PROGRESS -- Things slowly land as they should.

Enjoy watching the down part of the "going up", ... (going up took 30 min and a zip on the time lapse (post May 29th) and going down took 3 hours and a slower time frame = 2 dips instead of a zip).  The flying house has landed.

There is a  lot going on in this short little time lapse and if you look closely you'll see all the community engagement.   Zebiak with skilled action going on for the downward float,  city workers installing the 4 inch pipe water connection to the property by digging up the street (dust a go go) and drain tiles are being coordinated with and through the contractor's  team. You may want to watch it a few times to catch all the action.  People, trucks and action going on all around.

note: to be featured next week "what are the chances?" 

Dip, dip down!

ART - let's talk about creativity and art, design and craft

I've been thinking about these things for YEARS!  They are all connected but, as the Asian saying goes, same same but different.

Art has a soulful magic that involves intent and honesty.  Design is about creating for sales and multiples with a functional purpose. Craft is about technical skill with a primary, but not always, functional intent.  There is a cross over between these disciplines which always contributes to an interesting conversation.  

Look at these and decide which is which? or are the all the same? (same but different)

The way to know for sure is to ask the creator of the object you're interested in.  The answers help to understand and the questioning is critical when you don't know.  If you don't know, what you don't know (ie. what question to even ask), then begin with what you're attracted to and start digging into the research from there.  A really good basic question to ask is about the materials used -- what's this made from?  Why was it used and what was the intention and process?

I used to always ask Artists about the process, because it interested me.  In fact, my friends would make fun of me quite often, about asking this question.  It didn't bother me, okay maybe a little, but learning about the work was more important.  Learning about intention is critical when it comes to assessing and determining value  -- value in terms of skill, creativity, execution and not just cost although that obviously is connected.

Project 851 comes from an intention to include all 3 art, design and craft.  How it comes together is through intuition, which is something important to pay attention too and often downplayed nowadays.  Recently, a great movie called Inn Saei came to my attention.  It's heartful and logical presentation of intuition in today's world is worth watching.  Inn Saei is an Icelandic term that means: the sea within, to see within and to see from the inside out.

Here are a few notes made from that movie now shared to remind one of the relevance of intuition:

Intuition -- is right brained thinking -- it is about the moment; an awareness of the world in the here and now.

Activity  -- try this to develop or just stay in touch with  intuition;   spend 5 min. in nature using all your senses without thinking) .  The reason to do this is because most  modern people are not in touch with intuition (how we know things) they have forgotten to be aware of the many dimensions of life.  Think about that.  Are we really seeing, hearing, smelling, touching or tasting things? 

Nature is the silent witness to intuition. Nature speaks in all kinds of languages. Nature is written in the inner eye, the inner ear, the inner capacity to make sense (out of something external consciousness may consider chaotic)  Without nature don't know how we can revive our intuition.

The "noise" of the external world is muting the sound of our internal world -- intuition pays the price of this.

Polynesian Navigators; saw reflections in a cloud  (knew where land would be based on that). Knew how to do this as intuition was taught through the generations.

Hopefully this has been inspiration to take time out in your day to get reconnected to your intuition.  Maybe even spend some time with your favourite piece of art, design or craft that's right at your fingertips.

PEOPLE, PLACES THINGS...

Hey Ziggy, listen to this, it's music by Dr. L. Subramaniam  I'll play it for you off my phone.  Isn't it chill and amazing what a musician can do with a violin?  Ziggy, is my friend's dog, he's staying with me for a few days and this is how he responds to Subramaniam.

This weeks post is going to be about THINGS; ones and zeros.  1's and 0's meant something very different when I was growing up.  They were just numbers.   Project 851 has opened my eyes to see how these things have changed and oh Mamma Mia have they ever!

Is it safe to say anyone 20 years old and younger are unaware of life before the shift?  These humans have been exposed to personal computers their entire life. Life without a computer is to them what life without a car was for me. 

It was grade 4 when our family took a trip, to then Yugoslavia, and I was exposed to life in a village; a simpler way of living.  A life before the magical personal computer and it's speedy evolution of 1's and 0's that bounced us forward like a rocket ship heading into a neutrino. It was more relaxing, yet  we were unaware of how charming that existence was.  So where are we heading bouncing forward?

Check this out, there's even songs about the journey of these things!!    I'm interested in celebrating that, as well as, celebrating the time before it's central relevance in society was directly connected to an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

Lovin' the combination of 1's and 0's that make it possible for posts like this, the  pixelated images to be taken and shared, video posting etc... basically the excitement of sharing in this way!!  Is it all thoughtful, this exciting new way of doing things?  

The restrictions of programming, which are created by people by the way, can be a negative.  For instance, it's disturbing when you talk to a person regarding something everyday, such as an account, and they can't implement a basic customer service request because the system restricts them from doing that;  hmmm, so we adapt to this type of change and getting used to hearing "no, we can't do that" a lot more.  One may want to ask what does that do to the human condition?

