyson Stanfield, I have decided to try writing about other people's art...
Visit GroveArt.weebly.com & look at the Grove Art Blog...I have written my first post there...I think I will continue at that new site, to keep that a little bit separate...Mostly because I tend to be too honest in my opinions of things & don't really mince words well yet...I am guessing there will be consequences & repercussions to this, which may cause me to only write flattering reviews in the future...Let's hope not...
I must say that it is indeed empowering to write about the work of others...It turns it all on its head, making me the judger instead of the judgee...So much of art life feels like you are the judgee, it is good to feel the other end of it...A dangerous path though, which I will tread lightly upon...
A new dance production in Paris is called "Swan" & real swans perform in it...I will maybe write about that later...Note to self: fly to Paris soon... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/arts/dance/choreography-with-real-swans.html Here's the link to the Swan performance...Real swans!!! (not in Paris actually)...http://grovecanada.typepad.com/blog/2012/06/body-part-charts-a-home-owners-manual.html Here's is my Brand New "Body Part Chart"...
Also...I am moving over again to a newer website...(People gotta move)...I like to move, then take the older ones down...So the Grove Art Weebly site is newer... (I may also revert back to all free domain names- the longer ones...I get good search engine results with the free longer names & often not as good results with the bought & paid for names...So that is another decision...Later...But a heads up if that happens...)
 I've been working with cultured marble which means that I am making armatures out of galvanized steel rods, attaching them with bolts through copper strapping, covering that with aluminum mesh tied on with copper wire, then covering that with a mixture of marble sand mixed with powdered resins & water...
Serpentine marble has magnesium silicate in it (more than the calcium carbonate which is in traditional marble)...Baby Powder talc is actually this magnesium...If you mix that with the resins you get a slightly more fragile mix, but it does smell nice! I have laid some of that on top of the marble to see how that looks...
Here are two small sculptures that seem to like each other...
Swallow Healthy Diet sells Balance from Phytopet which keeps cats or dogs or husbands out of heat, keeps them from getting aggressive or humping people's legs...We buy 12 100ML bottles a year at one time & get it shipped from England...Cost per intact animal is about $12 dollars Canadian per month...(One 100 ml bottle per month is about right per intact pet...We put it in a little wet food, everyday, & have done so for both our intact bengals for 7 years now...)Baltic Amber beads contain B12 & actually HEAL damaged tissue...Wear a Baltic amber bead necklace around your neck for whiplash injury, string two together around your waist for back injury, or wrap it around whatever body part you have injured(your shin in this case)...The B12 reverse osmotes into your body healing it...I leave my baltic amber beads on all the time when injured- to sleep in, to bathe in, everything...I wear them around my waist for three months at a time while lifting the 18 kilogram bags of wild bird seed in winter(to feed the Trumpeter swans at Bluffers park)...Type in "Baltic Amber beads" on Ebay.ca & choose from the lowest price ones...They are fine...They ship from Lithuania & the simplest ones can cost around $5 dollars canadian a strand...I order 5 necklaces at a time- everyone is hurting so it gives me extras to give away if I have to...http://grovecanada.magix.net/website#/Homepage Art Note: We built this pretty website a long time ago...The service is fabulous but I guess it was too heavy to load for most people...But it is still a neat thing to try for free if you want build a super cool website...P.S. for Cory: Pyrite bracelet: this is a link to a pyrite bracelet on Ebay.ca, but there are others, this is just an example of a nice one...(Pyrite is the bead form of IRON...Iron & manganese live together as opposites in the thymus...Peanuts are manganese...Theoretically, a peanut allergy is an excess of manganese, which implies a deficit in iron...So possibly supplementing with iron by like wearing a pyrite bracelet all the time (sleep, bathe, work), will give extra iron to your thymus, thus protecting against later manganese exposure...
