The Hallway and the Crowbar

We enter the house and step into the hallway. As you can see there is linoleum "wood" flooring, a plush 60's carpet on the stairs, and a boxed in staircase. We hoped when we bought it that we would find spindles encased in the railings and original floor board planks under the carpets and flooring. We saved this picture above from a house who had a hallway we liked. We think we can recreate this look once everything is uncovered. (Note the original floorboards and spindles!) Here is the hallway from the other angle. Unfortunately the owner also replaced the stained glass that is featured in most of the front doors in the area. Here is another house we viewed which has the typical Victorian stained glass door. A view from the top of the stairs where you can see more boxed in banisters. This is my new friend: Mr. Crowbar. I was trying to figure out how to get the particle board off when a friend from Canada visited and told me a crowbar would change my life. Thanks, Andrew! Sure enough our suspicions are confirmed...SPINDLES!!!!! Mr. Crowbar is amazing! Of course the question I first asked when we were surmising what was underneath was, "why would anyone cover up spindles?" Apparently that was the thing to do in the 60's...along with taking out original features. Unfortunately you can see that the nice edging of the stairboards that should protrude from the spindles an inch has been sawed flush with the banister. But we can fix that! I rip the other side off the railings. Then I get carried away and rip the particle board off the door. Hmmm. Although there is a nice feature under there it has been smudged with some dark brown glue. Nigel asks why I did that. Because I am crazy? I am not sure that satisfies him. And then there is the mess to clean up. But with nice spindles exposed! We also find original floorboards throughout the entire house and wonder if they are in any condition to restore.

We Own a House

We bought a little Victorian terraced house in London. Yay! It was owned by an 81 year old man who lived in it for 40 years. I suspect he last updated it in the 60's. It has quite a charm of its own and Nigel and I are looking to restore it back to a lot of it's original features. The property is 17 feet wide. It is a great neighbourhood where you can't help getting to know your neighbours (due to proximity). These are our floor plans and the standard layout for a 105 year old terrace house (although the back bottom level has been extended). There is potential to also put in a loft. I suppose I might be blogging this in the next while...

Antoinette

My solo show opens tonight at Bloc Projects in Sheffield, UK. You are invited to a preview of an exhibition on Friday 9th October, 7 - 9pm at Bloc Space Bloc Projects presents  Antoinette 9 - 24th October Bloc Space There are similarities between cooking and painting, both of which I use to explore the way food influences community. Painting seems as much about creating sensations to please the senses, as does cooking. It is a material process that transforms the ‘raw to the cooked’ for the consumption of a viewer. Each in turn have a ‘picture’ to create, a fact to influence, and an idea to contribute. Both utilize the seduction of ‘hunger’, bringing a delicious quality that inspires desire, and is consumed or digested by being physically incorporated into a processing audience. It is no surprise that both cooking and painting are both culturally loaded symbols that we use in a variety of ways in relating to others. Michal is a Canadian visual artist. Based in London, UK, Michal received her MA Fine Arts from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, England. Her work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States, Africa and Europe and can be found in a number of collections including Ernst & Young (UK) and The Artists' Special Book Collection at Chelsea College Library in London (UK). Michal is a recipient of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Grant. OPENING TIMES Bloc Space: 71 Eyre Lane, Sheffield S1 4RB, UK Preview event: Friday 9 Oct, 7 – 9pm Opening times: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm Email: info@blocprojects.co.uk Phone: 07799 270777 Website: www.blocprojects.co.uk Bloc Projects (office) 4 Sylvester Street, Sheffield S1 4RN Bloc Projects is supported by the Arts Council of England and Sheffield Town Trust

Metal Heads Unite

With my MetalHead exhibition showing in Vancouver, Canada it was coincidental to find another "metalhead" on the BBC Web News today entitled: Man Grows New Skull After Decades. The severely damaged skull of a Northumberland (UK) man involved in a car crash 50 years ago has regenerated itself, a process thought to be rare. Mr Moore said the plate had never bothered him, but he was relieved he would no longer "set the alarms off at the airport". If you have not yet seen the MetalHead exhibition, it is on until October 29 at the Lookout Gallery at Regent College (UBC campus). For more details go to the gallery website. I have put the exhibition up on my website now too although you can't enlarge them yet. But soon! www.michal.ca

