Double Country

I made it to the Art Gallery of Mississauga on Saturday, ignoring the forecast of a snowstorm. The storm was worse than I had expected, the falling snow was a snow/ice mixture, with a blowing wind that made these pellets feel like mini pine needles.

The AGM hosted its the annual juried show presented by Visual Arts Mississauga the night before. I prefered to see the exhibition at a quieter time, at my own pace. The VAM Facebook page has uploaded photos of the event, including some of the paintings (there were 40 entries).

Here are two that caught my eye in the exhibition, and which I took snapshots of:


Left: Hannah Veiga: You Used to be My Favourite Colour
Right: Stuart Godfrey: 4th Line Backside

Albeit, they are both a little bleak in concept.

Veiga writes on her website that her fabric piece is: "a contemplation of what constitutes a home, and what remains when something loses its meaning of a home." Is is not clear what she means by that. Perhaps her curtains don't have any place to hang, other than in galleries and design shows. Her floral design is a complicated process with seven color scheme (red, light red, green, light green, grey, yellow, white), and its mockup on (Japanese) Kozuke paper - no less! I assume the fabric was printed through the digital fabric printing processes now readily available, probably more so than silkscreen studios. Manual printing, the method I used to print on fabric, prepares each color separately on a silk screen, and in this case, seven separate screens, to produce the whole pattern.

And Godfrey's barn has no front, and the items within it, or surrounding it, look like old fences, sacks and what look like mattresses. But it is still standing, as are many old and non-functional barns throughout the countryside, waiting to be rediscovered, remodeled, and to be put to use again. Godfrey is a talented painter, whose oil panel is meticulously painted, to the last blade of grass.

Both pieces allude to a surer time, when no-one questioned the "favourtism" of a home's choice of colors. When curtains WERE colorful, and the black/white/gray/beige variety that line "designer" stores these days (for color and variety, go to Walmart!) And both have solid structures: the barn still has an upright frame, and all a farmer need do is restore the floors and facade; the pattern promises of a home of florals. And both reference a time in the recent past when we had such things in our landscapes, both internal and external, and lived better lives through them.

The Last of the Snow

Song of Solomon 2:11

For, lo, the winter is past

The Last of the Snow
[Photo By: KPA]

Song of Solomon 2

I am the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys.

2 As the lily among thorns,
so is my love among the daughters.

3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.

5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples:
for I am sick of love.

6 His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand doth embrace me.

7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

8 The voice of my beloved!
behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains,
skipping upon the hills.

9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart:
behold, he standeth behind our wall,
he looketh forth at the windows,
shewing himself through the lattice.

10 My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 For, lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone;

12 the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13 the fig tree putteth forth her green figs,
and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret places of the stairs,
let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;
for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines:
for our vines have tender grapes.

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his:
he feedeth among the lilies.

17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,
turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe
or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

Four Good Reasons for Marriage

The Basics:
British Army folding bed: ca. 1860

More of the above at:

Royal Warrants, Circulars, General Orders and Memoranda
Issued by the War Office and Horse Guards
August 1856 - July 1864

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Allan Roebuck, over at The Orthospehere writes on the topic of marriage:

I argue here that most men should attempt to marry, for several basic reasons. First, marriage is necessary for the survival of a people. Second, men (and women) need to be a part of a good order if they are to live well and a good social order includes marriage. And three, men were designed for leadership, as they are more attuned to the practical application of truth and justice, and are more able to impose their will on a situation, than women are.[Bolds are mine, for clarity]

He forgot one important point:

Fourth: Wives have a civilizing influence on husbands. Other than the desire to protect their wives, and the children that ensue, the very character of women civilizes men.

I think this is noticeable in the home. Regardless of the domestic influence of the wife (making the house habitable, the environment clean, and the atmosphere peaceful), a husband behaves far more civilly in his home than when in his workplace or other exterior environment.

And if his home life is civil and peaceful, and he has a trustful wife to tend to that, then his external behavior is also affected.

Think of soldiers, who have been away from their homes for months, and whose only company are other soldiers. Their existence, outside of the brutality of war, is a camaraderie of loud, boisterous interactions. They would not behave this way towards woman, and would most likely not behave this way with each other if they were in their homes with their wives and children nearby.

Or think of bachelors. Even those with erudition and great education are victim to the infamous "bachelor's pad," which is really more about having the proper environment to accomplish a purpose, whether it is to write the novel, or to have a place for whisky and frolics. They are content with the basics of domestic life: food, shelter and sleep.

When the purpose is to protect his wife and children, and their upkeep, the man's behavior and environment change accordingly. This domestic civility manifests itself with social and cultural civility, upon which societies, and countries, are built.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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