DELIVERED: Over 75 lbs of a custom cement mix that Sari made, Swanee is 5 feet long & almost 3 feet wide & 3 feet high...We had to reserve a Ford Escape from ZipCar in order to deliver her...The nest she is sitting on is a handmade rope nest(Sari wove this on a hula hoop using a monkey chain knot) made of 750 feet of different types of 3/8 inch rope(including glow in the dark)...The rock was there by this pond when we got there...We are hoping that Trumpeter swans & other waterbirds & earthbirds will feel happy to land here by this pond upon seeing Swanee...So grateful to have been able to borrow a flatbed dolly from our building maintenance crew, which made installation possible...We never would have been able to carry her across the grass by ourselves...Also thankful for ZipCar's wonderful Ford Escape, which was a joy to drive & Swanee fit perfectly once the rear seats got folded down flat & some kind soul left us 3/4 of a tank of gas so we didn't have to fill up...This pond is 45 minutes North of Toronto & West, so the good weather was oh so helpful too...
The problem is these no-weld armatures are so cool to make & to look at that I have lost heart to cover them in concrete, which was my initial intent...I am investigating a clear rubber type dip thing called Plasti Dip, which would coat the whole armature in a see-through rubber flexible coating...What do you think? http://grovecanada.typepad.com/ I am keeping more notes on my Ferrocement process over here on this Typepad blog...Feel free to visit... Below "FRIENDS"...cultured marble... Cultured marble: Aragonite sand from the reptile section at Petsmart at laird & Eglinton...Plus Weldbond white liquid glue from canadian Tire paint section Davenport & Yonge...Plus 3/4 inch glass fibers alkaline resistant from Kreitmaker on Industrial street (also near Laird & Eglinton)...Plus water...The Putty I used to attach the two pieces together: Baby Powder(from the Shoppers Drug Mart at Bloor & across from the museum, the Royal Ontario Museum) which is a pure talc one, which is actually magnesium silicate, added to Circa 1850 powdered resin glue available at Home hardware at Dupont & Shaw...Note: Magnesium Silicate (Baby powder talc) makes a cement that removes more carbon dioxide from the environment than it excretes in its making...It is GOOD for the environment...Normal cement excretes more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, which is why environmentalists sometimes pooh pooh cement...The only question is if the talc magnesium silicate cement is strong enough...Suggestions are to try a magnesium silicate cement for no-weight bearing loads for now- adding glass fibers will reinforce those applications for greater strength...Certainly arts & crafts people can use baby powder talc instead of regular cement- you will notice right away that the air smells fresher where you work, instead of worse when you use regular cement...
I cut a 3 foot long 10-24 size galvanized steel rod into pieces using a 14 inch bolt cutter...Then I attached the pieces of rod together using 1/2 inch copper strapping & 12-24 hex nuts...Then I coated all the nuts with Loctite Blue 242 which basically keeps the nuts from unscrewing themselves on the rods...This armature is fully movable, the fingers can bend at two joints, the thumb can bend inward towards the palm, the stem of the fingers can bend in towards the palm...
My next step is to cover each finger & the palm with mesh screening & tie that on with copper wire & a pliers...From there, I am considering dipping the hand in Plasti Dip, a movable rubber dip that coats the whole hand but lets it move...
Not sure what colour I will be using for the final colour...I feel that flesh tones are too realistic & would prefer something that states that the hand is indeed a fake, so as not to scare any casual onlooker...Considering blue...Or white white...
Joseph likes the way it looks now so much he doesn't want me to do any more work...He likes the Terminator Steampunk feel I guess...Hmmm...The neat thing about having different pieces in different states of finish is that people who want to try to make a prosthetic limb themselves can actually see how it is done, without even any welding...If I cover up my tracks, it won't be didactic anymore really...
I was thinking that prosthetic limbs are so expensive to buy, that if I could show others how to make them themselves, people who need them could attempt a DIY version...It would be cool to make your own, no? Just a quirky thought...
Ok, so in many countries on this planet, they have outlawed the sale of any cement bags that weigh more than 25 kilograms...A 20 kilogram bag of cement, for those who operate in American, is about 44 pounds (lbs)...Most of those countries who ban the sale of a more than 25 kg bag of cement have 20 kg bags for sale, not 25 kgs...Though they could legally sell the 25 kg bags...
Canada has no such ban...This means that cement companies can make & sell cement here in the 40 kg bag...This means that retailers buy those 40 kg bags legally...88 lbs...This means that contractors are buying those 88 lb bags & that construction workers are forced to try to lift a 88 lb bag of cement...