French Women Don't Get Fat

Someone recommended the book "French Women Don't Get Fat" to me describing it as a cultural eating comparison between France and the United States. It is written by a French woman who describes gaining 10 kilograms on a school exchange to the States when she was a teenager and how it made her look closely at the differences in both cultures' approach food. Previously I had thought it was a diet book and avoided it. But really the subtitle is what sums up the book: "The Secret of Eating for Pleasure". The book can be divided into three: an anthropological comparison between France and the States, a cookbook, and as an ideology for real foodies. It is also a "diet" book, but only in the sense that it preaches less vast amounts of crap on the run and more savouring of smaller portions of quality cuisine. I really love the book. It is the ultimate "diet" for people who love their food and can't bare to give up good food at the cost of being thin. Yet it works at getting you into a healthy body as well!

Make Up

Teresa found her 4 year old daughter sitting in front of the laptop watching a YouTube video on how to apply makeup. Surprised and amused she asked her if she was learning anything. "You shouldn't put on too much make up or the boys will get the wrong idea," her daughter explained. "And what is the wrong idea?" Teresa asked curiously. "That they can wear make up too."

Inflatable Shelter

From businessweek.com... Since 2000, more than 20 custom-built paraSITE shelters have been distributed to homeless individuals in New York City and Baltimore. Made with materials -- such as plastic bags and tape -- readily available on the streets, paraSITEs start out looking like small packages, and have handles enabling users to carry them on their back. Designed by Michael Rakowitz, the paraSITE units inflate into shelters. The user simply attaches the intake tube to the outtake ducts of a building's HVAC system. The warm air leaving the building then inflates and heats the double membrane structure. The homeless person never comes into direct contact with the potentially harmful exhaust air, which circulates through the two layers of polyethylene, warming the shelter via conduction.

Swine Flu: Front Line Staff

Sorry to all who got a little tired of looking at that last blog. I am extremely busy right now and have an extra 15 minutes to upload this new "face of the moment". Guess who is front line NHS (National Health Service) staff for the impending swine flu epidemic? Yes, folks...this is the only effective mask that actually keeps most of the germs out. It took the hospital half an hour just to properly fit it to each staff member. Sort of sexy, don't you think?

Barbie Baby

PARIS: Bastille Day

We wake up on the national holiday, Bastille Day, and head down to the parade that symbolises the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution. It is a parade of all the military and air vehicles. A display of power, I suppose. I snap this picture of a police bus. Wouldn't that be fun to ride. What is it for? Troops? We head over to the Latin Quarter just south of Notre Dame and find a whole street of little quaint French restaurants. Of course, being our last day it is my chance to eat cheese fondue. YUM! Unfortunately one of my young companions thought it smelled horrible and sat as far away from me and my luxurious lunch as possible. The fondue must be washed down with wine or a fizzy drink so as not to form a cheese lump in ones stomach. This thought makes Nigel nauseated. I have never heard of that before. Notre Dame is large and spectacular from the outside. And enchanting from the inside. We are limited by what is open on Bastille Day so decide (since churches are about the only thing open) to head over to Sacre Coeur next. We join the throngs heading up the narrow streets to the hill top. It proudly sits on top with a huge circus of activity surrounding it all. In fact, the contrast from the outside to the inside is startling. There are all sorts of really agressive peddlars outside selling junk, dance groups, musicians, and even a ferris wheel. Once inside there is an austere and strict presence. No pictures. Be quiet. keep moving. We watch a man take a picture and be bawled out by a church member. It doesn't leave a nice impression at all. But Paris itself is wonderful. I like the city and would come back, although, am with Nigel in our belief that there are so many new places to see that repeating doesn't always make sense. I take consolation that it is close to London...and who knows!

