They Will Return

Sleeping Buffalo (Tunnel Mountain)
12" x 16"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

This mountain can be found in Banff National Park - Alberta, Canada.

It's mostly known by another name: Tunnel Mountain

The story goes that when the buffalo where decimated by the newcomers, Mother Earth had compassion on the once great herds and took the remaining free buffalo and led them to the mountains. There she opened a way for them, allowing them to pass through into safety, and there they sleep, waiting for the day when they can roam free once again.

The mountain itself looks like a buffalo at rest and legend has it that when the mountain starts to move, the mighty herds will return to spread their thunder once again.


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I actually finished a new painting...

I'm not going to lie to you, it's been a rough little while. But the fact that I was able to finish a painting tells me that the arrows are beginning to point in the right direction again. Which is a huge relief. I have a couple deadlines that have passed and I've had nothing to show for it. Trust me, that's bad. So, with a fresh breath of air, and the ability to smile really big again, I give you the beginning of my own fresh start:

A New Season
2009

The snows are retreating, the icy wind blows a last time across the land, hair is whipped by the last gasp of winter's chill. The flowers begin to bloom and the long night has been replaced by the eternal day. Mother Earth watches it unfold in serenity and patience, knowing the flow of time is like a river that carves deep into our souls, digging deep channels of habit and forgetfulness if we are not aware of it. But the Old Crow, the Irascible Raven, that black bird who takes many forms, reminds us. He watches with an eye that he hopes seems disinterested but I see right through him. He watches me, you, all of us. Always curious, always wondering, what will these bright shiny things do next? As soon as we fall asleep he is there, beating wings of wind and fury.

"Wake Up!"

"Wake Up!" he cries, throat broken and urgent.

And we do, realizing that as we slept we lost something in the river. For a while we are dazed by our sleep, but when the fog clears we realize that we were dreaming in the wrong place. To dream while aware, that's the true power. Old Bird settles back down to watch again with his fierce eye. And Mother Earth watches softly.


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They're poets, and they know it....

Joanne Arnott and Marilyn Dumont signing books and meeting fans at

Audrey's Bookshop, Edmonton

2007

I attended a really great poetry reading last night at Audrey's Books . The bad news is that you missed it, but don't despair, there's another one! On Saturday, Joanne Arnott and Marilyn Dumont will enchant a lucky St.Albert crowd with their humour, insight, and song. As an added bonus, a very talented young poet, Daniel Poitras will be opening the reading.

In fact, here's the press release...

Work from their recently published collections, that tongued belonging and Mother Time, will be read by Marilyn Dumont and Joanne Arnott:

Saturday, July 14, 2007
2:00 pm
St. Albert Public Library
St. Albert Place, 5 St. Anne Street


that tongued belonging, the newest book from award-winning Metis poet Marilyn Dumont, is a collection of poems which search for acceptance in language, culture, love and geographical landscapes. These poems celebrate the humour and tenacity of Aboriginal women, lament the death of a mother, deride the political correctness of those ignorant of Aboriginal issues, recall the degradation of Aboriginal women and chide the writer against the seduction of pop stardom, while challenging accepted ideas of love, age and femininity.

After reading Mother Time, you will never look at mothers at the playground, at the elementary school or across the kitchen table in quite the same way again. Beginning with a poem of pregnancy, written by her twenty-five year old self, Joanne Arnott leads us through a span of twenty years of inward and outward struggles, centered firmly in the ongoing work of becoming a mother. Living on the thresholds between races, the poet a prairie-born Metis and between the generations Arnott articulates the challenges of mothering in heart, body and mind. Her works involves sometimes abstract, sometimes visceral long and short poems, song and chant. Susan Musgrave says,

“Like babies, these poems spring from the womb. Arnott draws us into the healing circle of her words, with urgent beauty, in tune with the temper of our times.”

Daniel Poitras is a rising star on the local poetry scene. A regular member of Poets Ink! in St. Albert, his ability to touch the painfully places in life gives his work a depth well beyond his years.

Joins us for a reading with these three fine writers, Saturday, July 14, 2007, St. Albert Public Library, 5 St. Anne Street, St. Albert an 2:00 pm.

PRESENTED BY:

ST. ALBERT PUBLIC LIBRARY, POETS INK! and AUDREYS BOOKS

Further Information by contacting that old rascal:

Andy Michaelson
780.458.9145
andymichaelson@shaw.ca


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See you there!