Each back injury per year is estimated to cost a company 25 thousand dollars...Now, buying cement in smaller 20 kg bags (44 lbs) will cost a company more money in the very short term...But the reduced incidence of back injury will save a construction company huge in the slightly longer term...Plus, fewer people will have back injuries if maximum weights are enforced legally...
I spoke to St. Mary's cement in Toronto about this...Frank said that 6 years ago (2006), he produced "BackSaver" cement in 20 kg bags...But there was no legislation to support his bold move...So the retailers didn't buy any of it because they didn't have to...This meant that the cement sat in his warehouse for a year & a half & he ended up taking a huge loss on it by giving it to cement recyclers...
None of his backsaving cement ever hit the retail market in Canada...None of the retailers had vision...None of the contractors had vision...All they could see was that buying a 40 kg bag of cement was cheaper in total costs than buying several 20 kg bags...So Canadian masons suffer back injuries...Still...While masons in other countries are working peacefully & happily & safely, Canadians are still idiotically trying to lift 88 lb bags of cement & injuring their backs, sometimes permanently...
Is it because construction workers are disposable people that we haven't legislated about this? Why is Canada lagging behind? Australia, England, Ireland, are three countries who are, as Nickelback says so succinctly, are : "All in, Balls out"...
When are Canadians going to step up to the plate?
I write this because I have been working with white cement & I cannot buy a 20 kilogram bag here in Toronto...Because of the lack of laws concerning this, there is NO way to buy a 44 lb bag of white cement here in Toronto...This is not fair...I am a woman...I am very very strong but there is NO way I can dead lift 88 lbs of white cement...No way...Which means I can't source my artist materials for ferrocement sculpture...I have been getting a kind building supply person to break open bags & pour them into smaller sized bags...But he is running out of the smaller size cement bags & I am running out of lack of embarrassment to ask for such a favour for so little money....If smaller cement bags were available at retail stores in Toronto, people would buy them...But they won't become available unless our government legislates about what is too heavy...And every Health & Safety Board on the planet agrees that more than 25 kgs is too heavy...Even Lou Ferrigno doesn't want to lift a 40 kg bag of white cement...Even though he can...
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/programmation/films/175/work-in-progress Our friend, Bill Stone, has just released the fabulous film "Work in Progress"...An exploration of expectation & determination clouded in humour & levity...Watching the film brings you closer to yourself & your own trials & tribulations...You will be laughing at yourself as you ponder the mysteries of building a wall with no mortar...An art film with a sense of humour...Stone masons will giggle too...
http://www.claimsfinancial.co.uk/Claims Financial:
From:
"Joseph & Sari Grove" <[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
Date:
Sat, 7 Apr 2012 10:33 AM (less than a minute ago)
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Hello,
I was sold PPI by Toronto Dominion Bank in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...I paid in three thousand dollars Canadian currency on my Toronto Dominion credit card (TD) before finding out that self-employed people are actually excluded from making a claim...
It has been 6 months now of pursuing the bank, the credit card company, the insurance company & various other ombudservices who claim to help, with no refund...
I understand that your company is well schooled in getting refunds...I also understand that you have probably limited your scope to England...
When PPI became known for its corruption in England, the product moved to the United States...When lawsuits began there it came to Canada...
Canadians are not as well versed as Americans or The British is lawsuits of this sort...
Do you have any connections who work in Canada or who could help Canadians?
Or could you stick your nose into this in Canada from England?
I have been getting people phoning me here for help, as I have published my problems online & people here think I am some sort of agent or lawyer...
This PPI is an international embarrassment, with funds being embezzled from credit card customers worldwide for possible nefarious uses as only a nefarious group would
steal monies in this manner...(one would assume) (As opposed to blaming the banks directly, it appears that groups of people within banks are operating somewhat
independently of scrutiny, possibly because chains of command are too long)...
An international ruling on PPI would go a long way to helping people like me in countries where PPI is still being sold daily over the phone...An international ban on PPI
would be nice & would happily result in mass refunds worldwide...(one can only hope)...
Is there any pressure in this direction? If not, some from your end in England where PPI proliferated would be nice...One can only ask...
Happy Easter tomorrow...
Sari Grove
www.grovecanada.ca
GroveCanada
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