PARIS: Day 2

Day two in Paris we head to the Louvre to take in some more art. My companions are excited about b-lining to the Mona Lisa. We start in one of the courtyards with the famous glass pyramid. Descending into the pyramid we enter the gallery and look up and out to the sky. We are in! The main staircase leads up and then veers right for the Mona Lisa. (The Winged Victory of Samothrace pictured above) And in through the Byzantine icons. I love this stuff. In fact my current favourite wing in the National Gallery in London is the Sainsbury wing which is full of this stuff. It is highly decorative and flat, pre-perspective and pre-light source. We arrive outside the room that holds the Mona Lisa. It is a zoo! You can see it at the top of the crowds in the photo above. You really have to push in to get remotely close to it. I have not seen it before in person, but know from descriptions what the room is like. I also know it is a relatively small piece and because it is the most photographed in the world being with it will not give you any new insight or epiphanies. It is still too far away and behind bullet-proof glass so there is no going up close to study brushwork. When I lived in Italy (the centre for training art restoration) I was told that it is cleaned every year and there is a union whose sole job it is to move it off the wall and then back onto the wall. We slowly migrate with the crowds to the front and since everyone else is getting their picture with the alter in this modern day pilgrimage it seems fitting to join in the ritual. But I am less interested in the Mona Lisa and more interested in the crowds, the crowd control, the frenzy, and the great viewing space off to the right of the piece. I stand there for a bit and take a picture of the crowd to which I am told off (in French) by one of the crowd control museum workers. Hmmm. Not sure what that was about! We wander to the rest of the museum which is less inhabited. Very nice. I suggest we see the entire 2nd floor of the Louvre (after having dragged half of them around the entire first floor of paintings while the other half snoozed on a bench). Strangely, I was not met with enthusiasm. I think to myself how lucky I am to have my companions hitting a museum or gallery a day with already and decide since Paris is so close to London that I may return on my own on day. We wander outside and down to the river. We decide to walk through the gardens and down the Champs Elysees all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. But it turns out to be WAY TOO FAR and we catch the metro there after we get burned out from walking. There is a giant French flag that hangs and billows in the wind right in the centre of the arch. It is mesmerising the way the wind catches something so large and moves it, very unlike a small piece of cloth. I end up sitting and watching it for the good part of an hour. In the meantime my companions ascend to the top of the arch with my camera and take some great pictures of the surrounding city of Paris. We head over to the Eiffel Tower and some of us decide to climb it to the second platform while Nigel and I head off to wander the little winding streets. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group we nip in to a corner shop and buy a box of ice cream and down it ourselves while sitting in a park nearby. The park is setting up with a giant stage for the festivities that start tonight for tomorrow's national holiday: Bastille Day. Next we head over to Montmartre, an area teaming with life and obvious a popular place to sit in cafes and hang out with friends if you live in Paris. I had really wanted to see two specific cinema landmarks and as we ascend from the metro we spy the Moulin Rouge. Tickets are 100 Euros for a show so we decide it is just a great view from the outside and take some pictures. Up a little side street I find Cafe des 2 Moulin which is were Amelie, the French film, was made (where the character, Amelie, worked). Montmartre is great. Set on a steep hill with the Sacre Coeur perched at the top it is thriving and recommended as a great place to find all sorts of little eateries. We find a restaurant recommended by the Rough Guide called Le Ralais Gascon. As soon as we get close I can see that most people sitting outside are eating some sort of big salad with crispy potato things covering the top. I already know what I am ordering. I am impressed by my young companion who orders escargot and loves it. The Rough Guide says, " Serving hearty, filling meals all day, this two-storey restaurant provides a welcome blast of straightforward Gascon heartiness in this alternately trendy, run-down and touristy part of town." They even recommend the hot salads. Mine arrives...vegetarian of course. It is one of the best salads I have ever had. Of course there it is not really a salad...with deep fried sliced potatoes on top (folks, this is France's new french fry), not corn and all sorts of great stuff underneath. YUM!