These "negatives" are very alive in our societies.   A positive way to  we move forward in our world is to take along those amazing 1's and 0's of today and align them to their less complex  meaning of the past; a bit of back to basics dance with a progressive future.

Recently I read an article on Brad Pitt by Marlon James "5 or 6 things I didn't know about Brad Pitt" . (by the way, the magazine vs. online has the most beautiful visuals -- the photographer Craig McDean does an amazing job that's worth seeing on paper).  It's the number 5. point that speaks to me when I write  about simple 1's and 0's.   This is the example of the basics I'm referring to:  

“When I was making a World War II movie called ‘Fury,’ we did this boot camp for a week, and Logan Lerman, who was the youngest actor of the bunch — I think he was 21 — was given grunt detail. We gave him a watch and he had to keep track of how long it took us to eat and get in and out of our gear. One day he came to me and said the watch has stopped, and I said, ‘You’ve just got to wind it.’ He came back literally 15 minutes later and said, ‘Wait, how do you wind it?’ ”

So how to achieve balance becomes a fun question?  The balance of celebrating what we can share with technology and which is the best way to use it, ie. print vs. online vs. verbal storytelling by a human or a vibrational audio recording through a machine is still evolving.  Hope you see the balance below as I play with binary elements  involved in capturing moment through images looking at the obvious and not so obvious abstractions (imagination) of 1's and 0's. 

 At this point in time the pendulum has swung waaaaaaaay over to the side of mass inundation of "stuff"  leaving people only too often confused, overwhelmed, shutting down and narrowing his/her focus rather than expanding it: I call it getting stuck in "no" land.  My outlook on these things is to question the tools we have and really think about how we use the new meaning of 1's and 0's to find the most effective personal way t to deliver the voice that is yours.  

Come on Ziggy we're off for a walk to see, smell, taste and touch the things that are 1's and 0's in our world.

COMMUNITY -- oh Mamma Mia...

Mamma Mia is a good way to describe Project 851.  It refers to the love one has for a Mamma as in "my mother", which is the literal Italian translation.  However, l hope you agree to take that saying to the level "Mamma Mia!  That's a spicy meatball!!" which adds a whole different flavour to its meaning.  Gotta love those expressions that denote such joyous, fearful, and surprising emotions.   Ah, the magic of two words.

... how apt Mamma Mia is for the Big House and Octopus, not only because of the connection to my Mom, but the the entire adventure it's become (and I'm sure will continue to be).  Pick the intonation of your choice when thinking Mamma Mia, and run with it. 

Whether your imagination takes you to images of love and affection or running for the hills with your hair on fire,  try applying that visual to the idea of aging in place.

When I look around  Strathcona I see  a good community in which to be born, learn the basics, grow, transform and age.  Aging in place is supposed to be somewhere you have the ability to live in one's own home and community safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of age, income or ability level.  Achieving  this, realistically,  needs to be planned for, independently, as a community, through organizations and with the help of city and political powers. Living in a rich diverse community is what I want in my life.

Growing up and/or old, along with art, wrapped in a bow of extended love for family and friends is at the root of how this project began and is evolving.  

I knew, after living in Strathcona for many years, that this was the community where I wanted to stay and my mother was getting older -- she was still under 80 when we bought the Big House in 2014.  We had been business partners, friends and obviously family (mother/daughter team) for many years, like 30 some, so to buy 851 Union St when it came up for sale was, for us,  kind of a no brainer.

We had had many conversations about getting older and where Mom wanted to live and near whom and what that looked like etc.. She was pretty clear that an Old Age Home was not something she wanted to experience.  Admittedly, not quite a spring chicken myself, these conversations made me think about how I wanted to live as I aged.  My friends and I have laughed and chatted about planning to share services we'd require like a driver, chef, bartender and the like.  

Never having children didn't rule them out of the picture for my future as I've always liked them. Those little and younger beings, have always intrigued me so being surrounded by them was a good thing.  It's delightful spending time with younger people not because they're well behaved, although that is a nice bonus, but for their minds .  Conversations about how they see the world has always been of interest to me.  

So with all these ideas in the air the plans unfolded for Project 851...

Our solution to creating such a village on a double lot in the city was to go with renovating and building homes that made aging in place easy to obtain.  This would be a different kind of Felini-ville.  The Big House will have a garden suite  accessible from the street level and full upstairs suite where "Spicy Meatballs" will be central to my lifestyle.  The Octopus will be a contemporary structure with a 3 bedroom unit and a 2 bedroom unit and a artist studio where, fingers crossed, creativity will flow.  Ideas became more grounded, one could say, on the road to rock solid.

So where do we stand at this moment?  We've broken ground and on the road to creating a special place for and about Mamma Mia.  Until, ideas and dreams become reality the "to be" garden suite is now a kind of new/old indoor/outdoor studio space for drawing studies of shadow, shape and space...